Yellow

 Ken came by last night and I got my pay check, and the Hall flute from Hall with the book of Christmas carols and cleaning rod, plus I got my new debit card which seems to be a new no-contact type which is kind of cool, I think. 

Plus some other mail, the fraud dept. at the bank says they can't reverse the $130-odd charge but at least with a change in debit card number I can't be tapped for that again. I also got a kind of weird "voter participation" thing that said something like, "How you vote isn't public record but that you voted, is" and showing my record of having voted in the last several elections and strongly hinting that I ought to vote in this one. And something about how, if Proposition 50 passes, it will be in effect until 2030. Like I don't think that's fine, even a good thing.

What I didn't get was my ballot, and talking with Suzy, Ken's wife and without whom he'd be living in a dumpster or something, it sounded like my ballot's at the house. So Ken says he'll look for it and if it's there, he'll bring it over. He said he likes to vote on the day, and I said he'd better check his polling place because it won't be just around the corner from his house like on a standard election, because I'd looked up mine which would be the same and it's Ohlone College. 

So I sad that election day being my National Holiday, if nothing else I'll take the light rail to the Milpitas transit center and then there's got to be a bus that goes to Ohlone College. Just like when I lived in Sunnyvale, there was a bus that went to Da Anza College. I'll have all day. 

Ken had picked out, he thought, the wrong special at Burger King and this one only had one burger so no burger for me. And I was hungry, so for myself I made "Burger In A Bowl" and Ken decided that would give him some time to fix the lights. Of the four possible bulbs in the two light fixtures on the ceiling of the office, one lights. So Ken messed around with bulbs and finally concluded that the ballasts are bad. 

I was done eating by then and washed my dishes and Ken and I talked for a bit and then he realized it was 20 after midnight and had to go. I had to stop him as he was about to drive off to give him his check book and a spray bottle he's left. Good old Ken! 

It was only after he'd left that I realized the bulb he's swapped in for the one that reliably lit, is YELLOW. So now the light in the office is all yellow. Now, I have one of those round, multi-LED things in a clamp-on fixture, affixed to an equipment rack and aimed at the ceiling and it's yellow, which was kind of OK because I had that nice white light from overhead, and together they made OK light for photos plus the mellow, yellow, light was kind of nice on its own in the time before bed. But now everything's yellow. 

So it's take yellow photos and live a yellow life, or find something to go into my own fixture that's white. 

I also tried The Coffee Experiment. I'm really all about these UCC pour-over things that are like a dollar apiece at Nijiya, but H Mart sells them at what works out to less than 50c apiece. And I've been using heavy whipping cream from Sprouts. So the upshot of all this is, between my iced coffee at breakfast and two coffees in the evening, that's a lot of whipping cream. And vanilla extract, which adds $1/cup I figure. And the whipping cream a bit over a dollar a day. 

So I wanted to find cheaper alternatives that also would be ... more digestible. So between 99 Ranch and H Mart, I picked up two faux-vanilla flavorings and two creamers, Coffee-Mate and an interesting Korean creamer, "Frima". 

So I tried a coffee with Frima and it's ... good! No need to try the Coffee-Mate, we all know it's kinda lousy. But Frima's quite good. It comes in a bag so I had to put it in a plastic jar that had held nuts, but that's not any problem. 

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume Frima is a copy of the venerated Japanese "Creap". I've always wanted to try Creap, which some genius decided is the perfect name for powdered cream. It's horrendously expensive here though, and only sold in small jars. First, it's Japanese so it's probably really good, secondly, the name cracks me up. It makes me think of cream, creep, and crap. I'm pretty sure Frima is essentially the same stuff. Frima's horrendously expensive online (I did far too much reading about the stuff last night) but cheap in H Mart. 

And even when I moved back home, I can get my Frima from H Mart, which there's one of in beautiful downtown Kaka'ako. 

Onward: The dragon motif on the Hall flute is even neater than I thought it would be, the cleaning rod looks handy, and the Chrismas song book is only about 22 pages with 22 songs, but it's all I'll need for busking and it's a rather nice book, good quality paper and cover. 

In the end, last night I could not keep my eyes open and went to bed w/o practicing.  

I woke up at 9AM due to my alarm clock,  packed a bunch of things and took them to the post office and FedEx, and on the way my favorite lunch truck was around and I got a plate of chicken, noodles, and veggies for $7 and ate that, knowing I won't have time to eat again until evening. 

I stopped at Lowe's and got an LED bulb that's hopefully not all yellow, but it turns out to be too big for the fixture I have. It's funny, too, because on the screen at the self checkout it asked if I wanted to put in my phone number for an easy return, and I thought that was a good idea and typed it in and then as I was paying with cash, I thought, "Wait a minute, what if this won't fit my fixture?" and decided it was a good idea I put my phone number in. 

I got back here and tried and it it's too big for the fixture I have. 

I got cleaned up and got my shakuhachi stuff together and took off for downtown. I got a coffee at Nijiya, and then headed to the bank where I deposited my pay check, and verified that I could activate my new debit card from anywhere, even sitting on the john or while wandering around the municipal golf course randomly yelling "FORE!!" just to piss people off. "Even while you're skydiving," the guy said. I said I'll do it when I'm settled down and not trying to do 13 things at once. 

I went over to Whole Foods and locked the bike and got a smaller bulb at Ace Hardware there, and a 4-pack of flashlights, two large and two small, for $20. The LED bulb was only $8 or so, so that's OK. 

I went back to Nijiya and got some tuna sashimi and an onigiri and had those with the rest of my coffee, then chewed gum to clean my mouth and went over to shakuhachi practice. That went pretty well, and this one guy, who seems to be alternately named Ken and Kevin, was there and actually could play now, he could really not the last time I saw him when the shakuhachi club was last active, an epidemic, insurrection, and Fascist near-takeover ago. 

The idea is, on Saturday, after lunch, the 10 or so of us who are playing are to file into the front area or maybe it's onto the stage in the larger building? And play our songs, being the one in the middle, the one on the right, the longer one on the left, and finally the Star Wars theme on the far-left. And then file off. 

Back here, I tried out the new bulb and it works, but the office is still kind of dim and since the outlet the fridge plugs into has one position free and LED lights don't draw much current, I need to get a 2nd fixture which I'll install in that area and that should get me about where I was before Ken "improved" the lights. 

But what really pisses me off is Ken had delivered a ballot all right - his ballot. Which I can't legally vote with. This is is. I'm done. I'll go vote in person and will change my status to someone who votes in person. I've had too much of Ken passive-aggressively interfering with my ability to vote and I'm not going to say another word about it.  Ken's ballot, along with his pocket knife, are here if he wants to pick them up and if not, that's his lookout. 

 

Cleaning it up

 I did all that stuff last night, got 15 things ready to list but then I was running up against bed-time so I put the things aside. I got some good practice in, although at the price of being up until 2AM. But I really, really need to work on the longest of the 4 songs we're playing, "Always With Me" from the movie "Spirited Away" which I've not seen yet but really want to see. 

I got out the ol' faithful "enhanced" Shakuhachi Yuu and started in with some Ro notes to warm up, and felt that either it, or I, or something, was dull and sluggish. Really, I should not have this problem by now. This flute has had months on end of my practicing, doing things like 150 Ro long tones a night, etc. I felt what I could reach inside and looked also, and it seemed like there was ... stuff ... nothing obvious but something in there making the surface inside feel weird. 

So I pushed a wadded-up paper towel soaked in Windex through there a few times and wow, did that ever make a difference. 

I posted that wall of verbiage from Monty Levinson yesterday just to show how willing he is to take the time to type out something that long for a beginner like me. It does not necessarily mean I agree with it all 100%. I've looked inside a clarinet and inside concert flutes and they're very smooth inside. Likewise a trumpet. One of the plastic shakuhachi out there, the "Hoshi Arashi" which I'd really like to have one of, is noted for having a very smooth bore and to be able to be played loudly. 

