A couple months ago, I wrote The Rogues to ask them directly what it is that makes them so successful at selling CDs, and why they are one of the top 10 bands on CDstreet selling CDs. Sharon Wothke wrote back:
"As head sales person for the band, I think that I would be the one to talk to. The Rogues are definitely unique in what they do, and if you will indulge me, very good at what they do.
As a sales person, I know that the way the guys play their music definitely is the biggest factor in their sales quotient. When the music, which can be described as infectious, is smoking hot, and everyone is having a good time, the sales are usually pretty good. Most people who come to a Renaissance Festival, where the band still does the lion's share of their gigs, do not come
expecting to buy a CD with bagpipe music on it. The Rogues have converted many people to this form of music. So in other words, they create a unique atmosphere which is conducive to sales.
If the guys are doing their job (making great music), it makes my job a lot easier. I just have to be available and approachable to people and looking like a I am a part of the show for people to feel comfortable in coming up to me. We started from the very beginning employing the use of a roaming basket. It is very effective and other groups have successfully copied our approach.
Our sellers walk around holding up the product so people can see them. Our sellers try to blend in with the show and not be pushy, just visible. I personally enjoy interacting with the crowd, spoofing off of what is being said on the stage and telling jokes to make the audience laugh. And I will talk and be nice to everyone, even if they don't buy a CD simply because I enjoy people and I am trying to be an ambassador for the band. They may not buy today, but chances are they will think about it and buy a CD at another time."
Straight from the Master's mouth. What does it take?
1. Great music
2. Great live performance
3. Roaming sales people with baskets of CDs
4. Sellers hold up product DURING the show
5. Sellers blend in an interact with the show
The Rogues use CDBaby to sell their CDs. Why? See for yourself?
If you love to dwell life with plentifulness of excitement, you can happen plentifulness of thrills with games of opportunity on the internet. There are infinite online gambling land sites that are dying to acquire your gaming concern - this tin also be the perfect chance for you to do a small money on the side as well. Some of the most popular games on the cyberspace include classic stove poker games like Lone-Star State Holdem, as well as die games like craps, athletics betting, online roulette, and so much more. Instead of taking the clip to go to a topographic point like Las Vegas to carry through your gambling desires, why not convey the gambling casino to the comfortableness of your ain home!
Not only are these gambling games a loading of merriment to play online, but you also have got a just opportunity of profiting and life off your gaming earnings. While fortune have something to make with how much you will win, the better you are then naturally the more than you will win. This tin be especially true in games of accomplishment like stove poker and others. The nice thing about some free stove poker gambling casinos is that they will give you
bonuses on your initial deposits. Some gambling casinos will give you an other per centum based on how much you deposit, while others will actually fit your deposit. Some gaming casinos even go on to do this on your recurring deposists, to maintain you coming back for more.
Be careful when you are gambling online and make certain you are following the law - gambling online should be done with some attention and caution. Get familiar with the laws in your place state before you leap right into the games. Some states are hard-and-fast with their laws, while others are very lax. If you desire to prove your accomplishment without having to set down any cold difficult cash, seek your manus at free stove poker or other free gaming land sites on the internet. There are plenty of them online to take from, so just pick one, sign-up, and start having merriment today!
Labels: Gambling Sites
This weekend, we're flying to Hollywood. We are booked to execute at the Into the Occident Oscar Party, sponsored by New Line Cinema's Official Godhead of the Rings Fan Club. We are so psyched.
Unfortunately, I haven't done nearly as much promotion for the event as I would've liked. After five old age of promoting twenty-four hours and night, I'm kinda burned out. Fortunately, our fans aren't.
So when I got an electronic mail last hebdomad from Hagar "the Horrible" (he get dresseds as a Viking at Renaissance Festivals and kinda looks like the amusing strip character) saying he wanted my permission to electronic mail the television stations about our Oscar Party gig, I was like, "Hell, yeah! Why didn't I believe of that?"
I didn't believe anymore of it until a photographic camera crew showed up that evening. Jim Gustavus Franklin Swift from KXAN News 36's "Out On The Porch" section saw on our website that we were playing that very eventide and decided to interview us.
The interview went antic and ran this past Sunday. It also got me thinking. Why on this Earth makes Hagar continually travel out of his manner to assist us? What's in it for him?
There are many reasons. I trust to travel into many of them in future articles. But allow me state ye, it's not for any fiscal reward. We don't pay him a thing. Actually, he won't even accept money or free CDs. He makes it mainly for two reasons.
One, we've educated our fans to advance us. Two, and more than importantly, it lets him to "pay us back" for the joyousness we've given him.
Hagar isn't so atrocious actually. In fact, he's a batch like you and me. All we desire is acknowledgment for what we do. The greatest wages your fans really trust to have come ups from two emphatic and sincere words: "Thank you!".
I first started publication my set newssheet during the Summer of '98. I tried the snail mail route. It was exhausting. Electronic newssheets (aka ezines) were the manner to go.
I must've tried it all too. I promoted gigs, told of our up-to-the-minute accomplishments, gave away a free mp3 every month. Some of it worked. Some didn't.
Here are some tips I've learned about running my set newsletter:
Give away something for free. It can be as simple as an MP3 download at MP3.com. Or a sticker. A free cadmium once a month. Well worth the cost for their loyalty. And it can be a great promo tool to pull people into sign language up for your newsletter.
Hype your band. State your fans about all the set news. Who's reviewed your up-to-the-minute CD? Post rave testimonies by your fans. Post them on your website too. Be positive and allow them cognize you are the best!
In the two old age I've managed my fan newsletter, I've had tons of fans write, saying, "Wow! I'm glad you're doing so well." We weren't. And I didn't lie. But our many little successes sounded like large 1s to our fans. That is what ballyhoo is all about.
Keep it short. Write as if you were writing for a newspaper. Compose legal brief paragraphs about your greatness. Use newspaper headlines that do your fans desire to read it. Supply frequent golf course to your website where you can post articles or more than "further info".
Publish every 7-10 days. This depends on how much information you get. But as long as the content is short and informative, people won't mind. If you add a small drama, like how you're doing on MP3.com, and how they can help, you'll maintain the fans reading. But if you're not gigging much, and don't have got much news. Don't publish. Give your fans what they deserve, the best.
Don't acquire upset if people unsubscribe. It happens. If you lose half your list, see adjusting your publication schedule. But anticipate that some people can't cover with a newssheet every 7-10 days. Perhaps every two weekes is better. I was doing every two hebdomads until I realized how much more than effectual a 10 twenty-four hours agenda was for our fans. But less than two weeks, and you are no longer on the bow presence of your fans' minds.
Choose a great inspiring name. Something that have meaning and is fairly informative. Certainly you can can acquire by without one, but a good name could pull people just out of curiousity.
