asingardenof

Indeed. A lecturer friend of mine is currently in the process of reapplying for her job for at least the second time.

Back to Tariffs, and trump is tilting at the EU windmill and threatening to impose tariffs on them.

Meant to post this last week but as is often the case life got in the way. We'd been unable to get into our usual rehearsal place, Eiger in Leeds, so decided to try the Old Chapel down the road. The place was very well appointed and had loads of equipment supplied for free thanks to the charity that helps fund it (apparently Kaiser Chiefs do as well as they maintain their own rehearsal facilities there), so I had the hilarious situation of putting my Elf through an Ashdown 8x10 cab, which looked ridiculous (I'll get a photo next time) but sounded amazing. On our breaks we got chatting with another group who were there, one of whom asked who was playing the bass and then complimented me, which was nice. We also had a good chat with the young woman running the place that day, and overall we really liked the place and have decided to move our rehearsals there.

Scammy AF

Mine says Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America), which seems to be the case in a lot of countries

I'm just waiting for all the 2nd Amendment fetishists, with their arsenals of AR-15s that only get an airing at Starbucks when some libs need owning, to rise up against this tyrannical government. I mean, that's why they have the guns, so it must mean they're biding their time and will come and sort things out any day now, right?

Agreed. Our regular Evri driver is excellent (she can't really not be - she lives on our estate and her kid goes to the same school as a lot of other kids on the estate, so there's nowhere to hide!), but it's blindingly obvious when she's away because Evri deliveries suddenly start going missing.

That is a hell of a lineup, but I'm not willing to sell my child for a ticket

He's not too popular in fictional small towns in rural Connecticut either...

Hypothetically, eventually it'll reach a point where importing goods becomes less economical than producing them domestically. That's a long-term result though; in the short term it'll just make everyone a lot worse off as importers refuse to absorb the extra costs and pass them all on to the consumers. In reality this won't happen because Trump (or rather Musk) has basically cancelled all infrastructure funding so no new factories, etc. can be built, and nobody will be able to hire anyone because the "DEI" and "woke" (deliberate quotes because I doubt those doing this would be able to define what they are if you held guns to their heads) candidates will be unattractive to employers so there'll be a skills shortage.

I think this is a key point that gets overlooked by Trump and his followers. It's all very well saying that they'll bring it all back to the US, "drill baby drill", etc. but they've spent decades dismantling, selling off and outsourcing the infrastructure that would allow them to do this. Just to pick another example, if Canada overnight halted all oil exports to the US, there's no way that the US oilfields would be able to meet the demand.

Pretty cold rehearsal on Sunday, I had to wear my fleece and warm the strings up between songs. The main atrium at the rehearsal studios (Eiger in Leeds) was toasty warm but the room we were in was freezing. Good rehearsal though. We decided that although Sledgehammer sounds great it's probably too slow for either of our sets, so it's one we might have a go at as a bit of fun in the future. Alright by Supergrass came together pretty quickly, and after only a couple of run throughs we decided that if we can nail it at our next practice in a couple of weeks then it'll be in the set at our first gig of the year on 15th March. We also decided that having a go at Start by The Jam would be on the cards too, although we'll have to figure something out for our keyboardist to do during that other than chipping in with some backing vocals. Our usual place is booked up the only weekend we can do between now and the gig, so we're going to try the Old Chapel in Holbeck as an alternative. It's cheaper and looks better appointed, so fingers crossed. I'm also looking forward to seeing how ridiculous my Elf head looks on top of the Ashdown 8x10 cabs they supply!

SITREP: We contacted the organisers to ask if they would chip in for the extra gear we'd need to play outdoors, as it's out of the ordninary for us, but they said no so we've sacked the gig off. Ah well. Thanks everyone for your advice.

I'm after a bit of advice for what my band might need to do to beef up our setup for outdoor gigs. We're a 5-piece with keys, guitar and bass, and usually we use the PA for vocals and keys, with the drums un-mic'd and the guitar and bass coming from the backline only. We've been asked to play at a small outdoor event in the summer, where all I'm told about the setup is that it's a corporate event for a local company, where there'll also be food vans, bouncy castle, and so on. We've been asked to use our PA not only for us but also for music in between sets. Past experience tells us that our current setup, which consists of a pair of Behringer B112D speakers, isn't up to the job, though it's perfectly adequate indoors. We're not keen to buy anything new because we don't do many of these types of gig at all, so would be looking at either hiring something or buying secondhand. But the question is what should we be looking for? Are we just looking at something like a pair of subs to take the pressure off the main speakers, or a whole new PA?

You have converted me to the cause as well

Probably Cigarettes and Alcohol by Oasis, having borrowed the tab book for Definitely Maybe from a mate at school

I would bet actual money that that's exactly what they are

Or rather Squiers for people that want to pay an extra £100+ so they can have a Fender logo instead of a Squier one.

Similar to my WBAC experience, where the computer in their office offered considerably lower than the website had, but the salesman rang his boss and upped the offer to something a lot closer to what I was expecting. With the benefit of hindsight I should have kept that car though - a pale blue metallic Honda Jazz might not have been as cool as the BMW I kept hold of, but it would have given me considerably less trouble than the BMW, and certainly a lot less trouble than the car that replaced the BMW!

But how will anyone complain about the ugly headstock if there isn't one?

Very nice. Did they just hacksaw off the last few frets though?