After talking with Ken and sorting out the stuff he left and taking some stuff apart and all the things I did, I didn't list anything last night. And only did a few octave exercises.
I woke up at about 2:30 and went to the bank to deposit my check, and things added up at least on the left side of the decimal point which is fine.
Then since I'd gotten an early start I rode over to Willow Glen to check it out. It's kind of like Mountain View, a "main drag" (Lincoln) with a lot of shops and things. And I saw a guy sitting in front of a classic movie theater (that seems, from the sign, to feature more little farmer's markets than movies these days) with a guitar. So I went over to check him out, and we got talking.
I also got coughing; one of those little bits of fluff from the trees got me again and it was looking like it'd be quite a coughing fit so I excused myself and went into the BevMo a few doors down and got a 3-pack of Underberg for a little over $6. It's a "bitters" and is mainly anise and a bunch of other stuff like gentian violet, in alcohol. It's weird, good, and strong. And I've learned alcohol fixes these coughing fits.
I went back over to the guy, sipping my Underberg and offered him one too but he didn't want it. We talked about Gabriel the violinist. From the sound of it, ha ha, his using a boom box to accompany his violin and his being so thin-skinned and having a temper, got him kicked out of town. It was sort of a consensus that he was no longer welcome. I said I knew about his being thin-skinned and emotional, and had gotten to know him when he played in downtown San Jose.
The guitar guy is fairly good, pretty quiet, and not quite all there. He said he's had a stroke. His name is Mike. He talked about confronting Gabriel and saying "this wood block" meaning the one he has there to put his foot on in good classical guitar style "will be toothpicks" after Gabriel had said to him, about the front of the theater, that "this is my spot".
Whose spot it is, is a continual question in busking. Generally it's accepted that whoever's there first, has it. But if it's a really lucrative spot, and say another busker you're at least friendly with comes up, you might give it up to him. And some buskers become known for playing at a certain spot, like Red the flute player in front of the now-defunct theater on Paseo de San Antonio in downtown San Jose, or Leroy with his sax, playing in front of the now-long-gone Johnny Rockets.
I was just dead chuffed to see a busker at all, and told old Mike how they'd become extinct everywhere else. He said he's out there partially for the tips and partially just to practice and socialize. It sounded like he doesn't need the money. There's a certain group of people in this area, who were working in electronics back in the 60s and 70s, when there was real money in it, even for a bench tech. They bought their $10k houses and settled in and stayed, and now they're sitting on a million or two. Mike's probably one of those. I was still going to drop a tip but he didn't have anything out to put one in.
After talking with Mike, I went across the street where there was a guitarist and a violinist and got talking with them. The guitarist was also a saxophonist, and I talked about my trumpet playing, and explained that Adolphe Sax, in inventing the saxophone, had wanted something with the agility of a woodwind and the power of a brass instrument. He'd just told the violinist that, before I'd come up.
So I've got a few friends down there now. Mike, although he's a bit "tetchy", and the violinist/guitarist pair. The violinist even mentioned "I ought to try the shakuhachi" and mentioned some riff he's heard someone do on one, and I said stuff like that is possible because the shakuhachi has a relatively large bore and there are some notes you can bend a whole note from.
So as I say, Willow Glen is an interesting place to hang out, and I can get there on my bike, as opposed to going to Mountain View which pretty much requires the light rail, CalTrain, or the #22, preferably the #522, bus.
I came back by way of Nijiya where I got a few things, and then got back here. I unloaded and then went to the bountiful dumpster where I found a few things, and since I'd gotten there at 7:30 instead of 8, was noticed by an Asian guy who was going in and out of there. He gave me a look but I get the impression he doesn't care as long as I don't make a mess. I made a point of picking out some pieces of packing foam while he was around.
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