The Night Shift... Continues!

[WildcatOne]

I'm back with the band again. Last night I played a private party with Pee Wee at the Houston Racquet Club, it's an exclusive high-class joint over in the Memorial area of Houston. I've always said that the 3 high-class areas, University (Rice University, that is), River Oaks and Memorial had different kinds of money. University is old money, River Oaks is new money, and Memorial is credit <g>...this gig was for a Middle Shcool faculty that were having their annual party. The ladies that hired us just happened to drop into Club 21 in Galveston one night while they were doing a "Girls' Night Out" thing, and they fell in love with Pee Wee. Lots of women fall in love with Pee Wee. He has awesome charisma, an unbelievable vocal range, 10 tons of passion and power, and just plain basic animal magnetism (respects to AJ!) and our band ROCKS OUT, especially at Club 21, which by the way will reopen in the spring...so these ladies came to see us at the 1400 Club when we played there in November and they booked us for last night. Pee Wee said we're possibly getting 3 more gigs out of the one we played last night; he said these private gigs are getting harder and harder to say no to while we maintain a club schedule to keep in touch with our regular fan base. I had the surgery 2 weeks ago yesterday. I still have a spot that shows up on my back bandage every day, but it's getting smaller and smaller every day. The band guys were great to me, welcoming me back and hugging me; they told me they missed me and it felt great to have that confidence and appreciation that they genuinely gave me last night. I missed them, too...there's a unity and a family bond that we're all part of with Pee Wee. Pee Wee does not take individual credit no matter how much of it he receives, and in our opinion, he deserves. He defers all praise to the band, every time. He pays himself the same as he pays us, he works the same on the set-up and tear-down of the equipment (he took my amp with him so I won't have to carry it...I used to haul it around all the time like a suitcase but right now it feels like it needs a forklift to pick it up) and he consistently maintains the highest professional standards of any bandleader I've ever seen; that statement is backed up by guys in the band with far more experience than I've had. So it's all good. The band sounded great. The teachers are very cool people. They let it all hang out. Best part of the deal was the principal was the most dancing fool out there, and all of the people who were there were totally blown away by our show, which was actually a fraction of what we do in clubs. Last night we played 3 sets, 80% high energy, but the last gig I played with the band in early-mid January, we did 5 full sets of full-blast rock 'n roll, and we had 2 or 3 sets of material still waiting to play. A guy asked me last night, how late are you going to play? I said as late as you want, man. We'll play till tomorrow if you want us to. They ended up letting us shut down at 11:15, which is way early, but these are day people and we were cool with that. It sure feels great to be back. Cheers, WC1

[draglist]

Great to have you back, Cat. bp

[Rapid Randy Baker]

Congrats WC,,back in action,,,all is right with the world

[pro70z28]

God to hear your back WC.

[Iowa Al]

WC,
I am way behind on checking items on draglist and just wanted to wish you the best after learning all you have been going through.
This site is not and would not be the same with out you.
All our best to you and your family.
Ia Al

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, Al...it's all good. Right now the band is going full-steam and we're constantly getting schedule changes due to the fact that it's an ever-changing landscape out there in the world of entertainment. We've had to cancel some shows because of nightclub management incompetence and before we could even make the change to the website, we had a better gig come in to replace it. Pee Wee let us know last night that we're booked solid except for a couple of weekends all the way through April 2010. I'm going to drive George to the DLNsIV this summer, so I'll be taking that space of time off (it adds up to 1 weekend). I'm going to give George his first pass at Eddyville. My only concern with regards to the band schedule is that my health will hold up to it. Last November through January, my health collapsed and I ended up flat on my back for over a month. I can't say that it was the schedule of the band that did it, but it was one of those situations where I was leading two completely different lives and holding them both up at 100% capacity. I'm figuring out ways to compensate one for the other. There is a lot going on around here and Debby and I are talking more and more about the future and our retirement. We went to Phoenix last week to a seminar on internet marketing and I learned a ton of stuff...got more from the pep talks than I did on the tech stuff, but it was a great time for us. We hooked up with Robbie Racer and went out to dinner with him. He's doing great (Thunderhorse is still winning and going rounds, sitting high in the points), and he is also looking towards his retirement in the next few years. He is an organized guy...he already has everything more or less in place for when he makes the change. My wife loves Robbie. She was jumping up and down when he drove up. She pretty much had him all to herself most of the evening. He's one of her favorite people, just an easy-going, laughing and talkative guy, and Debby just thinks the world of him. It was easy for him to charm and captivate her...it shows depth and sensitivity, traits that men don't necessarily look for in other men (he's my buddy, he's a good guy, hell of a drag racer, that's about as far as I look), but a woman like Debby recognizes those qualities in a man instantly and is drawn to him...It was a great evening when we hung out with Robbie. Life is good. I'm going to try to stop and smell the roses a little more and enjoy the time the Lord allows me as much as I can. Hope to see you and everybody here in Eddyville in July! Cheers, WC1

