Chickenhawk

 I took the day off yesterday to do some reading. I read "The Death Of Ivan Ilych" which was fairly good; I think I'll need to re-read it a few times to see if there are any subtleties I missed. I think it's just about how a middle-class guy, dying, sees his life and the lives of his friends and family as being fake and everyone having these layers of fakeness. The only two "genuine" characters in the novel are a Russian peasant servant who helps him not out of a desire for higher pay or anything, but because in the Russian peasant world, if a person is ill, you help them. You help them without judgement and without stint, and that includes with the more unpleasant things. The other genuine character is Ivan's "schoolboy" son, who, in Ivan's last days when most are staying away from him, picks up Ivan's hand and put it to his face and kisses it. 

I wonder if J. D. Salinger read this book? I have to assume he did, as it's one of those must-reads for educated people and in fact I got it because Morris Berman said or some idiotic TV pundit or another that those kind of people have never read it. That stung, as I'd not read it either and ordered it right away. 

I then started in on "The Conquest Of Bread" by Kropotkin and got in a few chapters. Amazing how a book written over 100 years ago can be dead-on about things happening now. Kropotkin even describes the behavior of the insurrectionists at the Capitol and that's pretty impressive for only 3 chapters in. 

But I decided I'd had enough deep truths for one day, and got out my copy of "Chickenhawk" by Robert Mason, about flying helicopters in Vietnam. I'd read it back in the late 80s, as a paperback I'd bought for a dollar or two from the Anchor Book Store in Costa Mesa. And I'd only bought it because my best friend at the time was an older guy who'd flown helicopters in Vietnam. I remembered it as being very interesting. 

So except for one short period online to check up on Ebay, I just read yesterday and last night. Chickenhawk is a hell of a book, and I did some looking around and have ordered the sequel. Some say they liked it better than the first. 

Today I woke up around 9, lay in bed until about 9:30 and listened to the first service at the temple and then the 2nd. Apparently this weekend they normally hold a Scout Service and the temple is full of Boy Scouts but of course now it's all empty. So there was some Scout stuff mixed in like who earned the Peace Award and the Dharma Award and what were the qualities of a Buddhist Scout. Rinban Sakamoto mentioned that he'd been a Scout too, but didn't mention if he made Eagle. If he made Eagle I'd be even more impressed than I already am by the guy, and he's probably too modest to say it if he did. But if I stick with the temple as I should, I'll find out. 

I went to YouTube while getting some breakfast down me, and for some reason the algorithm pointed me toward a longish interview with Eric Miyashiro, one of the world's great trumpet players. It was really interesting. He started playing at about 3, his father being a trumpeter in the Royal Hawaiian Band, and for him it was just trumpet, trumpet, trumpet. And even he ran into difficulties, in the interview he admits at one point not being able to play. For years! Trumpeter Bobby Shew helped him out and lent him his horn, and it still took him a few years to be able to play again. I learned a lot about what wrecks trumpet players just from that interview. And thus, I learned that I can find a path to come back to trumpet, if I like. 

But I don't, really. To stick with it takes really, really, loving the trumpet and I don't love it that much and I don't think it's a good fit for back in Hawaii. Trumpet is very haole, "Look at me! Look at me!" while the local values, as I've stated, are very different. 

I've actually thought about getting a sax a few times recently. But saxes are very complicated with all those keys and with saxes come sax problems. And anything I play into my retirement years has to be something I can play in that sea air in Waikiki ... 

I thought about my old Shakuhachi Yuu, which is a cast plastic shakuhachi that's pretty good for beginners and just about indestructible. But I'd sold it, to a guy in Israel, who never got it anyway. I told him to check with his country's Customs. 

I considered getting another one, or the "enhanced" Yuu that's gone over by a noted shakuhachi maker here in the Bay Area and reportedly better but also about $500.  I ended up going on Amazon and found a rather decent bamboo one, made by a maker in Taiwan who's got good reviews. And it was about $225 shipped which is what a plastic Yuu would. 

In the past I made reference to my "shakuhachi-strengthened voice"  because playing a shakuhachi really trains the breath. In all cases I want to train my breath and voice, and even do a lot of deep-breathing when I wake up. 

So I've got this thing coming in and I can try it and if I decide it's a hunque of junque I can always return it. I can consider it a "voice trainer" and if I get good enough to busk on it, it's 1000X better than being seen with some piece of plastic. 

I made a quick trash disposal/bubble mailer/grocery run, leaving at 4 and getting back at 5:30.  It was nice and quiet out there because even the bums have found some way to watch a football game that's on today.