Manchester United Game

You'd think an oldster like me wouldn't get so attached to a sports team, especially one I didn't grow up with. But I went with my son last week to D.C. to see Manchester United play Barcelona. I had seen them play Barcelona in 2003 in Philadelphia, but can't remember the score. Then I saw them in Chicago against Bayern Munich, dressed in full regalia of team shorts and shirt- or in the team "kit" as they'd say in England.  ( I must have been a real sight!) Then there were games against the MLS all-stars, the MLS Philadelphia team and InterMilan. The game last Wednesday featured two of the best players in the world, Leo Messi and Neymar so that in itself made it worthwhile to make the trip. It ended up 1-0 Barcelona but there was an obvious gap in the quality of the two teams. It really could have been a lot worse. My dream is to go to Manchester to see a game at their legendary stadium, Old Trafford. I have a bunch of frequent flyer miles expiring next year so I should use them for airfare. I haven't been overseas in four years so it's time.

Swan Song for the Band (at least for now)

My guitarist retired a few ago. He and his wife have no kids so they decided the time was right to sell their house and move south to North Carolina by the beach. So our last gig will be on July 15th at a firemen's picnic. We haven't played out in quite awhile since last October at a winery. He told all of us right at the beginning of the year and to be honest the motivation to look for more jobs was very low. I doubt if we will find a replacement. For one thing, finding a guitarist with similar taste in music will be very tough. Most guys my age are into classic rock--stuff I have no interest in playing. Then the drummer lives about 50 miles from me. We practiced in the guitarist's basement which was about 45 minutes west of my place. The drummer lives 40 minutes northwest of the guitarist.  Not having a place to practice and the distance between us makes it highly unlikely that we will continue. That is too bad as I purchased the domain name and paid for the website on Squarespace. I also had a banner made with the band's logo and website on it. So maybe I might try to find other players close to me to make my financial investment worthwhile. The other issue is that the music we play is not very appealing to the crowds who go out to bars to hear music. Basically, it is the music of our youth-  or fifty year old stuff.  The Beatles stuff is well-known but once we dig into the minor hits of British and American bands, no one knows it. Still I find it very enjoyable to play and will miss doing it. I even bought some vintage sounding effects to get authenticity such as the tremolo on this sixty year old hit. It's fun to sing harmonies like this, though I suspect to a critical ear we wouldn't be that good.