R. LeBeaux – Latent Hippie, Writer, and General Doofus

R. LeBeaux · Wed Sep 07, 2011 11:42 am

First, I guess I should say that R. LeBeaux is a pen name. The real person behind the pen is a semi-mature latent hippie, former Rock musician, writer, editor, graphic artist, music producer, publisher, and wood sculptor. Over the past 30 years or so, I have published nearly 2,000 articles that have appeared in over 30 national and international publications. I also once served as editor/publisher of a leisure sports magazine, and as Marketing Director for a large billiard equipment manufacturer. For the past five years or so, I have concentrated mainly on novel writing, Web design, graphic artwork, and music production. I have so far published two novels, with three more in various stages of editing, and am in the process of producing a music CD of my own compositions.

I can’t really say I have any hobbies, since I love my work and spend nearly ten hours a day, seven days a week at it. Fact is, were I independently wealthy, I would still do what I now do and would think of these activities as full-time hobbies.

I am a voracious reader and, with the exception of watching a few sports and PBS programs on TV, I spend what few hours I have away from the computer reading everything from fiction to philosophy and scientific theory. My favorite authors include: John Irving, Tom Robbins, Christopher Moore, Nick Hornby, Phillip Roth, Paul Theroux, Robert M. Pirsig, Douglas Adams, Christopher Buckley, Kurt Vonnegut, William Styron, Tim Dorsey, Max Barry, Steve Toltz, Audrey Niffenegger, Theodore Sturgeon, Isaac Asimov, Fritjof Capra, Stephen Hawking, and a few dozen others.

I was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, however, my family moved to St. Petersburg, Florida when I was one year old, and I have lived on-and-off in the West Central Florida area ever since. I have done a good bit of traveling in my life, at first as a Rock musician with various bands, and later moving around the South and Midwest as a manufacturer’s representative and marketing specialist. Today, I live near the Gulf of Mexico in a small Pasco County town, sharing space with my youngest son and my antisocial parakeet, Bird.

Though I don’t have a lot of extra time, I do hope to contribute to the forums here as often as possible, and I look forward to interacting with others when I feel my contributions can be of value.

Sincerely,
R. LeBeaux
http://www.rlebeaux.com/

Chris OConnor · Thu Sep 08, 2011 12:26 am

Welcome to BookTalk.org!

What instrument do you play? I'm a novice drummer with a Yamaha DTXpress III.

R. LeBeaux · Thu Sep 08, 2011 9:27 am


	Chris OConnor wrote: Welcome to BookTalk.org! What instrument do you play? I'm a novice drummer with a Yamaha DTXpress III.

My standard reply to that question used to be, “Anything if it isn’t a horn,” but really my preferred instrument was always the guitar. I grew up in the very early days of Rock ‘N’ Roll, studied classical voice, violin and piano as a child, then made the almost instant transition to the guitar when Rock was born. Along the way I played drums, bass, and keyboards as well, and oddly ended up mostly as a Rock vocalist and organist (Hammond B3 with two Leslie speakers). The organ bit came about because it was the most filling of instruments, which allowed for smaller club bands and more lucrative money splits. Plus, I was also into R&B for a long time in what I like to refer to as the “Ray Charles era.”

Still, guitar was always my first love, and on the side, for my own enjoyment, I played and wrote Folk music. I also worked for several years in the ‘70s as a luthier, building classical guitars and doing repairs and restoration of all manner of stringed instruments at my own shop in Pinellas Park, called the Guitar Workshop of Florida.

Today, arthritis in my left hand has restricted my ability to play guitar, but not keyboards, so I have learned to “play” numerous instruments (including guitar) on a MIDI keyboard controller, upon which I compose and put together digital music productions on the computer, using programs like ProTools, Reason, Melodyne and others.

Talk about making a short story long. I probably could have given a one-word answer: “guitar,” but I suffer from that old writer’s curse: wordiness.

