Did I graduate yet?

Like many unsigned musicians, I put the No Sale Value CD up for sale on CDBaby, the great site where any (and every)one can sell their music on very reasonable terms, and the only people that give indies easy ITunes access. The founder, Derek Silvers, ahas put up a lot of how-top and advice essays on success, starting with "Life is Like High School".

Putting aside for a minute how revolting a thought that is (and I had a relatively good high school experience), I think he's right more often than not, especially as it relates to the music business. Which is probably why I'm on cruise ship X and not touring with No Sale Value at present...

I bring that up because I'm asked by friends back home about the actual living on the boat, and well, Cruise Ship X (and, I hear, all of them) is, well, just like high school, only with LOT more alcohol. Cliques, created to some extent by occupation and language, lots of social awkwardness, more than a smattering of the kind of "you know, she likes you" stuff I thought I left behind when I hit 30. Hell, 25! Silly me. Most days I just watch it go by but yesterday it bit me on the ass in a big way- nothing exciting, just typical boy-girl BS that I'll probably forget in 24 hours. Barely worthy of Univision, but still...

Why the hell do grown adults do this to themselves? If you took a step back and actually looked at it, you'd laugh, then hit yourself on the head with something blunt and heavy. Yet every night it continues...

Okay, enough needless bitching. Current listening is a Ron Miles kick, now Laughing Barrell, but previously Woman's Day with Frisell, and My Cruel Heart, a masterpiece. That Ron is not better known, despite sideman turns with Frisell and Charlie Hunter, is a crime, especially when the likes of Nick Payton is as close to a jazz star as you get these days. What especailly amazes me is he creates these wild, loopy soundscapes, ("My Cruel Heart", "You Taste...", then cuts through them like a cannonball out of the fuzz. There's an integrity, both musical and spiritual, that shines through every note he plays, so that even the most dissonant line sounds like an angel's call. Something I deeply aspire to.