Make it visually appealing. Keep lines short--60-65 fictional characters followed by a difficult return. Rich Person a nice amount of space between sections. Add a table of table of contents at the beginning of the newsletter. Text newssheets work best, at present, but if you make up one's mind on an hypertext markup language ezine. Brand certain you prove it out extensively beforehand. Artwork demand to be attached to your message. But maintain it visually interesting on all accounts.
Content is King. You hear it all over the cyberspace selling circles. Brand certain the information you supply is utile and relevant. My greatest job is that my newssheet have endorsers worldwide and until we got hooked up on MP3.com, it was useless revealing our fans about gigs in Austin. So have got information that is interesting for EVERYONE!
Reward your fans. Give price reductions for their loyalty. Rich Person your cadmium on sale to newssheet subscribers.
Well a great public presentation and an synergistic gross sales crew is just the start to seling more than CDs at gigs. The Rogues also use other salespeople.
"Our Sellers work off of a commission, with bonuses built in when an individual's sales entire ranges a certain amount. Giving a salesperson a committee motivates them to sell more than merchandise than just giving them a level rate. We make have got minimal pay for a day's work when the gross sales are not good. In that lawsuit the set usually pays $50 day, or a 10% committee of the gross gross gross sales total, whichever is greater.
At the more than modern venues, such as as upland games and Celtic festivals, we have got establish that having a sales table is an extremely successful manner to increase sales, especially in combination with a roaming salesperson (when using both are appropriate). At public house gigs, we only have got a gross sales table. Having person wander in a tight space like a public house would be seen as too aggressive or invasive, which the Rogues make not promote their salespeople to be. Friendly competition between two or more than Sellers is good as long as there is a feeling of squad spirit. Our Sellers aid each other out when one necessitates alteration or more than than stock.
The bigger the crowds, the more gross sales people are needed. The sheer size of the crowd have a enormous impact on sales. When you acquire that many people standing or sitting that stopping point together and they are all excited about the music, it is like a rippling effect--once the gross gross sales start flowing, everyone looks to leap on the purchasing bandwagon.
At one peculiar show at the Old Line State Renaissance Festival, where the crowd was huge, our three Sellers were not able to maximise the full sales potential. A good indicant of my not being able to tap the gross sales possible that is when I am standing in one topographic point and have got not moved out of it the full show. Just as soon as I complete one sell, another individual come ups up to purchase a CD. I name that standing in a "sweet spot"--when people come up up to you already wanting to purchase a CD. My occupation then is to seek to calculate out, as
quickly as possible, what cadmium or CDs would best lawsuit what they are looking for. I always seek to point out the fact that they can tell more than CDs through the website or mail order, or listen to the music on MP3.com.
As a bandmember's wife, I am always trying to advance the band. I take concern cards from people who desire to engage the set for possible gigs and I direct them to my husband, Randy, who is the concern director for the band."
1. Honor gross sales people with commission
2. Set up gross sales table for venues
3. Promote friendly gross sales competition
4. More people to sell for bigger crowds, bask 'ripple effect'
5. Take concern cards to gigs and manus out at every opportunity.
The Rogues utilize CDBaby to sell their CDs. Why? See for yourself?
I remember when I first put the Brobdingnagian Bards on MP3.com and started to learn the ropes. I would listen daily to music there, but I never listened to bands that were higher in the charts than we were because I didn't want to boost their ratings any more than they already were.
I guess greedy. It totally dog-eat-dog. But it wasn't until I started to listen to my own advice that I started to make some changes and helping my fellow musicians. And it wasn't until I started to help you that our success took off.
Yeah, there are many reasons why we've done consistently well on the mp3.com charts, but one of the main ones is that I've been willing to scratch someone elses back with no expectation of a return. And while there's no expectation, there always is a return.
It's one of those great conundrums, I guess. I mean, how is it possible that when you help someone else You will benefit... Yet I'm amazed to see that it happens. And it happens all the time.
The more I am willing to give, the greater my return.
Just yesterday, I got an email from a Nagian (one of our fans) saying he loved our music and would do everything he could to promote us. Just ask.
But the only thing I can do is to humbly ask him to turn around and see if he needs his back scratched.
I read somewhere not too long ago that person was lamenting that people are putting out too many record albums without disbursement enough time promoting them. Well, I detest to state it, but my group, the Brobdingnagian Bards, is guilty of such as a crime.
You see, when I started The Bards a couple old age ago, I knew that sets needed a product. So we recorded our first album, Marked By Great Size, bought a cadmium burner, and started producing the CDs ourselves to sell at gigs.
Six calendar months later, we released our 2nd album, Gullible's Travels. By this time, we'd only had a few nice reviews of our first album, but we'd sold a couple hundred CDs after playing at numerous Renaissance Festivals. Now, our 2nd record record album was underway.
We recorded it, and got a humongous 1 review for the album. But with extended gigging we sold a couple hundred transcripts of this album.
Six calendar months later, we completed our 3rd album, Songs of the Muse. By this time, we starting to inquire if we were stretching ourselves too thin. Saint Andrew was duping all the CDs while I was getting them printed. And his burner wasn't quite fast adequate to maintain up with the demand for CDs. But it was about this time that we got started on mp3.com, and we got introduced to dam CDs, a much easier manner to bring forth CDs when you have got several, but can't afford to mass green goods any.
All of a sudden, the ground for our recording cadmium after cadmium made sense. We could acquire paid for people listening to our music, and the more than than music you have got the more money you made. Talk to Ernesto Cortazar and 303infinity if you disagree.
Now, we could tell cadmium one-offs from MP3.com, sell them at gigs for $10-15, and do a nice net income while our music climbed the charts. But did I advance "Songs of the Muse"?
Well, we started recording for our adjacent record albums (yes, plural) at the beginning of 2001. We've done some minor promotion of our album, and quite honestly, SOM is the best of our albums, and now our first mass-produced CD. So yes, we should make more than promotion for it, and we are. But no, we are still not disbursement all of our other income promoting this or another record album why? Why are we recording more albums.
Well first, Songs of the Muse was recorded to ran into a very specific market. It's an all instrumental album, and was designed to acquire us wedding ceremony gigs, which it makes quite nicely.
But the other ground we don't is because we are meeting our goals...making a living.
While some are after a record trade or becoming the adjacent dad star, we are on a journey. Yes, I'd wish to be a dad star. Sure, I wouldn't mind having a record deal. But our music is still evolving. We have got a long manner to travel before I experience we are ready for that record trade or super-stardom. The first measure is making a living.
That's what life the dreaming is all about. You have got to take attention of the rudiments first. In my case, it affects getting out of debt, edifice a regular income, edifice a following, and one twenty-four hours earning enough from the music to discontinue my twenty-four hours occupation so I can go a full-time musician. Bashes it count that our first few record albums may never be heard? No. It doesn't. Those first record albums will be Collector's Editions once we acquire there. ;)
Once those ends are met, then I can work on my dreamings of super-stardom. Yes, I am working on those stairway now. I'm not gonna happen a publicizer to advance us unless we are guaranteed a nice tax return on our money. But I will go on to acquire our music to local publications, slowly but surely. And one day, you're gonna read a message from me saying, "I am now living the dream!"
