High speed

 I got things ready to list which involved "washing" these modules with Windex then rinsing with rubbing alcohol then letting my little fan-heater run on them for a while, "cooking" them dry. 

Later last night I decided to try messing with the cornet and see how hard it is to put the new "high speed" valve springs in. It turned out to be really easy. And no more bouncy valves and fighting the thing. I put the old ones in a bag I marked "slow speed" springs. Unfortunately there are some sort of cork composite washers in there that were old and brittle and I broke ones in half. 

I did a good hour of octave exercises on the flute head joint last night so that's good. Yes fingering and all that need work but I felt too tired to concentrate and that fundamental breath is ... fundamental. 

To mess around with the cornet I had to play it a bit and ... meh. I think I really am coming to like the flute sound more. The cornet felt like a clunky way to get a tune out.

Before "Red" the flute player dropped out of sight, he'd been invited and I believe paid, by the hole-in-the-wall Chinese bakery in Mountain View to play out front. Would he have been as welcome if he played a trumpet? I don't think so. Although the best trumpet player I've heard of anyone, anywhere is a Japanese guy named Kikuta-san, trumpet isn't that big in Asian cultures. Flute is. 

I could probably play by 99 Ranch Market and it'd be OK, whereas with my trumpet they'd tell me to get outta there. I could probably try playing at the big Vietnamese cultural center  I visited at Chinese New Year. As always, my rule is if I'm told to go, I go, but I'd honestly give these places a try with the flute. 

I got going around 2, dropped off trash far away from here as usual, and rode over to the O'Reilley's Auto Parts because I remembered that there's this gasket material that's made of the same stuff as the 70-year-old spacers in my cornet valves. There is, but I'd have to buy a big roll of it for $10 so I went over to Ace Hardware and found some neoprene-rubber washers that looked the right size and those only cost me $3. 

Done with that, I rode over to this row of antique stores on San Carlos and looked through them. I found one flute, not a Yamaha but a Gemeinhardt, and saw some silver coins but those were overpriced. I didn't buy anything. 

I rode back and since I went right by the Recycle Book Store and had some store credit, I went in and found a copy of Stand On Zanzibar by John Brunner. Decades ago, I'd heard of one of his other books, The Shockwave Rider, that was supposed to predict the internet and I read it hoping to be amazed and he was pretty meh. But I keep hearing about Stand On Zanzibar and it might be pretty good. 

I rode over to Whole Foods and locked up the bike and because it was the "2nd Saturday On The Alameda" there was a guy there with guitars and a mic and so on, set up in the eating area. I got a package of salami with peppercorns in it and a near-beer and went over and asked him flat out but nicely of course, how much they pay him to play. He said $200 which said was decent and we were off and talking. 

I told him about my trumpet playing and said one thing about trumpet is people can hear me "whether they want to or not" we agreed. I told him about how I was getting pretty into the flute and he said the "whole flute family" is great and we talked about other things a bit like the social scene here of which there isn't one. 

He started to play and I moved away to eat. He played some slide stuff but not "traditional" blue slide but some sort of slide playing of his own. It was OK. His name is Rusty Shackleford or something and he's local here in San Jose although he said he plays in Monterey a lot. (That's not too bad a drive, really, and if you make a wrong turn you get to explore Sand City which has ... well .... lots of sand.) 

I'd paid for my food with my card and got some groceries with cash I had, so I'm about $5 over my self-imposed limit of only spending half of my pay check, so I guess that's pretty good. One thing's true: If I'm busking with any regularity, saving tons of money is easy.