Must-have gigging essential - GPS (and how to get ultra-precise directions)
I've been a Garmin GPS user since 2005, so believe me when I say that I know my way around a GPS. The current unit I own is the nuvi 40LM model. The "LM" by the way means "Lifetime Maps", so when buying a Garmin GPS, always get one that has "LM" in its model name so you don't have to pay for map upgrades.
Since moving to Tampa Bay Florida in the mid-2000s, I've been in and out of a few bands. Some never went anywhere after the first rehearsal. Some would purposely withhold information such a conveniently not mentioning the fact it was a church band (if you're in a church band, say so up front or bug off, and I seriously mean that). Others I got kicked out of for "not playing well with others", and I'll explain more about that in a moment. And one turned out to have a singer who was nothing more than a pill-popping, stoner drunk. Of course I didn't find this out until after I joined the band, played a single gig where the singer took the stage in a high drunken state and promptly forgot half the lyrics to the songs he was singing. It wasn't pretty.
On 1-Oct-1982, Billy Joel's 52nd Street was the first commercial compact disc, released in Japan. Now while true CD technology is several years older than 1982 (prototypes were around as early as the mid-1970s), the "music CD", if you will, started in '82, meaning the CD as we know it is 30 years old.
