Last year... and the one a head
My thoughts and plans.
2017 had been really good at times and trying and frustrating and soul searching at others. I didn't know WTF I wanted to do with my life.
Discovery leads to having a plan to makes things easier. Focus. to Get the steps done so you can get to where your envision yourself.
Nothing like driving 1000 miles to be standing on top of the Rockies to reset your soul! I'm free.
At first,I was traveling and driving and exploring. it was a little odd to not be on line for hours and hours day in and day out or not having TV, but then it got so easy to just be in the world. No physical newspapers is odd. I used to love the small town papers. If they have a web presence it usually sucks.
I think not having local newspapers to inform citizens of the community will be the down fall of us all.
I was in the mountains, cities, deserts beaches. and taking photos and videos and putting them in my google drive, so I only used my cell phone for that and maps and national park info etc.. and used my laptop once in a while for bill paying that was the first 4 months. I lived in my Honda Element when I wasn't at my sons' or a friends'
Then when I was looking for work and places to live my laptop was almost on the way out so instead of frying it completely i just didn't use it hoping i could transfer my stuff when i got settled and a new one.
Looking for work and apartments on the cell sucked. It sucks anyway because people don't reply for house shares or apartments or your resume goes into a vortex. I couldn't find work or a place to live that i liked I could afford.
I didn't subscribe to a cable provider so hot spots wouldn't connect. I didn't watch netflix until I spent time at my sons.
Starbux, mickey D's, a mall or truck stops, park outside a library. Town offices, Boulder and SantaMonica and other cities have free down town wifi. I didn't have a cable bill or wi fi bill for over a year!
My life was up in the air anyway so I just went with the flow.I took photos of working pay phones and empty decrepit ones. There are no newspapers anymore so local info is hard to find. Links are dead or really outdated info.
going to the different libraries to print applications. Staples for copies, printing sucked because you have to buy a card , upload your doc to their cloud. get a code, go to the printer log on find your doc to print..just having a cell phone was extremely frustrating but better than the people that don't even have a cell phone. This country and technology has made it really hard for poor people to stay connected and informed.
i have a small 50 w solar panel that I charge my inverter/battery thing in the car to charge stuff. My phone was charged with that most of the time. free energy.
Then I was traveling again and had no time to surf the net. And it got even easier to disconnect as time went on. I spent 3 weeks at my friends and that huge flat screen and watching mind numbing shows with them at night nearly sucked the life out of me. it was almost winter by then and I couldn't find a place to live again and to think of being shut in gave me anxiety so I left and went back West. I went to AZ and CA again.
Now i have come back for a few months to deal with my crap...a cheap apartment ordered a laptop on my cell and transferred my stuff from the old one. a few days after moving in here I realized I didn't want to be here at ALL, not in one place, not here where winter sucks me dry and shuts me in to the point of a vicious cycle of getting by with little joy. and no money, the internet, TV isolation and depression. Dark gray days on end where people are grouchy and doing the same..
It was torture to think of keeping up this crappy way of living ..working, trying, paying the bills if you can, to get by and have nothing left to even go to a concert let alone the energy to be an artist.
I have nothing for retirement. A single person who makes like 10, 12, 14 an hr busting it can't make it. I was making 10 an hour in the 80's and everything was a LOT less expensive.I thought of starting a business but that is like 80 hrs a week and then i would never play music.
I can't pay rent elect phone wi fi, food car insurance. food, yada yada without being in credit card debit never to get out of. I am done with trying that.
I hauled all my crap ( i had a lot of stuff from my son, family, mom, dad, grandma and somehow i have been carting it around all my life , the keeper of the mementos and it just kept me burdened) from my storage unit i was paying on to the apartment and am in the process making it all go away so I can give up the apartment and go. get out of here before the cold weather sets in.
I found i want to be minimalist, a nomad. All that time, being without all the household was so freeing! I did things. Lots of things. I met people and enjoyed myself. I don't need all those kitchen gadgets.I don't need all those clothes, books, albums. I'm 55. Single, Damned if I am going to pay rent to house my things that I don't even want! No one wants the stuff. You can't get any money for antiques even. America is filled with crap people hold on to thinking it is worth money only to find that it isn't. There are so many baby boomers cleaning out their houses and garages that no one wants. I talked to a guy that said it took almost a year to finish selling, good will, emptying his mothers house after she passed away..
The only way I have time and energy and creative ideas to write and play music is if I am not burdened with the stuff and the expense of all the monthly bills... and I refuse to live the last years of my life playing their financial game.. I will never get a head, heck I barely tread water even when I work a lot and am frugal frugal frugal year after year and I don't see things getting any better any time soon.
I am getting rid of everything but the guitars, amps and pedal board, fishing stuff, fly rods and camping gear.
will ship a dozen boxes to my son.
I am planning on going back to Colorado for a few weeks, hit up Moab and Escalante., go to LA and hang out for a month and sleep on my sons couch. I had a great time last year at the Viper Room, The Whisky, Troubadour.
I saw Profits of Rage at Jimmy Kimmel.. I busked in Santa Monica..that's tough.
Then I am planning on going to Puerto Vallarta for a few months to write and play. Leave my car in CA in November and fly with a few suitcases and a few guitars and mini amp and pedal board. My older brother lives there. He has been there for over 10 years now and is not coming back. and lives well on his social security and his wifes' teaching income. I vacationed there 30 years ago so I will go check it out for a few months and go play music. I am working on a new Youtube channel Element Gypsy, i only have a few vids up.
That's my story.....
