Celebrated New Year's Eve with 5 other couples last night at a really nice restaurant about 5 minutes from home ...
http://restaurant.elevenfortynine.com/

Great food, at a 'reasonable' price - $75 per for a 4 course meal with steak and baked stuffed lobster as a couple of the entree courses - , champagne toast, hats, etc, HIGH POWERED dance band that had the floor JAMMED all night ... they started off the first 40 minutes at 8:30PM with 6 pieces playing instrumentals - jazz, R&B, Stevie Wonder, Bossas - then kicked it into high gear with 3 additional vocalists ... they played non-stop till 11PM and took a 30 minute break then played the last hour ...

The difference came in the fact that a couple of the mic stands had holders for their beer bottles - even the female vocalist - and that they finished at 12:30 !!! ...
When I was playing with the band in NY a lifetime ago we would NEVER have beer bottles or a drink on stage, and at 12:30 on NYE we would just be taking a break before playing the last hour and a half ...

thats the answer Tony "A Lifetime Ago" its all normal now .....also POT is legal in Colorado starting today also whats next?..

POT LEGAL NOW


PS did they play a Polka ?...

Tony, when I played the American Legion in Havre de Grace, MD people constantly bought me drinks, which I did not consume. By the end of the night the table behind me was loaded with flat, stale glasses of draft beer. You're right, things have really changed, and from my perspective, not for the better. Maybe I am getting old, but to me it would be insane to drink while on stage. Pretty soon, the way things are going, it will be a crack pipe holder on the mic stand.

Gary

Drinking while gigging, and then driving home is a big No No with me, ...in fact I very very rarely drink at home anymore also.

Guys, I played 6 AM to 8 AM Jam sessions after all the strippers were finished for the night, 5 mornings a week for some time. This was at the "Blue Angle" on Bourbon Street. I also gigged at the "House Of Zin" around the corner on Royal Street 5 nights a week. I played Wedding any venue you can name from 1956 - 1975.

Every body I worked with all that time drank all night in New Orleans and I bet it hasn't changed much. I got a drink when someone wanted to buy the band a drink and the drummer drank his and mine. Boy those drummers could drink.

I personally think that all alcohol taste like crap. I can drink a couple of Amaretto Sours, but that taste like a fancy iced tea to me. I haven't had 70 alcoholic beverages in my whole life. That's less than 1 a year. Ha ha.

I don't see how people can drink that crap with iced tea, lemonade and coffee available. I figure that something must be wrong with their taste buds or they are drinking for the buzz. Ha ha!

Tony if my wife and I went someplace to eat and dance for $75 per, We'd have to file bankruptcy. No kidding. I'm jealous and happy for you at the same time friend. LOL

Boo, if you come down here and play sax with me for a night, I'll be sure you and Penny get to eat at the finest dining establishment in the area, and the bill would be way more than $75. apiece if you had to pay!
If you start hitching now, you can make it in a few days.

Hey, boo ... just read that legal pot in Colorado is going for over $400 an ounce ... I can drink a LOT of martinis for that money ...

From an ounce you get atleast 100 joints...

An ounce would cost you about €150 here in Amsterdam

A single Martini would cost you abot €7

I remember, many years ago, seeing Louis Armstrong performing at an outdoor venue and seeing quarts of beer on the piano and beside each player in the band. They all took gulps from the quart bottles though out the evening, and it seemed to me at the time, that they each knocked back several quarts each during the night. Gus Bavona told us that Harry James would regularly polish off fifth of vodka on a gig but no one ever saw him sipping the booze. I can assure you however, the booze in no way effected their performance ...

REALLY? A fifth of Vodka (taken over a short period) will kill the average frat boy. Hard to believe that it "in no way 'effected' (sic) their performance,.,.,". Do they make 10 proof vodka?

chas

I feel sorry for Elvis, drugs, Johnny Ace Russian Roulette. They must have been drunk or drugged up, and how many others that need this stuff to get through the little life that they do live.
I had bought two of those shot mini bottles of bourbon on the first two or three solo gigs when I started back gigging.
After a couple of gigs and no one booed me or bit me, I was OK. I hadn't played a gig since 1974 when I started back. Was very hard to get out and do it.

