Mandy Woods
  • Home
  • Gigs/Reviews
  • Homelessness
  • Albums
  • Wags Lyrical
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Photos

Of Geeks and Grilles

29/10/2015

0 Comments

 
PictureLittle 'n' large
Turns out Best Buy, the US electrical equipment chain, has ‘Geek Squads’ – equivalent to the so-called Apple Genius Bars – so I took my non-functioning satnav (or rather, GPS) to the one in West Nashville today, having had to first memorise the Google map directions in order to drive there, which was no mean feat, I can tell you, as nowhere is close by in America.

The country music playing loudly through speakers hidden in the parking-lot hedges put me in better spirits, but they soon dissipated when I finally got to see the Geek and he told me there were no US maps loaded on the satnav that I had bought on eBay on the promise of it having US maps… However, he went on, he could upload US maps onto it for $60, but it would take 8 hours to do. That would be a problem because I needed (a) to be able to navigate my way back to my B&B and (b) to come out to play at an open mic this evening on the other side of town from the B&B. So I called Alamo rental cars to find out how much it would be to hire one. A shocking $179 for a week, I was told… So I went back to the Geek and said I’d have the $60 upload please. “That’ll be $60 … plus $40 for labour,” was the more detailed reply this time (well, he actually said "labor", but I’m writing in British). I blanched. “But you could get a new one for $120,” he then told me. So that’s what I bought with great irritation at already having forked out for the non-functioning one before I left the UK. The new one worked a treat, thank goodness, and I sailed home to the instructions of my American-toned GPS girl. (I set it to American English, thinking that it might more closely resemble the correct pronunciation than posh British Emily would.) As soon as I got home I fired off a testy message to the eBay seller – who, on the second reply, agreed to refund my money if I sent it back when I returned to the UK. So that’s something, I suppose. I still have no idea how I managed without it last night though – someone must’ve been watching over me, I reckon.

In the evening I went along to the Commodore Bar and Grille, where I nursed a G&T (this seems to be becoming my tipple of choice…) while awaiting my open mic slot later on. The way these ‘writers’ nights’ work in Nashville is that three or four people take it in turn to sing a song at a time, each eventually singing three songs, and because these are writers’ nights, all the songs are original. Then another group of three or four songwriters gets up and the process is repeated, and this goes on through the evening. I’ll be on later in the evening because I’m just doing an open mic slot – the acts on before are all doing showcase sets. By the time I’d contacted Debi to tell her I would be in Nashville at the end of October the showcase slots were already filled, sadly. Still, I’m happy to be doing the open mic – this IS Nashville, after all! :)

There’s a youngish woman at the bar with a high, shrieky voice practically yelling at the chap next to her by way of casual chit-chat. I stood it as long as I could, casting significant looks her way each time she got particularly loud and shrill in the midst of a singer singing his or her heart out, but finally moved closer to the stage. I can still hear her clearly, however. How obnoxious and rude! I hope she’s gone or lost her voice by the time I get to sing.

​She had gone, I think, but although I’d carefully tuned my guitar before I got up to sing, it was hopelessly out of tune again by the time I was on stage, which was embarrassing and made me looked quite unprofessional :( Somehow a not very satisfactory evening. Not sure exactly why I’m feeling like that at the moment. I’ll mull on it a bit more… But I’m looking forward to tomorrow, when I’ll be recording two songs at Bob Angello’s studio outside Nashville.

Picture
A rare partial eclipse of the Grille...
Picture
Another night, another open mic...
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    Author

    Mandy Woods

    Archives

    August 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2021
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    July 2017
    May 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    April 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

    Categories

    All
    Angello Sound Studio
    Arran
    Bayonne
    Bazaar Cafe
    Bluebird
    Bluebird Cafe
    Brook Guitars
    Butterfly
    Butterfly Spirit
    C2C
    Calamity Jane
    California
    Cam
    Campervan Adventures
    Camping
    Cannes
    Carol Mac Photography
    Catweazle
    Cayman Islands
    Charity Shop
    Coda Music
    Copy-editing
    Corona Virus
    Country Music
    Covid-19
    Cowboy Hats
    Cowgirls
    Craft Fairs
    Dachshund
    David Naylor
    Deadwood
    Distinctly Blue
    Dolly Parton
    Doyle & Debbie
    Eastbourne
    Felix Macintosh
    Fisherman's Wharf
    France
    Freelance Work
    French Riviera
    Fringed Jacket
    Germany
    Gigs
    Gilet Jaunes
    Gilly Spencer
    Glastonbury
    Guitars
    Haight-Ashbury
    Handmade Guitars
    Hollister
    Holy Isle
    Homelessness
    Keith Urban
    Kibosh
    Kitten Kaboodle
    Las Vegas
    Le Mans
    Le Pilier Rouge
    Lesvos
    Lfest
    Little Silver Guitar
    Live Music In Norway
    Log Cabin
    Log Cabin Living
    Mandy Woods
    Memory Stick
    Mouans-Sartoux
    Musée Matisse
    Musee Mecanical
    Nashville
    Needle Felting
    New Life Abroad
    Nice
    O2 Concert Venue
    Oslo Open Mic
    Pandemic
    Peacock Butterfly
    Penny Arcade Museum
    Petula Clark
    Phantom Power Supply
    Pick-ups
    Proofreading
    Randy Moods
    Renegade Of The Road
    Rhinestones
    Roulette
    San Francisco
    Sausage Dog
    Scène Ouverte
    Scully
    Scully Jackets
    Seacliff State Beach
    Self-employment
    Self-reliance
    Social Distancing
    Social Separation
    Song Critique
    Songwriting
    Soquel
    SoulHuntress
    Southwest France
    Station Inn
    St Tropez
    Teaching Guitar
    The Chase
    Tigersonic
    Too Bad To Be True?
    Toyota Campervan
    Trail Of Goodbyes
    Under Ground Theatre
    Usa
    Virtual Open Mics
    Wags Lyrical
    Women's Centre
    Youtube
    Zoom Music Events

    RSS Feed

Mandy Woods