Needed: Cut Rate Motel on Wheels

What I have, and what I need, are two different things.

What I have: 2002 Acura in darn good shape. But, it don’t have a bed in it. And, it don’t have an auxiliary power unit in it.

 I have the car. I need a van something like this one. An older one is fine if it is mechanically sound.

What I need: Any decent utility type van than I can toss a mattress in. I do need it to be reliable, have an a/c a heater, and an auxiliary power unit.

Why do I need this van: I will be storing everything I need to live and work on the road, in the van, while doing a crowd funding project. The project is a multi-part, multi-city, multi-trip, multi-month journey around the U.S., with the possibility of venturing into Canada and Mexico. The purpose of the trip is two-fold. I plan to begin a career as a street musician/singer. And, I plan to do a photographic documentary about buskers via “Tunesmith Tavern”, my music blog, with the possibility of several photographic  calendars and books coming from the project. And, there are other photographic projects I have that will be included in these trips on a “while I have the opportunity” basis.

A little about ME: I am a 63 year old male, now retired and living on a pension. I lived for 35 years as an over-the-road trucker. Everything I needed to live and work with was within 6 feet of where I sat to do my job. This trip will require no more than I carried in my truck. Sleeping in a van will be a lot cheaper than paying for a motel room every night. I plan to use truck stops along my way to have showers available, and the necessities I cannot carry in the van. I expect there to be little difference in this lifestyle than the way I lived as a trucker for 35 years.

What I am asking from crowd funding is your help in purchasing and equipping this van. Don’t worry, I have the camera, computer and music equipment that I need. My main concerns are to have a decent place to sleep. I am 63 years old. I have no desire to sleep on the ground again. My ambition is to establish myself as a musician. Once I start making money as a busker I will be able to meet all future expenses. I just need to prepare for bumps in the road.

Needed: Cut Rate Motel on Wheels

Needed: Cut Rate Motel on Wheels

What I have, and what I need, are two different things.

What I have: 2002 Acura in darn good shape. But, it don’t have a bed in it. And, it don’t have an auxiliary power unit in it.

 I have the car. I need a van something like this one. An older one is fine if it is mechanically sound.

What I need: Any decent utility type van than I can toss a mattress in. I do need it to be reliable, have an a/c a heater, and an auxiliary power unit.

Why do I need this van: I will be storing everything I need to live and work on the road, in the van, while doing a crowd funding project. The project is a multi-part, multi-city, multi-trip, multi-month journey around the U.S., with the possibility of venturing into Canada and Mexico. The purpose of the trip is two-fold. I plan to begin a career as a street musician/singer. And, I plan to do a photographic documentary about buskers via “Tunesmith Tavern”, my music blog, with the possibility of several photographic  calendars and books coming from the project. And, there are other photographic projects I have that will be included in these trips on a “while I have the opportunity” basis.

A little about ME: I am a 63 year old male, now retired and living on a pension. I lived for 35 years as an over-the-road trucker. Everything I needed to live and work with was within 6 feet of where I sat to do my job. This trip will require no more than I carried in my truck. Sleeping in a van will be a lot cheaper than paying for a motel room every night. I plan to use truck stops along my way to have showers available, and the necessities I cannot carry in the van. I expect there to be little difference in this lifestyle than the way I lived as a trucker for 35 years.

What I am asking from crowd funding is your help in purchasing and equipping this van. Don’t worry, I have the camera, computer and music equipment that I need. My main concerns are to have a decent place to sleep. I am 63 years old. I have no desire to sleep on the ground again. My ambition is to establish myself as a musician. Once I start making money as a busker I will be able to meet all future expenses. I just need to prepare for bumps in the road.

Moving Ahead With My Busking/Photography Plans

I am still angry about the fact that The Strip in Las Vegas today looks and smells more like Tijuana in the early 1960’s. But, I am also thinking that I do need to return there to shoot photography for the calendars and books that I have in mind. As for the people that are stinking up the city these days, well, maybe there is a story there too. I guess I just need to do a little work and find out. I am hoping to find that this fall will be a good time to do this project. I should be able to complete this leg of my project in a 2 month period. If I still feel like traveling I can hit the beach in southern California. There should be some busking in parts of the L.A. area. I just need to keep doing research on this.

