Bicentenial Week in Mexico's 'Cradle of Independence' - Cont'd

This week has proved to be one of the best yet during my stay, (and there have been so, so many!!), however it didn't start out that way...

During the whole week here in Queretaro, every day has hosted a major parade that has literally enveloped the entirety of the downtown sector, with various themes such as the indigenous tribes holding various gatherings and marching (more like dancing...) through the streets.Unfortunately, I didn't get which ones were parading, but there were several  and they as proud of the Bicentenario as any other population was and they were definitely showing that pride in force!

things that can go very wrong at a gig - vol. I

For the touring musician, an occasional 'tough lesson' that I am reminded of living (and eating) down here. Definitely make sure that you're well-accustomed to the local cuisine's impact on you - before-hand!


I know, T-M-I, but a cautionary tale for those who make their living on-stage.

lol

f

a weekend with good friends - part II

A funny thing happened on my way to the Forum...
(okay, I was headed to Harry's, lol)

So, there I was, minding my own business, headed down to Harry's to watch the last two sets of a new band (to me) called Bee-Groove. They were a funk-style band that was fronted by the wife of my friend & coworker Fabien who is the head of Engineering at the facility I work at. Her name is Lixia and they hail both from Paris, home of great funk bands! ....well, maybe it is(?) lol

She formed-up this band with some of the local pros and have developed quite a reputation as a fun show to catch - so I planned on seeing them at long last.

However, my best-laid plans were halted at the edge of the plaza entrance by some recent and not-so recent acquaintances, Miguel, Javier and his brother who was in town for the holiday weekend from Chihuahua.

They basically collared me before I could even enter Harry's and we were off...!

(obviously I was not struggling)

After a quick stop at the convenience store en-route to pick up two bottles of 'the Captain' and cokes, we headed over to what was a party already in full swing. It was hosted by a fellow who is widely-known as 'El Quixote" as he makes his living impersonating the famed literary character, armor included. His metal breastplate has a slight modernization in that it includes a three inch slot cut into it with a 'gracias' written in sharpie just below it, (yes, exactly - it's for tips!).

The form of entertainment was called 'trios' and it consists of three talented and very rehearsed fellows playing traditional romantic songs, singing in harmony, while the entire room sings along.

As we entered the room and made our way to a table reserved in the corner, the leader of the trio announced, what I think was, the title that Javier held, along with leading the crowd in a 'three cheers' to him. He replied with a nonchalant wave to everyone and quickly sat down.

I thought, "who is this guy anyway...?"

After the three finished their hour-long set, we were treated to a short slide show of a famous since-passed fellow musician, whom I found out later that the party was actually held in honor of.

here's a not-so-professional video I shot of the event.
it's just a quick pan, but it gives an idea of what it was like:

After that, ladies were brought up to the front to sing their personal favorites, which instead of turning into a karaoke-esque fiasco, turned out to be something quite elegant and one lady's rendition of a bolero called "El Pastor" left no one present with a dry eye, much in the way Tania Libertad was famous for.

Btw, go to YouTube and search for that song; there are several beautiful recordings.

here's one of Tania; it will put you into the mood of the event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8Jm4ITptjM

(btw, the video portion is not so great but the audio is worth it!)

It was a beautiful way to spend an evening, however it was far from over.

Front-row treatment t the hottest spot in town

We left the party with the bulk of the attendees and as we literally stumbled along the cobblestone streets of Queretaro, I was informed that we were headed to another place called 'La Mulata' which was a club here in town that I had yet to see, but always wanted to. The name translated is that of a dark-skinned woman, which denotes sexiness, I imagine.

Arriving at the entrance, we were met with the usual bulldog-like reception of bouncers demanding 'entrada', which in this case was 50 pesos (around $5) each. Javier, who as I said, I knew as a local politician with a few connections, met the head bouncer and after chatting with him all of ten seconds, we were not only in for free, but were led into the place, which was as spacious as a warehouse and completely packed with at least 700 people, perhaps 1000(?).

