Why Cash Relief Now?

The current stimulus bill in congress will likely include

• $300/week UI
• $300B - PPP
• $250B - state & local
• Temporary liability shield
• $50B 4 health/vaccine distribution

While this is better than nothing in this emergency, the absence of cash relief is a disaster.

Why is cash relief better than extended unemployment benefits?

• Most of our essential workers have not got hazard pay. We all clapped out hands at the beginning of this pandemic for them, but they deserve a pay pump for all their work.

• Not everyone has the same risk with this pandemic. Some will have to stay home but some can work the jobs that are needed. Cash relief encourages people to work that can do so safely. It will let people stay home that are at higher risk from the virus or live with people that are.

• Unemployment Insurance may be easy to get in your state but not every state makes it so easy. The states are also swamped and behind. Make it easy, give it to everyone.

• Small businesses aren’t big enough to leverage the federal government for money, but they are big enough to attract business from local people if they have the money to spend. Trickle up supports the little people and the little businesses.

But won’t that money go to rich people too?

Yes, yes it will, but even rich people may have lost their job or not be able to work during this crisis. At the end of the year rich people will pay more in taxes. It is much easier and more efficient to give cash to everyone and then tax people after the year is over - less bureaucracy and more efficient.

The current $900 billion dollar stimulus compromise could give every American almost $3,000. 82% of american’s favor cash relief including a majority of Republicans. Please tell congress that we need direct cash relief in this bill.

Thoughts on charity.

Every year on Giving Tuesday I readjust my charity donation. I started this about five years ago and have managed to keep it up. I was inspired by the effective altruism movement and took a lot of their ideas and made them my own. If you have never heard of effective altruism I would encourage you to stop here and investigate that, if I accomplish nothing else this is a huge win.

You might be thinking to yourself, “I don’t have enough money to make a difference.” I am here to tell you this is definitely not true. Givewell.org estimates that it takes about $3-5k to save a life today. Even a small donation can drastically change someone’s life.

One of the best ways to donate is to make it automatic. It is better to donate a small amount every month than to donate once. You want to make charity a part of your life going forward and not just a one off. I would highly recommend starting small. I donate every month and think of it like my “charity” phone bill - it is a utility that I don’t ever expect to stop paying. This year my charity donation will finally be bigger than my phone bill for the first time! My goal is to actually keep raising it every year until I die. Some years are better than others, but I have been able to continue this trend so far. Some years I expect to raise it little or nothing, but I hope to never lower it, and even more importantly to never stop.

A strategy that has worked for me is to connect my charity donations to my investment goals. I use mint.com to calculate my net worth every year with all of my investments and also debts, but there are other ways of doing this too. I feel pretty confident in my investments growing at 5% over the long haul so I decided that giving 1% of my net worth was a good number (I actually do 1.2% because the math is easier). For me it’s as simple as going in and looking at my net worth and then dividing by a thousand and then donating that every month. If I have a net worth of $40,000 I donate $40 a month. I find this to be a sweet spot where I don’t really feel it and my investments continue to grow. I also hope to have a big chunk of money to donate when I eventually pass, but in the short term it is super satisfying to keep giving a little more over time. For me, it is the combination of these two things that is super motivating. I have found that I save much more than I did before I started doing this. Knowing that the more I save will allow me to give more gives me that extra push to avoid unnecessary expenses. I am not perfect, but I work on it every day. The most important thing is to make it easy and painless enough that you don’t ever want to stop.

My charity of choice is givewell.org - I could try to explain why I think they are the best, but they do a better job on their website than I would. Please consider donating there.

Blackberry Blossom

I have been trying to incorporate the fingering ideas behind Hal Robinson's method book boardwalkin' have been using fiddle tunes as foder. Here is the first one with bowings and fingerings.

BlackberryBlossom.pdf

Bass Tricks #1 DIY endpin project

I keep going through these rubber endpin tips after a few months. They usually start slipping on me after only a short time. They are kind of expensive and hard to find, so I deecided to take matters into my own hand.

Here is an image of my old worn down endpin.

I removed the rubber tip and start hacking away at the side with a large knife and a cutting board.

I was hoping the metal would be enclosed at the other end - but hopefully end pin will not push through the new rubber I will be adding.

Here is all the rubber I took off and my weapon.

Once I cut it down enough, I was able to stick a crutchtip on the end. So far this badboy is working just great. It should be cheaper and easier to replace if needed too. I'm not sure if it will deepen the sound more, but so far it does not seem like it.

I got to idea of switching to an crutchtip because this is the way my bass built by Kent McLagan came when I bought it. I have not noticed any reduction in sound on that bass. Kent uses it on his bass, and he is one of loudest accoustic bass players I know.

Do you believe in smelly cat?

I was recently talking to my friend Shawn Conley about a musical phonomenon that happens on the bandstand. Many times when I am doing a sound check, whether it is a new venue or with new musicians, right off the bat, I will think that the sound of my bass and or the ensemble is just horrible.

After several tunes, it will start to sound better to me. Countless musicians that I know seem to have had a similar experince.

Here are some possible explinations that I have come up with to explain this.

• The soundguy has adjusted
• I have adjusted
• The other musicans have adjusted
• My ears have adjusted
• "smelly cat"

Obviously you want to know what "smelly cat" is, but hold your horses. Let's go down the list.

I have a really hard time believing that it is the soundguy. I have experienced this in places that do not have a soundguy. This is totally true if you are in a place that has a good soundguy/gal but sense it is not mutually exclusive, I am ruling this one out for the experience that I am describing.

The next two are possibilities for sure. Good musicians are always adjusting dynamics and attack to create the sound that they hear in their heads. Every room and every situation requires a slightly different attack of the string to find the right space for your sound.

The last two are variations of the same idea. I think that your ears need to adjust a little to a new sound and environment. After you have been playing for a while you begin to be a little more comfortable with the sound. This is what I had attributed a lot of this experience to in my own rationalizations. But when I talked to Shawn Conley about "smelly cat", I had to reexamine my thoughts.

Shawn was a student of Francois Rabbath, and said that Rabbath had told him that your first impression of the sound was a truest. A truly great sound is undeniable right off the bat, but as our ears listen to a bad or mediocre sound for a while we begin to accept it. He compared this to walking into someones apartment with a smelly cat. At first the smell is awful, but the longer you stay in the apartment the more you don't notice it.

I don't know if I totally agree with this, but it has really made me reexamine some things. What do you think?