[pro70z28]

That would be cool to see you again at the DLN's WC. Glad to hear you guys are busy. That is a testament to how good you guys are in these economic times.

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, ProZ. Folks still go out to party and dance and this band delivers...Pee Wee said some of the clubs have called him and asked him to come down on the price. He did on some gigs, and his fee for private parties has also slimmed a little (except for weddings...tuxedos, requests, you do a wedding all day and all night when you're in the band), but for the most part we're one of 3 bands in this whole region that have consistently stayed busy. Ezra Charles and the Grateful Geezers are the other 2. We've expanded our area from San Antonio to Lafayette West and East and I've heard we have some gigs in the Dallas/Ft Worth area in the fall. Here's Pee Wee for ya...he got entertainer of the year. Last night at the Resort, he told the crowd "How do you like the band?" Applause. He said "You may not know this, but this band was voted band of the year for 2008!" Ovation. He does that all the time...he sees it as it's the BAND that's successful. He said he wouldn't be anything if it weren't for us. I appreciate his humility and generosity. Not many bandleaders are like that. Anyway, with that honor, we've been very successful (the band did get band of the year in 2007) But I'm going to take a vacation and go to Eddyville this year with George. It's a lock. Cheers, WC1

[draglist]

That's great, John. Glad to hear all of it, especially getting together with Robbie and of course, your coming to Eddyville! Let's talk about some of that internet marketing stuff... bp

[WildcatOne]

The seminar we attended was paid for by Debby's sister Cindy. She's a CPA, a financial whiz kid and she runs Jackson-Hewitt offices in the Ft. Leonard Wood area in Missouri...St. Robert (where Debby works) and Dixon, also I think one other office. Cindy subscribes to all kinds of deals and this is one of them. The package is called Infusionsoft. It's an internet marketing software package that organizes and automates all your stuff into one package and sends it all out to your mailing list, which is also subdivided into categories, and it is from what I saw the most efficient and utilitarian of methods for marketing systems. It operates with a certain degree of intuitive logic, a rare feature in many of the PC-based systems that I've seen...It sorts out words and phrases that would otherwise send your stuff to a Spam folder and offers alternative phrasing and wordage that puts your stuff on the first or second page of a search engine, which is a key element in having a successful internet business...like I say, the tech stuff they went into (we sat through the whole thing...yawn...) was at times tedious and cryptic, as many programs tend to get, especially if it's not graphic or dealing with interesting subjects such as drag racing <g>. It caters to "small business" guys, enterpreneurs with something to sell and not a whole lot of organizational skills that want to succeed with their ideas but don't have enough know-how or time to put it all together in one place with one focus...Infusionsoft looked good to me, much of it is way over my head technically and in the sense of tactical application, since I'm a graphics guy with limited knowledge and experience in these things, I'm not a CPA like my sister-in-law, who I have tremendous respect for and gratitude to. She gave us the trip as Debby's bonus for working for her during tax season.
Here is the URL to Infusionsoft.
http://www.infusionsoft.com/

What the seminar did was give me a lot of ideas. I'm working on one of them right now, and I believe it will be successful. Once my stuff is ready on it, I'll show what it is. If my hunch is right, it'll be good. I decided to sidestep applying for a patent and just build a prototype and set up a production deal on my gadget, then advertize it. If I get a patent, somebody will build something like it and undercut my deal anyway, so I might as well go ahead and make the thing and start selling it online when it's ready. One thing I will do is establish a DBA, a trademark and a copyright, but a patent is expensive, arbitrary and requires long-term litigation and submissions that can end up with your idea being rejected in the end, so I said what the heck. It's an original concept but it'd get jumped on anyway, so here goes...

Another thing I learned is that life is short with no guarantees and it's important to do good things for not only yourself, but other people especially, as much as you can.

Cheers, WC1