After walking nearly a full two minutes, winding our way through the darkened aisle ways lit with the occasional flash of the overhead lasers and camera flashes, we were led to a table that was right in front of, and at the center of. the massive stage. We were in arguably THE best table in the place!

The once passing thought was now a full-blown nagging feeling as I thought, "just who the heck is this guy anyway...?!!"

And so the night continued, the party raged and the band came onto the stage to re-claim it from the DJ plying his usual wares of trendy hip hop, etc, that is common now the world over.

To call this place a nightclub, however, would certainly be a misrepresentation, as it was one of the largest indoor areas I've seen since I arrived here, more comparable to a High School Gymnasium. This is an important point for what happens later in the evening - well, morning...

A Cat with a way-kewl axe

So in travels I usually try to chat with the band and compare notes, especially with the bass players that I meet. This fellow caught my attention when he pulled-out a 'Factor' bass, which is a really cutting-edge looking machine by Philip Kubicki, and his was even a five string, which I had never seen before. I remember back in the late 80's when these were popularized by cats like Stu Hamm & Jon Taylor from Duran-Duran, and they were all of the rage until they almost literally disappeared 10 years later, at least to me. Looking on the Internet, they can still be had, but this guy's factor5 is truly a rarity - a way-kewl axe indeed.

Chatting with other players and some research on the net show that Kubicki is still making basses, but finding one seems to be a bit difficult for folks like me. Perhaps some day when I'm playing that lousy 80's cover band, I'll be sporting the flock of seagulls hairdo and slapping my own Factors - ah, to dream, but I digress... haha

A somewhat-normal occurrence, at least for me, unfortunately
(or how to really screw-up a really great evening by being a dumb s**t)
 

So eventually I make my way back to our table in center/front and the whole place is going crazy as the band proceeds into a 30 minute medley of dance tunes from the 70's, 80's, 90's, along with a heavy dose of hip-hop driving the set. It was definitely well-rehearsed, quite incredible and nobody was able to resist dancing - the entire area in front of the stage was on the verge of being a mosh pit, (but a fun one).

So I reached for my wallet ready to help pay for the tab, and then it struck me - gone! I checked every pocket, nothing. All around the floor in the immediate area, nope. I think the color left me face as I realized that I was in a foreign country with no credit cards, no means of getting money, and the only ID I had was my passport book. Doing a quick calculation, I figured that I needed a minimum of $500 USD to get a plane ticket back to Phoenix, or at least half that to drive to Texas, either of which I had nothing to use - shit!

Selling one of bass guitars was about my only other option, but that would have really sucked as it took a lot of time & money to acquire them. Of course I was a bit inebriated with the good rum all night, so my thinking was not entirely clear, but I did at least grasp the weight of my predicament - get looking for it was my immediate decision (I know, duh!).

I checked around with a few places I had chatted with the band, etc, but nothing was there. Back at the table, my friends were equally worried for me and offered to pick up my part of the tab. Nice, but also a bit necessary, as I had not two pesos to rub together! Heading out of the club, I was feeling pretty bummed, but Javier told me to wait a moment while he told the club manager about my loss. The manager motioned for me to follow him back into the club. After another couple of minutes of winding our way back to the other end, we came to a bar that was located there where he asked a lady working there about finding anything.

Lifting up the cash register entirely, she held out my wallet and said "solamente esto" (only this). I think I did a moonwalk as I found that everything was in it including my debit card & identification, life was good again! Javier was officially my favorite person at that point, lol.

So just who is this guy...?

On the way home we made our way over to the atm as I insisted on paying them back my share of the tab, which was not really a lot to me, but I know that wages here are roughly a third of the States. As we strolled the cobblestone streets, admiring the older colonial-era mansions of the central district, we passed through the plaza in the middle of the government offices, which once served as the seat of government when Queretaro was Capital of Mexico, long ago when it was the crown of the Spanish empire.

As we passed a particularly elegant edificio (building) from the 1700's with a huge bronze plaque on it that read, something to the effect of, State Governor's Office. Javier non-nonchalantly pointed to it saying, "That's my office."

