127th day sober. I got Ebay things ready to list but ended up not listing them - too tired. I practiced, and worked on high notes as always. I worked on "free buzzing" which is buzzing the lips without a mouthpiece, and playing while paying attention to the lips not rolling out. I worked out a high note version of "Red River Valley" which is good for practicing high notes and sounds nice.
I was up at 2, packed the oscilloscope, and was out the door with it and two other packages at 5. Those went to FedEx and I picked up packing stuff on the way home.
It made no sense as I'd put in my 3 evenings for this week, but I wanted to busk tonight because any other thing I could do seemed like it would be really boring. So I packed up the trumpet and headed for downtown at about 6.
My first stop was Lee's where I got some sweet rice with pork and chicken on top, and for some reason like they're about to close, a croissant for free. So dinner was $3.50.
I rode over to where the concert was being held - it was partway into Rhapsody In Blue - and picked out a place on the grass and sat down and ate while listening to the music. It was fun because I could listen for different instruments like the bass fiddles as it's easier to pick out each instrument than it is from a recording. There were some opera arias and then a great piece by Tchaikovsky and then they finished with Hungarian Dance No. 1 by Brahms. Those last two were just terrific. No mics, no amps, no mixing board, just a lot of people playing purely acoustic instruments and all in balance and sounding wonderful.
After that was done I rode over to Whole Foods and got a can of coffee and one of those elderberry shots because that stuff seems to help me when I'm feeling a bit "off" and I kind of was. The air quality's been around 80-100 so that's no surprise.
I started playing at 7:45 which meant I "had" to play until 9:45. I decided the rule for tonight would be I can't play anything I've played there before. One piece that went over well was "Blowin' In The Wind" which I decided I really kind of liked. I now have a low version and a high version, the low version sounding more "noble" and the high one more "sweet". I've decided it's a significant song because if things really go to shit, one thing we're going to see is significant changes in the atmosphere, its present composition only being maintained by the "pumping" action of a living and healthy biosphere. If that sickens, the answer will truly be blowing in the wind. I also worked out "Tiny Bubbles" with a little valve thing to make it sound funny but ... that's still not bubbly enough so I need to figure out how to make it sound bubblier or drunker or something.
At the end of the 2 hours I'd made $34.35, not bad for playing stuff I was mostly fumbling around with and it being such a dead night. It was *really* dead on the ride home.
No comments:
Post a Comment