A plug for sobriety.

 153rd day sober.  Ken came by last night so I got my check, and he said he's feeling better. After dropping off packing boxes and things, we hung out and talked as per usual. 

I didn't practice last night. My upper lip feels "burned" if that makes sense. Not a lot, just a little. I got up today at a bit before 3 and packed some more Ebay things and had coffee and all the usual getting-up things. I'm not going to busk today, with my lip feeling weird, a bit of a headache, my back hurting, and so on. 

I was up at about 2:30, had coffee etc, packed a couple more things, and headed out just a bit after 4. Of course my first stop was the post office downtown, then the bank to deposit my paycheck, then I had a choice: I could go over to Whole Foods and that area, do some shopping in the used book store where I have some credit, and buy some things I need in CVS, maybe stop at Lee's for some food first, or I could go visit Kamimoto Strings before they close at 5:30 and then shop at Nijiya. 

I chose the 2nd option and got over to Kamimoto's in plenty of time. The way they're doing things these days is, you go around back and ring a doorbell type button, and a guy comes out and helps you. I asked if they had the first book of the "String Builder" series, for violin. They did and I bought it. By going here and doing this I checked out if one can browse inside (they can't) I showed them that I'm not someone who wastes their time (I bought the book) and I also got to see something kind of neat: Apparently Kamimoto's, which is in a house, is on a property of 4 buildings the other three being the house "next door" and two structures behind that may have been modest houses or large workshops or something, and are now workshops for working on violins and cellos and so on. It's a pretty neat setup. 

Then I went over to Nijiya and did what I used to do: Bought a lot of groceries and stuff and also got some cash back for "walking around money". Typically on payday I got some sort of a "treat" meal and this was a bento with all kinds of goodies in it for $8, which I ate back here after putting things away. 

So, for now, no trying to out-compete the big pile of pumpkins, no dealing with zombies, etc. It was a very warm day so the zombies, as the speed of chemical reactions approximately doubles for every 10C increase in temperature, could be expected to be very active. 

So, for now, I can take some time off, until it's time for Christmas carols and then it will be Christmas trees, not pumpkins, I'll be competing with but for the month of December I could really clean up. So far, I've made just under 2 grand busking, but more importantly, by not drinking I've been saving a lot of money also. 

The biggest "profit" though has been the clarity of mind. I've been going back and re-watching a lot of YouTube videos especially the Adam Curtis ones. Even when I felt like I wasn't drinking that much, staying less drunk to stay awake to watch them, I was left thinking, "What's this guy driving at? All he's done is put together a bunch of weird footage and oddball music and mouth platitudes over it in his plummy voice". But now that I'm really and truly sober, it's been easy to see that his documentaries are pretty clear and straightforward, presenting a point, arguing for it, and summing it up at the end. 

Books have been this way too. The author Don Delillo is a superstar, but the only one of his novels I'd been able to get a handle on was "Libra", which I'd bought a copy of decades ago, at a time when I actually drank what's considered at a "normal", not alcoholic, level. I know his "White Noise" is considered by many to be his best, but I could never get it. Well, I'm working through it now and it's great. 

Likewise, I've been thinking a lot about my busking. Am I really providing music, or am I just a noisier than average beggar? Sure I get tons of thanks, but that's only because the standards for buskers are so low, and at least I'm not another bore with a scratchy voice and a guitar.  Trumpet is a "band" instrument and you get extra points with the public for playing a "band" instrument. It's a decent money-maker. But is it something I'd play for my own enjoyment? I have to say, Not really. 

First, there's the disgustingness of it. I had one of the guys at Nijiya ask me about my "Saxophone playing" and I first had to explain that I don't play the saxophone, have you see how many buttons are on those things? I play trumpet ... and he asked how many "buttons" are on a trumpet, 5? And I said there are three, really, unless you count the spit valves then I guess that's 5, and then I had to explain what spit valves are needed for... it's all pretty gross. 

And if I thought I was going to get away from that kind of thing by playing the clarinet or actually switch to the saxophone, I was sure wrong. The strange sludge that builds up in a clarinet mouthpiece is truly off-putting, and if it's getting in there you just know it's going all through the pads and stuff. It's no wonder, maybe not so much here but very much in the tropical climate of Hawaii, where I'm returning in a fairly short time, brass instruments and things like clarinets and saxes tend to stink. 

When I've been out busking, in these virus-conscious times, I'm surprised to have been making money at all, with my blowing out the spit valves every five minutes or so. Spit splatters on the pavement, yum!

Then I got around to thinking about how much fun the violin was before I got all mixed up with lessons. I was having a good time, learning to read off of music in spite of myself, and learning a bunch of songs in the book plus could pick out anything I wanted on my own. Then my teacher got me into doing these bowing exercises, bowing exercises, nothing but these long, droning, bowing exercises. I'm sure they're very good to do but I was not getting in songs and stuff so it became a lot less fun and then of course I lost everything in the crash of 08 which was really the crash of 07 for me. 

I still have no idea why my teacher put me on all those damn bowing exercises. I kind of have a theory that I may have been progressing too quickly, so that I might get handed off to another teacher in the school and that would be money out of his pocket. That or there was something really wrong with my bowing but it made me really interested in bowing technique and at most I'd have to say mine was a lot different from my teacher's as he was tall and lanky and I'm not. If the aim was to drill into me how important bowing is, well, it was a success but you've got to sprinkle some fun in there also. 

Which brings me back to why I bought book 1 of String Builder. That's the book Gabriel, my violinist friend, swears by. He was going to give me free lessons, one or two a week, in the Before Times. I'd gotten discouraged when he wanted me to do a 2-octave scale on the A string with my ring finger or some shit, and I'd looked at his hands and looked at mine and saw that his pinky is as long as my middle finger and thought, "I'm out of my league here" and decided I'm not going to play violin. 

But the truth is, he's just a bad teacher, or over-enthusiastic. A good teacher would have taught right out of String Builder, boring as that is. He also turned out to be flaky as hell because I was going to sell him my violin stuff and he never showed up when we arranged to meet, then I'd see him again and he'd have some excuse, etc. The truth of the matter is, there are better teachers on YouTube. 

So I started looking at violins online. Yamaha makes a really neat looking electric violin, and I think if I want an electric violin it would be my choice. It looks nice, has to be made well because Yamaha doesn't make junk, and from the reviews, is loud enough to be good for practicing without amplification. It's a bit over $600, which I can easily afford these days. I've made just a bit under 2 grand busking in just the two months and a week since I started here so I've paid for my trumpet, for the mouthpieces and books I've bought, and have plenty to spare. 

But I decided I want an acoustic violin because of reviewers pointing out things like, how an acoustic violin will resonate when one is in tune, and of course will make poor technique evident. It's kind of the difference between pounding away on an electronic keyboard or playing an actual piano. And if I go ahead and buy one instead of renting, I will have zero worries if I want to get some tools out and mess with the thing. 

So I've ordered a "Bunnell" violin set from Amazon from a seller called "Kennedy Violins" and should have it in about a week. It was a bit under $300, and I'd saved $100 by getting one that's a "blemished" one which means, according to their web site, anything from a funny place in the wood grain, or a scratch, or a defect in the varnish, etc. Nothing that affects playing or sound. 

So I can mess around on this thing through October and November, then if I want to, go out and compete with the Christmas trees at Whole Foods playing Christmas carols and make some money with the trumpet.