My intent for this blog is somewhere between a diary and a memoir: things that are happening, things that happened, and the meaning of life as I know it.
The idea came yesterday (my 60th birthday) and I had all intentions of starting it last night, but here it is the next morning. IOW, confession Number 1...one of the things about me is I many great ideas and haven't executed enough of them. Oh, well...
...and that gets me to Story 1.
Back in the early '70s I was stationed in Grand Forks ND with the Air Force. I was young, freshly divorced at 21, interested in music and sound systems and the like. I went to bars with my friends, always (or almost always) some place with a band.
In ND there's a lot of space between towns, to say the least. I heard it was a lot more common around there for a band to send a demo tape before traveling for an audition. I also heard that sometimes bands would travel, set-up, audition and then be told things like "Liked your music but don't think it will work here." Day spent and lost for the band; a couple of hours for the bar manager, too.
Tape was the big thing for me in those days. I lusted for a four track recording set-up, although I probably had little use for it. I wasn't much of a musician and certainly not a singer.
A couple of years before that, when I was in High School, our English teacher played a recording from TV the night before, something I had never seen before.
There was the awesome idea! Instead of sending audio tapes, make videos of the band performing. Let the bar managers see the act before lugging all of the equipment around.
It was an idea before the technology. The Internet was the just-implemented-for-the-first-time ARPANET, which means no YouTube, and no streaming video. There were no VCRs or DVDs, no VHS BETA-MAX or Blue-Ray. Worst, there was no other reason a bar owner or anyone else is going to have the equipment for playback.
...and MTV came along not too long after that.
C'est la vie! ...and good for them!
The idea came yesterday (my 60th birthday) and I had all intentions of starting it last night, but here it is the next morning. IOW, confession Number 1...one of the things about me is I many great ideas and haven't executed enough of them. Oh, well...
...and that gets me to Story 1.
Back in the early '70s I was stationed in Grand Forks ND with the Air Force. I was young, freshly divorced at 21, interested in music and sound systems and the like. I went to bars with my friends, always (or almost always) some place with a band.
In ND there's a lot of space between towns, to say the least. I heard it was a lot more common around there for a band to send a demo tape before traveling for an audition. I also heard that sometimes bands would travel, set-up, audition and then be told things like "Liked your music but don't think it will work here." Day spent and lost for the band; a couple of hours for the bar manager, too.
Tape was the big thing for me in those days. I lusted for a four track recording set-up, although I probably had little use for it. I wasn't much of a musician and certainly not a singer.
A couple of years before that, when I was in High School, our English teacher played a recording from TV the night before, something I had never seen before.
There was the awesome idea! Instead of sending audio tapes, make videos of the band performing. Let the bar managers see the act before lugging all of the equipment around.
It was an idea before the technology. The Internet was the just-implemented-for-the-first-time ARPANET, which means no YouTube, and no streaming video. There were no VCRs or DVDs, no VHS BETA-MAX or Blue-Ray. Worst, there was no other reason a bar owner or anyone else is going to have the equipment for playback.
...and MTV came along not too long after that.
C'est la vie! ...and good for them!
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