So you desire to play guitar? Guitar lessons, in some word form or another, are a necessity for anyone wanting to larn to play the guitar. Established players also trust on guitar lessons to get new accomplishments and move up to the adjacent level. Determination the right lesson, course, or merchandise sounds simple, but there are so many picks available that its A tough undertaking to calculate out whats best for your individual needs. These guidelines will assist you kind through your options and do a good decision.
Guitar Lessons- Private Teacher or Online?
The traditional manner of learning guitar is by taking private lessons from a guitar teacher. The pupil typically rans into with the teacher once a hebdomad for 30 proceedings at a cost of about $15-25 per week. This is certainly a great option, and perhaps the best manner to larn to play: under the personal counsel of a dedicated teacher. However, in many lawsuits private lessons are not a good option owed to the time, cost, and transportation system factors involved.
The good intelligence for guitar players is that there is a broad scope of options to private instruction. Guitar lesson and instructional books have got been a pillar for years. Technology developments then brought us lessons in the word form of videotapes and DVDs, as well as multimedia software system programmes to run on the PC.
Today, widespread entree to the cyberspace have caused a major revolution in guitar direction methods and availability. Now an copiousness (some mightiness state over-abundance!) of information on assorted guitar lesson picks is available in proceedings through your favourite hunt engine. The array of picks is staggering, ranging from free online guitar lessons, to high-end distance acquisition guitar direction leading to a certification from Berklee College of Music,
Aside from better visibleness into the options, there have got also been enormous advances in the engineering used to develop and present the instructional material. Interactive video lessons in which the pupil controls the pace of learning and the pacing of the stuff are a good illustration of this. Online guitar lessons and merchandises can be accessed immediately on the Web, either on-demand Oregon downloaded to the local PC. This gives great flexibleness on when and where to learn.
Guitar Lessons Options
Aside from private lessons, there are three basic formattings of guitar lessons and instructional material.
Books- If youre on a budget and like the thought of the portability of a book, this may be the manner to travel for you. Books often come up with a cadmium to supply audio tracks. Typical Cost: $15-25
Video-based lessons- Inch my experience, pure video-based lessons are a good icing on the cake to assist you learn, but not typically a good foundational guitar lesson program. They often deficiency supporting acquisition stuffs needed to be effectual for baseline learning.
Multimedia Online Lessons- The Web, plus advances in the engineering for creating acquisition stuff such as as video, have really opened the door to some great multimedia guitar lesson programs.. These tin be delivered and accessed on respective ways: downloaded for usage on your PC; accessed directly from your personal computer with a unrecorded web connection, or as a physical CD/DVD that you run on your PC.
Sorting through the many options can be made easier with information dedicated to this subject on assorted guitar websites, such as as this online guitar lessons guide.
Wrap-up
For those wanting to larn to play guitar, or to play better, there is no better time than now to take advantage to the available online guitar lesson and learning options. The kingdom of guitar direction is certainly one that have benefited from the Internet!
Look for the adjacent article in this series:
Guitar Lesson Tips: 10 Keys to Choosing the Right Guitar Lesson
=================================================================
Related articles on Ezinearticles.com:
"Basic Guitar Chords: "How to Easily Maestro the Guitar Chords You Must Know"
"Guitar Chord Diagrams: An Essential Tool for Learing to Play the Guitar"
Copyright 2005 Simon Peter Bussey of www.guitar-players-toolbox.com
This article can be reprinted freely online, as long as the full article and the resource box, with hyperlnks, are included.
Online football betting is all about the chances and the accomplishments of the bettor. When a better pulls off to construe statistics and odds, have the right accomplishments as a football fan and pays attending to all the different events inside the NFL football world, online football betting goes not only a hobby, but a existent economical income. And who doesnt wishes to win money by just clicking a button in a website or making a call? Well, if you like hazards and patience, you can win a batch of money in online football betting.
As I advert before, statistics and online football betting likelihood are of import factors. These athletics wagering likelihood are represented in many ways in online football betting. point spreading and money lines are the most of import likelihood that stand for the chance of the result of the game. These likelihood are placed in such as a manner that balances the amount of people that volition stake on either 1 squad or another, so the sportsbook always have profits.
Picks are a cardinal portion of online football betting since they assist betters to take the best determination possible. Getting choices from whatever beginning possible is a good strategy. You can seek the web for free picks, inquire your friends for sentiment or even pay for specialised sites that offering choices from specialists. You must take any choice in consideration based on the dependability of the source, but seek not to disharge any pick, since sentiment is a substance of perspective, and when you have got a wider perspective, you tin do a better decision.
Online football betting is all about the cognition you collect, about the valuable information that can aid you do the right stake at the right time. As some say, it is accomplishment and experience that assists you on the long run and this tin be achieved only by betting, wining or loosing, you will finally larn something with every stake that you make.
Take a interruption on your work and start searching for online football betting odds to start learning about the different betting likelihood and their purpose. Lookout for free choices so you acquire a basic apprehension of how they work and how is it they acquire to that conclusion, and of course attempt making a stake so you acquire the feel of online football betting.
It's Sunday Morning, you've just bought the newspaper, and you're checking the Lottery Numbers before you read the cartoons, which you always read before the sport.
There the Lottery Numbers are and the Lottery Jackpot is $54,000,000, AND there is only ONE Winner.
Then you stop. You can't believe you eyes. You look again, then you begin to shake. You take out your billfold and happen the lottery ticket you bought yesterday. You check up on the Numbers on the ticket to do sure. That's compensate you used your female parents birthdate and you fathers birthdate just as you always do.
Shaking even harder you step back to the counter of the convenience shop and manus the ticket to the clerk behind the counter, "Check this ticket please" You can hardly state the words without stammering like an idiot.
The clerk inserts the ticket into the machine and waits for the silver screen to bespeak your winnings. The clerk turns back and custody you the ticket, "You'll have got to reach the Lottery Board, it must be a large one!" You can't halt shaking and you go forth the shop immediately, got to acquire place and interruption the good news!
About now is when the problem starts.
If you are like a batch of other lottery victors you will state the human race about your profits and the vultures will begin to descend before you can state "I've Won the Lottery!"
Before you acquire home, before you contact the Lottery Board:
1. Close Your Mouth
2. Fill in Your Details on the Ticket, if you haven't already done so.
When you acquire home:
1. Keep you Mouth Shut
2. Put that lottery ticket in a safe place
3. Contact a lawyer and a fiscal advisor you trust.
4. Then telephone the concern office and state them you necessitate a few years off to screen out some personal business.