In other words I think there's woo-woo and then there's acoustics. Let's say some "Old Master" has been playing a shakuhachi for years on end. In the process of cleaning it, the bore's going to get smoother. I don't think there's a lot of mysticism required here. 

Before my PVC shakuhachi chose to hide in the one area of the shop I'm least likely to retrieve it from, I noted that the basic dimensions such as the distance from mouthpiece to first hole, and the spacing of the holes, was dead-on the same between it and the Shakuhachi Yuu. That's interesting given that of course the PVC one has a smooth cylindrical bore and the Yuu has a curved, conical bore. 

If I'm going to make double-thickness PVC shakuhachi, I need to find a way to consistently sand the inner one down since the two sizes don't fit inside each other as they come. I've even looked into what it might cost to obtain a 12-inch lathe, which would be large enough to work on each half. But to start it will be sandpaper and everything done by hand with no power tools. 

At least in theory, I'll get the package with the other Hall flute, Christmas song book, and cleaning rod tonight when/if Ken comes over. And my pay check. And my ballot. If I don't get my ballot, I'll have to make my way to Ohlone College in Fremont on election day. I figure if I get to the Milpitas transit center, there should be a local bus route that goes from there to the college. The main thing is to get there and vote. Getting back can be more leisurely. The last time I didn't get a ballot and went to my local polling station, it was around the corner from Ken's house and it took me hours to get there and back, but I did it. 

 

To bore or not to bore...

 A few days ago I'd asked the noted shakuhachi maker Monty Levinson about bore smoothness. His reply: 

" In evaluation a shakuhachi, the following criteria are considered: bamboo aesthetics, craftsmanship, design parameters affecting sound production, as well as acoustical issues such as intonation, timbre, and resonance response of the flute.

Intonation is a determination of whether the instrument's minor pentatonic (5-note) scale is accurately tuned to "ichikotsu" (Western pitch) based on the strict standard of A=440 to 442 hz. at room temperature (20° C. / 68° F.) If not, which and what extent are specific notes are sharp or flat, and what can be done to correct the problems. Generally, pitch on jiari shakuhachi is determined by the relative size, position, and depth or chimney height of the finger holes, but can be affected as well by resonance issues associated with the oscillating air column inside the precision bore.

Timbre or tone color ("neiro", in Japanese) is largely determined by the aspect ratio of the bore—i.e., the relationship of cross-sectional diameter to its overall length—and largely a matter of personal taste. Timbre translates into harmonic configuration or the spectrum of frequencies that make up each individual tone. Not much can be done to alter this aspect of the a flute without completely redesigning and rebuilding the bore. Each traditional maker tends to have a recognizable quality of sound in this regard." 

Since I can only copy/paste from email in sections, he goes on: 

"Resonance Response is by far the most important issue in assessing the acoustical and performance qualities of a shakuhachi. It is the domain in which most wind instruments are likely to exhibit problems, but fortunately one that is correctable.

Resonance response governs how much air the flute will accept and how hard it can be challenged or pushed without acoustical consequences that diminish its sound production. If blowing across the utaguchi produces vibrations that match the natural frequencies of standing waves inherent in the profile of the oscillating air column inside a shakuhachi, then the transfer of energy is optimized. That is to say, little energy is wasted and lost in the transformation of breath to sound, so it is highly efficient. A well-designed shakuhachi bore—fabricated within a tolerance of plus or minus 0.01 mm.— has the potential to produce a strong, robust, or "big" sound with minimal vibrational input for all the open-hole frequencies. More simply put, the flute will respond by producing deep, rich tones having a wide dynamic range within a large envelope of sound if the vibrational modes initiated at the mouthpiece match the natural frequency of the instrument's precision bore profile.

Any shakuhachi, including the most primitive plastic plumbing pipe models, will perform adequately if the player blows softly, thereby exercising only the fundamental frequency in the harmonic series of sound. As more air is introduced into the bore and blowing intensifies, a composite of higher partials called “overtones" are simultaneously exercised giving the shakuhachi its distinctive full-bodied and resonant ringing tone. If the bore profile of an instrument is not properly fabricated and rendered to a very precise shape, acoustical problems will result. Unwanted vibrato, notes jumping into higher octaves, instability and weakness of tone, and, in extreme case, the inability to produce a clear sound at all are just a few manifestations of resonance problems. This aspect of assessing and grading the quality of a shakuhachi represents the greatest challenge to traditional makers." 

And to conclude: 

"That being said, some of the very best shakuhachi I’ve had the opportunity to play and work on, made by master craftsmen in Japan, look like train wrecks inside. While lacquered inside, the bores on these flute are not smooth at all, but highly eccentric. Areas of the interior bore that have been file out and/or show material added have been placed there for a purpose of enhancing resonance response of all the notes. What may appear to some as defects in the bores for jiari shakuhachi have been placed there intentionality to get the flute to play properly. Removing these “defects” by smoothing out the bore will only serve to ruin the flute." 

In other words, Not Recommended to smooth out the bore of a Yuu. That being said, I'm inclined to take my un-improved Yuu, which I've stained with some kind of wood stain from the hardware store and which, most charitably, could be described as looking like a big Tootsie Roll, go through the bore with a piece of Scotch-Brite (it's been painted red inside so we're talking paint here) and see how smooth I can get it, and try it out. It's kind of an "expendable Yuu". 

I also want to learn to make my own PVC flutes but here's the difference: I want to, instead of using a thicker piece of PVC to build up the mouthpiece, I want to have the flute 2 thicknesses all through. And ultimately I want to try learning to make them 2 thicknesses and also in 2 pieces so they come apart like a Yuu does. 

I sent an email to my pal Pat on the Big Island raving about pennywhistles, thinking if he showed any interest I'd send him one. But no reply. He does not seem to take positivity well. 

The Hall flutes I now have two of (I expect to get the package with the flute I'd ordered, cleaning rod, and Christmas song book on Wednesday night) are in the key of G, and I'm tempted to buy pennywhistles in other keys just to try those keys out. At $12-$15 a pop, they're tempting. A really common whistle key is D, and sadly in the Hall flutes there's a huge D and a D piccolo. 

I'm also going to get another Manhasset desktop music stand as I've now got space cleared to put two of them, and want to have my shakuhachi music, fingering charts etc. on one and my Hall flute stuff on the other. Maybe I can't have a middle-class type "music room" but I can have things so I don't have to switch bundles of music etc back and forth. 

One thing I've got to mention about today is, having gone to bed at midnight, and waking up at 8AM, although I felt a bit weird my body couldn't complain - it's had its 8 hours of sleep. And I had TIME. Time to pack the 5 or so things that had sold, time to call around music stores asking about a desktop music stand, even time to see if Park Avenue Music wanted to buy my last trumpet, which they did. 

I packed the things and took off around 11AM. I dropped off trash, went to Nijiya for a can of coffee and a couple of boiled eggs, went to the post office and dropped off packages, went to my bank and deposited the check I'd gotten for the flute, went to FedEx and dropped off the one FedEx package, then went over to Park Avenue Music, showed the guy the trumpet, and well,  I got less than I hoped to get, but then that thing's got this weird buzz when it's played much, and the guy's gonna have to pay his tech to fix that so ha ha the joke's on him and I don't have to worry about selling any more instruments. 

I'm keeping my clunky used Yamaha flute which at least plays, and I might have a use for. I have three Japanese shinobue flutes, as are used in taiko, and I think I might just donate those to the Nichi Bei store because anyone into taiko at all who makes their way to Japantown will go there. The little Yamaha fife I recently got, I may or may not mess around on but it was inexpensive enough that I may include it with the shinobue flutes or give it to a homeless person or something. 

The two shakuhahi Yuu's I have, I might as well keep both. So I'm really pretty much done with selling instruments. 

