Ten pounds of, um, stuff in a five-pound bag

[Book Miser]

You older pards: don't cha just hate it that the Good Stuff only happens on weekends, even though you've got five other perfectly good days to waste?

Heck, you can only go to two shoots a week, and that kills everything else 'cause these poor workin' stiffs has to do everything on a Saturday or a Sunday. Take this past weekend: Saturday, sling lead with the Jefferson Outlaws; Sunday, dixieland jam with some other pals. Now, Monday rolls around, and I'm too tired to go to the part-time job that pays the freight for all this stuff.

Semi-retired is great. If only some more of my cowboy and music pards were...

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Dear Book,

Have you been introduced to Elle KaBong, my trusty skillet?

Keep up this gloating and you will!!   

AnnieLee, from her cube on a beautiful day.   

[Stoney Pete]

Dear Book,

Have you been introduced to Elle KaBong, my trusty skillet?

Keep up this gloating and you will!!   

AnnieLee, from her cube on a beautiful day.   

Traped in a cube with the sun in the sky.  I resemble that.


Stoney (what's got just over an hour to go) Pete

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Hey, Book, we got a club in N.E. Ohio here that has a week day shoot once a month. Maybe yer in the wrong state........Buck

[Book Miser]

Been thinkin' about leaving MD, but NE Ohio may not be an improvement.
Looking for a location about equidistant from the Gulf coast and Lake Superior, politically "red," with good shootin' and an active jazz scene. It'll be a tough balancing act--good shooting usually means a sorta rural area, whilst jazz is mostly a city thing.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Norleans?

[Capt. Hamp Cox]

Norleans?

But look at the sacrifices he'd have to make - havin' to develop a taste for Po-boys, muffulettas, read beans and rice, jambalaya, gumbo, Creole cookin', jazz, Mardi Gras, etc., etc.

[Book Miser]

Well, it's mecca, musically speaking, but way too crazy a place to live. Where we spent the winter was about 25 miles east of Gulfport, which has a nice "scene" of its own, and is equidistant from N'awlins and Mobile. The latter also boasts some jazz activity.

The really good choices would be west of the Mississippi, but a number of factors make it impossible to move quite that far. From what I read in The American Rag, dixieland is really "happening" on the west coast. However, I would suspect that it's like a lot of the dixieland music that has traveled too far from its geographic roots--the tempos are far too fast, and the horn players depend too much on high notes, rather than phrasing, to "say" what they want to say, musically.

The true New Orleans style is far more laid back. No doubt the result of generations of musicians playing gigs in such a hot, humid environment.

Oddly enough, since returning to Baltimore, I have unearthed more of a "scene" here than I realized existed. A lot of my adult music-making has been in so-called concert bands, which are little more than old farts playing high school band charts. This keeps a person involved with the instrument, and performing for an audience, but it's pretty unsatisfying.

Sunday, I made my way to a jam held at a restaurant in Riverdale, MD, just outside D.C. The host band played a few tunes, then started a blues in C major as they invited us to the stage, one by one. Two washboard players were there, necessitating a rendition of "Coney Island Washboard," after which we swung into "Just a Closer Walk with Thee." About that time, the host-band's cornetist excused himself, followed by his trombone counterpart. Next thing you knew, it was three of us sitter-inners playing over the rhythm section. We blew three or four tunes, to the great enthusiam of the audience.

Playing this kind of music has morphed my from a player who had terrible stage fright into someone whose entire focus is performing for an audience. It's really pretty magical.  

Hamp, we went grocery shopping last night, and I was dismayed not to be able to find boiled peanuts, Moon Pies or a big ole rack of fish-fry batter. The canned-beans section of the supermarket looked pretty dismal too. What drew me to the South initially was the food, btw.

[Pat Riot]

Miss Annie Lee,
You don't know how close I came to choosing the alias El Kabong

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Miss Annie Lee,
You don't know how close I came to choosing the alias El Kabong

It would have been great, Pat, but this one suits you, too!



AnnieLee

[litl rooster]

You older pards: don't cha just hate it that the Good Stuff only happens on weekends, even though you've got five other perfectly good days to waste?

Heck, you can only go to two shoots a week, and that kills everything else 'cause these poor workin' stiffs has to do everything on a Saturday or a Sunday. Take this past weekend: Saturday, sling lead with the Jefferson Outlaws; Sunday, dixieland jam with some other pals. Now, Monday rolls around, and I'm too tired to go to the part-time job that pays the freight for all this stuff.

Semi-retired is great. If only some more of my cowboy and music pards were...

  Some one wack him with Annie's skillet and  pass the Rice and Red Beans.......Work is always  in the way of my fun

[Book Miser]

If you can find something to do that pays well and doesn't suck, grab on to it. But keep your eye on the door, 'cause everything changes. Eventually it will cease to pay well, or start to suck. At least that's been my experience, the last 40 years.

[Chuckaroo]

Book Miser,     

We have an answer for the mid week blues. The Monocacy Pistol Club has a shoot on Thursdays.  It is between Mt. Airy and Frederick.

We are the Monocacy Irregulars and the next match is May 12th. It is a small group (around a dozen) and I am sure the match is much like what the Wild Bunch had in the beginning.

We shoot 6 stages or more and begin at 12 noon. Over the winter, we shot in snow and had a blast! Had to use the targets where they sat because we could not get them unfrozen.

The cost is a bit high, $3 for non members. If your short on cash I can make ya a loan!

[Book Miser]

Chuckaroo, never offer to lend ME money, unless you figure it as a charitable contribution.

Danged if I ever realized that the Irregulars shoot on weekdays. Shame on me for not readin' your weekly emails more closely.

Come May 12th, I will be feeding the mosquitoes on Assateague Island, but when June rolls around, you'll probably see me. Which will come as a great relief to whoever usually ranks in last-place. 

[Cuts Crooked]

And now, jist fer fun...Definition: Ten pounds of, um, stuff in a five-pound bag...commonly refered to as a "Blivit".

[Danny Bear Claw]

Good thing I read this post all the way to the end.  CC got it right.  My Daddy used to call 10 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound bag a "blivitt".  In fact, he used to threaten us kids all the time with hittin' us with a blivitt.  It was only later, when we were old enough to understand, that he actually explained to us what a blivitt was.   

[Joyce (AnnieLee)]

Wow, I learned something today. Thank you Cuts and Danny!



AnnieLee, gonna tell Forty-Fonzai that he's a blivitt, soon!

[Four-Eyed Buck]

I used to deal with blivits all the time at work, especially after they moved us back up town. I drove a fork truck for a living and had to deal with storage of parts as well as getting parts to an assembly line.........Buck