5. Ignore the enticement to state the foreman or anyone else what an buttocks he is, it is a waste material of emotional energy that tin better be directed to planning your future.
Before you counsel the Lottery Board that you are the Lucky Lottery Winner sit down down with your lawyer and fiscal advisor and work out a program of how you are going to do your life comfy and unafraid rather than a roller coaster drive of luxury and possible hereafter bankruptcy. It is an unfortunate world that too many lottery victors win in cachexia all their profits in a very short space of clip and often stop up in debt, on societal security, divorced and having ruined their household relationships.
A good fiscal advisor will indicate out the difference between investment for future growing and fiscal security and disbursement on extravagance that in the long term cannot be sustained. That house with the sea position and 16 on lawsuit sleeping rooms is an luxury that volition shed blood you in insurance, maintenance, decorating and many other ways. That limousine will be in insurance, maintenace and day-to-day running play costs.
A sound, diversified investing alkali however will prolong you and your children for the remainder of your life in more than comfortableness than you previously had, albeit not in epicurean style.Set up trusts for yourself and your partner and children. Secure your hereafter first!
What would you prefer, a roller coaster drive from richness to societal security or a composure life of comfort, security and fiscal independance.
Far too many people have got gone the roller coaster route.
Best of fortune with your adjacent lottery ticket! May your Numbers be the right ones!
Labels: lottery, lottery numbers, lottery result, lottery winning numbers
Why make you care about stringing your guitar you may ask. Well the ground is simple. It will do you sound better
because if your guitar is properly strung, you will acquire longer
natural sustain.
This is something that no fx bicycle can reproduce,
clean natural sustain. Of course after you have got this
prolong you can play with it all you desire with your
fx pedals.
Many guitar player make the same error when stringing a
guitar, they don't wind adequate of the twine onto the
tuning nail down or they wind too much.
Why is this seemingly simple thing so important? Because the greater the angle between
the nut (the top portion of the guitar) and the tuning peg,
the better the sustaining qualities of the string. Simply
put, it do you sound better. And your twines will not
travel out of melody as fast. Of course you can always wind too
much as well, and then the twines will be given to steal out
of melody easier. You desire to have got just the right amount.
Here is how to thread your guitar.
Step 1 - Take all the twines out of the bundle and put
them out from the thickest to the thinnest. When you travel
to purchase strings, always seek and acquire the same gauge, as
changing the gage could intend jobs with intonation,
and may necessitate truss perch adjustments.
Step 2 - Bend the tuning nail down until the hole is in line
with the neck.
Step 3 - Starting with the thickest twine - The low "e",
yarn the twine through the span (bottom portion of
the guitar). Each guitar have different ways to make this,
but it is usually very easy to see where the twines go.
Step 4 - Next yarn the twine through the hole in the
tuning nail down until it is tight. Now back the twine up
about 3 ins so that it loosens.
Step 5 - Catch the loose portion of the twine with one
manus and with the other start turning the tuning peg. As you turn the peg, hold the twine tightly away from
the guitar to see that it wrap ups tightly, with no slack. This volition halt the twine from going out of melody as you're
playing. When the twine is getting tight against the
fretboard, You can allow travel and go on to slowly turn
the nail down a small spot more and then top.
Step 6 - Brand certain as you turn the nail down that the twine
is winding downward, and don't allow it toss over itself. Your end is tog et about 2 1/2 to 3 full winds on
each string.
Step 7 - Repeat the procedure with all other strings, but
lessening the amount of slump a small spot each time.
All the best,
Tom Freeland
PlayGuitar.com
Phil Gordon is a professional stove poker player. He was born on July 6, 1970 at Elevation Paso in Texas. Phil completed his college at age 20 with a grade in computing machine science. Thereafter, he worked for short time periods at Lockheed and Santa Cruz Operation before joining nascent Netsys Technologies as their first hired employee.
Cisco Systems took over Netsys Technologies in 1996 and Phil received billions in stock and cash. Phil retired in 1997 and went on a human race circuit for five years.
Phil Gordon returned to the United States in 2001, right in clip for The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. He finished 4th winning $400,000. The adjacent year, he made to the finals of two WSOP tabular arrays finishing 3rd in the $2,500 Maha Hi/Lo Split event and 6th in the $2,000 Pot Limit hold'em event. Later, he was 3rd in the $1,500 No Limit Lone-Star State hold'em Gunfight event in 2005. Although Phil have reached many concluding tabular arrays at WSOP, he is yet to win a WSOP bracelet.
Phil beat out Roland Delaware Tom Wolfe at the Full Joust Poker Championship at Red Rock in 2006 winning $600,000. Gordon's sum unrecorded tourney profits are more than than $1,600,000 as of 2007.
Phil Gordon studies for a day-to-day national radiocommunication audience and provided commentary for WSOP Championship Event for Binion's unrecorded Internet broadcast in 2003. Phil Gordon is an complete writer too. He have three stove poker books to his credit: Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Hold'em, Poker: The Real Deal, and Phil Gordon's Little Blue Book: More Lessons and Hand Analysis in No Limit Hold'em. Expert Insight: Final Table Poker is one of his award-winning instructional DVDs.
Besides being an expert first-class stove poker player, analyst, and co-host for Celebrity Poker Showdown, Phil is an devouring athletics fan, escapade traveler, and an complete bourgeois too. Phil presently dwells at Las Vegas in Nevada. Phil learned the game of stove poker from his aunt, who later died of cancer. Phil presently is now into active fund-raising arsenic a Board Member of Cancer Research and Prevention Organization.
Labels: Full Tilt, Phil Gordon, poker, Poker Player, texas holdem, Tiltboys, WPT, WSOP
So, you believe youd like to larn to play guitar, but youre set off by the high cost of lessons? You dont desire to set up with a instructor showing you a clump of theory and deadening songs that you dont desire to larn and wont acquire you where you desire to go? Look no further, online direction is now available that supplies comprehensive novice guitar lessons to anyone who desires to larn to play guitar quickly and easily.
Do Iodine demand to read music? No! Most online programmes utilize a very ocular approach, using image diagrams and videos that actively show techniques so you hear what you necessitate to play, not read it. The advantage to this is that you larn directly how to play, without having to take the time to interpret everything through a book thats full of complicated theory and diagrams. You can take novice guitar lessons online that volition show you how to play everything you want, without ever opening a book.
Many mulct instructional programmes are available on the nett -we 're talking about this on our site. These instructional programmes will take you through your first novice guitar lessons and have got you playing songs right away. Many of these programmes are designed to be fully completed in 30 days, not the old age it may take to get the hang the guitar the traditional way.
Dont believe that online guitar direction is just for the novice, though, because many of the available lessons will learn you, not only the basics, but many advanced techniques as well. These are specially designed to take anyone, from the novice to advanced student, where they desire to go.