After Park Avenue Music, I rode back to Whole Foods to lock up the bike, then took the bus to West Valley Music where they said they'd have to order a Manhasset desktop stand but they have something called a "Grand Stand" that does the same thing so I went there and got one of those. It was a long ride on the bus there and back, and when I got back to Whole Foods I had two slices of pizza and a fancy "LeCroix" fizzy water because they don't sell the plain stuff any more.  

Then I picked up some bubble mailers at the Amazon place and just got back here. I tried out the new music stand and it's "very OK". One thing about it is, it can be folded very flat so if portability is needed, it wins over the Manhasset one. Otherwise, the Manhasset is a far better stand. But this is about $30 cheaper so there's that, also. 

 

Shakuhachi rehearsal session

 The first thing is I've got to fix my sleep. I stayed up all night, packed 17 things, and left here around 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning, took the packages to FedEx and the post office, and had two savory pastries at Paris Baguette and one of their coffees because they had a sign saying you can't bring outside food (in my case it would be a can of coffee) so that got me full but cost about $17. 

I rode back here, and didn't actually get to bed until somewhere around noon. I slept a couple of hours, went back to sleep until 4, when  I was awakened by my alarm clock. 

Shakuhachi rehearsal started at 6:30 so it sounds like I had a lot of time, but it turned out to be just enough time to clean up, call Suzy (Ken's wife) at their house to ask if my ballot had come in the mail yet, and Suzy and I talked quite a bit about how much we hate ol' Diddlin' Don. 

Then I had something to eat, and took care of Ebay stuff like messages and so on, and before I knew it I had to leave. 

I got there maybe 1-2 minutes before 6:30 which is cutting it a little too close. My new music stand works OK except I need to bring a couple of clips, and I'm going to put a little label on it because there are some other ones that look like it in the group. 

The practice went pretty well and we rehearsed how we'll set up our music stands, what we'll play, and how we'll exit and make way for the choir who are then going to do their thing. 

The lady running things asked who wants to show up for another practice on Thursday and I said I would, as well as quite a few others, so I'll have one more practice before the big event. 

I noticed when playing on this night that if I crowded up more on the mouthpiece, I was getting some really nice tone in the 2nd octave so that's something to work on. 

People who teach shakuhachi like Shawn Tairyu Head, talk about breathing exercises all the time and I think they're great for health in general, but frankly  a person might, at most, increase their lung capacity maybe 25%, but the difference between a skilled player and a beginner is huge. So it has to be other factors. In r/flute I read one person say, "Beginners use a lot of air". So I'd say it's a matter of becoming more efficient. 

I went over to Nijiya afterward and got some stuff but really all I want to do is sleep.  So it's to bed at midnight, then wake-up at 8 or 9 in the morning. 

The illegal night club seems to be kaput. The police have been coming through very regularly, and I changed the Google flag on the address from "Illegal Night Club 2-5AM Fri-Sun" to "Illegal Night Club CLOSED". I'd originally flagged it because I figured, if the place got more popular it would get "blown up" - over-patronized, and the cops would have to do something. But now I honestly think that flag was bringing in random people and since I'd changed it on Friday night, over the weekend there were almost no randoms. 

 

The fucking thing jumped

 Last night I got 15 things camera-ready to list, and found all the things that had sold, and was going to get my bedding out and brush my teeth etc and get some practice in. 

My bedding consists of a really big piece of cardboard I lay down on the floor (indoor-outdoor type carpeting and this place used to be a machine shop so little shards of metal are always percolating up out of the carpet) then the 3-part folding futon (an actual Japanese futon) I get from where I store it in the loft, then a sleeping bag. When I get up I reverse this process.

I picked up the cardboard from where I keep it leaned up against the wall, and I had the PVC shakuhachi sitting on a music stand, tabletop type, on top of a big heavy cabinet.  The way the cabinet is placed, there's a sizable gap behind it that I never thought about. The cardboard hit the tip of the shakuhachi sticking out just a little from the top of the cabinet, and the thing jumped up and dove behind the cabinet.

To get it out I'll have to remove everything from al the drawers in a file cabinet that's next to the big cabinet, pull it out, then fish around back there for the shakuhachi. That's a lot of work that I'm not sure when I'll get around to doing. 

So at least for practice purposes I have my Yuu that I can play, and right now my primary concern is to make something to shut off that gap so nothing else can leap into it. 

This gets me wondering, though, what exactly makes the PVC shakuhachi play better than a Yuu? The only difference I can think of is that the bore of the PVC shakuhachi is smoother. I just sent off an email to Monty Levinson asking him if bore smoothness makes a difference and it will be interesting to see what he says. 

So I got my shakuhachi practice in, except this one song that seems to throw all of us. At least it's a rather delightful cacophony when we "play" it. I need to find it on YouTube because if I can hear it, it helps a ton in playing it. 

Then I got the Hall flute out and printed out the pages with songs from the Hall beginner book. I was able to play every song I tried just fine. It's nice that Mr. Hall arranged the songs so that none of them require half-holing. I'll just need to practice them a ton so they become "natural" or "2nd nature" to play. 

Geez  I can't believe that this office/living area is essentially not safe for any musical instrument more delicate than a trumpet, an instrument for signaling in war, or a drum. 

These days, music is only supposed to be pursued by those who are middle-class and higher. Schools for working-class kids stopped teaching music 30 or more years ago. Middle-class people can have a "music room" that's not used for 3 or 4 other purposes also, and keep their instruments safe from work accidents, family members or room-mates, etc. I'm really busking the trend, not having been middle-class since I was 11 or so, and now being the lower end of working-class, and yet still having middle-class aspirations. 

 

Lack of sleep

 Wow just wow. I managed to get those Ebay listings done last night (I have a standard I set for myself of 50 things a week) and could barely keep my eyes open, and went to bed at midnight. 

I woke up at 4AM and there was no sign of the illegal night club having been in operation at all. I could not get back to sleep and stayed in bed though, not turning on any light etc. I did observe one cop car go through, and a few hopeful clients of the night club walk dejectedly out to their cars and eventually take off. 

I finally fell asleep I guess around 6AM or so when the cleaning business guys next door started showing up. Familiar sounds? I dunno. I ended up sleeping until 4 in the afternoon. I was hoping to "shock" myself into a normal daytime schedule but it may not be that easy. The other way is to set my alarm clock an hour earlier each day and march my schedule back to normal. 

I think the late-night schedule is hard on me. And I really looked forward to being up at 8 or 9, taking some stuff apart to list today/tonight, and not least, practicing shakuhachi and my new Hall flute. 

My package with the Hall flute I'd ordered from Hall, along with the Christmas song book, has been delivered to Ken's house and I'll have it mid-week when Ken comes by. I'm quite serious about being out there busking with Christmas carols, and I was happy to note that Whole Foods recently hasn't had so many "booth botherers" hassling people to sign up for things, lately. 

Some random things I've been thinking about lately: 

My apartment in Waikiki cost me $600 a month. That's $20 a day. I could have easily hustled up $20 a day on the local economy. Call it $30, or even $40 a day and I'd have managed it. If I'd pulled cash off of my credit cards, which I was to default on anyway, and stashed it not-in-a-bank I'd have been fine while I ramped up my hustling game, and I was not going to have to worry about credit checks unless I moved apartments, which I'd not do because that was a great apartment. 

I just had to go through "mainland poverty" which is deeper poverty than can be dreamed of by someone used to living in Hawaii, to get some real adult poverty skills. 

And, I dream a lot of hoarding things that appreciate like gold or silver coins, but when I look at the time I'd devote to hunting in antique stores and pawn shops for deals, that's time taken away from practicing music, which is the real "silver and gold" as far as I'm concerned. 

When I move back home, I should have a good stash of cash and good music skills. The cash-stash will be important as I've not been taking part in the credit game, and as well as having to start out living in a hotel for at least a few weeks while I find a place, I may need to put a few months or a year's rent money up front when I rent a room or a cottage or something. 

The ace in the hole will be the reliable trickle of money I'll get from Social Security and the undocumented money I'll get from busking. Busking will always keep me in groceries and little daily needs. 

