Driving through Minnesota...

Been driving through Minnesota the past week, listening to songs on my phone and taking notes for which would be ideal for track-specific playlists from the forthcoming album.  I know playlisting isn't a new concept since spotify became a thing, but as I've never used a streaming service, it is for me.

I like the idea of generating playlists consisting almost exclusively of all the great old songs I've spent my life listening to, including some of the non-single type tracks from superstar artists of yesteryear with which listeners of today may not be familiar.  For anyone interested in tuning in, I think it will be a nice change of pace from the standard playlisting fare featuring everything modern/current.

This was a good trip, although all of the profit (and play) came within the first five days.  I spent this past Wednesday thru Friday travelling through the more remote parts of the state, where casinos ended up having $100 max bets, which makes it pointless to play there.  The report to which I subscribe incorrectly reflected the conditions in those places... so I ended up travelling several hundred miles for nothing, other than witnessing some incredibly beautiful scenery.  I will apply a shorter itinerary to future visits to the region, much like I did with Colorado.

Currently awaiting for my flight back at the brand-new Delta lounge in Gate G at MSP... very nice job, Delta.

The River Checkraise...

 2-3 is a minefield.  With position and KhTh on a JT7K7 rainbow board, I went for what I considered a reasonable value bet of $60 into a $175 pot (particularly given his river check), and got checkraised all-in for effectively another $310 by a middle position limper.  Well, I'm not going to call that bet when he could have easily had a straight or spiked trips...  what else was he representing?   After my fold, he proceeded to table AK.

Limped with AK, and then checkraised all-in with one pair on a board replete with possible straights and boats.  Now, here's the thing... if he had some kind of read, figured my bet showed weakness and turned his pair into a bluff, then props to him (I still haven't been able to figure out how the whole "blockers" thing plays into that).  But that wasn't the case... I asked him if he thought his AK was good there, and he responded affirmatively that there's no way he could fold a hand as good as that.

Maybe I'm an idiot for ever folding two pair in a low-limit live game!

Anyway will try again this weekend before heading out next Friday for a blackjack trip to points in the north/central U.S.  Location with phenomenal games... lots of 4 deckers with good rules and deck penetration.  And so it goes...   

      

Hearing It For the First Time...

It's come up in a few recent conversations how it's pretty much impossible to hear your own song for the first time, since by the time you've finished writing it, recorded the demo, tweaked it, and gone through the formal recording process, you've heard it hundreds of times over.  By the time it gets to a finished stage, you're almost kind of sick of hearing it.

Yesterday I came up with the chorus for a new song for the first time in awhile... I was inspired by a lyrical concept as I was heading out the door for about a twenty minute drive - and by the time I had arrived at my destination, I had the lyrics fleshed out along with a melody that I was able to sing into my phone recorder. 

Listening to it fresh today, it dawned on me that this is pretty much the only way that I can truly hear one of my own songs for the first time... when I first come up with the melody and work it out on the fly, I haven't memorized it yet.  So... when I listen to it a day or days later, it's brand new to me - and it's somewhat similar to that concept of buying an album and hearing a song for the first time.  It's the only way I can ever experience that feeling with one of my own songs.

Thankfully, this one's a keeper - and I'll look forward to it appearing as an actual release at some point over the next few years... lol.

Flying out in the morning for a west coast blackjack trip; first extended one since January... 

Shadows...

Listening to a random playlist and a great Gordon Lightfoot song came on.  Sending Canadiana emojis to my hockey text chain... what a great talent lost... maybe not too soon, but nevertheless... RIP, Gord.

Short Turnaround...

Travel day... Denver to SLC to SNA.  A combined 5 hours in Delta lounges makes the journey a bit easier; making my way through a comemmorative issue of Rolling Stone that was dedicated to the Floyd.

Witnessed the Mets at Coors Field last nite; it was quite by accident I was in Colorado at the same they were scheduled to play the Rockies... it was nice to catch a game, notwithstanding the loss and the fairly steady rain that fell in the later innings.

Only played two sessions on this trip, but won both handily, allowing me to exceed EV for my target hours on this 4-day turnaround... booked the win and relaxed with poker the rest of the way... back in OC in a few hours!

This Post Has No Title...

Shout out to the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" record ;)

Waiting for a quick dinner at Hawaiian Gardens prior to starting my Friday night poker session.  Spent the last week transitioning from the Million Years release to Grey Wolf; both tracks are now out everywhere.  While Million Years was essentially a preliminary release in order to get the social media presence up and running, GW is being marketed more heavily to press/radio, and for playlisting... we'll see how that goes over the next month.

Finally got around to scheduling blackjack trips again... heading to Colorado next week for a quick 4-day turnaround, then will be hitting NorCal/Oregon, Minnesota and Iowa on a monthly basis through August.  It'll be nice getting back out there again since my last trip to the Big Easy region in January.

Vegas and Dallas currently tied going into the third period.  Wonder if there's a chance we'll get another 4OT thriller like last nite!

An Early Summer...

Well, the Islanders failed in their bid to beat the Canes.  I guess some small consolation is that the Canes are thus far making the Devils look a lot worse in the next round than they did the Isles, so... perhaps there's still more to this aging roster than the fans have collectively given them credit for.  Will be interesting to see how ownership approaches the offseason.

Spent this Friday evening studying in the "pokerlab" as opposed to playing live in the casino.  Some great training on this site - but wow, is it involved.  Most people don't realize how complex a game poker is when played properly.  Beating blackjack with card counting is is worlds easier...  I'm going to spend a few hours tomorrow getting some work done on the computer, and then it'll be off to one of the relatively local cardrooms to apply what I've picked up tonite.

There's apparently some blog/press coverage and reviews in the works for the forthcoming "Grey Wolf" single.  Should be interesting to hear how these songs are being perceived at an arms length.... not sure I want to read everything!  lol...