Tuesday, May 28, 2013

I Haven't Blogged For Days (4 Days)...

Living The Dream
It is Tuesday; the day after Memorial Day.
I am going to have to abridge.
I was just too busy living the dream to stop and write about it...,
I have been making some money, recently; and I think the new better sounding guitar with the new strings and the new hat all factor into the equation.
Sunday night, I got to St. Louis and Royal streets just as Tanya Huang was packing up.
I Meet Balil
There was a well dressed older black man with a guitar and an amp who was ready to take the spot.
We started jamming together as Tanya rode off.
The song was "Big River," by Merle Haggard?
He was very complimentary of my guitar playing; and wound up giving me the 20 dollars which he had seeded "our" basket with. This was after asking me if I was homeless.
The Barbeque
Dibs On The Ribs
Brian

Before that, I had spent the afternoon at Brian Hudson, (and Amanda Zapps) house; where they were having a barbeque.
Good food; good conversation; but no music was performed; although there were other musicians there, notably, Christina Friis. I guess it was a barbeque and not a sing along....
Christina
Amanda
Saturday, I made about 30 dollars the entire day, which began in the early afternoon and, between breaks, lasted until early Sunday morning.
I slept on the NOLA side of the river in the old spot where Sue (the Colombian lady) and I used to sleep. That put me right up the road from Brians house when I woke up late in the morning, and walked to the barbeque.
Rob And The Violin
Ron, (the surfer) who is one of the three who camp under the cedar trees on the Algiers side of the river, had a violin with him Friday night.
He said that someone had walked up; to him as he sat on a porch nearby where he was working on remodeling a house; and handed him the brand new thing in a brand new case.
I wanted to try to play it; but he seemed very reluctant to hand it to me; as if it were made out of fine crystal.
I asked him if I could borrow it for a day/.
I wanted to show it to Tanya; let her play it and assess it as far as its quality and playability etc.
Rob was hesitant and tried to change the subject.
I later found out that Rob had gotten the violin from Tanya and Dorise; after it was given to them by someone who asked them to pass it on to a child or someone who doesn't have an instrument.
I guess Rob was there at the right time and, after telling the duo that he was a "fiddle" player, they gave it to him, even though, when he played something on it; it became clear to Dorise that "he can't play it."
Now Rob is talking about selling the violin; after busking Saturday night with it and making no money.
Tanya and Dorise were mildly upset to hear that Rob was trying to sell something that he had convinced them that he wanted so badly.
The fact that Rob fabricated the story about where he had gotten it; was peculiar also.
Was he thinking that I was going to say: "Hey, they promised ME the next violin that they came across!!"?

2 comments:

  1. I'm saving up for a violin myself. I went to Kamimoto Strings today to check 'em out, but I don't think it's the Kamimoto family any more, I think they got bought out by some Chinese folks, and they're Meh, not the legendarily friendly bunch the Kamimotos apparently were.

    My old "home" violin shop is Heaney Violins. I can rent a violin there on a handshake, since the owner is a personal friend. So I might get one there.

    It takes time to learn it, you don't press down *nearly* has hard as on guitar or even uke, and the vibrato is done completely differently too. The biggest hurdle is learning the bow. And in fact bowing is the heart and soul of violin playing, and you will always be working on better bowing as long as you play it.

    But the positives are it's small and easy to carry, and sounds better than, well, anything when you think about it. A *good* violinist or fiddler can make bank.

    So if you can get ahold of a violin, you might want to try putting some time into learning to play it.

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  2. Yeah, Rob is going to sell the thing because he never plays it and he priced it at 300 bucks on e-Bay; I'm hoping Tanya will buy it from him and sell it to me in installments along with giving me lessons; she said "aww, I could have given you lessons!" after I told her that I would have really wanted it;
    The only matter is: how is Tanya going to buy back something which she gave to him scott free without losing face or committing some other Chinese no-no?

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