Inquiring about it later that week with my friends down at Harry's I found out that he's the representative for Queretaro for that office. in the US we would refer to him as, basically, the Lieutenant Governor.

...Okay, I wasn't expecting that one, either!

f

a weekend with good friends - part I

To feel like a Lion on stage...

It was an amazing weekend, starting-out with Friday going to see my friends Vudu Chile play at Wooli's Kaban in San Miguel Allende. It was a special evening in that, unbeknownst to me, they had an artist as part of the show. The painter, Norton Wisdom, had performed a couple of days prior with David the vocalist, who was doing an acoustic show there, David was so impressed that he invited him to perform at the Vudu Chile show.

As I arrived, the 'canvas' was already being set-up, well ahead of the band's gear (surprise-surprise! lol). What it consisted of was a 4x8 sheet of plastic with shrouds on the sides and a bright spotlight on the back side. This illuminated the plastic canvas in a way that allowed the field to be seen even from the far end of the room and the paints that he used, as I found out later, were semi-translucent, and they became a glowing work of art as he worked to create them. This he did all evening, creating an amazing scene that was driven by the music being performed in simultaneous harmony - literally, performance art!

In my ignorance I asked Norton at the beginning of the show, "so do you do one painting for the whole evening or a couple, or what?"

He simply replied, "You'll see..."

That was an understatement.

It turns-out that he's a renowned painter famous for this style of work; there are several videos of him on-stage, so-to-speak. Here's a video of some of his paintings being created:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIn0a9APMNU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUUx8x309iQ&feature=related

One important caveat - this form is basically just a sketch-version of what Norton Wisdom does on canvas. He travels with a photographic portfolio of his work that he sells, and it is amazing. Similar in concept to the 'stage paintings' however the depth of work looks to be several days, possibly even weeks to create.

The band set up their stuff and it was our first time together since I had left three weeks prior, so we had a lot of catching-up to do. I had brought back several things from the US that the guys could use for 'the music biz' so it was a bit like Christmas - we had a great time chatting and opening gifts! lol

The first two of the three sets saw several creations by our resident artist, which he would creat over a few songs, photograph and then wipe the board clean. A few of the painting s were a bit risque' ones that, while most of the customers really loved, a select few 'were not amused' and one decided that she had "had quite enough of this and this guy needed to change his paintings or end this immediately!". In a moment of clarity, as she demanded that the band interrupt the show and basically kick Norton out, David also decided that he had had quite enough of her pettiness and politely yet firmly informed her that instead of adhering to her demands, "perhaps it was time that she left".

After hearing the story, I and everyone else was quite proud of him.

The third set was especially fun, in that the alcohol was beginning to really kick-in, both on-stage and off! David worked the room as the seasoned pro he has become and the crowd danced and cheered with his 'improvisations', shall we say, during a song that allowed him to really cut loose. The evening was a very fun but it most certainly rated PG.

Settling into my comfy couch in the adjoining room behind the stage, I re-opened my laptop and went over some design specs for Gigbag, which I had been doing much of the evening, not to mention the whole week prior. We have been trying to have design of the Musician's section of the website completed so the vendors can get us an accurate estimate for it, which we expect to be quite a substantial sum. It has become something of a routine for me over the last few years, where any time that the muse is upon me I almost always carry my bag along just in case.

About 20 minutes into the set though, I see Javier, the bassist of the group waving to me to get my butt up there. My first thought was "shit, I haven't even touched a bass in almost a month!" and me playing a song was probably an express ticket to clearing-out the bar. Luckily for me, I do have one thing especially in my favor: Javier, who is an amazing player is also a skilled technician, has set-up his G&L 5 string bass with such wonderfully low action and even my rusty fingers find it is a dream to play.

'The lads' insisted and we broke into a solid rendition of SRV's Texas Flood, which is a slow blues tune that really has a lot of room for what I would call, contemplation, and it allows deep infusion of emotion into it. At first I felt very rusty and a bit out-of-it, however it quickly clicked.

As the song moved out of the intro and into that now-famous opening riff that filled the room as Julian gave amazing voice to his guitar, channeling the fellow in the wide brimmed hat - the crowd resounded to the guitar lick's visceral tone, howling their approval.

