Bass Discovery and The Sith

Yesterday I ended up getting a last-minute call for a gig down in Hollywood. It was for a jam session in the house band. The session just started last week but the turnout was pretty good, quite a few really strong players. Then some of us headed to a diner in Los Feliz afterwards. It’s always good making a hang with other musicians. Jazz music is so much about interaction and communication, being part of the jazz community is pretty important.

I discovered something really great about my bass last night. When I arrived at the club and started to set up I soon realized I left my pickup at home. (A pickup is a device that attaches to the bridge of the bass so you can plug it in to an amplifier). I took my pickup on tour with me a couple of weeks ago and forgot to re-attach it to my instrument. So I thought I was sort of screwed. Now let me explain, playing acoustically (without amplification) is always preferred when playing a double bass (heck, that's why it's also called and acoustic bass). I had no qualms about playing without an amp all night especially since the club was small. But that just meant it was going to be more work for me and I'd really have to play loudly to get my sound out. But luckily I didn't have to do that. There was a P.A. system at the club and an extra microphone. So I took the mic, wrapped it in a bar towel, and shoved it under my bridge at the bottom of the bass. And let me tell you it sounded GREAT! The problem with pickups is that they don't accurately re-produce the acoustic sound of the bass. But with the mic it sounded spot-on. Every time I've used a mic in the past it has been on a mic stand pointed at the bridge. For whatever reason putting the mic at the bottom of the bridge gave it a lot more sound. I'm tempted to buy a microphone and experiment with it and my amplifier.

Didn't go to the batting cages yesterday and didn't go to the DMV either. I sucked it up and went this morning. But I was clever about it, I drove to a DMV that was outside of Los Angeles as I heard it'd be less crowded (a city called Newhall, only about 25 minutes away). It was and I was in and out of there in, like, 20 minutes. Good find for me, I'm definitely going there from now on.

Tonight I'm going to see the new Star Wars movie. I should say I'm going tomorrow morning. I couldn't't find anyone geeky enough to want to go tonight except for my friend Bill and he has a gig tonight. As a result we are going to attend the 2:50 AM showing. You heard me. 3 in the friggin' morning. I don't have any work tomorrow so I'll be cool. I'm pretty excited to see it.

It's finally going to be over. Growing up with heaps and HEAPS of Star Wars toys, reading star wars comics, drawing Star Wars battles, watching Return of the Jedi hundreds of times on videocassette, playing Star Wars video games, the new movies it's all going to end tonight. Darth Vader's story will end at it's beginning. And the mythology of my youth will finally be revealed in its entirety.

The first Star Wars came out when I was one year old and this last one comes out one year shy of my 30th birthday.

I can't think of better bookends to my youth.