Don send me $1000 just for the gas! Penny said we don't have to eat for a couple of days and we can sleep in the car and we'll get started ASAP and stay with you and gig for a year if you want and you keep any monies you can charge extra for me at the gig and you keep all of the tips too. I'm packing now man. Can't wait to suck a couple 2000 crawfish heads, and eat a couple 1000 of crab claws. Hmm Hm good. Hurry eh?

It would affect my performance just WATCHING someone drink a fifth of vodka and try to play!
However, I opened a show for Ray Price once, and two guys had to help him on stage, each holding one arm. I thought he'll never finish the first song, but he did a great show and never missed a note. Then they had to help him off stage. That was 35 years ago. He was no doubt partaking off grass and not booze though.

Don you're dodging the issue. Are ya gonna send the gas money?

Check is in the mail Boo.

... Pony Express, boo ...

One more boring booze story; I was called into a studio to lay a couple of live accordion pads for 2 songs for a folk-rock singer. When everyone arrived, introductions, a little chat about what he wanted and before the first run through, a girl comes to each of us and asks what we wanted to drink and I ask for water. There’s a snicker or two and I say, ‘No, really just water please’. A couple of hours go by, ‘change this, can you do that …’ After a while the singer says ‘what d’ya think man, got no punch man, no life’ I reply, ‘no sh--, you guys are drunk - you’re falling asleep’. He somehow got a decent recording, in part thanks to a magician engineer and I got my check then went out for a drink.

That must have been an epic amount of weed to need lifting on stage..! I'd say it's a lot more likely to be a combination of pills and booze. That was the anesthetic of choice back in those days!

Never touched either ... never worked with anyone who did. My drug of choice has always been adrenalin! Comes free with admission, too.

I hate how music and drugs seem to be partnered up throughout the ages ... all it did was end lives too soon. Music comes from the heart, not a bottle or a bag.
(teacher hat off ... going to bed now)

Most likely you're right Diki. I was pretty naive back then. I got my kicks from music, girls and golf!

My mantra is 'moderation in all things, EXCEPT moderation!'.

The problem isn't the substances, it is substance ABUSE...

Cuppa tea...works for me.

Ian

I'm more an espresso kind of guy, myself!

Feel free to espresso your feelings...don't worry...we won't mocha you.

Ian

Starbucks bold blend, black, no sugar is my choice these days, but wasn't always.

Seems like the man may have been a heavy hitter. Nothing's impossible, when I tended bar at a the now closed Golden Lantern Restaurant stars from the local summer theatre Warwick Musical Theatre came to the restauarnt after the show. The owners of both venues were close friends and it was a fact that Red Foxx used to routinely drink a fifth of Chivas Regal before going on stage.

When you're a daily drinker the body builds a tolerance and a person needs the sauce just to function normally. Have to believe based on what Gus Bavona said that it wasn't too far off the mark even if the facts are not right on for a daily heavy drinker that sounds just about right.

Hard to say whether their performance was 'effected' or not since no one knew what their performance was like when they were sober. My grandfather smoked his entire life and lived to be 95, but who's to say that he might not have lived to be 115 if he hadn't smoked (thank God he didn't.....he was really a crusty old bastard).

chas

BTW, http://www.diffen.com/difference/Affected_vs_Effected

AHHHhhh, Andrea ... breakfast in ITALIA !!! I miss it sooooo much ...

After I get the snow off the vehicles, I am going to make myself a nice double espresso !!!

You might want to avoid Colorado when traveling. Take I-80 North of us I think, or whatever is South of Colorado. As of the first we now have interstates, highways and roads covered with a bunch of "DAMNED POT HEADS." I wonder how many of them are going to be "Government Officials and Supposedly Peace Officers." Most imbeciles that I talk with thinks it's great with a few exceptions.

If I had the money, I'd move. I'm ashamed of the attitudes here. Now all sorts of public low life officials will move here and other low life too. It's all down hill from here.

We have several school kids every year drive off of the mountain a few miles out of my kitchen window. There's always booze involved. Now there will be lots more of this going to happen as soon as Meth and Coke are legal. Their all gonna think that their cars can fly off the mountain to the road below.

Just think, we have millions more today graduating colleges and such and getting into politics and you'd think the population would be smarter today, but it all seems to go downhill and it will only escalate now.

