Mercury Falling? Mercury Retrograde!

It's late and I'm tired in my hotel room after a great show in Denver. Grateful for a good show tonight after some odd equipment gremlins appearing last night in Salt Lake.

I've had an interest in astrology for a long time. More casual than serious, but one thing I've become somewhat attuned to over the years are the periods of time when Mercury is retrograde. This occurs about three times a year for about three weeks at a time.

The analogy is that of two trains moving in the same direction. When one is moving faster than the other, the slower train can appear to be moving backwards. From our perspective on Earth, Mercury appears to be moving backwards in the sky when retrograde.

All planets have times of retrograde motion, but those of Mercury are more well documented.
It is associated with breakdowns, either mechanical or of communication between people.
You may typically see cars broken down at the side of the road, more so than usual. Computer breakdowns seem to be common too.

Well we're just completing one of these cycles. Mercury is once again in apparent forward motion again, and if things have seemed off kilter for any of you, hopefully they will flow more easily now. But the period right at the beginning and end of retrograde motion seem to be particularly powerful.

Last night in Salt Lake we were held up from going onstage as a piece of equipment which the lighting guys use to communicate to the "follow spot" operators - the spotlights that pick us out individually - was not working, and then towards the end of the show, after I'd let it all hang out on my solo in "When The World Is Running Down", my gear just started flipping out.

I had no idea what was going on - I just knew that the squealing sound emitting from my amplifiers was unintentional and not good!

I bypassed all my effects and plugged directly into my old Ampeg amplifier, with a guitar cable. Totally old school!
Nothing wrong with that mind you. At least I was up and running through the end of the show, though at about one quarter of the volume.

When the gear was set up today, there was no problem - which sometimes can be the worst kind of problem, because you don't know what it was, or if and when it might return.

But I attribute it to the foibles of Mercury's energetic effects - it's last throes of retrogradation. Good riddance!

Anyway, we received another fine review this morning in the Salt Lake Tribune. When things start going belly up onstage, the key is to not let on too much to the audience, which can be hard, because most of the time it's not that obvious.

And now to bed. I'm under the weather and losing my voice - the ultimate ironic manifestation of Mercury's communication roadblocks!

We have a day of rest tomorrow, Wednesday, and I'm sure I'll be fine by the time we travel to Columbia, Missouri.

Shane.