I’m playing with the house band — Tom Hood and the Tropical Sons — for open mic night at Bayou Bistro in Tarpon Springs from 5:30 to about 8:30 or so tonight! If you’re in the area and like seafood, beer, and great live music, come on over! If you want to play with us, bring your instrument!
If you’re curious, here are photos from last week’s gig.
Happy halloween! Also, tell your kids that this was Daft Punk.
Curious about the glasses? They’re “louvered”-style glasses lined with electroluminscent (EL) wire, a phosphor-coated wire that glows blue-green when you apply an AC current to it. The trick to making EL wire glow in different colors is a simple one: you cover it in colored plastic.
We won an Amazon gift card at a recent local tech event and bought these EL wire rave glasses for a mere US$13. They’re powered by two AA batteries that connect to the glasses via a cable. The batteries are in a pack that acts as a DC-to-AC transformer, as EL wire requires alternating current.
The glasses have three “on” modes:
I arrived a little early for last night’s gig with Tom Hood and the Tropical Sons. We were the house band for open mic night at Bayou Bistro in Tarpon Springs, which gave me the chance to get some work (writing an article about developing apps for Android phones) in this setting:
It was mid-afternoon when I arrived, which made me the youngest person in the bar, not counting the staff. Florida can be youth-affirming in that way.
In just over a week, it’ll have been a year since I met Tom, who was one of the organizers at the 2021 Tampa Bay Ukulele Getaway, which I attended as part of my birthday celebration that year as a “birthday stretch”. I had a great time, and while I did learn a little ukulele (despite being historically terrible with stringed instruments), I was a big hit with the accordion and ended up playing it most of my time there.
Since then, I’ve had regular invitations to play accordion at various ukulele events, including gigs with the Tropical Sons. It’s mostly classic rock and some blues, which nobody expects to hear coming from an accordion, but the band likes how I round out the sound.
When the rest of the band arrived, I pulled out my gear — the “street” accordion, the “dress” accordion, my amplifier (a 15″ Electro-Voice powered speaker), mic and stand and set up:
I managed to get some photos between numbers, but not many. Most of these were shot with the same one-hand technique for playing accordion while drinking beer: do everything with the left-hand chord buttons, leaving the right hand free.
Gigs at sunset are fun…
…but it really helps to bring sunglasses. It also works with the band’s “tropical” theme:
The place filled up during our first set…
…and then, break time! One of the customers bought a round of beers for the band, and I thanked him on behalf of the band and musicians everywhere.
I put in an order for a mahi-mahi sandwich, chatted with some folks at the bar, and listened to some of the local musicians who stepped up to the open mic.
A sandwich, a beer, some music, and open water. Can’t argue with that!
We played until just before nine and called it a night.
This happens every Wednesday, and Tom invited me to next week’s show as part of rehearsal for our gig on the Saturday night show at this year’s Tampa Bay Ukulele Getaway. I think I’ll go!
Hooray! It looks like Spaddy’s, my regular coffee place, made it through the hurricane. The only damage seems to be a lack of bread for their fantastic Cuban toast with cheese, which should be coming back later this week.
Last night, I had a dream where Armageddon, a 1979 song by Vancouver-based band Prism — a song I haven’t even thought about in a very long time — featured prominently. If you grew up in Canada in the early 1980s and listened to FM rock station, you’ll recognize the tune as soon as you hear the horns playing the opening march. If you’re not from that place or time, prepare to be rocked:
It’s an over-the-top number, clocking in at a few seconds under 8 minutes, but it doesn’t feel like an 8-minute drag. In fact, if you didn’t pay too close attention to the fact that it’s a song about nuclear annihilation, you might think it was the perfect tune for driving down the highway with volume cranked and the top down — and it is! It’s catchy orchestral classic rock that would fit in perfectly in a set with the Moody Blues, Led Zeppelin, and Queen.
I will admit to once owning this button and proudly wearing it on a denim jacket:
I’ve used Armageddon as an example song to teach people how to play by ear. Even if you’ve never heard the song before, it’s catchy enough that you want to learn it, and just complex enough to give you a little challenge. (In case you’re wondering, the intro, outro, and chorus are in the key of E, and the verses are in B.)
I’m definitely adding this to my “having beers on the front porch” playlist.
It’s the day after Hurricane Ian in Tampa.
The yard’s a big green mess, and I’ll need to drive a couple of nails into the fence, but upon preliminary inspection, there doesn’t seem to be any appreciable damage.
I normally don’t schooch my car that close to the fence and alcove, but I did so for the hurricane, and I’m glad I did! A branch from one of our live oaks came down on it, but its force was blunted by the fence. It didn’t even make a scratch.
Scott, a local developer is building two houses behind ours, and I just called him to let him know that one of the palm trees on the lot keeled over in the winds. Luckily for him, it fell away from the houses.
I should get some work done, and I’ve got a hot date with a rake and broom later on this afternoon.
The wind continues to blow, and the rain keeps coming down, but we still have power and there’s no apparent damage to the house.