So catch hold of this amazing chance and start playing the guitar now!
George Karl is tired of hearing from critics how the Mile-High City Nuggets' militia are not producing results. In the first two of the first unit of ammunition series of the playoffs against San Antonio, the Nuggets militia have got just scored 13 points.
However, Karl is not at disquieted about the reserves. He is, in fact, trying to make more than proceedings for Joule Roentgen Smith, the 3 point specialist. But, each clip Ian Ian Smith stairway into the game, the Spurs acquire to work on him, especially Manu Ginobili.
Smith have not been able to lend because of his mediocre defense. He is 0 for 5 on 3 arrows in the station season after having a calling high 149 in the regular season. Ian Ian Smith cognizes that he is not playing well in any country of the game and he believes that he begins playing more than defense, it should change the tide in his favor.
Unfortunately for Smith, each clip he subs, Gregg Popovich, San Antonio coach, directs his discourtesy to work on him.
In the regular season, the Nuggets averaged 28.7 points a game off the bench. Ian Smith is confident that Linas Kleiza, Eduardo Najera and he can supply the needed flicker in the series. The three are the lone participants in the Nuggets to bomber in off the bench in the first two games of the series. So far in the postseason, the three have got a concerted 4 for 21 from the field. In direct contrast the Spurs' bench have contributed 66 points in the two games so far.
With the series now shifting to Denver, the Nuggets will be a small tentative. They have got struggled this season at the Pepsi Cola Center. In the regular season, they went 23-18 which is the 7th worst place record in the history of the team.
The Nuggets not only have got to content with playing at place but also trying to acquire more than discourtesy out of the bench, which many think is their greatest challenge.
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How many chords do you need to create a piece of music? Would you believe that it doesn't really matter and that whole pieces of music have been created using just one chord? For example, if you play a D minor 7 chord, you could use the bass note D to create a drone effect and anchor the whole improvisation. It could last for a few seconds or many minutes.
The important thing is were you in the moment when you created it? If you were, then it will be a good piece of music. If you weren't it will be notes in the air without communication. What communicates is your feeling. It's your feeling that gets across through the notes. The notes themselves are meaningless if you are not present behind them.
I usually do not use more chords than 4 or 5 when creating. I use the chords of a certain Key, for example A major and stay within that key until the piece is done. I may change to a different key, but I will always begin with the intention of staying within one, always keeping the possibility open for change. Remember the power of limits, especially in music.
When you have too many choices it can be overwhelming and will stop you from being able to go forward. That's why learning to play in 4 and 8-bar phrases is important. It gives you the limit of chord changes. New age music is mostly a static music meaning that the chords do not change too much. In fact, you can have the same chord going on for 8, 16 and even 24 bars or more. The amount of change is dictated by personal taste and that you will acquire after you freely experiment with the music.
Remember that attitude is the number one thing. You must allow the music to tell you where it wants to go or you will most likely freeze up and stop the forward momentum. That's why I always tell students the principles for creativity must come first. Without that you are really starting on shaky ground.
So, don't worry about how many chords to insert in your music. For a good example of chord changes, look at my book "New Age Piano Made Easy." It's filled with 84 exercises completely comprised of different chord changes in all 12 keys.
Why is it so difficult for many guitar players to read sheet music on the guitar?
Probably the reply is easy. They haven't done anything about it. An old used Sur can stand up leaned against the wall of a auto garage for thousands of years. Why? Cipher have thought about moving it. Could it be that easy also with playing guitar sheet music? I believe so. Sometimes we see ourselves mediocre sight readers or not able to read guitar sheet music at all and we believe this is portion of our personality. Every individual who desires to larn to read guitar sheet music notational system properly have got already taken the first measure towards changing that condition, just like you have done by reading this article.
Climbing the "Reading Guitar Sheet Music" mountain starts with measure one
Surprised? Well, I have got got been instruction guitar playing for many old age and I have establish that learning to play guitar is like many other activities. People, not you of course, often desire to start from another place than from where they are. I would wish to propose that we near the sight reading duty assignment from two directions. First by learning to happen our manner around the guitar and learning the short letters on the fingerboard.
Make a twine campaign on your guitar
With the conventional tuning on your guitar you will have got the short letter Vitamin E on the first unfastened string. I think you are aware of the fact that you can happen the same short letter on the 2nd twine too. If you dont cognize on what fuss you will happen it you can listen your manner through the fusses on the 2nd twine until youll happen the short letter that sounds the same as the first string. Now I will be blunt and state you that Vitamin E on the 2nd twine is on the 5th fret. Maybe you have got already establish that out. Vitamin E on the 3rd twine is on the 9th fret. Practice to play Vitamin E on these different places and leap back and forth until you can happen the fusses without effort.
How to continue learning the guitar fretboard
In a similar manner you can contrive little exercisings on you guitar fretboard like playing all Es on all six twines until you can play them with easiness or determination all Cs and play them consecutively like a picking exercising or as an exercising for your right manus fingers.
Knowing the short letters on the guitar fingerpost will be a great aid for you, not only when playing guitar sheet music but also when you are playing by ear or improvising a guitar solo.
When British Shilling Hope moved into television, he lost the chance to hold his book in his manus , something he had gotten used to working in radio. The presentation would look too stiff to his audience. He tried to memorise his monologues, but that proven to be too cumbrous of a undertaking and it took away from his golf game game. The solution was cue cards, or imbecile cards as they are known in the industry. This worked well for the performer, but was risky for others. On one of Hope's early NBC broadcasts a well meaning helper manager held up the cards so his star could read them, then tossed them back over his shoulder almost decapitating respective members of the studio audience.
Idiot cards are a manner for performing artists to lose the regard of their co-stars. Jesse James Caan, Henry Martin Robert Duvall and the remainder of the cast of characters of the 1972 classic, The Godfather , were thrilled to ran into the star of the film Marlon Brando. Actor Lenny Montana, who played the thuggish fictional character Luca Brasi was so in awe of Brando he kept fumbling his lines when they both shared the same scenes. Director Francis John Ford Francis Ford Coppola made it work by having the fictional character of Luca nervously rehearse what he was going to state anterior to meeting the Don, making the state of affairs look seamless. But if Treasure State was willing, if not able to larn his lines, Brando was not. In his scenes there were cue cards everywhere, causing Duvall to cry at him," Marlon, why don't you larn your lines you fat #*^%*@!"
Brando stubbornly refused to change. A twelvemonth later when performing in the controversial and sexual activity charged Last Tango In City Of Light he wrote some of his lines on the underside of his shoe and in a few scenes had to hop around awkwardly to read them.