As usual, the drummer Adrian set up a pocket and I could bury myself into it, focusing on both simple yet driving walking basslines. I guess the strength of the groove definitely registered on some as the owner of the bar came up to the stage and bowed-down in front of me, which was a huge compliment and also was the first time THAT has happened...! haha

It felt great, the bass just growled for me, which is something I strive to produce, and at the end of the song David put his arm around me and said, "Dude, look at the painting Norton did!" Turning around revealed an amazing painting a lion's head (straddled by a lady's legs, of course) flanked by a figure playing a highly-stylized bass guitar. In a 'shamanic moment' as David likes to call somewhat-inebriated deeply reflective conversation, we discussed the effect that my musical contribution that evening on Mr. Wisdom's painting. David asserts that my being here in San Miguel de Allende at this point in time and that meeting and playing with them is not merely an accident, but that it has a real purpose. I'm just happy to have known this evening and many others like it playing with these fellows called Vudu Chile.

With their help, the bass not only growled that night, but even roared...!

(After the Show - pic of Norton with Adrian the drummer)

Btw, if you wish to see more, Norton's website is at:

http://www.nortonwisdom.com/

He's a great guy and if you get lucky enough to have a chance to see him, definitely go!

f

a little about Gigbag, (finally, lol), the blog's namesake

Gigbag: The Year in Review
Well, it's been an amazing time for us at 'Team Gigbag', with both good time and some tough ones also. Luckily, the good ones have vastly outnumbered the tougher, and it's especially because of the people that comprise the Team, both core & extended. (btw, I use Jake & Elwood, as they seem to represent much of the attitude of our little company; hopefully their respective estates won't be too annoyed at my occasional liberty..)

This last year has seen much progress with the company, but the site construction has stalled a bit, but only for a short time, hopefully. My Partner Mike convinced me that my original approach was too limited and that the only way to launch Gigbag.com was to, "do it right and do it BIG!" rather than the phased implementation that I had originally envisioned. We definitely need to have the broad functionality of 'our little site' in-place and available, otherwise it has no real appeal to the broad populace and therefore will not be successful. Further, the passing of time continually increases the chance that another company/group will release their own version of gigbag, rendering our efforts worthless. We have to act now and do so aggressively, thus the complete re-calibration of our design implementation.

but enough of the dry stuff...


A Global Revolution and an Enterprise of Equal Scale in the Making
One of the principal elements of Gigbag that will really improve the 'footprint' both around the country. an worldwide, is our network of musicians that we have developed this last year and will continue to do so in the coming ones also. In my travels I have had the good fortune to meet many, many people that work within the live music industry and were interested in participating as representatives for our site. This ever-growing network will serve as boots-on-the-ground in their respective areas of the world and conduct an informational campaign with both venues and bands, showing them how Gigbag works and providing basic-level customer service as required. Once a toe-hold has been achieved in several cities around the nation and we have a solid functionality in-place, then come s Phase II - Spiderwebbing!

Spiderwebbing is the term we coined that describes the effect that takes place once the popularity of the site begins to increase: the venues & bands that use Gigbag will, in turn, have some/all of their business counterparts (for bands it's venues and for venues, it's bands) also sign-up and use Gigbag's functionality, this will translate into a massive growth in these markets, as the fans & patrons of both also learn about the site from not us, but the BANDS & VENUES - they do the advertising for us... and what follows is a slow but steady revolution that transforms the live music industry as we know it.


Now all we need is the Moolah
With the change in our strategy comes the need to raise a substantial amount of capital to put into the programming costs. I had spent several thousand myself on our first programming venture, which did accomplish a great deal in the User Interface design and especially, definition of functionality. We began the whole process having a decent idea about what we wanted the site to do, however, after playing the "what if..." game for six months solid with my programmer, we realized that we had much more that would be required of the 'ol Gigbag, if we were to really make a difference in the industry and improve the situation substantially, as we had originally set-out to do.