Chris OConnor · Thu Sep 08, 2011 9:42 am

Actually, I appreciate the wordiness so don't worry about it. LOL

Do you know of any decent places to watch live music in the Tampa Bay area? I live in Clearwater/Largo.

R. LeBeaux · Thu Sep 08, 2011 9:53 am


	Chris OConnor wrote: Actually, I appreciate the wordiness so don't worry about it. LOL Do you know of any decent places to watch live music in the Tampa Bay area? I live in Clearwater/Largo.

Sorry, but I don't get out much. It's been years since I was in the club scene, and due to some physical limitations, I can no longer handle crowds, so I don't attend concerts in person anymore (I do have dozens of them on DVD, however). I can say that Downtown St. Pete is a great place for free concerts and other performances, plus the area is really funky (in the good sense), with tons of unique restaurants, art galleries and other stuff within walking distance. If you've been here for long, this is probably old news, but just in case, I thought I would mention it.

Chris OConnor · Thu Sep 08, 2011 10:18 am

I don't do clubs either. I'm going on 43 years old in a few days and I'm just not comfortable in that environment anymore. I guess I was more interested in more upscale places with jazz or blues bands.

20 years ago I spent some time in New York City and I was blown away by the music scene. My friend and I went into Manhattan one night and we walked into a small place called Terra Blues. Outside a sign said "bring your own axe." The friend I was with had next to no appreciation for the experience but I was in awe of the musicians that went up and played one after the other. I could tell that these guys were the up and coming greats. I'm not sure who I heard that night as we were only there for an hour (my friend got bored) but I bet there were some people that ended up making it far.

I'd love to find a place here in Tampa Bay for great music.

R. LeBeaux · Thu Sep 08, 2011 10:40 am

Got a ton of music stories, but most would probably bore people to death, because they really only have meaning to die-hard musicians and to myself. Maybe you should think about starting a forum specifically for musicians and music lovers. By the way, speaking of that, I wonder if you could tell me how to embed a YouTube link. I went to one music thread ("Share songs and music videos that move you emotionally") and tried several things, but none of them worked (that is, with the video thumbnail or graphic interface showing up). I know it can be done, because a couple of the responses in that thread included the YouTube graphic, but I can't seem to figure out how to do it. Judging from my experiences with Facebook, posting music videos, whether existing or newly created by the poster, is a tremendously popular thing, and a music forum that encourages this might just attract some additional members.

Avid Reader · Thu Sep 08, 2011 2:20 pm


	R. LeBeaux wrote: Maybe you should think about starting a forum specifically for musicians and music lovers.

I would go for that!

Chris OConnor · Thu Sep 08, 2011 10:45 pm

Here is how you embed a YouTube video.

Find the video you want at YouTube .com and then copy the URL of the video.

Create a post where you want to place the video.

Then. look up above the text box where you type the body of your message and you will see a row of buttons: album, gvideo, hr.... youtube

Click on the YouTube button and you will see some code appear on the screen. Your cursor will be between the code. Paste the URL between the opening and closing tags.

It looks like this...


	Code: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl9NkY6_IMY[/youtube]

By the way this video is of Keb Mo. I'm going to see him in concert in February. I had never even heard of Keb Mo till I was checking out the Ruth Eckerd Hall website. After watching a video or two I thought it would be a great show.

Here is the video.

R. LeBeaux · Fri Sep 09, 2011 10:24 am

Thanks, Chris. For some reason (early onset dementia, I guess), I never noticed the YouTube option. I tried inserting the link directly and also using the URL command, but not the YouTube. That video was great; I love the dobro, and have actually been using some dobro lately in some of my productions (via live samples, on the MIDI keyboard, using the program Reason). Keb Mo is the real deal, about as authentic as they come nowadays.

Kevin · Sun Sep 11, 2011 8:03 pm

Howdy, Sir! ~ since you're a general I'm on my best behavior ~ Generals... they're the ones with the most ridiculous looking uniforms, right? Well, if you're still interested in posting some videos I'd like to see them. EDIT: and give a 'Howdy!" to Bird for me.

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