Barking downtown.

Last evening we went downtown to play music on the sidewalk. We are not the only folks who play downtown. There are many regulars and others who show up now and then. There is unspoken etiquette among people who play. One is: “Don’t set up too near someone else,” for obvious reasons. And it’s first come, first get that spot. It’s basically dog-eat dog with some rules. No biting, etc.

Well last night we saw a spot and were going to start playing. A girl around 19 was sitting on the sidewalk near and had a “Spare Change” sign. She saw us and said, “You can’t play here!” I looked at her quizzically and asked … Continue reading ‘Barking downtown.’

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Arrr!! Last Tuesday was Talk Like a Pirate Day. Sad to say, for about half of the day, I was the only one truly celebrating it by using a pirate voice in normal dialogue. Fortunately, later on, the rest of the gang (sans Papa) caught the festive spirit and joined in.

I must say, having done throat singing for a year certainly has helped me stay in a pirate voice without hurting my throat.

But now, TLaP Day has passed and we’re all ter-r-r-r-ribly sad. Arrrrrrrggg.

The most paranormal experience of my young life

I don’t know if I’ve ever questioned my sanity so strongly as I did a couple Fridays ago. I was headed down to the Ideal Bar and Grill (on the beach) to play with Robert Lowery and Virgil Thrasher, two great local blues musicians whom I’ve played with a number of times. I got home late from playing on the mall with the family so I grabbed our mandolin, threw it in a soft-shell case, and biked down to the beach. Robert and Virgil were there, sporting very stylin’ hats (as usual). After shooting the breeze for a while, we got ready to play, so I went to open my mandolin case… and it was locked. I had never even seen the lock that was on there. I sure didn’t lock it.… Continue reading ‘The most paranormal experience of my young life’

The Aliens Have Landed

Aliens in the sand?What are these tracks in the sand at the beach? Each morning they are there. Little space men driving their dune buggies around at night is the only thing I can imagine them to be. Sure, I thought ‘insects’ at first, but that just seemed too far fetched. Does anyone know?These are the tracks left behind at night on the beach by aliens from space… some space anyway. We can’t figure out what creature makes them. Perhaps some bug about an inch long? But where do they come from… where do they go? All of a sudden here are the ‘footprints’ and then they are gone. I still think these are made by tiny little dune buggies driven by tiny tiny aliens who land at night and zip around for awhile. Anyone other ideas?

Aww, *snap!*

While Kyle was showing a Yoshida Brothers song to Luke on the shamisen this morning:

  • Luke: It’s too modern. I prefer the traditional songs.
  • Kyle: Oh, come on.
  • Luke: It’s not that it offends me or anything, but I feel like… [sarcastically] why not just get an electric guitar and plug it in?
  • Kyle: Well, why do you play banjo and fiddle when you could just bang some steel pans together?

Global Warming: Short Term… Pain Long Term Gain?

From the ‘Gaia hypothesis’ point of view, we humans are part of Nature’s whole. Being at the top of the food chain, however, we’ve been the sole beneficiary of our time on earth. However, by returning much of the carbon sequestered under ground (oil) to the atmosphere,… Continue reading ‘Global Warming: Short Term… Pain Long Term Gain?’

Good tastin’ Bad Business

workshop.jpgCarl and Kyle gave a Playing by Ear workshop at the Good Old Fashioned Bluegrass Festival. Someone wanted to buy our Song and Learning Method book and CD. We were selling them cheap at 15 dollars to make room for our new books. The fellow only had a 20 dollar bill and I didn’t have a 5 dollar bill for change. Hmmm. . . … Continue reading ‘Good tastin’ Bad Business’

TP – Black As Night

Today, we went to a labor day jam party. It was a small size party with a lot of people that I knew. But even better, lot’s o’ food! We (meaning ‘I’) thought it was a potluck so we brought steak (marinaded in our signature sauce) to BBQ. While sampling the different food stuffs, I found some delicious guacamole (which I never used to like until recently) which I sampled with some tortilla chip-strips. Papa brought me over to the most richest brownies I’ve ever had. It wasn’t even a brownie. It was like butterscotch on top of chocolate on top of butter resting on a graham crust. It actually didn’t taste too filling until 30 minutes later when two square-inch squares were in my stomach. Ugh… I was weighed to the ground!

Well, soon after, I had to hit the office (if you know what I mean). … Continue reading ‘TP – Black As Night’

‘Greatness’

Splitting hairs and focusing on a split hair or two imparts ‘greatness’ to an ultra narrow field. This is like being a big fish in small pond. The folly here is that we infer that this ‘greatness’ exists beyond that small pond. It doesn’t. How ‘connected to the whole’ we feel is determined by our weakest link. Or perhaps our ‘strongest’, as in ‘the world recognizes the beautiful as the beautiful, yet this is only the ugly…’ and so on. Our strong side blinds us to our weak side, our Achilles heel.