Gigbag evolved into a functionality that was both complicated but also powerful in scope. The team in Phoenix re-designed the entire User Interface (UI) in a week and what arose was a completely new look & feel. It made sense, was elegant, and further, was compact design that could be used along the broad scope of the functions Gigbag had to offer. We had our designer do a mock-up and got it ready for primetime (all platforms), he sent it to us and I found out that everyone else was "underwhelmed" - shit...! haha Really, what the problem seemed to be was that the look was not as professional-level as was expected by those who are better versed in design than I. In our next effort, this will be overhauled and if required, given a complete makeover/facelift/boobjob/whatever... lol

So, in our search for investors, the obvious first question is always, "let's see your business plan" I hadn't even thought about that the whole last year, but realized the moment that I was asked, that I should have done that even before designing the UI - shit...! lol

No, seriously, for those unfamiliar with it, a good Business Plan serves as the foundation for any major business operation and is often the difference between success and failure in the business world. Further, it becomes the roadmap for how to run your business and steers one's decisions in a clear and transparent manner, leaving only the details of each decision's implementation & execution the only remaining work to be done. The better your plan, the easier it is to operate your business!

For our company to even begin to solicit serious money from serious investors, we needed a business plan, and that has been the focus over the last, and next, several weeks. My target for completion is the end of the year, at the latest; obviously, the sooner it is completed, the sooner we can submit it to investment groups, and (hopefully) the sooner we go into development of Gigbag.


Marketing Plans, Revenue Projections and Mission Statements - Oh My!
And so, the effort continues to define in a reasonable manner what Gigbag will look like as a business and what real expectations are in order when looking at our capital requirements vs. revenue, etc.

What we have found is breathtaking: in the first year of operation, we were already profitable well-before the end of it, and by the second year, depending on budget allocation, had made substantial repayment of the initial investment made. In our projected fiscal budget, it would be relatively easy to at least double any investor's money within a three to four-year timeframe, which would put it at least a 25% per year return on their initial investment.

However, if what I believe is true regarding our revenue calculations, we may be able to greatly improve that ROI (return on investment) even more. This next few weeks' findings will steer that offer significantly. Gigbag will be both a good thing for the live music industry and a profitable thing for those who decide to invest in it.

Perfect Pitch
(or at Least the Search for One)
One thing that I've been working on for the last month was Gigbag's 'Elevator Pitch'. While surfing the various angel investor sites, (groups of investors that focus on particular areas, industries, etc for their investment), on site asked you to upload your elevator pitch, which is meant as a 1-2 minute presentation that one may give to a busy investment representative while they are in between meetings.

A brilliant concept, in my opinion and something that I'll try out here in my little blog to all of you, my friends & foes alike! lol Here goes:


" Do you enjoy music? Do you like to watch bands play?

Yes, terrific!

Wouldn't it be great if, no matter where you were in the world, if you wanted to see a live music show either that moment or several months from now, in your home town, the other side of the state, or travelling on vacation anywhere in the world, there was one place that you could go to find it and it would always be easy, accurate, and especially, it was always free...?!

Would you use it? Of course you would, along with, what we believe is, anyone else who has Internet access and loves music, which is a large part of the industrialized world. That's what we are building at Gigbag.com: an international database of all live music events that is both customizable to your musical preferences and is updated in real-time, unlike any other website on the planet.

And as I said before, always free!

With the proliferation of the Internet and its users increasing geometrically each year, we are designing a website that will use this valuable content to provide marketers targeted access to a highly-desirable and affluent global population that is broad in its demographic range. This is the business model for Gigbag.com and it will become a major force in Internet advertising.

We know that anyone who wishes to become involved in Gigbag will have the opportunity to both help transform the world by increasing the amount of music in it, and at the same time profiting nicely from it. Those who do so will be very glad they did."



Feel free to contact me directly at fstraub@gigbag to provide any feedback, it would be greatly appreciated.

Also, if you're interested in becoming part of Team Gigbag and investing in our company, you can also contact me the same way; I would love to tell you more about the company and where we are headed.

fs

howdy from (way) south of the border ...!

