Back on my wheels

 I got 15 things listed last night and some good shinobue practice in. The "trick" of popping into the higher octave isn't one of strength or force at all, but one of finesse. It's just a matter of developing the feel, through lots of practice. Those old trumpet habits have got to go! 

I emailed the guy who keeps trying to sell a Yamaha flute who's out in Scotts Valley or somewhere, and  I said we'll have to schedule a meet-up at the big thrift store, Salvation Army or Goodwill, I forget which, that the bus that does the loop (every other #17 bus) goes by, because it's a huge landmark and I can find it. I expect it to be an ordeal but for a made-in-Japan Yamaha for $200 that's a step up from a basic one, I'm willing to do it. 

I plan to go home with 2-3 silver flutes and a shinobue or two. As for the shakuhachi, that can wait. I discovered right off that the silver flute is harder, and the shinobue is every bit as worthy an instrument as the shakuhachi while being smaller and having a neat, piercing tone. The shakuhachi can wait and I no longer want to buy that souped-up Shakuhachi Yuu from Monty Levenson, as I'll wait and get a bamboo one back in Hawaii. The main thing is to get good at flute *in general*. 

What convinced me of this change? Seeing a classical flutist just kill it on the shakuhachi and viewers on YouTube were quick to say her embouchure was a bit too tight and indeed it was, to do the tone-wavering techniques well, but she played very well, coming from a classical flute background. And the shinobue is just ... neat. There's a guy named Kano on YouTube who plays well and does mini-lessons.

The Internet is nowhere near as fast or functional as it was 20 years ago, and the decay proceeds apace. I have gotten good at memorizing URLs and typing them in, in full, because bookmarking died with Netscape. And slow, geez! I had to restart my computer to get it to speed up a bit, to get the Ebay listings in. 

I slept until 3, decided I'm gonna sleep some more, and woke up at around 6. I'd really been hoping to go to sleep and get awakened by a summer thunder storm but no such luck. We *do* have, normally, these summer storms with rain, but last summer there wasn't anything, really, and the summer before there were only virga.