Meditating About Busking

I have made some sales with minor event photography, some weddings, and other miscellaneous sales. I have written around 20 songs, and my repertoire is closing in on 130 songs. But,  no business can last without clients who know who you are. No musician can survive without an audience. And, no travel and event photography business can last if the photographer never travels and there are no events to shoot.

I retired from my trucking career in November of 2009 for medical reasons. I did not retire from life. I have worked very hard to keep my mind, body and soul busy in the hopes of returning to the work force. Last week I took a trip to Las Vegas. For the people I went with it was a vacation. For me it was a fact finding tour.

In my retirement from a 35 year trucking career I have worked hard at two of my life’s passions. In August of 2010 I bought an acoustic/electric guitar to help me pass my retirement time. A short time later a teenager’s dream came back to me. Fresh out of high school I had played in a band in California. We played 4 gigs that I remember. The first 3 gigs went great. The 4th gig was the gig that musicians never want to have. But, sooner or later, they all have them. We sounded terrible. The culprit that caused the catastrophe would not admit to the fault. We split up. I went to Vietnam. So went a promising career as a rock star.

In the early summer of 2011 I purchased a good chunk of the professional grade photography equipment I need to work as a freelance photojournalist. And, I have spent much of the last year adding to a catalog of images that I had already built with non-professional grade equipment. I also have several blogs that I post to about photography, music, and other subjects. It is my desire to specialize in travel and event photography.

As mentioned, my trip to Las Vegas was a fact finding tour. I went there hoping to find that I am ready to hit the road as a busker, and that Las Vegas is where I needed to be. And, I was hoping to find that Las Vegas would be the perfect place to start a documentary project on the art of busking. Well, I am ready to hit the road as a busker. I am not positive that I want to do it in Las Vegas, but I still think it would not hurt to either start there get through there. I was not overly pleased with the sight of the “would be” buskers that are now working on The Strip. However, I realize that this is another sign of a bad economy. Although at least 90% of what I saw on The Strip that was trying to pass as professional buskers were actually street people who had found discarded costumes in the dumpsters behind the casinos. There was very little talent exposed unless those street people were actually professional actors that were being paid to make the tourist nervous enough to leave town.

Overall, my plans have not changed. I still hope to busk, but I am considering starting a band to play local gigs in western Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle. I have to think more about busking in Las Vegas, at least at this time. I still want to use my busking and my photography to travel, busk and photograph. Let’s just say that I am spending some time to figure out a good project that I can get crowd funding that will help me complete the project while I travel, busk and do photography. And, it will probably include doing documentary work on the busking profession.

A Slum Called Las Vegas

The Vdara is a 56 or 59 floor hotel in City Center, Las Vegas, Nevada. We stayed on the 43 floor. It is a bit different than the average Motel 6.

**********

I should first tell the readers of this post that I have tried to find a way to live in Las Vegas since I first visited the place back in 1974. At this time I no longer have that urge.

The language in this post IS MEANT to offend the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, and especially the people who govern the city of Las Vegas. I apologize to my friends who read this, and get offended by what they read. But, you already know that I will not pull a punch when I am mad.

Way back when I was a child fresh out of the 4th grade my family spent the summer in Imperial Beach, California with my dad. And, of course, he took us to Tijuana, Mexico. In Tijuana I got my first glimpse  ghetto life. The smell was that of a sewer. I saw scantily clad hookers walking the streets. I watched grown ups that had nothing better to do that take a piss on the street. One man even dropped his drawers and squatted to take a crap. It was about that time that I asked my dad, “Can we go home now?“

Last week I spent 4 days in a SHIT PIT called Las Vegas. Tijuana has moved north. In two short years this city has gone from a city with major problems to being the stink-hole of the west. I was in Las Vegas from June of 2010 to November of 2010. The city had financial problems just like every other city in America. But, back in 2010 the city was still filled with confidence that some piece of pig shit in Washington D.C. would solve the problems, and that they would remain Sin City, the Entertainment Capital of the World.
Well, they no longer feel that way. They have lost all pride and self-esteem.