 

Off to a rosy start

 Last night I did a bunch of neatening up around here, put some stuff out for the scavengers including a stupid transformer so heavy I couldn't lift it, and had to sort of *roll* it out front. Good riddance. 

I eventually got around to some practicing although I felt very tired. Also cleaned up so when I got up in the "morning" I'd be able to pretty much get up and go. 

I woke up just before 2, which I'd set my alarm clock for. So, maybe 5 hours of sleep. I took off at a quarter to 3. I stopped at Nijiya for a couple of boiled eggs and a can of black coffee, then dropped off three packages at the post office, then went to the bank where I deposited my pay check and everything added up right to the penny. I like that feeling. 

I had my recently bought Yamaha flute with me, stopped at Whole Foods for a pit stop, then got on the bus and rode down to West Valley Music. The travel time adds up to one hour on the bike, stopping for errands, etc. And one hour on the bus. 

Sure enough one of the managers was there and would be until 6, and as I'd left my place here at 3, I'd arrived there at 5. It all went pretty simply; he checked the flute over and went in back and wrote me a check for 1/2 what I'd paid for the flute. But not for the tax, it turns out so the check was a bit smaller than what I thought it would be, but I probably came out ahead of what I'd get from some weirdo on Craig's List, and I didn't have to deal with some weirdo on Craig's List. 

I asked them what was the best deal they could to on their one remaining Hall flute, and that was the price they had marked (they had theirs marked down pretty far, honestly about $30 less than Hall is charging online) and I said I'd get it. So I got it, and left there without going to 99 Ranch or anything. 

Since I was about an hour earlier, the #22 bus didn't have the level of crazies on it that it did last night. I stopped off at a large strip mall that has a Michael's art supplies and looked at their stickers to find some nice holly or Christmas-y ones and I think I'm a bit early. The people in there were very nice and friendly though. 

It took a long time for the next bus to come, and I was happy to see only "mild" bums get on, and I got off at Whole Foods, bought a couple of things and got on the bike and rode back here. I stopped at Nijiya on the way, got back here and put things away, ate some food and forced myself to put the remaining 10 things I'd photographed last night onto Ebay, and can barely keep my eyes open because I'd done all this on maybe 5 hours of sleep. 

 

A music stand

 The word at the last shakuhachi practice was that I need to get a music stand. I'm not sure why, if we're playing in the temple which has them, but that's what I was told. So at least I needed to get a music stand.

I did a lot of things and got 20 things ready to list on Ebay, and although I was very tired and really didn't feel like it, I did some practice. I was tired enough that at first I couldn't get a note. But pretty soon, I could. 

I got up at 3 in the afternoon and left here just a bit after 4. I only had one package to mail, and dropped that off at the post office downtown, and locked the bike at Whole Foods and got on the #22 bus and rode down to West Valley Music. From when I left here to when I arrived there, it took 2 hours. And my stop at the post office had taken hardly any time at all. 

So I got down there, and got my music stand, and it seems they have exactly one Hall flute, in G which is good and covered with a rose pattern which is not so great. 

I asked about the situation of their maybe being interested in buying back the Yamaha flute  I had so recently bought from them and they are, for 1/2 what  I spent which is almost certainly more than I'll get from some weirdo on Craig's List so I'm planning to get it over there tomorrow. 

It's a Depression economy right now, it's just that no one's coming out and admitting it. That could change very fast, as things are being done to make it as big a Depression as possible such as the tariffs, the drastic cutbacks in food stamps, welfare, medical care for the non-wealthy, and so on, so the best thing is to get at least some of the money back out if I'm not going to use the thing. 

But I have an idea: I'm going to see if I can do a deal where I get back half what I paid, AND their remaining Hall flute. They can do that by making the check they write bigger by the cost of the Hall flute, and my buying the Hall flute for cash right then and there. 

This way I'd get a Hall flute right away so I can wait out however many more days or weeks the one  I bought from Hall to get to me, plus I can go to an art supply store and get some holly stickers and stick them on it - I'm going to busk playing Xmas carols - and it will look "Christmas-y". 

Since I'd left here at 4, got there at 6, and after my business there had walked over to 99 Ranch to buy a couple of things plus got some food which I ate, that took me up close to 7. 

The food was an interesting thing because there was nowhere to sit and eat inside. And outside was a bum, the only Caucasian in sight, who was walking around swearing and threatening and acting like bums do. So I couldn't go outside and sit on the curb and eat. So I went back in, got a shopping basket, found a place in the hot food/bakery area that wasn't too much in the way, inverted the basket and sat on it, and ate. After a short time an employee came over and showed me the Super Secret Hidden Eating Area, which she didn't point out but *led* me to, because it's hidden pretty well. Great! So I sat at a table and ate. 

Then I walked out to the bus stop and waited quite a bit, and got on a bus and by now it was fully dark and thus, Bum Hours. And sure enough. bums got on the bus and did their usual bum things. One guy kept falling asleep and at one point fell onto the floor, wedged between the seat and this divider thing. Other bums did things like act crazy, talk gibberish, and those without those particular skills held up their end by stinking badly. 

I got back to Whole Foods and went upstairs and had an excellent alcohol-free beer and finished off my box of Chinese food, watching football players fall all over each other on the TV. 

Once I was done eating I headed back home by the shortest route, because I've got to get things done tonight to get to bed earlier to get up earlier to get going earlier to get to the music store earlier, to sell them back the flute and see if I can work my deal. 

 

Happy Birthday, Bobby Seale

 I got up today and turned on the radio (KPFA) and there was an interview with Bobby Seale. I knew he was one of the founders of the Panthers but wow, what a guy. He was scientifically trained, worked on rockets, and was a real powerhouse all around. IS, rather, IS, as he's going strong at 89 years old and sounded on the radio like a guy half his age. 

I did a ton of stuff around here last night and ended up too tired to practice so I'd gone right to bed. 

Today I did more things, packed things and took them to the post office, got groceries, the usual routine. I got back here and cleaned the place and Ken came by at his usual time, and I got my pay check but can't deposit it until Friday because it's dated for Friday. 

After Ken left (I'd been yawning while he rambled on about science-y stuff and had made myself a coffee and drank that and that helped) I did ... a ton more stuff, tried to find things that needed to be sent out that are simply not here so I canceled those orders, and found a bunch of stuff to throw out front for the scavengers and after a good long while had 20 things rounded up to list - tomorrow. 

My Hall flute was supposed to have been delivered to Ken's house but of course it's not there yet, and I won't get it until next week. This is how it goes here, even expedited shipping takes a week or two. Things took a lot longer than that when I was a kid in Hawaii so I dunno, you just live with it. 

The advantage of buying one directly from Hall is that I could get a design I like, plus I ordered a nifty cleaning rod for it and a book of Christmas carols. I've already downloaded the Hall flute beginner book which has some Christmas carols in it. 

Plus, the flute being the standard 6-hole keyless system, same as a pennywhistle, I should be able to play any music written for the pennywhistle and there's a ton of that. The thing is that I really want to get out there and hit those Christmas carols because it will be fun, perhaps rather lucrative, and I'll be out there plying my trade; busking. 

One of the things that keeps standing out to me, reading Reddit, is that the people on r/homeless tend to have pretty much no skills at all. That's an awful situation to be in. It's 100% better to have at least an idea of something you can do that people feel good about paying you for. 

 

The old switcheroo

 Last night I was early to the shakuhachi practice session, so I thought. It was to start at 7, and I was there 15 or 20 minutes before, and sat down on the bench by the bamboo patch in front of the temple to do some practice before, and to be seen when the others came in. 

I was working on "Amida's Shrine" when I heard the same tune, ghostly. It was coming from inside the temple (a very sturdy building) so I went in and there was everyone else, all lined up with chairs and music stands, facing the pews. They were happy to see me and got me a music stand and a chair, and we practiced. 

