I listed 10 things last night, and did some practice, emphasizing pieces rather than just lone tones although I did a fair amount of that too. The "genki" shakuhachi channel's latest advice is that I may have been trying to play with my mouth too far from the utaguchi edge, using sheer power more than technique so I want to work on that more, playing closer without it messing up the sound.
When Ken had come over, of course I'd had to grab the ukulele and stash it away upstairs where it would be safe. And at the end of my day all I had the energy for was some shakuhachi practice.
I'd even talked a bit with Ken about my choice of things to do, that I'd noticed quite a demand for sign painters and had considered turning the loft into a sign painting studio, but what gets me is doing signs even at a modest level involves having to have a lot of space and deal with a lot of materials.
And back in Hawaii, I can't guarantee to have much space at all. Plus unless you are Pacific Islander or Japanese (don't be Korean!) if you are selling anything in Waikiki and a physical object and money change hands, you *are* going to jail. But music is OK. I've seen videos of buskers in Waikiki and they don't care what race you are, because with music no physical object and money are exchanged. Somehow music must be considered "above" the racial laws because they could still chase anyone white-appearing out, but they don't.
And that I'd chosen trumpet because it's easy to be heard, doesn't take an amp, and is pretty durable. Any instrument that's used in marching band is going to work pretty well. And an instrument being small like a trumpet at largest is best because you never know when you'll have to grab it and run.
This is my world; so different from Ken's. When I'd come in last night and Ken was here, one of the first things I'd said to him was, Why does he still work so hard when he's going to be selling this business off once I'm gone? I'd said that the concept of work you like is almost incomprehensible to me, being in the working-class. If you're working-class, it's a matter of what kind of work do you hate a bit less than the others.
This is probably why wandering samurai chose the shakuhachi, because it's sturdy, small and easy to carry, can even be used as a weapon in a pinch, and since there were no cars in those old days, could be heard just fine.
I'd slept a bit more soundly than I've been, and woke up with just enough time to pack two heavy things that I'd have packed last night if Ken hadn't come by. It was not raining although it looked like it had, a bit, and other than the two boxes being heavy (one was 60 lbs) it all went well, and I even had a pretty decent haul of packing stuff, gathered on my way back.
The big news right now is that a pallet fire under one of the overpasses of Insterstate 10, in Los Angeles, has actually weakened the overpass making it off limits until they fix it. They're still trying to figure out exactly how the fire started although you have to wonder why it was allowed to stack tons of pallets there.
There were apparently homeless camps there too so it's pretty much a slam dunk that the homeless started it. First, if you're homeless you're required to smoke. It's some kind of law of the universe, along with having at least one ugly, preferably "poke and stick" tattoo. But even supposedly middle class people who get the zombie virus and turn into homeless, will turn out to have one or more tattoos. But yes, they all smoke, tobacco at a minimum but in most cases just about anything. They'd smoke dog shit if it would burn.
Between the smoking and the camp fires and their propensity to burn each others' tents when they're fighting which is just about always, where you've got homeless, you've got fires.
This would not be worth writing about even on this blog with a readership of zero, except I-10 is a really major freeway. It goes from the West Coast all the way out to Louisiana at least. And Reddit chatter shows that lots of people are paying attention and it's now opened to their thinking that if you really wanted to fuck things up, for protest or whatever, get a good fire going under a freeway overpass. Homeland Security had better be paying attention to this also. The railroads know what's up and they don't allow huge masses of pallets and giant hobo camps on their property.
Today's freebees: a large green bell pepper from the veggie dumpster and although I didn't take them, something like 36 cans (3 12-packs) of Coke and Diet Coke. The workers were there at the vending machine place and the guy there said "You can have them" and I said that it's funny, I don't like Diet Coke but I like Coke Zero and that probably "said" that I wasn't in the market for regular Coke. He said "But it's aluminum" and I said I don't collect metal, I collect shipping supplies since I ship things all over, and in fact leave metal out for others to pick up, by my shop.
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