Took the new Stratocaster down to the Open Stage.  Slow night but I still had fun.  Decided to ask the house band keys and bass (with brand new drummer sitting in) to sit in with me for my set and ran them through two originals they'd never heard before.  A little sloppy, but fun.  We made it through.  Ended with "Sympathy for the Devil" and hammered the end hard.  Made my whole night!

Eventually I got up to play some drums with an old friend, Mike, who I used to jam with in high school.  Then later did "Willin'" and "Friend of the Devil" with a keyboard player named Dennis, which was cool.

Again, slow night, but still always fun to get up on stage and jam.  If I could only get the monitors to the point where I could hear myself clearly....   :)

 From Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States fails on most measures of health care quality, with Americans waiting longer to see doctors and more likely to die of preventable or treatable illnesses than people in other industrialized countries, a report released on Thursday said.

Americans squander money on wasteful administrative costs, illnesses caused by medical error and inefficient use of time, the report from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund concluded.

"We lead the world in spending. We should be expecting much more in return," Commonwealth Fund senior vice president Cathy Schoen told reporters.

The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation, created a 100-point scorecard using 37 indicators such as health outcomes, quality, access and efficiency.

They compare the U.S. average on these to the best performing states, counties or hospitals, and to other countries. The United States scored 65 -- two points lower than in 2006.

One key measure is prevention of premature deaths from easily treated conditions such as asthma and heart attacks.

The United States fell from 15th to last among 19 industrialized nations on this measure from 2006 to 2008. The report estimated the U.S. health care system could save 100,000 lives if it matched Japan or France, the top performers.

My government stimulus check came today, and I blew my half on a new guitar setup.  Bought me a nice "artic white" Fender Stratocaster!  Always wanted one.  Jimi played one at Woodstock.  (Although the white on his seems almost cream color, but it could have just been older.)  It's just the Standard model (low-end), but it's not like I need a top of the line custom guitar yet.  Got a new Crate amp and a CryBaby pedal too.   (Added them to the "gear list".)

Parts of last night's open stage were recorded, and my last song of the night was caught on tape. 

sugapablo-2008-07-09t3.mp3 :: 3.4 MB - 80 kbps - Mono

It was recorded mono (one mic), so even though it's set to 80 kbps, it's like a 160 kbps stereo recording. 

A bass player (James) jumped up midway through the song to jam on it, never hearing the song before (it's an original of mine).  Just in case you're wondering why some bass seems out of place for a measure or two.  :)

My "elecoustica" set went off ok at PD's last night.  It started off a little rough.  When I started singing, I realized I couldn't hear the beat, so much so that I couldn't stay in time with it, so I actually had to just turn it louder mid song, which made for an akward moment, but once the levels came together, it was pretty smooth.

Eventually Kip (keyboards) and James (bass) jumped on stage to jam.  Had some good runs in there.  I think next week, with one live performance under my belt to get the feel for it, will be pretty kick ass.

Later in the evening, I got up with my guitar for Fire on the Mountain, and stayed on for one of Dan's (guitar/host) originals and some jam he made up on the spot.  I also played some drums toward the end of the night with James and Gyrus (guitar).

Lots of fun down there at Purple Tuesdays.  :)

Just messing around, I began playing my acoustic guitar over my Yamaha RM1x MIDI sequencer, taking some of my old electronica songs and playing on top of them.  Sounded pretty good.  I also began laying some tracks down as backing to some songs I've been singing and liked that as well. 

I purchased a FC5 footswitch for the RM1x that allows me to switch pattern sections with my foot so I can easily make changes while playing the guitar.

So this Tuesday at the open stage, I think I'll be trying something new, something I'm dubbing "elecoustica".  Hope to see you there!

Last night was a trip down at PD's Open Stage. I deceided to shake things up a bit and brought down a djembe, cowbell, maracas, and tambourine to place on stage with me and invite people in the audience to join me, and it worked out great. Opened with "Big Balls" by AC/DC (something I doubt I can top next week), did some Black Sabbath, as well as a Muddy Waters tune with a full band behind me. It was very cool and I'm already scheming on what I should do next week. ;)

Here's my set list.