Scene:
a man oddly-dressed stand atop a hillside and appears to be creating massive explosions with the wave of his hands.

They call me, frank...?

yet more explosions and then a bit of applause.


Life has taken an interesting turn - even moreso than what is my usual, which my friends will agree is quite dynamic. Between the all of the trips and projects undertaken, even I lose track of where reality stops and my life takes over (...if that makes any sense, lol).


A little about me:

I'm an aircraft/aerospace guy who's spent most of his time on this '3rd rock' building, flying, studying, repairing, researching, busting his knuckles on, and in general, immersed in airplanes. Ever since my dad gave me a model of a wood & fabric fighter from the Great War, I have been smitten with the damned things and even when, " ...I tried to get out, they pulled me back in."
I know that the profession, and my resultant lifestyle has at least in part, left several once-great relationships in it's wake. I feel that while I'm very lucky in my work to be in my current position, it has come at, some would assert, great cost to those I have tried to build a life with. To them, I say thank you for trying to be patient with me and I'm especially grateful that they did not get angry enough to stab me in the shower. lol
I try not to annoy my friends with the subject, for those not interested, please forgive the occasional digression into the subject.

Further, I found that my once-dabbling into the area of musicianship had become a major focus in my life, at least on a semi-amateur level while working as a consultant on the Gulf Coast of the US. One thing that that experience taught me was how the live music industry works, at least on the lower levels, and that it is a real pain in the ass! I can remember spending entire days on the phone and traveling around, trying to find gigs for my band and the logistics required certainly added to the grey hair that Boeing initially gave me.
This was the impetus for 'Gigbag'.

As the blog's title suggests, I and my friends both near and far have embarked on an Internet project called 'Gigbag.com', which, with a lot of hard work and just a bit of luck will become a part of the lives of anyone who enjoys and/or is involved with live music. But more about that later...

Now, due to my current change in constraints, I find myself deep in the heart of Mexico still consulting for the airline in the US, (which I travel to on occasion), yet living in a fascinating place called 'the cradle of independence'.

To not document it would be a loss to posterity, in my most humble opinion.

Btw, I'd also like to include some fun into this blog so as to not make it too serious. I include jokes, etc also to give insight into my so-called sense of humor. I promise to only post the ones that really make me laugh and not just something to fill the gaps, so-to-speak.



Blog entry No. 1, here we go:

(crafted from an earlier email)

Just doing the usual, sitting here at the patio of Harry's sipping on 2-1 margaritas (goooooooood tequila for about $1!!!), working on the laptop. The rum here is also exceptional, with the top-shelf brand being Havana Club 7 Aneos (aged seven years in Cuba); amazingly good and quite inexpensive, of course.

I have a new home! I spent the weekend house-hunting and found a cute little penthouse very near the center of town. It has a decent view and, unlike most of the places down there, it's quite modern. The owner/builder of the penthouse is an old ex-pat Scotsman who has lived in the city for several decades and re-built the whole building almost completely, leaving the original facade outside, which is required by the city preservation laws.

The entire area is designated as a UNESCO world heritage site as most of the buildings date back to the 1600/1700's. When I look out my patio, to the right about 50 ft away, I see a wall that was constructed about 300 years ago and you can see how the builders used a decorative spiraling brick pattern, just to an a little elegant flair to it. It makes me happy every time I see it knowing that centuries-old creations, even minor ones, can connect people from such different times and cultures. It can be a magical place, this Mexico.

There is a smaller international airport just outside of town, designated airport code QRO. It's serviced once a day by Continental through Houston Int'l, who flies CRJ's as their primary regional fleet.

For about $85/night, you can live in a former palace of what was once the seat of government when Mexico was once the largest jewel in the Spanish empire. Weekdays are nice, but weekends are the best time to be here as that's when all of the big festivals happen - a big party practically right in my front yard.



Yes, life is really good here in Mexico, but a bit lonely not being fluent (yet!). Luckily there are enough people that I meet who do speak at least some English, and all of them are happy to have someone to practice their English with. With time and a lot of practice my Spanish will improve so that will change very soon.

Thanks for reading, everyone!

frank