This weekend was the annual US 12 Longest Yard Sale, and I took Friday off from work to do my annual trek. While I will grab just about anything that I think is a bargain or treasure, I am mostly looking for musical instrument related items. In past years, there have been about a dozen vendors selling some such items, but this year, it was down to four, and three of them were pretty much a joke.
The US 12 Heritage Way website this year included a map of vendors that listed items that they were selling. I earmarked a few of them, and the results were pathetic. One had a Taylor 3/4 size gigbag for $40.00, and Elixer guitar strings for $5.00 per set (which I can get from Temu for half of that price). Another vendor’s idea of a “musical instrument” was a giant rug shaped like a keyboard.
There were a few vendors selling a few drum pieces or an old trumpet. One vendor had a few acoustic guitars, including a Harmony archtop that looked interesting. He was asking way too much, as well as high prices for two headphone amplifiers that looked like they had seen better days. Toward the end of my drive in a town called Allen (which calls itself the Antique Capital of Michigan), there is one vendor that is there every year, selling mostly fishing and hunting equipment, but has some musical instruments. They are mostly clarinets and trombones, but he does have a few guitars. However, they are all cheap department store types like First Act that are not worth anything.
In short, other than a few Hot Wheels cars that I bought for a co-worker, the only thing that I purchased for myself was a Godzilla Sandwich from Randy’s BBQ in Onsted (https://www.randysbarbecue.com/).
One of my YouTube subscriptions is to Billy Strings’s channel. When he is on tour, he will often post his opening song live. On Friday, I noticed that he was wearing a hockey helmet while performing. I figured at first that it was some kind of joke because he was playing in a hockey arena.
Then I read the following story:
What is with some idiots these days? Billy is a pretty laid back guy, and he has done his best to make up for cancelled shows due to his leg injury earlier this year. There is no doubt that he and his band put on a fantastic live show, and his fanbase has grown to amazing numbers over the past few years. However, there always seems to be one or two morons that want to ruin it for the thousands that paid good money for the show.
Billy had just started talking to the audience about how glad he was to be there, when an object (most likely a disposable lighter) was thrown from the crowd and hit him in the head. Suddenly, Billy’s demeanor changed drastically, and he not only called out the unknown assailant, but asked the crowd to “sodomize” the jerk.
Can you blame Billy? He is up there literally unprotected from any flying objects, and even something like a lighter hit in the right spot could do damage. I hope to read in the news soon that the assailant was found and charged with some crime. In the meantime, I also hope that Billy understands that the does not reflect the thousands of true fans who value his musicianship and love for his audience.
Chew on it and comment.
Luegra 