Sweethearts Candy Blog's

I sometimes wonder about certain blogs who ignore controversies and don't breathe a word about them.  The Geller/EDL flap of the past couple of days, for instance.   These events would appear to be important news stories that require analysis and commentary; however, in so commenting a blogger runs the risk of alienating one side or the other.  And, if that happens, your blog might lose some "linky-love" and your daily hits decline.  Oh my, we couldn't have that happen, now could we?  After all, it's not so much about actual reporting as it is forming blogger alliances of you-scratch-my-back, I'll-scratch-yours, you link to me and I'll link to you, and above all else, let's avoid any controversy that might damage our daily hit count as we talk about Snookie and cleavage and popular culture and Meghan McCain, while hoping and praying to God that the Southern Poverty Law Center won't choose us as "Racist of the Week."

Chicken-hearts.  You know who you are.

Now, moving on past this unpleasantness, my band is playing in San Jose today at a memorial party for my late mother-in-law.  It is a Filipino custom to have such a party on the first birthday following the death of the loved one.  One year ago, we played for my mother-in-law's 84th birthday party, while she was still alive to hear it.  She loved it!

The weather is great, my youngest son is in from Los Angeles and it should be fun.  Now I'm off to hit the shower and boogie forth.  Peace.  Or not.

Below are some recordings our band has made for demo purposes.  We'll post more when we get them.

The sound is best when played through decent speakers; if you are listening on small computer speakers, use earphones instead.  I mean, if you can't hear the bass, is there any point?

Our male singer is getting better -- I steered him towards some lessons on how to increase your range and intonation and how to sing from your chest and "mask" rather than through your nose.

We aren't ready for Carnegie Hall or anything, but a few more demos like this and we should be able to land some gigs in local clubs, as long as they have the Blues Brothers protective screen to shield us from thrown beer bottles.

I supply the bass in these songs.


Spooky (male singer, female backup)


Memphis (male singer)


Rio de Janeiro Blue (female singer)

A reader liked this video, so I decided to post it here.  Our guitar playing grandma really rocks on this old classic, "Tequila!"

The weakest point of our band is the vocals.  It's hard to find and to keep a decent singer.  Our singer didn't show up for practice so we played some intrumentals, including the blues jam posted below.  Our funky new lead guitar player could be someone's grandma, but if so, she's a rockin' grandma.  She broke into this blues jam and we all followed her.

We had never played this piece together before, but blues follows known chord progressions and we all knew them.  Listen with earphones to hear the bass.

NOTE:  The sound balance on this video isn't perfect by any means.  The video was shot on a small, hand-held digital camcorder with a single recording input.  In spite of that limitation, I think the sound recording quality is quite good.

I have Wednesdays off from taxes, so today I am playing with my band at a luncheon.  We have a new, female lead guitar player and she is quite good.  This will be the first time we have played with her (besides in practice).

Looking forward to it!

I've been playing and practicing with this band for a year now and have learned a lot about playing bass.  Below we are playing Van Morrison's great song, "Moondance."  We were playing for a Christmas party and there is a lot of background chatter and noise; our singer is new and inexperienced; and we are not all that fantastic nor are we ready for prime time.  Nevertheless, I am pleased with my progress after a year and look forward to learning a lot more.

I am on the left in the video, in back, playing a red bass guitar.  If you listen with headphones you can hear my bass quite well.  Without the headphones you can't hear me at all, not on small computer speakers.