There's one lady, Shirley I think? Who almost certainly comes from a music teaching background and she was calling the shots. There's one piece, "Always With Me" that is pretty involved and it was hilarious how badly we played it. But the others are not bad at all. One's the Star Wars theme and that's fun. The other two ... 

Well the other two are Amida's Shrine and Shinran Sama. All well and good, and I have those already but in the folder with the music stapled in that we're going to play, they're in there but the titles are switched. So now I don't know which is which! But they're pretty easy to play; I remember the longer one from shakuhachi class before, and the other is cheerful and has a nice swing to it, being in 3/4 time. I'll just make sure to have them both down pat. 

When the practice session was done I learned that they'd started at 6:30. So if I'd set out to be an hour early, I'd have been a half-hour early which would have been OK because I'd have just sat in front and practiced, etc. Another thing is that I need to get myself a music stand. 

I got myself some fried fish for dinner at Nijiya and got back here, listed things on Ebay after eating, and before bed did a lot of practice. I went back and forth between the PVC shakuhachi and the Shakuhachi Yuu and the PVC one still seems a bit better. I have the two songs with the titles switch more firmly in my mind now and the Star Wars theme is fun. I bet "Shakuhachi0" on YouTube could play the whole thing excellently. 

 

Being productive

 Last night I took apart three large instruments for the parts so now I have a good bunch of parts to list on Ebay now. And I realized that I needed to not just stay up late, but it would be best to do an all-nighter packing things and then go to the post office right when they open with the packages, FedEx too.

So I did this. One thing was ordered by a guy in France and ... we don't have it. And I can't cancel the order or even communicate with the guy so I'm just going to ignore it and eventually Ebay will refund the guy out of our funds. 

Part of the "unspoken job description" is that one must hate foreigners. Regardless of one's personal feelings, you've got to hate and distrust foreigners to survive on Ebay and if this were my own business instead of Ken's I'd simply make it so I don't deal with anyone outside the USA. If you were a filthy foreigner, you'd better have had a Good Red-Blooded God-Fearing Patriotic American buy the thing from me and send it on to you. Of course now there are re-mailing services that where the seller only sees a US address. Those are fine with me. 

The other unspoken and thus iron clad rule is the Non-Compete I'm under. I can't set up my own Ebay business unless I were to do something like rent an office a suitable distance away, use a completely different computer on a different network, different email address, etc. And I'd still not be 100% sure Ebay wouldn't ban Ken and I for life. This is all Not Worth It so if I ever set up on my own, I'll wait until I'm back home 2500 miles away.

I got the things packed except one that I put in the requisite hours looking for and could not find, took the things to FedEx first for a large box, then went to Paris Baguette where I got a couple savory pastries and a coffee, ate and drank, then dropped off the post office packages at the post office, and got back here. Then  I just went to bed. 

I woke up at 4 in the afternoon thanks to my neat little Sharp alarm clock. Of all the alarm clocks I've had, going back to the wind-up Micky Mouse one with the two bells on top we kids used to get up in time for school, this one's the best. 

 

Gunky

 I did plenty of shakuhachi practice last night. I can see now that I need to practice a lot, and not just being "lazy" just blowing 100 or 150 Ro while watching some movie and calling it a night. 

I can get two, 24-inch, lengths of that PEX tubing per long piece, plus a shorter one a foot long. I used the shorter one to practice with, because I want to make a hole, preferably a slot, in the end to make it into a cleaning rod like you get for a concert flute. 

That stuff is tough! I was not able to make a slot but it's pretty easy to make a hole, and I could use increasingly large drill bits to make a large enough hole to get the end of a bit of cloth etc. into. I made two holes and tried to join them with an X-Acto knife and that's just not happening. But one large hole, I could try that. I even got some cloths to include with these things because the plan is not to just make one for me, but to give them to the other members of the shakuhachi club. 

Last night at least I could clean the shakuhachi Rinban gave me, by soaking a paper towel in Windex and just pushing it through, and there was indeed, some disgusting junk in there. 

The illegal night club started up, albeit with a very small crowd, and said crowd had just gone into the place when in swooped two police cars with lights and sirens. The cops ended up staying around until something like 4 in the morning. 

Meanwhile I took apart the big commercial type microwave oven after testing it so I have some parts to sell. I was nervous about the cops but finally just put the parts out for the scroungers, practiced, and went to bed. 

I woke up at 4 in the afternoon so I must have needed all the 8 hours of sleep. I was going to pack some things to take to FedEx which under their "ground saver" or whateverthefuck they call it plan, costs only a tiny bit more than the USPS and will get them to USPS first thing in the morning. But I am unable to do things in any way than The Way It's Always Been Done and after labeling the first one USPS which means I can't mail it until tomorrow, I gave up. 

Instead I rode down to Walmart for some things. There was some white (of course) guy out front waving what looked like petitions and yelling about voting No on Measure A and on 50, both things I'm determined to vote Yes on, and said so. That really pissed the guy off which was great. It's always fun to piss off Nazis. 

I stopped at Nijiya for a few things and got back in here. I don't even have any interesting zombie incidents to relate; sure I had to dodge a few but nothing really interesting. 

 

PVC for the win.

 I did a ton of "A/B" testing last night, between my fancy-schmancy or at least expensive, "Enhanced" Shakuhachi Yuu, my regular ol' Yuu that I'd applied some wood stain to and red paint on the internal surfaces to try to make it look at least a bit like bamboo, and the PVC shakuhachi that Rinban gave me yesterday. 

The PVC one plays the best. And this one's a dog. I can see how it would end up knocking around in a drawer in his office along with the one he plays personally and a bunch of other junk, because the utaguchi is not aligned with the finger holes and it had rough surfaces on the utaguchi cut and where one's chin rests, and the other end's a bit beat up too. And it *still* plays better than the expensive ones I have.

Plus it could probably use a good cleaning inside and I don't have a proper cleaning rod to do that. 

I practiced until the power went out because of course it did, and went to bed. It was on again when I got up.  This is just normal Silicon Valley stuff. 

I really fought my urge to go over to West Valley Music today to get one of their Hall flutes just to have one right away, or at least a pennywhistle (which has the same fingering) to get going on learning some Christmas carols. But in reality, if my flute is coming from Hall up there in the Pacific Northwest somewhere by Priority Mail, it should be at Ken's house in time for him to bring it by when he comes by on Wednesday. And I won't need it until then because I have to devote all my time to the shakuhachi for the next couple of days. 

I have the printed music for "Amida's Shrine" but to play something well, it really helps for me to *hear* it. And I can't find it anywhere online. So the informal practice session on Monday night is something I can't miss.  I need to learn the tune properly, and anything else the shakuhachi club is playing these days. 

The illegal night club didn't open last night, and only a few disappointed johns, pimps and ho's passed through. One guy, drunk of course, spun a few donuts in front of here then sped off to go drive drunk somewhere else. A cop car came through a couple of times as they should, this area being such a source of trouble. 

After getting up and doing some exercises and having some breakfast  I went up to Lowe's and got a couple of pieces of PVC pipe to experiment with, and some long thing pieces of "Pex" tubing to make into cleaning rods for the PVS shakuhachi we're playing in the shakuhachi club. I realized the one Rinban gave me needs a good cleaning and no, just pulling through the clarinet pull-through I have around here won't help. 

I gathered some packing stuff on the way home then after dropping things off,  went back as far as the California Croissant place and picked up a big microwave oven they'd left out front, got that into here and put the trailer away, then went to Nijiya for some things. 

It's getting dark and according to the zombies, once it's dark the workaday people should be home and the streets belong to the zombies. So I had to dodge a couple. One seemed like it was following me on its Zombike, and I ducked into this complex by way of the armored car place, and popped out of there to surprise the damned thing which had probably tarried a bit to look for where I'd gone. It was obvious that if I were armed I'd have the drop on it and it emitted some sound in Zombese, and rode away along the other side of the complex. I got back here and got the bike in quickly because I didn't want some zombie knowing where my shop is. 

