30th day sober. So today is Memorial Day, which is somehow needed along with Veterans Day, which is on November 11th, originally Armistice Day, the day on which, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, a silence fell over the trenches of Europe.
It's really warm out there so I don't feel like doing any more traveling than I can avoid.
I was actually going to go to bed at about 2AM last night, but then, amazingly, I found "A Bronx Tale" on Youtube. It was only in 240p but most of the stuff I watch is 480p and even 240p is far better than those old tube TVs so it was fine. I'd wanted to see that movie for the longest time, and thought I'd have to buy it on DVD to see it. So I stayed up and watched it; it was really good.
I got up, had vitamins and sunflower seeds, fixed up a big egg salad and had a pour-over coffee, and eventually got out of here not with my banjo on my knee but with my trumpet on my back.
I went up to H Mart and got a bunch of stuff, including a 6-pack of 0% alcohol Heineken, which was $11! I'll try it once, I decided. My shopping came to $46 and change, not surprising considering I bought Brazil nuts and some coffee pour-overs and dried shrimp and such pricey things.
I rode to Tom's place and knocked on the door, although not that loudly. He seemed to either not be there or passed out asleep or something. I opened one of the "beers" and tried it; it was OK. So I futzed around playing things on the trumpet and eventually started to pack up when I noticed a bum circulating around.
I had the trumpet case halfway zipped up when Tom went into the side yard to use the porta-john there. He'd been inside watching TV. So we hung out and talked and I gave him a "beer" and eventually he got his trumpet out and I tried to walk him through "Amazing Grace" with a small amount of success. But mostly we just shot the shit for a long time. He'd not been practicing, and was not interested, it seemed, in practicing at least when I'm there with him. (One of the things I'd learned to love when taking lessons were the times my teacher would play along so we were playing together.)
When it was becoming time to go, he got back into offering me $100 to watch the place, and the various requirements like I'm to walk the side yard daily and so on (assuming he was good for the $100 which I think he's not, it means $10/day for a lot of responsibility) but it felt to me like he was going to "zoom" me like I'd been "zoomed" so often at the Gilroy place: Get promised pay for doing something, do it, and the pay never materializes. I told Tom about a couple of these instances and why I don't want to do it, and he said those were "insults". So I told him when I smell trouble I take off the other way, and I'm not, just plain not, interested. And I took off.
I'm not sure it's worth it even trying to teach him to be a busker because he's not willing to put any practice in. I'd told him more than once about putting something semi-entertaining on YouTube on, then practicing while halfway watching it, both as a way to make practice a bit less boring and as a way of making sure practicing was done for the length of the show. And I'd said he ought to work on "Saints" and "Amazing Grace" because they're easy, essential, songs but he's not done 'em.
So .... I dunno. I'm beginning to think I should not spend so much time on the guy. I'm better off spending time on my own practice and, when things have settled down, getting back out there.
No comments:
Post a Comment