Yesterday's lunch was a very nice bowl of rice topped with tuna sushi, avocado and tomato with apple pie made by my wife. I really should have taken a picture of that stuff but I was busy preparing for last night's gig!
I was able to cross off all the items on the checklist in yesterday's report, except for cutting the plastic tubes to raising the bridge pickup closer to the strings for more output to drive my fuzz, but I wound up not stomping while playing the Legacy anyway. I wasn't really satisfied with the clean sound on Fly Like and Eagle and Voices Inside My Head, and regret not putting the Bill Lawrence pickups back in the guitar. However, I was too busy playing, singing, schmoozing and making sure the band stayed together to worry about little details like my guitar sound.
Not as many people showed up, and the music wasn't as inspired/inspiring as I had imagined but I was satisfied with the results for three reasons:
+I achieved my minimum goals: The band made it through two 1-hour sets, and enough guests came for me to pay them.
+I know that the results are proportionate to my efforts. I could have practiced more, invited more people and had used more effective strategies for both.
+I accepted that whatever the results would be were beyond my control at that point.
This last two pluses are probably best expressed by my ride into Tokyo. The bass player asked (ordered?) me to pick him up at his hotel, though the gig is only four subway stops away from there.
After hitting traffic, driving through the narrow streets off Shibuya crawling with pedestrians, and then getting slightly lost (in spite of the new iPhone5 improved navigation app), I was starting to feel myself get pissed off at him for asking and myself for accepting. 
As a result, we arrived at 6:00 instead of 5:30 like I planned. If we had met at the gig, we'd have had more time to set up and rehearse. Meanwhile my old bandmates whom I invited to sit in had already arrived on time, and texted me ask where in Gotham was I? 
Really though, what difference would 30 minutes have made at that point? The weather on our ride was beautiful, the bass player and I got to know each other a little better, my friends weren't upset, and the drummer and keyboard player didn't arrive until MUCH later. I realized later that it was actually easier for me NOT to get angry, or at least not enraged.
Likewise, there's so much more I could say about last night, but it's easier just to say it was fun, exiting, personally edifying and successful. One final indicator of that is driving home last night, I didn't feel any lingering disappointment like I have after most gigs over the last 7 years, and felt I really earned that beer in my fridge for a change, instead of just pouring numbness on top of numbness.
Ok, enough about last night. For today's lunch report I'd like to raise a G&L topic that's been at the back of my mind for years: How does an S-500 compare to a Legacy in terms of quality and overall as an instrument? In spite of my deep pride, loyalty and affection for my '93 Legacy, every time I see or read about an S-500, I always wonder if the more inexpensive Legacy is somehow inferior?
Non-G&L topic: What are your plans for the weekend?
.... also going to get a camera today and hopefully be camera savvy by sunday ..lol