I'm pretty Left but I do agree with that one right-wing politician who said they ought to give the druggies all the drugs they want. Let 'em have all they like, so they don't have to steal to obtain them, and the problem will be self-correcting. 

 

Feeling pretty disgusted with myself.

 I didn't practice much but because Gerald Sakamoto's, or Rinban, as that it the title of the head of a temple, Sakamoto's retirement party is coming up, I thought I'd better get the shakuhachi out and practice it a bit. All the flute playing and breathing exercises I've been doing ought to make a real difference from when I played it last, right? 

Well, not really. I was worse. I worked a bit on the old goodie, Nori No Miyama or Dharma Mountain. Well, I did make progress in that the highest note near the end that always threw me, I've got a solution for - a different fingering I chanced upon. It's still tricky and I hardly can get it but even that's an improvement. 

I went to bed and thanks to my nice little alarm clock was up at 2 in the afternoon, got cleaned up and took care of Ebay stuff and all that, and headed to Japantown first. I had a letter to drop off at the temple for Rinban, an apology and since my leaving the temple had been by written letter, I kind of had to apologize by the same method. 

The situation is that I'd gotten sucked in by the idea of the 'Poor, poor Israelis" and decided that I ought to stand with them and by this I mean, convert and learn Hebrew and actually retire in Israel. This takes time and study, and between the two I saw that the Jewish religion and mindset are not for me, and that the Jews/Israelis like being in constant conflict and if they can, dragging other people/countries into it also. I finally woke up one morning and realized I'm not doing this, and it's been a definite weight off of my shoulders. 

So after agonizing over this for months I finally typed something up and put it, in its envelope, in the temple mail slot. Then I went into the office and paid $25 for a calendar that Rinban had made using his photos, to raise the funds for the retirement party. Then I asked about how the membership goes, is it first of the year to first of the year? It is. So I'll worry about that in late December. 

Then I wanted to pick up a couple of books from their educational materials, picked out a couple I like, and the lady there said "Take books, please!" and said they have them in their (it turns out very well camouflaged) free library thing across the street. 

I went over to Nijiya and got some boiled eggs that turned out to be gross, and a coffee. No wonder the eggs were half the price of the nice ones from Japan. One bite and I chucked 'em and went back in for a musubi. 

I went to the bank and put my pay check in, and confirmed my suspicion that the $130-odd that was taken out a week or two ago is from Ha'aretz, an Israeli newspaper that had apparently renewed my subscription but somehow I'm logged out as a member so I've got the worst of both worlds. Seriously F those guys and I'll have to see what I can do about that. 

I picked up bubble mailers at the Amazon place and went right back to the temple. Since they want to distribute books so much, I'd take a selection of them and put them in the little free library on 6th. So I went in to do that and who should suddenly be right there in front of me but Rinban! 

He was delighted to see me, and he'd gotten the other letter "A few months ago..." he said and I said more like a year at least. I told him I'd written another and it was in the mail slot, and kind of repeated what's in the letter, and asked about the shakuhachi things on the temple calendar for this and next Monday? 

He said he didn't know, but that maybe someone's scheduled some extra practice because they want to play during temple services. (Wow! Just what I dreamed of doing someday, playing at temple services!) and he said, reassuringly, "Just one song". "Is it "Nori No Miyama?" I said, hopefully. Nope it's Amida's Shrine".  I said I've saved all the music sheets so I'm sure to have it. 

I also asked if he had a PVC shakuhachi (he makes them) I could have, and we went into his office and he dug around in a drawer and found one and gave it to me. Such a nice guy! Now he had to get to a service he was doing (he was wearing ceremonial garb) and we parted, I think each of us happy to see the other one again. 

Then it was back to Nijiya for some things, after dropping off the books at the little free library. And back here. 

If I were really hard working, I had an house in which I could pack some things and get them over to FedEx. But I am not very hard working,  I don't think. 

Why do that when I could see how the PCV shakuhachi compares with my Shakuhachi Yuu? I think the PVC shakuhachi he'd given me years ago, that started this whole thing, played more easily. This one does not. It's kind of rough; the utaguchi (blowing edge) has a ridgy surface and the bevel where the chin rests isn't centered but off to one side. I think I'll mess around with it and see if I can fix those things and see if that changes anything. 

But I feel quite disgusted with myself. Yeah, trumpet's just about the opposite of any kind of flute and I'd really be fighting myself playing it and shakuhachi. But concert flute is such a different thing and so complicated that it's a world of its own and has effectively kept me from practicing the shakuhachi at all. 

I thought if I got a concert flute I'd be geared up ready to play Christmas carols this season and I'm nowhere near ready. Meanwhile I'm also nowhere with the shakuhachi and we're about ready to play during temple services? The thing I'd dreamed of doing? 

Meanwhile, in trying to find someone, anyone, playing, singing, hell even farting "Amida's Shrine", I found this: 

 

 

 

This lady is all of maybe 89 lbs soaking wet and she's playing like a boss.  

 

So it comes down to, what do I want out of the shakuhachi? To devote whatever is left of my life to it, to play this amazing music that isn't like anything else and that goes right through you. 

 

And what do/did I want from the concert flute? Something to busk with, that I could play music regular people would know, and that I could have some fun with. More range than I got on the trumpet, a lot smaller and easier to carry around.  At least in theory would not interfere with the skills needed to play shakuhachi. 

 

There are some unfavorable comparisons though. The shakuhachi is really intuitive, at least to me. The concert flute is not. The shakuhachi can bend notes, while unless I get a more advanced open-hole concert flute, I can't - I've tried. 

 

So this brought me around to an interesting little noisemaker, the Hall "crystal" flute. Actually borosilicate laboratory glass. Musical lab glass.  It makes a nice sound, I know, because I'd messed around on one. Can get nice and loud too. And you can bend notes until the cows come home. In fact, like a PVC flute I made over a decade ago from a piece of pipe I found under a tree, an old wine cork, and plans from the internet, all sorts of things can be played by half-holing plus all the note-bending fun. 

 

Long before I'd been introduced to the shakuhachi, I'd tried out a Hall flute and ultimately chose trumpet instead. Trumpet is a good instrument for the mainland, loud, very "Look at me" in a pushy way. As locals say back in Hawaii, "No make tanturan" which literally means "don't play a trumpet" in other words, don't be loud and boastful. Trumpet had been a good choice if I were staying here. 

 

But I'm not staying here. I'm leaving for home in a year or two, and will be able to learn from the shakuhachi teachers there of which there are a few which is quite a lot, and play the music that fits the place. Maybe even learn to make shakuhachi myself. It's not like there's any lack of bamboo back home. 

 

So I've just watched a ton of YouTube videos of various players of various skill levels playing Hall flutes, even an Indian guy who normally plays bansuri, who makes his Hall sound like a bansuri. And I was reminded of something that I'd learned before but forgot which is that the Hall flutes have just about exactly the same fingering as the pennywhistle which means there's a ton of music written for them. 

 

One final argument in favor is that Hall flutes don't cost much, being musical lab glass. I think the most expensive one of them, the largest size with offset holes, might be $100. A concert flute that's played much needs a service called a COA or Clean, Oil, Adjust, yearly. In other words I could drop and break one Hall flute a year and it would not cost me any more than playing a concert flute would. 

 

A further argument is the weather back home. It's tropical, there's no way around it. Tools rust, things corrode. Brass instruments tend to stink like hell. With a shakuhachi there's no worries because it's made of bamboo and of course with the various shakuhachi like my Shakuhachi Yuu which are made of plastic and such materials, again no worries. I'm sure Yamaha student flutes do better in Hawaii's climate than many others, but still they're made of metal and corrosion is a thing. Hall flutes will be the most corrosion resistant of any of them. 

 

So the upshot of all of this is I went to the Hall site and ordered one of their flutes in G, a cleaning rod, and a book of Christmas carols and even with Priority Mail shipping it came to about $133. I really can be up to speed on playing Christmas carols this season, and on a glass flute which people don't see every day. 

