OK, it's no secret that I love my axe.
It's also no secret that I love having my laptop on stage for special DJ type enhancements to my live show ( don't you DARE use the K word!I work my ARSE off )

Anyway - tonight, I am leaving the laptop at home, alomg with it's custom mounting bracket that you can see on my website if you wish. I am playing my regular Monday night vertical, and the requirements are not as rigid as some other rooms. Volume is always an issue, and I decided to give the MP3 board a run for it's money tonight. I spent some time organizing my "go to" break tunes for a summer at the jersesy shore, converted all the WMF files to MP3, and set up my little 4GB USB drive to handle the load. In rehersal - it works like a charm! I can use SMF or MP3 in the song play mode, and use my custom playlists for break times when I leave the stage.

I have all my custom audio files on this drive in the same folder with my SMFs, and they live and work happily together! So, tonight (tonigt, tonight, Woah, Oh ... thanx Phil) I am traveling even lighter than usual. Oh, did I fail to mention that I'm also leaving the (gasp) Bose at home too? I simply don't need the coverage! I have a teeny ( I mean TEENY ) Radio Shack semi-surround system that kicks just enought bass to fatten up the sound for 10-15 feet in front of me, and adds some "sizzle" in the high end to reach the bar. Any more than that is wasted in this acoustic nightmare of a room. Granted, the Bose would sound 500% better, if I could turn it up enough for anyone to hear it OVER the kb speakers, but hey - we do what we must to survive.

Wish me luck tonight, and yes Fran .... I checked the time for tonight. Sure glad I'm still a youngun!

BTW - As a side note - I dropped 30 lbs in 4 weeks on the 6 week makeover plan. Saw it on TV, and it works great! The secret is 5-6 smaller meals. I swear, I am NEVR hungry !
Ahhh.....