Chas you are as bad an English snob as I am!
My wife gets so frustrated at my screaming at the tv when the announcers continually say "whether or not" and "the reason why".
Yesterday, again, I actually heard an announcer say "whether or not Alabama gets back in this game depends on whether or not they can run the ball, or not". Yes, a triple redundancy!
My grammar in person is actually very sloppy, but announcers on tv are actually training our young people to speak that way.
Another pet peeve that has already been abused to the point of no return is the use of adverbs to start sentences. For example, hopefully. http://www.cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...fully-not/?_r=0
O.K. end of rant. Hopefully this will have no irrelevance to nothing, whether or not we understand the reason why.
Oh, did I mention Calvary, when we mean Cavalry? Circle the wagons.

Indeed, how things have changed.

You can actually check this stuff in the "liberry" ...
also, why do tv people say "see you later/tomorrow/whenever"? ... THEY are not going to see US !!! ...

... and how about when the sports announcer says something like "we will have to see if this changes HE and the team" ...
... and what about people who don't necessarily write in sentences or paragraphs, but continue their written conversation with little dots ?!? ...

Isn't that the big, scary book place? YIKES!

My liberry has a white porcelain reading chair.

So does my Office!

Two common mistakes I have seen here:
- hugh instead of huge
- sought of instead of sort of.

Boy, we must all be bored to bring up all these grammar inconsistencies!
I'm glad I'm a music teacher and not an ENGLISH teacher - you'd all slam me daily!

It's easy to make boo-boos when we are typing, particularly if from a phone or pad. Sometimes they change words even when we don't make a mistake!

I hear ya ... HATE the auto correct choices, sometimes.

My favorite, from Star Trek....."TO BOLDLY GO...."

chas

Oh baby I want one ....great to use to travel to gigs lolol...

... will your gear fit in that? ...

of course I have a 61

Rather have a T5 Donny than the flying car, only sounds like heaven not actually going there.

... you bet yer bum you're not going there, Tony!

WE ARE DOOMED!!!!!!

... they ARE EVERYWHERE!!!

Tony, and everyone else, what really amazed me is that while on the trip to the Florida Keys, there were boats 25 miles offshore with people talking on their cellular telephones. I thought, how could this be? Then I discovered how. They were paying upwards of $1,000 a month for satellite connection for the internet and telephone - plus $5,000 for the equipment that had to be installed on their boats to make all this work. You gotta be kiddin!

I had times when I had no cellular service or internet connection, often a week at a time. After about two days, I no longer missed it. It opened my eyes as to what was around me that these people completely overlooked. I took some great photos of manatees, eagles, ospreys, alligators, and incredible sunsets. I enjoyed cocktails with some of the most interesting people I've met in my lifetime while we set on the deck and toasted the sun dipping into the warm waters of the Florida Keys.

I've watched people walk into poles, walls and doors while texting, and thank God, Maryland finally got their act together and banned all handheld devices while driving. I no longer have to dodge idiots who decide to text or talk on the telephone while driving down a winding country road. What lunacy!

My daughter, unfortunately, continues to put her entire life on Facebook, and never looks at anything other than that stupid telephone. Same was true with my ex-daughter-in-law. And, ain't it amazing how many people think they should publish photos of certain body parts and that their spouses will not discover they did this - oh yeah!

Guess I must be a bit different because I only turn my cellular telephone on when I need to make a call - and that's pretty darned rare. I do, however, keep my VHF radio turned on while on the boat, but only for safety purposes.

Cheers,

Gary

No handhelds allowed in Alberta, either. But check out this cretin:
http://globalnews.ca/news/1063744/driver-caught-watching-tv-while-travelling-qeii-in-snowstorm/

Texting while line dancing?
Yup. I would have taken a picture of her, but I didn't have my phone.
Oh....the irony.
Eddie

This ain't nuttin'.....all this tech stuff is only in its infancy....just wait till the future baby !!!

I've gotta get out of this place - Hmmmmmmmmmm! must be a song there somewhere.

Gary

I dont think your going anywhere soon, but to make people happy with your music day after day as it should be ....load up the van and get "On The Road Again".....now that's a song

Yep, that's one I get a lot of request for. Thank God for Willie Nelson. Without Willie Nelson, we wouldn't have a lot of songs to sing. And neither would a lot of top name entertainers.

Gary