Sometimes I feel like I have spent my life chasing my tail all the while thinking I was getting ahead. Going in circles hoping that I'm on an upward spiral. In the end we go out the same way we came in. I'm not planning on that anytime soon but when it arrives I won't be fighting it.
What does self improvement really mean, that you think you're not good enough as you are. What a waste. Everything is as it's meant to be, it's perfect, there's no way that it could have ended up any differently. And if you're thinking “well that's easy for you to say” it's easy for you to say too. Embrace it. Like Yoda said “Do or do not, there is no try.” You want to be a better person, be a better person, why waste your time. But remember you're the hero of your own story, no one else is going to put you first. Just as long as you're not harming anyone, do what you need to do to create the life you want to live, be the person you want to be.
I'm getting there. Found my first gig here in San Jose del Cabo playing at Tequila Town on Thursday nights. Now I got to learn or relearn a bunch of cover songs to try to pander to the masses, cater to the clientele. I always said I'd rather not play than play covers but I need to improve my visibility somehow. I'll sneak in my own songs here and there, I doubt anyone will notice. The main star of the show at Tequila Town is the 1700 different types of Tequila they have to offer. Me I'm not the biggest fan of Tequila, I prefer Mescal myself. It's stronger in flavour and in bite. I don't think you necessarily want to drink a tumbler of it on the rocks but sampling little sips of the multitude of different varieties always gets me drunker than I had planned on being when we go there.
One of the perks of living in a tourist town, you go back to a place more then twice over the course of a month or two and you become known as a regular, accepted as family even. Maybe it just means we like to drink. I try hard not to be an alcoholic, I've been one in the past, although at the time I might not have considered myself as such. I was a cook, it was part of the kitchen culture and if you want to make it in the big leagues you gotta play ball. I got out after I saw what it was doing to my bosses and co-workers. It was never as bad as Kitchen Confidential but we had our moments and now I can look back like any old timer and say “back in my day.” Cause of course things change, I don't know if we'd get away with that kind of behaviour in a kitchen anymore. The last one I worked at nobody even drank off shift let alone on shift.
Now I tell everyone I'm a musician, and it's acceptable for musicians to drink on the job, the bartender will make sure you have a drink at hand and if you're lucky they won't take it off your bill. This gig though I might be getting paid in Mescal, I don't know yet, we never talked about money. I'm not too concerned, It'll come back to me. I'm really hoping that this will be a good way to meet other musicians around town. I'd like to team up with another guitarist who sings in Spanish to cover the language barrier that I still face. It might be a tourist town but a lot of the tourists are Mexican and you know they are going to want some music that they know. It's too much pressure to think about it right now. I'm pretty happy about having a gig, it gives me a reason to practice guitar again, I'd been getting kind of bored playing for myself. In fact I haven't been playing much at all lately so this is just what I needed. If you happen to be in San Jose del Cabo for the Thursday night Art Walk swing by Tequila Town for some free tequila and mescal tasting, maybe you'll find a bottle to take home with you and you can enjoy some acoustic covers of classic rock staples inter spliced with the odd original. And when this music career takes off you can say, “I know that guy, I saw him play before he was famous.”