I'm glad that was just a joke because we would sure miss you on the forums Don. Cal.

Don....what an awful prank to pull on the rest of us. That was really a rotten thing to do. I didn't know you were so mean. I'll bet you kick small dogs into open manholes and knock ice cream cones out of the hands of children. Tell me, how do you deserve this title "southern gentleman." How do you even manage to hold onto a membership card in the human race?

I was personally insulted by your little joke and not only that.....I was affected by it. After I read the post from Bill Lewis and now yours, I decided I was going to do the same thing. So I went and gave all my music equipment to the church, used welding tools to convert my PA3x into an exercise machine, burned my piano in the dumpster, gave all my sheet music to the Smithsonian Institute, disengaged myself from whatever senior accounts I had left, terminated my subscription to Keyboard Magazine, and bought a one-way plane ticket to the Philippines to start a new life as a hotel concierge in the red light district.

How do I undo all that now? What are my supposed to do? Pick out what’s left of my piano and try and put it back together with Gorilla Glue? Beg on my hands and knees to get my senior accounts back. And that plane ticket.....it took every penny I had in my bank account to pay for it. If you really were a “southern gentleman” you’d offer to reimburse me.

That was really some hoax you pulled.....better than the Clifford Irving hoax back in the 70's! Better even than any of Donny’s Top 10. I’ll never trust you again or anything you write from now on. To put it plain and simple, you've just lost your #1 fan!

BTW….did you ever hear the song “Rock Island Line” by Lonnie Donnegan?

Rock Island Line

He sings in there: “I fooled you, I fooled you, I got pig iron, I got pig iron, I got all pig iron.”

Now read my "fine print"……

I fooled you, I fooled you
April Fool.....from a fool!

That was good. I think I'm going to try my hand at writing scripts for Saturday Night Live.

Keep on truckin'

Mark

Mark, just put MP3s in your cell phone, buy a $25. mic and cheap amp, and you are in business again. If you want you can pick up a cheapo keyboard or guitar at a pawn shop and pretend you're playing. That's becoming the norm for solo artists!!

Don......I know you said that in a humorous way, but you just might be onto something.

Why not? Walk in off the street in your birthday suit, with nothing more than an mp3 loaded Radio Shack cellphone, a cigar that looks like a microphone and a bubble gum amp that you got out of a Cracker Jack box but looks like the real thing. You’ll probably make the same amount of money, or even more, than you’re making carrying in enough equipment that you need a wheelbarrow. I’m really going to think about that.

Don... You SUCK

and the audiences love it and the money rolls in...just sayin..

Donny, you keep emphasizing that, which says to us that to you, money is the most important thing. I guess that's true if music is your full time job. But for the overwhelming majority here, it's a part-time job/hobby and 'making music', not 'making money' is the prime motivator. My guess is that the few here that play out, probably don't make enough to cover even equipment costs (how many NH gigs you gotta' play to pay for a $5000.00 Tyros 5?). The simple truth is, most of us do it for personal pleasure because we've reached a point in life where we enjoy it and can afford it (most student pilots start flying lessons at 55+ for the same reason). Even people like Russ, who has a rather lucrative gigging situation, still has another primary business (and like most seasoned pro's, doesn't buy a new piece of gear every time the wind blows......except for guitars ).

I only mention this because your approach seems to be 'anything goes' musically as long as "the money rolls in". I'm just saying that that's not true for a lot (most?) of us. I understand and appreciate that your situation (and therefore your motivation) is different than most of us; I just don't like the concept that money justifies any and everything (music or otherwise).

chas

Sure glad I'm semi retired - now I get to mess with other neat stuff, like my rock gardens.





Chas, I agree, though the money, at least in my case, was a big factor, but first and foremost, I had to satisfy myself. If I were only doing it for the money, and didn't absolutely love the job, I would have found another way to make a living. I've been very fortunate in my life in that I have never had many jobs that I didn't absolutely love doing, including the 15 years I worked in medicine. I can unequivocally state that the absolute best job I've ever had in my life, both for the pure enjoyment and financially, has been the musical entertainment industry. My only regret is that the technology we have today was not there in 1961 when I performed in that first, smoke-filled bar in Baltimore.

All the best,

Gary