What keeps you from playing music?
2017 had been really good at times and trying and frustrating and soul searching at others. I didn't know WTF I wanted to do with my life.
Discovery leads to having a plan to makes things easier. Focus. to Get the steps done so you can get to where your envision yourself.
Nothing like driving 1000 miles to be standing on top of the Rockies to reset your soul! I'm free.
At first,I was traveling and driving and exploring. it was a little odd to not be on line for hours and hours day in and day out or not having TV, but then it got so easy to just be in the world. No physical newspapers is odd. I used to love the small town papers. If they have a web presence it usually sucks.
I think not having local newspapers to inform citizens of the community will be the down fall of us all.
I was in the mountains, cities, deserts beaches. and taking photos and videos and putting them in my google drive, so I only used my cell phone for that and maps and national park info etc.. and used my laptop once in a while for bill paying that was the first 4 months. I lived in my Honda Element when I wasn't at my sons' or a friends'
Then when I was looking for work and places to live my laptop was almost on the way out so instead of frying it completely i just didn't use it hoping i could transfer my stuff when i got settled and a new one.
Looking for work and apartments on the cell sucked. It sucks anyway because people don't reply for house shares or apartments or your resume goes into a vortex. I couldn't find work or a place to live that i liked I could afford.
I didn't subscribe to a cable provider so hot spots wouldn't connect. I didn't watch netflix until I spent time at my sons.
Starbux, mickey D's, a mall or truck stops, park outside a library. Town offices, Boulder and SantaMonica and other cities have free down town wifi. I didn't have a cable bill or wi fi bill for over a year!
My life was up in the air anyway so I just went with the flow.I took photos of working pay phones and empty decrepit ones. There are no newspapers anymore so local info is hard to find. Links are dead or really outdated info.
going to the different libraries to print applications. Staples for copies, printing sucked because you have to buy a card , upload your doc to their cloud. get a code, go to the printer log on find your doc to print..just having a cell phone was extremely frustrating but better than the people that don't even have a cell phone. This country and technology has made it really hard for poor people to stay connected and informed.
i have a small 50 w solar panel that I charge my inverter/battery thing in the car to charge stuff. My phone was charged with that most of the time. free energy.
Then I was traveling again and had no time to surf the net. And it got even easier to disconnect as time went on. I spent 3 weeks at my friends and that huge flat screen and watching mind numbing shows with them at night nearly sucked the life out of me. it was almost winter by then and I couldn't find a place to live again and to think of being shut in gave me anxiety so I left and went back West. I went to AZ and CA again.
Now i have come back for a few months to deal with my crap...a cheap apartment ordered a laptop on my cell and transferred my stuff from the old one. a few days after moving in here I realized I didn't want to be here at ALL, not in one place, not here where winter sucks me dry and shuts me in to the point of a vicious cycle of getting by with little joy. and no money, the internet, TV isolation and depression. Dark gray days on end where people are grouchy and doing the same..
It was torture to think of keeping up this crappy way of living ..working, trying, paying the bills if you can, to get by and have nothing left to even go to a concert let alone the energy to be an artist.
I have nothing for retirement. A single person who makes like 10, 12, 14 an hr busting it can't make it. I was making 10 an hour in the 80's and everything was a LOT less expensive.I thought of starting a business but that is like 80 hrs a week and then i would never play music.
I can't pay rent elect phone wi fi, food car insurance. food, yada yada without being in credit card debit never to get out of. I am done with trying that.
I hauled all my crap ( i had a lot of stuff from my son, family, mom, dad, grandma and somehow i have been carting it around all my life , the keeper of the mementos and it just kept me burdened) from my storage unit i was paying on to the apartment and am in the process making it all go away so I can give up the apartment and go. get out of here before the cold weather sets in.
I found i want to be minimalist, a nomad. All that time, being without all the household was so freeing! I did things. Lots of things. I met people and enjoyed myself. I don't need all those kitchen gadgets.I don't need all those clothes, books, albums. I'm 55. Single, Damned if I am going to pay rent to house my things that I don't even want! No one wants the stuff. You can't get any money for antiques even. America is filled with crap people hold on to thinking it is worth money only to find that it isn't. There are so many baby boomers cleaning out their houses and garages that no one wants. I talked to a guy that said it took almost a year to finish selling, good will, emptying his mothers house after she passed away..
The only way I have time and energy and creative ideas to write and play music is if I am not burdened with the stuff and the expense of all the monthly bills... and I refuse to live the last years of my life playing their financial game.. I will never get a head, heck I barely tread water even when I work a lot and am frugal frugal frugal year after year and I don't see things getting any better any time soon.
I am getting rid of everything but the guitars, amps and pedal board, fishing stuff, fly rods and camping gear.
will ship a dozen boxes to my son.
I am planning on going back to Colorado for a few weeks, hit up Moab and Escalante., go to LA and hang out for a month and sleep on my sons couch. I had a great time last year at the Viper Room, The Whisky, Troubadour.
I saw Profits of Rage at Jimmy Kimmel.. I busked in Santa Monica..that's tough.
Then I am planning on going to Puerto Vallarta for a few months to write and play. Leave my car in CA in November and fly with a few suitcases and a few guitars and mini amp and pedal board. My older brother lives there. He has been there for over 10 years now and is not coming back. and lives well on his social security and his wifes' teaching income. I vacationed there 30 years ago so I will go check it out for a few months and go play music. I am working on a new Youtube channel Element Gypsy, i only have a few vids up.
That's my story.....
What keeps you from playing music?
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