Friday, June 7, 2013

3 Outs At Caseys

I went to Caseys last night, after having washed my clothes and put on some patchouli oil and practiced a song and stayed as sober as I could....
I got there 20 minutes after they were supposed to start Dorise was 20 minutes late (and counting) herself.

Tanya was in her chair and was talking to this older guy who plays the violin; and who seems to be an obsequious brain picker of Huang, trying to intellectualize the musical process (like myself, sometimes) and was in a deep discussion with her about horse hair.
The guy was kind of kneeling in front of her and leaning towards her; as if the subject of horse hair was confidentia.
He's probably about 58 years old, has close cropped curly hair of a gray-dyed-light brown shade.
His age, combined with the intermediate skill level which he displays on the formidible instrument seem to indicate that had taken it up "later on in life" maybe because of Tanya, given the way he was focused upon their conversation.
Neither one of them looked up when I came in.
I stood there for a few seconds.
Neither one of them looked at me; much less said hello.
Can you walk into a room an not be noticed by the people there? Don't people have subconscious awareness at a primal level?
The First Out
I grabbed my stuff and left.
I went towards my playing spot; but then realized that I was still toting the Jasmine guitar. Damn, I've got to try to leave this with Dorise......
I didn't want to go back.
That was rude; just plain rude...I can see one person not noticing their "friend"  walking in, but BOTH of them, as if in conspiracy to ignore...
So, I returned an hour later, when their show only had 20 minutes left of it.
I had planned upon just asking Dorise if she would take the guitar and then leaving, which is what I did.
The Second Out
I leaned the Jasmine up against the wall and then walked out, not even acknowledging Tanya or the obsequious older violin player, who in turn didn't seem to see me.
Classical musicians in general have a high "snob index"; but this guy in particular, whom I have never had anything but friendly things to say to; was quite outspoken in his disregard of me.
"Did you play?" I asked.
"No," he said with an "end of discussion" tone of voice.
The guy has never played anything on his violin that I couldn't play on my guitar; and the part would be pretty easy to play.
On Impossible Instruments And Whistling Under Water
I've never believed that violinists should be given credit for playing simple and uninspired melodies just because of the "impossibility" of the instrument.
I mean it is very hard to whistle underwater; so if someone whistled Yankee Doodle under water; some might say that it was pretty incredible; but; musically its still Yankee Doodle.
After I left, I went to the next corner, where there was a young black man smoking a large blunt.
He offered me some immediately upon seeing me.
This had the predictable effect of making me want to play my guitar.
I returned to the bar and sat in an empty chair near Dorise.
Guestless Night
The duo seemed to be all about self promotion on this particular occasion (maybe there was a group there that was considering hiring them for a wedding and they felt like they were auditioning; and didn't want to have to explain: "The guy with the song about carcasses won't be there at your wedding, by the way...")
I was pretty buzzed, and it doubtlessly made Tanya sound better to me.
She tore up Folsom Prison Blues and made me wonder if she has ever lived with hillbillies...or are the hillbilly parts so puerile that she can make a burlesque of them by playing them better and faster and stronger than your average guy in coveralls standing next to the guy with the washtub bass?
I had given their new CD a second listen that day.
Typing my blog with it playing in the background; I was able to absorb it at a subconscious level and there were some melodic ideas that just didn't work, for example on "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" and it was like finding a kink in Tanyas armor; in a sense...
This is probably because of them doing the songs in one take
I Was Thinking...
Perhaps the bar owner might have told them that he really didn't want anybody (especially the "H" words) hanging around there who wasn't buying drinks and/or food and tipping the waitresses; and if his musical contribution wasn't enough to justify him taking up space there; then...
Then give him the cold shoulder; make him feel unwelcome...
People who are "too nice" to tell you that you aren't welcome, but then insinuate it through subtle means, are the meanest people in the world; even meaner than people who tell you straight up that you aren't welcome, but then add: "I'm not trying to be mean.."
But, Tanya and Dorise aren't like that are they?..
I asked Tanya why she had ignored me when I had first arrived
She looked at me innocently and said "It wasn't on purpose..I'm in my own world, sometimes"
I guess the older violinist guy was in his own world, too, because he never acknowledged me.
Grizzled Guitarist Weighs In
"If that guy was trying to hit on her; of course he wouldn't have acknowledged you..."
 

3 comments:

  1. Well, it looks like you're heading - if very slowly - in the right direction becoming better friends with Tanya and Dorise.

    I'm probably going to take my blog down because the only reason to have a blog is to advertise some product, or to beg. Rabb1t, homelessphilosopher, you, and Ran Prieur all make money begging on your blogs, and it works. But, I plan to do my begging in person (street music) so no need for a blog.

    Things are going well for me in one crucial area: A friend of mine who owns a violin shop is going to help me all he can, in my quest to learn to re-hair bows. It takes a long time and lots of work to learn to do it well, and most people can't learn it. But if I can, it pays *really* well, like $100/hour. And I'm going to go back to learning the violin, too.

    Hey, maybe you could get ahold of a student cello, and learn that. It would go well with Tanya's violin, and I bet there are not too many cello players there.

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  2. Not too many cello players; and none that are playing ;what the majority want to hear Adele or Dave Matthews on the cello; I would actually just have to play rhythm cello at first; staying simple and adding the "cello sount" to the mix but not trying to co-solo with Huang...

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  3. You should certainly try .... anything that isn't guitar. Cello would be good. Violin good too, but cello would be outstanding.

    I went to Santa Cruz and hustled "awareness" ribbons, paid my expenses and food and now I have an extra $100 in my pocket.

    ReplyDelete

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