 

Part of the package is, if you buy something from Hall, they let you download their book on how to play their flute which includes a bunch of songs so I've got that right now. And I'm going to see if the music store will buy back my Yamaha flute because I can make out better with them than with Craig's List. 

 

 

Wednesday

 Practice before bed last night (early this morning) went relatively well. The night before I could not seem to get as good tone, and it was either that I was not practicing daily like I need to, or tiredness, or something with my position. 

Monday was just sitting through the rain, yesterday was just avoiding (successfully) some rain, and today's .... not rainy. Dark and cloudy but not rainy. The rain's nice; gives things a much-needed rinse. 

I honestly can't decide, do I leave for home right when I'm turning 64, or do I put up with another year here and leave when I'm turning 65, and thus will be able to start Medicare when I arrive home, and not have to worry about not being insured. 

I'm also trying to get prepared to leave on short notice in case things go sideways. The real "oh, shit" plan is to grab my things and go to a hotel and spend a week or two selling off stuff and buying a plane ticket and all that, then leaving. I by no means have my stuff in grab'n'go mode yet but that's what I need to aim for. 

Interestingly, the reason I have a fancy Monty Levinson fine-tuned Shakuhachi Yuu is that I thought I had a place to land in Honolulu a couple of years ago, which of course fell through because my friends back in Hawaii are useless. I wanted to have a "good" shakuhachi to take with me. Joke's on me as I can't tell how it's any better than the factory-stock one I also have. 

I'm really open to trading one of them or both for a decent bamboo one, and there's a guy up in the city who seems to have a whole stable of shakuhachi, and I'm really considering going up there to see him and doing a cash/trade. The reason I'm holding this off is I have to have the skills to test what I'm getting, at least blow some 2nd and 3rd octave notes and have an idea of whether what I'm testing is a flute I want to keep for years or indefinitely. 

That's an advantage of Hawaii; with the large Japanese population there are a lot of shakuhachi just floating around there. 

The advantage of staying here until I'm turning 65 is, one more year of practice and experience playing and busking. 

Right now I'm not up to busking, and am not inclined to pick up the trumpet and busk with that (I'd sooner busk with the flute even if I sound like shit if I really needed money). I am saving almost all of my pay checks and selling stuff to live on day to day. 

 

Sunday night

 Sunday night being one of the bangin' (tee hee) nights for the illegal night club, I just had to keep an eye on things. Some noisy music from clients but the place never opened up. And the trickle of clients/johns was smaller than the other night too. Maybe word is getting around. 

So it was a quiet night. 

I slept in plenty late and today, Monday, is a holiday celebrating the genocide of the poor suckers and losers who had the misfortune to be here before us. It rained heavily, which was nice. Give things a good rinse. And at least here in California we're calling it indigenous peoples' day. Not that the survivors are going to be given any kind of a break, mind you. 

I'm just glad I got a lot of packages sent off yesterday so I didn't have to go out at all today. 

 

It's not over

 Last night the illegal night club operated as normal. I knew it was back in operation when the people running the thing came in, and one guy had two young gals, zonked out of their minds on something and barely able to walk, with one of his arms around the shoulders/throat of each one, one on each side of him, and herded them into the place. They didn't want to go in and had to be pushed in. 

The cops didn't show up until 4AM and of course ran most of the people out of there. Then something interesting happened. One of the cops stayed back, parked in one of the parking spaces, and appeared to be protecting a workman who was replacing the door, or lock, or something, one one of the two doorways of the place. 

It's a good thing the cop was there to protect the guy, too, because as soon as the guy was done and he and the cop left, some of the nightclub operators came around and went in and out and in general, were around the place. 

Meanwhile I was listing things on Ebay, threw out some scrap, and once the night club clients were mostly gone, used a few buckets of water to wash down the urine in front of my door. 

By the time I was done working and keeping an eye on all of this, I was too tired to practice but at least I watched a video of Emmanual Pahud, arguably the best flutist alive, do a sort of clinic on YouTube. Great stuff! Due to angles, I was not able to tell if he uses a "Rockstro" hold, but in his case it doesn't matter; he uses what works for him. 

The most interesting thing Pahud said was that to put feeling into the music and do vibrato the proper way, he imagines the air coming up from his lungs and doing a sort of loop up into his head, then coming out his mouth. He says that's what keep his throat open, and that you have to have the feeling like when you have some wasabi that's nice and strong and you have your throat open to try to breathe out the vapors from it. 

He also said that you should practice to make music, not just chug through exercises. He said something like "If you practice to play stupid, you will play stupid". He went on a bit about always being musical. This aligns with my own idea about the "Song Method" where if I'm playing an actual song, I'd do better, play higher, keep time better, etc. because I wasn't thinking about those things so much but about the song. 

I slept in until about 3 in the afternoon, and had some things packed already and had plenty more to pack, and left here at 5 to take them to FedEx. Even small things can go by FedEx, who hands them off to the post office, for a little higher cost. The thing is that it will be pouring rain tomorrow and that small extra cost will get the post office things to the post office dry. 

I noticed as I rode by the illegal night club that one of the two doors looks brand new. The other one looks new also but I'm not sure if it is, as it's got big marks on it like someone was kicking it. So I don't know what's going on there. Maybe both are new, and re-keyed also, and the kick and scuff marks are from the illegal night club operators being unhappy at not being able to go in. 

If the cops are going ahead with forfeiture of the building since it's being used for illegal purposes, maybe the owners of that building have decided they really don't want to the building and be prosecuted as accessories, so they've stepped up and are shutting down the illegal night club. Who knows? 

 

Rockstro

 I hadn't practiced for a week. This is no way to be ready to play Xmas carols, and I haven't done anything on the shakuhachi at all. 

I was up last night, should not have been but I was, and saw that the illegal nightclub might actually be finally kaput. There was a steady trickle of customers passing through, but no one came around to open the place up and I only saw one Prius. That's the preferred car of Colombian illegal DoorDashers and at times the parking lot had tons of them. Yep here it is 2025 and I'm worried about Prius gangs. 

I saw a cop car drive through once and probably missed their driving through 1-2 more times. The illegal nightclub is definitely on their radar, and they check. 

All in all it was nice, except for the trickle of cars a normal night. 

I got some things ready to list and also did a practice. I'd come across (again) the "Rockstro Method" for holding the flute, which merely involves aligning the headjoint inward more, and I had a much easier time holding the flute, and a much better sound. 

I'm kind of re-learning things I'd learned before, years ago, when I ended up out playing for an hour or two at a time. My repertoire was very limited, but I was out doing it. 

 

Friday the 10th

 Well it's the usual shit. We were supposed to get our water shut off on the 7th and 8th but I guess they were able to do what they needed to do OK without the water being off for long, so the buckets of water I have in the bathroom can be used and the buckets stored away now. 

Last night, there was zero activity that I could see at the illegal night club, but a cop car came around and they were looking for a guy among the abandoned/eternally parked cars over on that side. A tow truck came in and one car was towed. OK, great. Then an hour or two later the cops came back and looked for the guy on my end, among the eternally parked trucks. 

At least this place is showing up as the crime hotspot it is. 

Meanwhile yesterday during the day I'd gone to Menlo Park to do some business, had eaten a bento on the train as is tradition (the new electric trains, just like the old diesel ones, were made in Japan). I checked in the very busy little thrift store there in Menlo Park and they'd had an East German made recorder, which was mildly interesting but what am I going to do with a recorder? Later I checked prices and it was going for about what they go for on Etsy and Ebay... so they're good at checking prices. 

I got back here and I was bushed as I was operating on maybe 4 hours of sleep. I managed to stay up until about 10:30 then went to bed, and woke up around 1:45 in the morning when I was able to observe the police doings described above. I went back to bed around 5 or 6, woke up around noon I think, maybe closer to 10, then woke up at a quarter to 3 in the afternoon. 