The primary purpose of my trip to Las Vegas was to speak to street entertainers to see if I wanted to return to Las Vegas to busk there. I am sure that there are more buskers there than I was able to see, but they could not have been more wretched than the ones that I did see on this trip. What is currently passing for buskers these days is, from what I saw, mostly nothing more that street urchins that have found discarded costumes in the dumpsters behind the casinos. And, those costumes had not seen a washing machine since they were first discarded. There was no entertainment from them. Most of the “would be” buskers were sitting against the wall, or laying on the benches along the street.

 The Strip is nothing more than a 6 lane garbage dump. In 2010 you could see the cities street-sweeper trucks almost daily along the strip. I doubt that those trucks run more than bi-weekly today. And, the garbage dump is being looted by Tijuana street urchins. If you think that my references to Tijuana is wrong I will simply say that it is a half-mile walk from the MGM at Tropicana Avenue to Harmon Avenue, the northern entrance to City Center. The shops and bars there used to be a family destination where you took your kids to purchase Las Vegas souvenirs. On Saturday night I walked to and from the our room at the Vdara in City Center with my grandson to watch a movie. The street was, of course filled with music. But, it was “ALL” Mexican music. That part, at least, of the strip now belongs to Mexico. All of them were so drunk they could barely stand. The men stood against the buildings like it was the latrine in a New York City subway station. The women looked and acted like inmates from an asylum.

The street in front of the Bellagio was clean. I never made it north of the Bellagio this trip, at least during my walks. We spent a lot of our time visiting friends and dining in places off of The Strip. I have had more meals in the last 6 days than I normally have in 6 months at home. That boy of mine, and his family, likes to eat. We spent $200 bucks to feed 5 people at one place. But, I was in heaven eating the filet mignon. I did not even have a mixed drink. A long-necked bud cost $5.50+. I drank a lot of water at $1 to $3.75 per bottle.

The problems that Las Vegas faces today cannot be blamed on the Bush administration. The problems are there because Las Vegas had a building boom that lasted from the mid-1080’s until about 2007. Of course the problems that face the city would not be as extreme if the whole world were not now in a recession. But, the problems stem from that socialist piece of pig shit called Harry Reid, that dumb-ass communist Nancy Piglosi, and the Liberal Savior (that cannot walk on water) Barack Obama. As usual, the Occupiers are protesting in the wrong places. Yes, capitalism has some problems, but the system is not broke. It simply has leeches that now live in Washington D.C. And yes, Wall Street has thieves there, but they would not be there if we did not have the leeches that are in Washington D.C. And, the sooner the American people realize this simple fact, the sooner we will leave the recession behind us.

If we had politicians in WDC with the balls to start doing their job today it would still take Las Vegas 5 years to climb out of the sewer that Harry Reid has created there. Las Vegas has their problems because there government is run by socialist. They are not Democrats. They are Socialist/Marxist.
And, another 4 year term by Barack Obama will make every city in America look, smell and be like the ½ mile section of The Strip that I have written about in this post.

Vegas Trippin'

Pickin' Tunes

*****

Tomorrow (June 13th) we leave for Las Vegas. The we is my son, his wife, my grandson, and myself. We will only be there for a few days, but I have a couple of important business items to take care of while I am our there. And, when I return home I will have some serious thinking to do. 

I had originally planned to spend the entire weekend at the Great West Truck Show that will be in Las Vegas on June 14, 15, and 16.  Well, things change. Now, I will be busting butt if I am able to spend 3 or 4 hours at the show. Now, my main mission is to see that my 8 year old grandson has a good vacation. We will be spending at least one day at Circus Circus. Then, maybe we will take in a water park, or a zoo. Second on my list is buskers. I plan to spend my evenings photographing and interviewing buskers on The Strip.

I hate the thought of not being able to spend much time at GWTS, but family comes first. And, interviewing the buskers will, hopefully, give me the information I will need to tell me if I really want to step out and try my hand at it. If I decide to try busking I will probably relocate to Vegas in the very near future. If I decide against it I will try to put a band together to work regionally in Oklahoma and Texas. My hope is that I can do good enough at busking to allow me to travel to other cities, states and countries to busk and work as a freelance travel photojournalist.