For some actors, imbecile cards are the ultimate security blanket. Shortly before he died the great Toilet John Barrymore had a scene where he only had to present one line: "Yes". Dutifully, his personal helper stood ready to hold up a cue card. One of the movie technical schools informed the manager that Barrymore's assistant was standing in the way, they would not be able to illume the scene properly. The manager waited for his star to arrive. "Jack, Can I speak to you?" "Certainly." "Would it be possible for you make this 1 scene without your imbecile card?" "Absolutely Not". The manager sighed," Jack you only have got to state yes, that's it. What haps if I order your friend to leave?" John Barrymore looked at him coldly. "I might state no." Inch the end new lighting agreements were made.
One quandary that the super celebrated face is balancing the demands of privateness and recognition. One time in New House Of York an unnoticed Marilyn Marilyn Monroe was walking down James Madison Avenue accompanied by Eli Wallach. " My God, don't these people cognize who you are?" Wallach asked her. Marilyn, whose application of make-up took nearly as long Boris Karloff''s Frankenstein Monster, grinned at him. "I'm only recognized when I desire to be. Watch this." She began to swing her hips and walk in a manner that was familiar to film departers and was eventually mobbed by adoring fans.
For some stars privateness is an overrated commodity. In 1919, Douglas Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Virgin Mary Mary Pickford went on their European honeymoon. The two international icons had divorced their former partners and were concerned about how they would be greeted. They needn't have got worried. In Greater London their limousine was surrounded by admiring women who pulled Virgin Mary out of the auto to agitate her hand, still thankful after two twelvemonth for her attempts selling warfare bonds. In City Of Light they couldn't acquire any slumber with crowds assemblage below their hotel room to divertimento them. In Dutch Capital they attended a party and were mobbed by other invitees who wanted to acquire close to them. The acrobatic Douglas Fairbanks Jr. placed his married woman on her shoulder and escaped through the window. Finally, they establish privateness in Hamburg, because of World War Iodine their movies were not shown there. For an hr the celebrated honeymooners walked the streets unnoticed until the world-weary Virgin Mary turned to her hubby and said,"Doug I'm vomit of this. Let's spell back to one of those states were they rabble us."
Joan Thomas Crawford had similar sentiments. Once in the 1930s she was staying in New House Of York getting over her dissolution with William Clark Gable. Tired of moping around her hotel she told her entourage they should travel out and acquire some fresh air. The toadies who had problem keeping up with the star's lively pace, were startled when she took a detour. "Oh my God. She's going into Grand Central Station!" Person shouted," Look it's Joan Crawford!" and she was mobbed, it took thirty proceedings to acquire away the crowd and get back to their hotel suite. Her hair disheveled, her get dressed torn and her face scratched, Thomas Crawford leaned against the door out of breath. "Oh. .oh my. That was wonderful. Lets make it again!"
Notoriety can acquire you out of a jam. Tired of being identified as Jesse James Bond, Sean Connery took an unusual measure for Hollywood prima adult male by publicly telling his phalacrosis on screen, beginning with The Man Who Will Be King (1976). On location in Casablanca, the Scotchman rejected the usage of a chauffer and limo, choosing instead to drive himself in Volkswagen Bug. One twenty-four hours he drove around town dressed in a perspiration shirt and short pants and was stopped for questioning by the local police. The former Mr. Universe runner-up had unfortunately left his passport back at the hotel and was arrested as a leery character. Just as he was about to be locked up, Connery shouted,"007! I'm 007 darn you!" They recognized him and allow him go.
If you lose your hair, you can maintain your privacy. Rob Reiner's large interruption was Rex Harrison John John Ford turning down the function of Meathead on All In the Family (1971-1980) because Ford couldn't stand up Archie Bunker's bigotry. When the show first went into production, Reiner and his chap castmates would go forth the CBS batch to eat luncheon at the neighbour Farmers Market. Initial low ratings meant they were mostly ignored by the tourists. A few calendar months later All In the Family was a monster hit and they received Beatle's similar attention. From then on the cast of characters generally preferable to remain in their dressing suite at lunchtime. All except the ever hungry Meathead who removed the toupee he wore on the show and continued to eat at the Market in peace.
Being a famous person intends dealing with fan demands for autographs, ranging from polite and appropriate to ill-mannered and overbearing. One time Katherine Katharine Hepburn was performing on Great White Way and tried to go out backstage through a crowd of jostling autograph hounds. Bodyguards helped her to her limousine and once safely inside the very private star rolled down the window and shouted," Run mutton down! We'll make clean up the blood later!" The crowd scattered and the limousine sped away, pausing long adequate for Katharine Hepburn to revolve down the window and moving ridge adieu to her fans, accompanied by an wicked laugh. Strangely enough, when she lived in Beverly Hills the privacy loving Katharine Hepburn developed the wont of sneaking into her neighbor's houses as a hobby. She became expert at climbing trees, avoiding dismays and dogs, and telling herself just before her nervous neighbours called the police.
Walt Walt Disney had the unusual experience in the 1930s of having his name celebrated around the world when his face was not. Often he would bury his designation and that concerted with his insouciant garb sometimes kept him out of fancy restaurants. Later in the 50's he became a recognized figure because of his telecasting hosting duties. The deficiency of namelessness made it increasingly hard for him to walk through Disneyland without being badgered for autographs. Walt Disney struggled not to be brusque while explaining he didn't have got time, he was trying to do the parkland a better place. In the 60's when the company was trying to buy Sunshine State fen for a 2nd amusement park, he was warned by his advisers to remain away from the state, the existent estate terms would travel up once the personal identity of the purchaser was known. But Walt Disney couldn't resist. Eating in a Orlando diner Walt was approached by a funny waitress,"Pardon me. Aren't you Walt Disney?" Walt who was known for being brutally honest, replied," Perdition no! And if I see that sob, I'll give him a piece of my mind."
Stars making movies at Universal Joint Studios often seek to avoid tour guides leading autograph hounds. One peculiar chap became imaginative at tracking down Michael Caine, who toyed with the thought of having the immature adult male fired, then decided, "What the hell, I'll just sign" and was gracious. It turned out to be a good move, the tour guide was Microphone Ovitz who later became the most powerful endowment agent in Hollywood.
When stardom is new, autograph sign language can be a thrill. One nighttime in City Of Light the 60 twelvemonth old Cary Grant and 25 twelvemonth old Sophia Sophia Loren wished to travel out to dinner. "But the people will come up up to us. I can't stand up it!" said the jaded Briton. "I love it," said Sophia. When they left their hotel Grant complete with his chapeau pulled down,dark glasses, his scarf wrapped around his face, and his immense greatcoat looked like the Invisible Man. Sophia looked like Sophia. As they walked the streets of City Of Light people began to come up up to her for autographs which she joyfully signed. After a few fan brushes Grant began to acquire jealous. Down came the hat, off came the glasses, the coat and the scarf and soon he was standing under Ne visible lights to acquire noticed.