I realized I had to go to the bank, got up and packed a few things to ship, and got going at a quarter to 4. I dropped off trash and donations, and had a can of coffee and a couple boiled eggs at Nijiya. Then I dropped off the packages at the post office, and went over to the bank and deposited my pay check. 

I then went to Walmart for my "Weekly Wal" and got various things. At one point an employee asked how I was doing, in a friendly way, and I said "Great, just doing my 'weekly Wal'" which he liked to hear. 

I got more things at Nijiya again, and got back here. The idea is to change back over to a daytime schedule and not have to worry about the illegal night club any more. 

 

The kind of shit that goes on around here

 Well, last night was a new ... night. The illegal night club started setting up at 2AM, their usual time. They had cones out and were thus keeping the noise and crowds out of "my" half of the parking lot. But of course they've built up such a bad record that the police came around anyway and shut 'em down. After the police cars had left, some guys hung around outside the place, some of the people who run the operation, as they're the guys who always hang around afterward. 

At 5:30AM one of them pounded on my door and yelling at them to identify themselves and saying that I'm calling the police didn't help. The guy just stopped because I didn't open the thing. I called the police, naturally, and the operator didn't seem to think it was anything serious, so the police never came around and the guys, 3-4 of them, just sat in their car in front of my door here, talking and sounding drunk, until they got bored and took off. I eventually got a call back from the police, and I tried to explain what was really going on, and that was that. 

After this I got a good flute practice session in because if I lose my situation here, or get smart and leave, busking is the one thing I'll have going for me. 

(This is not true in a strict sense, since I could just set up to do buying and selling on my own, by renting a small office or at least a storage unit and doing Ebay on my own, but it would be a ton of work. As much or more work than simply going home and going through the work of getting "situated" back there.) 

Tonight they will probably open the illegal night club again and the police will do their thing, the only difference being that since it's Sunday night, if anything happens the cops will have a lot less else on their plates. 

So now I'm up to page 26 in the Wye beginning book 1, and have learned a new note, F-sharp. This can get confusing because I can get the same note by pressing down the right hand middle finger instead of the proper way, the right hand ring finger. Flute's got things like that where you can do things a lazy way instead of the right way. 

I woke up around 4 this afternoon because I didn't go to bed until about 10AM. It's a crazy schedule but if I have to be watchful while the no-goods are outside doing their thing, then so be it. The whole idea is for things to go back to normal around here. I may not be able to follow a normal daytime schedule until I'm back in Hawaii or at least away from here. 

 

Amazingly, nothing

 Last night would be the acid test. The illegal nightclub/casino/brothel would operate, or not. But after I got home and ate the bento I'd bought at Nijiya and settled down a bit, I was really tired as I was operating on 4 hours of sleep and I just had to get more sleep. 

So I went to bed at 11PM and woke up around 3AM. And there was nothing going on outside at all. No cops, no pimps and ho's and customers, no nothing. I stayed up until 6AM, and a total of about 5 disappointed clients wandered by. 

I went back to bed and woke up around 10AM because the guys next door were using their favorite toy, a power washer. And amazingly, went back to sleep while that was still going on and woke up at 2:30 in the afternoon.  

I packed some things and of them, two could go by FedEx so I took them to .... Fedex. Then went to Dai Thanh on Capitol and shopped the hell out of the place, still only spending just a hair under $20. Vietnamese markets are great this way. 

I picked up shipping materials a bit, stopped by Tom's to hang out but he and his wife were heading out to the laundromat so I came back here and had a snack, vegetarian pork rinds which are ... OK I guess. And some cold pickled mackerel I'd wanted to try for a long time, which by the time I got home was thawed out and just right. 

I eventually got around to packing more things, all the things that had sold actually so no matter what time I get up, I can at least take the FedEx ones to FedEx and I'll have the post office ones done. 

I do a lot of breathing exercises while out riding, and one hot tip I've come up with is, if I just blow on the back of my hand to see if I'm making a nice small stream of air, all the back of my hand can tell me is that I'm blowing air and that's about it. But if I use my finger tip, I can tell if I'm making a nice round little stream or a lopsided one etc. 

Due to snaggly teeth, in the past I had a little jet of air going off to the side, often. That's far in the past now. So I feel the breathing exercises and practicing making a little jet of air, are helping me. 

 

The Martian

 Last night, I watched "The Martian" on YouTube which was neat to find since it's been out 10 years and I've been hoping to find it. It's a pretty good movie, and while watching it I got in about an hour and a half of practice. 

I can tell I'm starting to get places. Listeners don't want to hear wrong notes, or messed up timing or just timing that doesn't swing, but another thing they want to hear is good tone. And that's what I'm aiming for. 

For some reason, I sounded more "strong" last night and also it's like something clicked and I "get" the type of breathing needed to play flute. I'm no longer finding the breath marks in the book to be too far apart. In trumpet (oboists have it even worse) you learn to not take in too much air, because trumpet really doesn't use much air. I'd call it "middle air" in other words, fill your lungs midway. 

Flute uses what I'd call "top air" like you have to fill your lungs top-up. When someone talks about yelling etc. at the top of their lungs, this is what they mean. Put simply, in flute you have to breathe more and work those lungs a bit. 

So it was pretty good, getting this nice practice session in and watching this neat movie also. 

Today I got up, on 4 hours' sleep, and deposited my pay check and shopped at Walmart. Among other things I got some "Iron Man" reading glasses, +1.25 so the weakest power which is perfect for me. My cheapo Walmart ones had broken a week or so ago, just from my taking them out of their case and unfolding them. Hm! 

So I'd had it in my mind to get some new ones and pay a bit more, maybe find some Dean Edell (bleh) ones or something, at least some name brand that the frames aren't cheap castings. So I was going through Walmart picking up this and that and got to the pharmacy area and there was this lone pair of "Iron Man" ones, in the strength I use, in the style I like, etc. I didn't see any others. So, OK, I got 'em. I mean, maybe they're meant to read with when you're training for the ... Iron Man? 

Since I didn't go by Whole Foods I can't say how it looked for busking on this night. In my experience, busking is good over the summer and then once it's October the tips go way down. Then when it's December, it's time for the Xmas carols. So for the next two months it's going to be lousy for busking which is fine with me since I'm not up to it on flute yet. 

It will be interesting to see how flute might make a difference. There's a rule in busking that it's better to play an instrument that (a) members of the public wish they'd stayed with, or (b) they want their kid to play. Instruments like flute and violin are good examples. 

 

 

A glimpse of progress

 That I've been doing breathing exercises especially when out riding the bike is great, but there's nothing for playing the flute like playing the flute. 

I got a good practice session in the night before last, and I think got a little glimpse of the "mature" tone I'll have someday if I keep with it. I'm up to page 24 in the Wye book. I remember a piece called "Branle" or something and looked ... it's "Bransle" and on page 36. I believe, all those years ago, it's as far as I got in the book in the distant past. But I think I'm making the pieces sound more musical these days; all those years on trumpet have to count for something. 

Yesterday I got up around 2:30, packed things, took them to the post office and went to TAP Plastics to spend about $20 on plastic bags which I use around here. I had a slice of pizza and some fizzy water at Whole Foods,  got some bubble mailers, and got back here. 

I listed 20 things last night, we just got $150 for a couple little things I picked up near a certain dumpster, and I have a bunch of small things to pack today. 

Plus the day was greeted with a bill from the electric company, they need about  $375 by the 6th or they'll turn the power off. I swear Ken has the financial skills of an 11-year-old. So if he comes by tonight, I'll make sure he writes a check for it and I'll mail it off myself along with the latest batch of small packages. 

Can I hang on another year here, trying to hold this business together while trying to find the time and energy to develop some flute skills? Can I hold out two more years, moving home to Hawaii only when I'm 65 and will get Medicare, which isn't means-tested, as Medicaid in Hawaii is? Should I assume travel across half the Pacific Ocean is possible a year from now? Two years from now?