Guess It Doesn't Matter - by Keith Birmingham

Contact Keith via e-mail at maddadkeith@yahoo.com for the chords to this song. And, thanks for taking a look at it.

Guess It Doesn’t Matter - Keith Birmingham

I don't ever call your number.
I don't say your name out loud.
And, I don't ask our friends about you.
When your not hangin' with our crowd.

And, it doesn't really matter
If I see you on the street.
When you just walk right on by me
My heart don't skip a beat.

Well, tomorrow you will marry
What once was my best friend.
But, I won't even notice
That my world is at an end.

I don't miss the smell of you perfume,
As I'm layin' in my bed.
And, I don't miss the touch of your hand,
Pulling softly at my head.

And, I guess it doesn't matter,
When I'm turning out the light.
That I know for me it's gonna be,
Another lonely night.

Well, tomorrow you will marry,
What once was my best friend.
But, I won't even notice
That my world is at an end.

'Cause I'll be sittin' in this barroom,
And, I guess that you can tell,
I'll be out with all of my new friends,
And, spending time in Hell.

And, I don't ever call your number.
And, my phone it just don't ring.
'Cause when I'm sittin' in this barroom
My life don't mean a thing.

‘Cause tomorrow you will marry,
What once was my best friend.
But, I won't even notice
That my world is at an end.

What are We Voting For in November, 2012

In 2009 and 2010 President Obama, and the Democratic Party, had complete control of the government. Obama got everything he asked for, including his health care plan, and his green energy plan. We bailed out Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Linda Lou and Bobby too. But, did it make your life any better?

In 2011 Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives, but the Senate essentially became a House of Stalemates. The way it stands now government is at a Stalemate. Obama says the Republicans are to blame for not giving him what he wants. Obama says he is working with the Republicans. The Republicans deny Obama’s every wish. Everything the Republicans want a vote on is trashed by Obama and Harry Reid. The green jobs are a farce, but Obama will not approve drilling. The future of Obama’s health care plan is being decided by the Supreme Court any day now. Democrats want to spend our way out of debt. Republicans want to cut spending, but cannot decide where. And, any cut they ask for Obama says no too.

So, what will we be voting for in November, 2012? It all comes down to who has the most power. If we keep Obama in the White House, and if the power stays the same in Congress we will be saying we want 4 more years just like the last 2 years. If Obama stays in the White House but the power in Congress shifts back to what it was in 2009 and 2010 we get everything that Obama asks for. If we put a Republican in the White House, but hand control of Congress over to the Democrats we get the same results as we have had in 2011 and 2012 even though the questions will be different. If we put a Republican in the White House, and more Republicans into Congress the Republicans will have complete control of the government.

What will our future be: More of 2009 and 2010. More 2011 and 2012. Or, the uncertainty of switching from socialism back to capitalism. And, now matter how you spin it, Obama is a Socialist. When your government robs the working man to redistribute his money to the non-working man, and when the government controls or owns the business and manufacturing base of a nation, that is socialism. And, socialism has a perfect record of never working. It always seems to end in Communism and complete collapse. Capitalism works, but has GREED as it’s major flaw. But, greed can be corrected, punished and rebuilt when the people control their government.

What we are voting for:
(1.) More of 2009 and 2010 - Democratic control of Congress.
(2.) More 2011 and 2012.  - Republican control of Congress.
(3.) Socialism. - Obama
(4.) Capitalism. - Romney
(5.) Unknown - An Independent.

Well, the problem with having an Unknown in the White House boils down to who has control of Congress, and does the Independent lean Right or Left. Mostly, the Independent leans both ways. It just depends on the issue. That is why you get the Unknown. Depending on the issue you could get more of 2009 and 2010 OR 2010 and 2011.

So, who do you want to rule in the United States of America, the government or the people?