Another English histrion named Grant was thrilled by his jailbreak stardom owed to the film Four Weddings And A Funeral (1994). Hugh Grant would drive around New House Of York looking for theatres where the movie was playing then acquire out and wait in line, happy for the attending and to subscribe autographs. Later when he was arrested in Los Angeles for hiring cocotte Godhead Brown, he turned down petitions to set his signature on yellow journalisms containing his mugful shot.
Some histrions just subscribe despite their annoyance. One time Matthew Arnold Schwarzenegger was being interviewed at a fourth estate junket when a newsman asked him for an autograph for his mother, a large no-no. The star grimaced and said,"Of course. I wouldn't desire to let down your mother." He paused then added," I'm sure you have got disappointed her adequate already."
Autographs can do internal struggles for stars who take themselves too seriously. During the making of Klute (1971) Donald Joan Sutherland received a written petition from a fan who wished for an autograph for his daughter. Joan Sutherland showed the missive to his humorless girlfriend Jane Jane Fonda who expressed a strong sentiment that he should not subscribe it, autographs connote that film histrions are somehow superior to others. Joan Sutherland bowed to her doctrine and wrote a missive stating his grounds for refusing the request. The adult male wrote him back,"Dear Mr. Sutherland, give thanks you for your letter. We believe you are full of it but we ripped off the signature and gave it to our daughter."
Drug dealer. Such a profound term. One who deals in drugs. Not only the selling, but often the trading, using, and producing. It's not just some homeless guy on the side of the road trying to sell crack for some drug lord, just so he can have a place to sleep. Nowadays, it's some 17 year old punk, carrying a book of acid and a pound of weed, all wrapped up in tin foil and plastic, and at home, his bathtub is full of sugar, water, 50 mashed organges, and 10 packets of yeast. Ask him about it and he'll say, "Technically, it's still alive when I drink it, but I just pour more water in there when it starts to run low, and it's like a Jesus: turning water to wine, just on a slower and less tasteful method." He'll have a repetoir of legal and illegal highs, ways to dodge prosecution or arrest when police inquire. "What? You found a meth pipe? Oh, my god... Are you serious? That's what he was doing. Oh, man. My friend was with my bag. That fuckhead must have put it there." Five hours detainment while your body is dehydrating from the speed, and then you're a free man. Everyday was walking on a tightrope of the law. In a pill or a bag, I am holding a piece of heaven that lasts 8 hours. One day, I make $170, the second day, I hop two fences after making a $20. We're living on the fringes of poverty in the ghetto, struggling to make a living. I guess I provide a rather important industry. I help people forget they are here.
It is not uncommon. One day, I am facing someone who gives me their last $25. Maybe they intended for it, but their next four hours were their last. And as much as I felt that I was a slave to this system, I felt free, too. Free of starvation, free of bruttish conditions. Yes, I have been shot at by cops and other dealers. One time, four kids tried to jump me for my shit. I had to stab one to get them to realize that I wasn't a push over. As dangerous as it was, I had a life. I had a living. I could survive in this horrible place, wracked with misery as much as it was. And, honestly, I called it a home. There is something prophetically human about this profession. A friend of mine was on a bad acid trip. He kept shaking. I let him stay in my room. He kept talking about police, not making much sense. I gave him a blanket and put on soothing music. Next morning, I found out thath someone tried to burn down a department store, what cops called, "seemingly from a drug user." I remember holding his shaking hand, kneeling down to him. "It's gonna be okay," I said, "Don't worry about it, you're safe here." He sort of calmed down and I let him stay. I suppose I also harbored a criminal, but that never bothered me. I have my own definition of legal and illegal.
The kids or old wash up junkies I sell to, they are hardly stereotypical. I have seen couples come to me, and say that they want ecstacy, something to increase their love for each other and experience it through new channels. They were young and poor, but they still had more than many others. I've had junkies come up to me for a fix of meth so they could be up for a fourth day. Burnt out, shaking, destroyed body, otherwise dysfunctional brain, and worst of all, coming down and in tears, "Please, please, just give me some tweak..." Begging with their last dolars. I sold to him of course. He had cash. And, as much as I would love to be able to give it away for free, I need to survive myself. Twelve year old street urchins come up to me and ask to buy LSD, handicapped men on Social Security ask me for Codeine. Artists and Musicians flock to buy absinthe, and they finish off a bottle and stay up to 6 AM talking on a city bench, flesh turned to fucking ice, drinking a cup of coffee that has been empty for the past forty five minutes.
I suppose by now, it is obvious to tell that I have a particularly keen observation of my environment. Unlike other deals, I don't spend my profit on a new pimping car or a mansion -- and the only dealers who could get that are coke lords and heroin merchants. The rest are on the fringes of poverty. One of my hobbies, I can confess that I love the beauty of the human face. It may seem like a fickle or otherwise shallow enjoyment. I look to the face of a girl walking down the street, see a smile, and as I feel my entrepenurial spirit crushed, I find something beautiful and unique. Some homeless child struggles for warmth on a city bench, his face with a stone-cold expression, as he pulls a hood over his face, with little eyes peering at me. In some other life, my current one completely forgotten, I imagine I would be an artist. I am not one now, but I remember during my last year of school my art class (apparently 8th grade). One student was exceptional, and the teacher allowed him to do as he pleased. He used flint, charcoal, a variety of inks and paints. On those solemn nights as I try to fall victim to sleep's claws, I fantasize using the complex tools of art to capture the smile or anger of a person. But, just a dream, nothing I've told to anyone.
Asside from this one hobby of mine, I can admit that I enjoy poetry. The resurrection as faded love through columns of words, I can feel more free than I have ever before. Perhaps itis the human instinct to seek out what we do not have. In poetry, nothing is written of the tringiness of the ghetto, the life and death horrors that every man in poverty must face. Yes, poems about it are written, but not those prior to 1800. For the same reason I find necessity in trying to escape the hardened life of a drug dealer, I can see a yuppy reading "Treasure Island" or some other adventure-based novel. For myself, it is Thoreau, Tennyson, Shelley, Rousseau, Emerson -- anyone who put on paper some thoughts that were original, creative, honest. Unlike my hope fo being an artist, this hobby of poetry was shared and expressed with contemporaries. They seemed to regard it not with animosity, particularly curiosity, uncomfortability, or any other xenophobic thought, but they just considered it as another part of who I was. I suppose that it was the tolerance all of us must have for each other, under such horrible living and working conditions. So, what a man does in his own home, is his own to consider.
In this line of life, I get a variety of awkward requests. For certain chemicals, people request that it's not in getabs, but just in powder. Some people want it dissolved in alcohol. PCP on Marijuana, freebased cocaine (crack), freebased AMT, DMT,or DiPT. Or perhaps an intensified powder that will give potent effects by just being in the same room as it. There would be one day where I receive a very awkward request.
"I want you to make me die," she said.
