My shakuhachi has sold - to a guy with a Russian name in Israel. I hope the guy does better with it than I did. The thing is, if I want to just do the breathing exercise shakuhachi-playing makes me do, I'm better off making a PVC one. And if I want to actually play shakuhachi, I'm better off spending the $500 or so for the "enhanced" one sold by Monty Levinson who's a really good shakuhachi maker who takes the already pretty good "Yuu" and makes it play like a $2500 bamboo one but with the durability of whatever kind of plastic "Yuu"'s are made of.
And I'd rather spend money on a flugelhorn anyway.
I drank too much last night and was half-awake when I heard a car sneak up, too quietly I thought, and then there was a knock on the door - it was Ken. He picked up his jacket which he'd left here, but had some really heavy "ignitron" tubes to drop off, Suzy was with him and we got to catch up on things, and I helped a bit with the tubes. They were in their, really Suzy's, "new" SUV. They'd traded in another car in their fleet they didn't like very much, and got this one because it's bigger, heavier, more expensive (another car loan) and flashier; all things suburbians love. The car they'd traded in was only very easy on gas, practical, and all paid for. No wonder they hated it.
So Ken and I put the tubes away and we all shot the shit a bit, and it was a nice visit. I explained to Ken about my bank needing me to make an appointment now, not only as conversation but to maybe prime him for some other arrangement. I might consider setting up a paypal and then Ken can just pay me by paypal.They were really awful 25 years ago, but I think they've cleaned up their act.
It's been so quiet no one even picked up a box of circuit boards I left by the trash enclosure and I had to wait until Ken was busy with something and move them into the enclosure, and then moved them back out when he was gone - he'd want to take them home or something.
I found a great company online called Behrman House which apparently does Jewish teaching materials, and downloaded and printed out a neat Hebrew alphabet chart showing the official letters that look like they were done with a brush or quill pen, then the handwritten print, and the handwritten script, showing the order and direction of the strokes to write them. They've got a bunch of games and stuff too but I'll have to download a Flash player. Who uses Flash any more? Behrman House, that's who.
They're teacher/kid oriented and have a bunch of games and stuff so while others are playing a lot of Animal Crossing, I guess I'm going to have a try at Behrman House games like "Jewpardy".
I felt awful due to last night's drinking, and by the time I was about ready to try some soft trumpet playing, it was almost 10 and the crackheads showed up and got started on their night of working on their cars all night, sweeping the parking lot (just sweeping stuff back and forth, moving imaginary stuff around) yelling, dancing around, etc. Not a good time to advertise that I'm in here.
So I set up my new little radio, the Sangean PRD-5 that I paid about $50 for on Amazon, and it's really nice.
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