Thinking long-term

 154th day sober. I fiddled around with a lot of Ebay stuff but didn't actually list any, so I've got to go through the rest of that box and list something like 2X the number of things tonight. That's no problem because it's a bunch of small pump/fluidics stuff. 

I almost wonder if I've got whatever Ken had that made him tired. I've had a very stuffy nose, lots of "junk" up there. Ken's not been stuffy, but in his case he'd be popping decongestant pills, which often have the side effect of ... making one tired. 

With buying the "Bunnell" violin and other spending, I've spent the whole of last week's pay check, but spending my entire check used to happen all the time when I was drinking. 

I think I've been thinking more long-term, and where able to simply go out there - I was particularly enthusiastic when powered by a good strong coffee stout - and crank out Saints and Amazing Grace and the usual things was satisfactory, I'm finding it no longer is. 

My inner dream has been to be able to play the guitar solos I grew up hearing, stuff from bands like The Eagles and Pink Floyd and Steely Dan and Cream and so on. Now, most will agree those guitar solos are tricky enough on *guitar* but my inner concept of where I wanted to end up was to be able to play them on the trumpet. I know hotshot classical players could do this. I have no doubt anyone good enough to be in one of the military bands could do it, if they wanted to. I don't know why more players don't want to. A lot of the material, I think, is the classical music of our day and will be considered so in the distant future if there is a distant future for us. 

But it's becoming plain to me that, at least on trumpet, this is not in my future. I'm making a little progress just from playing more, but it's really, really slow. I'm not gaining any lung capacity (I checked on the Voldyne) and it's really annoying having things so dependent on the condition of my lips. I suppose they got slightly chapped the last time I was out playing and maybe that's why higher notes were shutting off. It's a unique problem with brass instruments, this difficulty with higher notes. 

Now that I've done it for a couple of months, going out and performing on trumpet can be "fun" in terms of money, but it's not really all that fun musically. It's too difficult for me to "get around" and try new pieces, and out in public I seem to be limited to E in the top of the staff as a practical upper limit. 

The prospect of being back home, playing trumpet out there on "the strip" in Waikiki is starting to seem really kind of un-fun. There's even a Pidgin term, "tanturan" which means the sound of a trumpet, to mean being a braggart, boastful, making yourself all high-muckamuck. There may even be a ban on brass instruments on the strip, as some places don't ban busking per se, but will ban, say, brass and drums. I remember Sonny Beethoven had to get into a big lawsuit to play his saxophone, which is loud and *made* out of brass... 

Needless to say uke's safe, and so's the guitar since "slack key" guitar is a big thing back home (if only the "Hawaiian" restaurants here on the mainland knew that and stopped playing that Caribbean shit) and with the predominantly Asian population, there's no way the string family's going to be under a black cloud. I heard a *very* loud violin in Waikiki once, but I think it was amplified and that might be out, but other than that, it would be no problem. 

I got going for downtown at 6. I went to Dai Thanh first and got things, then Da Kao and got some boiled peanuts which I ate over in the little park. I got talking with a skater guy who was there with his friends, and told him about the area behind the library, but it turns out the security there really comes down hard on skaters, while for some reason breakdancing is OK. We agreed that makes no damn sense. I got to tell a couple of funny stories about being a skater kid back in Hawaii too. 

Then I rode over to the book store, where I had some credit. It turns out they have a ton of violin books along with their tons of piano books and tons of guitar books. The credit I had paid for 3 different violin beginner books. One's by the author of String Builder and the other two just looked good to have. I learned this with math books back in college; each one explains things a little differently. 

Then I went over to Whole Foods and did some shopping. There's a superspreader event being held at the SAP Center because the virus is not gonna just spread itself, but this had no influence on how busy Whole Foods was. It was not all that busy, and it looked like a busker *could* make some money there but it'd be like it's been, play for 2 hours and make maybe $30. With all the pumpkins stacked there and the bike racks, it'd be hard to even be seen, and people might not know where the music's coming from - a loud car radio maybe? This is a problem Red the flute player had. He'd hide in a niche, almost, and play while standing stock-still. And he played what really sounded like the background music of a coffee shop or hotel lobby, so I think a lot of people didn't realize there was an actual person playing actual, live, music there. 

With my shopping done, I rode back past SAP Center and the superspreader event was just getting really started, with huge crowds on the sidewalks and in line, and many sellers of "danger dogs" ready to give people food poisoning if the covid isn't enough. I then turned left at San Pedro and rode through San Pedro Square, and while the restaurants were somewhat busy, there were no buskers and even the usual line-up of beggars were not there. 

It really looks like busking is going extinct in San Jose. I might keep it sputtering along when/if I go back out there, but I'm leaving in 2024 if not earlier. I have to believe Gabriel is still out there, playing earlier in the day like the lunch hour. Maybe that's what's happened to Leroy; he's playing the lunch shift now.