Hi Russ,

Yes, there have been times when I have refused a gig due to my personal feelings. One type of job I shy away from is anything politically leaning to the left, or to the right. On the other hand I can think of one particular restaurant owned by a guy that I have heard not such great things about by other musicians and therefor tended to stay away from his establishments. Then one day I heard that he refused to serve a group of people, at least one of whom had questionable ethics, and I gained a lot of respect for the owner. Now I play there every Thursday.

As for the NH thing. I understand where you're coming from. But on the other hand, some of the folks stuck in those sometimes hideous facilities really enjoy the entertainment. And I feel anything that can take their mind off of their current situation even for a brief moment is a very good thing. Now that I have a regular day job I can't do many of the senior facility gigs. But when I was doing more of them, one job could be a lot of fun with a lot of interaction, and the next could be very depressing, but I always left feeling good knowing that I was able to bring back some memories from happier times to their otherwise dreary days.