I've heard this before, but only from friends and colleagues who were witty. "Give me 20 hits of meth, and take a month off my life." But, no, this girl knew who I was, because she knew my customers, and she wanted help in suicide.
"I don't know," I said. I've been in fights before with people for trying to sell heroin in the wrong areas. Helping someone die might be just as bad.
"Please," she said, "I know people who told me you could help."
"Look," I said, "If you have a problem with your parents, just try to settle it with them. If it's your boyfriend, get a new one. I'm not interested in murdering anyone." I let her know straight out that I didn't want to partake in this and I wasn't being open-minded about it at all.
"Listen," I need a drug to kill me and I need some place to take it," she said.
"You want to take it in my apartment?" I asked, "Sure, like I don't get enough attention by the cops. Now I'll have a corpse on my floor."
"I have $600," she said.
"It might be possible," I said, as I scratched my chin.
We walked back to my room. "Put the money on the table," I said, "I have to make a phone call." She did as I asked.
"Hey, Johnny," I said on the phone, "What's up, man? Hey, you think you can help me move a body? Yeah, I know the normal fee. Sure, sure, come later tonight. Peace, brother."
"Can I ask why you're doing this?" I said, as I picked up the money.
"Several parts of my life are a mess," she said, "Bad parents, bad boyfriend," she grinned at me with some wit.
"Hey," I said, "Don't get cute on me. After all, I do have to kill you." She nodded with a smile and I started counting the cash. "So, really, why are you doing this?"
"The reasons are my own and my own to --"
"Hey, there's only $450 here," I saidd, looking up, "Where's the other $150?"
"That's all I have," she said, "It's everything."
I had to make a decision. Help her die or let her go with her cash. As a drug dealer, it decently pisses me off that someone says they have cash for something but end up not having it, or having half. Sometimes they offer the argument that they'll get me back, but that's bullshit. They're addicted to a substance they can get from anyone. The next five dollars to hit their palm will go to another dealer, not to pay debts. Unlike these people, this girl couldn't do that. She was not going to be around next week.
"Well, fine," I said, "I suppose we can still do this... Sit on the bed." I sat down at my desk and pulled a coffee filter out of the trash can, and opened it on my desk. It was ful lof a wet, green powder.
"What's that?" she asked, trying to look over my shoulder.
"It's a toxin byproduct that comes from making high grade methamphetamine," I said, as I started to fill the gelcaps with it, "It's not painful, unlike most toxins, but it is by far more lethal." I started to fill some with basil, which helps stomach digestion.
"Are these band lyrics?" she asked, referring to the paper on the wall.
I turned around, "Those? No... They're nineteenth century poems." I went back to filling pills.
"They're beautiful," she said, "I enjoyed this one about love at first sight."
"Yeah, it mocked the concept of it and then talked about loving someone after knowing them," I replied.
"Yeah," she said, "I get it. I was curious as to what kind of band would sing a song like that."
"That's the thing," I said, "None would. Or at least, almost none."
"And what's this?" she asked.
"That?" I said turning around, "It's a painting of a face, using only red and black paint. I paid two hits of acid for it. I would have paid more, because it's just so beautiful."
"Mmmmm," she replied, "It is nice." With her affection toward the painting, she had thrown a smile in my direction. I could see that she was rational and logical in her decision of suicide. She wasn't in tears. She wasn't broken in pieces. She was very much together, or very effective in subtly convincing me of this.
I walked over to the bed and handed her four pills. "I'll get you a glass of water, I said, "Mostly, I tell my customers not to take it all at ancoe, but that is pricesly what I am telling you now." She swallowed the pills, two at a time, with the aid of water.
"What's your name?" I asked her.
"Julia," she said, "But most people call me Julee."
"Well," I said, "My name is Caley." I had to tell her, because I felt like she wouldn't ask.
"It'll only be 30 to 60 minutes, before you're gone," I told her.
"Why did you get into this business?" she asked.
"Well," I said, "It's easier cash, it requires little work, I am always well stocked in my favorite commodities, and I'm not on the brink of poverty. Why?"
"I guess I always just wanted to know," she replied.
"So, how was your day?" I asked, a bit uncomfortable with the overall situation.
"It's getting better," she replied, "And your own?"
"Oh, it's doing all right, "I said, "Making money..."
A slow silence befell the room for thirty seconds as we exchanged glances occasionally, myself somewhat uncomfortable still, she somewhat uneasy, I imagine. A car outside blowing Mexican rap music goes by with a bad engine. Cluttered feet trample by with a mix of foreign languages. Her eyes look down and then are brought up to mine. As little as I know about her, I feel sure enough that she spoke with more subtle ocnfidence that second than aty any other moment of her life. "I've led a good life."
"Then why end it this way?" I asked, as the curosity of the homo sapien nature urked my spirit.
She shrugged.
"That doesn't seem like you're confident in your reasons," I said.
"No, it's not that," she replied, almost in a faded tone, as though the poisons had sapped away her soul before it took her body, "It's just that I don't want to, or need to, talk abou tit... I assure you it exists, but I'm not bringing it into this room."
"Understood," I said... "How was your life?"
"I told you, good," she said, "I have this friend, Celine. She was always so nice to me and admired the things I did. She could be a friend on mutual terms, too. She loved me so much."
"I'm sure she still does then," I replied, "Why use the past tense?" She didn't answer.
"I'm leaving behind a son," she replied finally.
"Oh?" I said, surprised, as my eyes widened.
"He'll never know, though," she said.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
She caressed her hand over her stomach.
"You mean... you're pregnant?" I asked.
"Yeah," she said, "But only three weeks."
"Is that the reason?" I asked.
"No, she said, "I told you, I wouldn't let the reason enter this room."
"Okay," I said. I tried to reach for something to say, some way to comfort her. "Would you like to hear a poem?" I asked.
"Sure," she said. I brought out perhaps my most moving and emotion poem I have from the 1800's. It subtly touched upon the points of happiness and sadness. It subtly touched upon the points of happiness and sadness. Every few months, my most favored passage will change. Maybe just its another poem, another stanza, or another author altogether. Here I read to her the pick of the season.
"That was very nice," she said, throwing at me a smile with closed, relaxed eyes, as one hand of hers rubber her forearm ently, turning her face away. Maybe it was a crime, an indictment against me, my character. In only two examples have I ever shared the poems of my heart with others. I none case, my friend was going in to the military, and would serve 2 years over seas. We hugged, thinking we may never see each other again. In that case, I didn't even read him a poem. I slipped a piece of paper in to his pocket with a beautiful poem written on it. And now, with Julia, I have read her a poem. If I thought she would be alive in two hours, I wouldn't have gone that far.
"Can you hold me?" she asked.
I stood up and walked over to the bed, where she was sitting. "I can," said.
"Please, hold me, then," she said. I put my arms around her and laid down. Slowly, sleep came to both of us, peace in our minds.
I would wake and feel her skin. It was cold.
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