Third 20 Dollar Tip In 52 Days!

Working Hard On Song About Bums
Wednesday began with The Coffee Club, as I was woken at 6am. by some kids bouncing a basketball in the church parking lot, and started my day then.
I had $6.01, as I recall.
The day was pretty much spent working on The "Bum" Suite.I took a break, and had a couple of Earthquake Lagers, at about 5pm.
I planned upon playing near Serda's from then, until such a time that I had the suite ready, or if not, 9:30pm.
I was thrown a 5 dollar tip, and a 20 dollar tip. The rest was change. I was on my third lager, and playing "Dear Prudence," the John Lennon song, as I recall, when Ben, the amulance driver with Bubba, the ambulance rider, stopped by, and played my guitar. He put it into a "dropped G" tuning, and played some interesting stuff, giving me lots of musical ideas.
Fortified by 27 bucks and change, and lots of ideas, I went to Serda's for the songwriter's open mic thing. I was tempted to keep the guitar in that tuning and just go in there and "wing it," flailing away on the strings and screaming at the top of my lungs. (I think the warning label on Earthquake Lager makes some mention of that.)

She's Losing It Up ThereUpon my arrival, the MC asked me if I would go up immediately and play. He said that whomever was currently on stage was "losing it," or words to that effect.
The MC let me play his guitar, as mine was in dropped G tuning, and I wasn't Ben, the ambulance driver.I was rushed onto the stage and greeted warmly by a group that collectively wanted to hear "Hubert's Trip," which I had done the previous week (for the first time in 20 years.)

I wasn't confident that The "Bum" Suite was ready, in fact, I was pretty sure that I was going to screw it up, unless a miraculous improvisation happened, as had on "Hubert's Trip" the week before. I decided to give the people what they wanted.
One Flew Over The Coffee HouseI guzzled a Flying Dog Amber Lager (it's the AMBER LAGER which is so delicious) and did a half-assed version of "Hubert's Trip."

Results vary when one improvises, plus, I probably didn't need the Flying Dog Amber Lager, though it was delicious again.

I was torn between trying to recreate the lyrics from the previous week, or to totally improvise, (which is basically how they got there) and hope for similar results. I wanted to repeat some of the lines which got "good laughs" from the people, but I wanted to make up others. A recipe for a half assed version! (I don't think I "lost it," though, thankfully.) Nobody told me that I needed a Geography lesson, either...

I got a good round of applause from the dozen or so there, but, some of them asked me what "happened" to certain verses from the previous week's rendition. I explained how I usually made up "Hubert's Trip" as I went along. I picture a map of the U.S., and try to give Hubert an interesting and funny adventure, and one that rhymes. The people left half satisfied. There is always next week, (unless I am in New Orleans.)

I wonder sometimes why I put so much "on my plate," and don't just sit down and write out all the verses that I can remember, instead of going "up there" hoping for a miracle...
One guy said that he and his friend had been waiting for a certain line about Las Vegas. It was about Hubert doubling his money. (he probably put a quarter in a slot and "doubled his money") The MC also said that I sang something about "Bach at the Moon," which sounds like something Hubert and I used to joke about; a heavy metal version of J.S. Bach called just that. (a play upon Ozzy Osboune's "Bark at the Moon," of course)