Tunesmith Tavern: Staying Legal as a Busker

Tunesmith Tavern: Staying Legal as a Busker

Staying Legal as a Busker

Is it worth it? Well sure, I guess it is if you are going to stay local. But, my hopes, and what others have done, it to travel while making money with my photography and music. So, the trip that I am taking to Las Vegas late next week has grown in importance to me. I need to talk to street entertainers that are working on The Strip to see if they have purchased the licenses and permits to do it legally. I tend to think that most of them have not purchased licenses and permits. However, if the city decides to put the squeeze on street entertainers it will be the un-licensed and un-permitted that are hassled first. And, that could mean heavy fines and jail time. Still, unless you gain a reputation for harassing people for money, or causing other kinds of problems, I doubt that the city of Las Vegas clean the streets unless there gets to be too many street entertainers. Talk to local buskers to see if you need to do the paperwork. Some cities don't worry about street entertainers unless their city budget is in a pinch. If it is required and you don't take the time and spend the money to get the licenses and permits it is you that will pay the penalties.

What I have found so far:

I will need a state business license for peddlers or street vendors. Price = $200.00.

I will need a city permit. Price = $50.00/week or $150.00/month.

I will need a $5,000.00 surety bond. Price = unknown.

I will need a work card. Price = unknown.

It appears that the paperwork should take a couple of hours to fill out. Most of it, at least, can be done on-line. There is a 10 review period for the city to decide whether to issue the license or not. But, from past experiences of dealing with the Nevada and Las Vegas governments I would say that it would be safe to figure it will be 30 days before you finally get legal to work. I spent 6 months of 2010 in Las Vegas. Well over a month of that was trying to meet city requirements to go to work.

To find out what licenses and permits you will need to conduct your business you will need to “search” for licenses and permits in the city you plan to work in. Example: City of Las Vegas, Nevada licenses and permits.

Crowd Funding for the Financially Impaired.2

The Employment Factor: Almost no one needs to be unemployed, almost never. The only exceptions would be the truly medically or physically impaired. Lack of employment can be attributed to lack of planning, or lack of desire. Lack of planning can be corrected, starting now. But, there is nothing I can do for you if you just have a total desire not to work.

America, and most other countries in the world, is currently trying to kick start it’s way out of a recession. And, now may be the best time that you will see in your life time to start your own business. And, why work for someone else when you can work for yourself. Admittedly, I did some poor planning for my retirement years, and life caught up with me, tackled me, and is trying to keep me pinned down. But, it ain’t gonna happen.

I started out flat broke. But, my story starts from the day I was forced to retire for health reasons. And, because of poor planning, and the lack of the ability to use the word “NO” when people came begging me for my last dollar, I retired with a zero balance bank account. While waiting for my disability claim to be approved I was forced to sell my transportation and almost everything I owned to keep from having to beg from my family or the community. I now work for myself. I am a photographer and an aspiring musician. I have taken my two favorite hobbies and I am now turning them into money making enterprises. I did it, and you can too.

Flat broke? No problem. The world is open to anyone, and this means you too, with a good idea, the brains, and the guts to attempt a challenge. And, it all comes from an old source of funding for large corporations. Venture capitalism has come to the common man and woman. Your world is there for you to conquer, and your community, your state, and your country is there to help you do it.

Even a recession has it’s good side. The recession we are currently struggling to come out of  is no exception. Our legislators have recently made changes to laws that regulated venture capitalism. Those changes, and the publics use of home computers have opened new avenues for entrepreneurs through the use of “crowd funding”. It has nothing to do with your bank account, and little to do with your current assets. It is all about you and your desire. Instead of asking for a loan you will ask for crowd funding. Instead of paying back a loan you give rewards to your contributors, and you pocket all other proceeds. And, the rewards that you give to your contributors are entirely up to you. But, you will want to offer rewards that show proper gratitude for your contributors help.

Where can you learn more? Well, it can turn into a good bit of reading, but all you need is access to a computer with access to the internet. From there all you do is place the words “crowd funding” on your URL box, and click “enter” on your key pad. Click and read from the list. There is a growing list of sources for crowd funding. All are reachable on the internet. Who to seek funding from is, and should be, up to you.

Wishing you lots of luck.