Every morning is in adventure. Wednesday night we’d ended up eating pretty generically, an IHOP across the street from Disneyland. The cab that took us back to the hotel was manned by a guy named Yasser who handed us his card and told us we should call HIM in the morning, and beyond that, every morning! Slightly weird, but glad to have a number to call – no problem. The next morning he takes us through a relatively sedate arrival for our first day at the show.
Thursday night Kristen and I had walked back to the hotel after having a really Lovely wandering through the area, but the next morning she woke up very sick. Dave and Yasser and I head out to the conference on our own and this morning get to hear a little bit more of Yassar’s Life story. An interesting tale of departure from Palestine, an unhappy Life in Saudi Arabia and eventual immigration to the United States so that his own children would know a better Life. He feels that there’s no racism here, and that when there is, you can sue someone. It’s an interesting perspective.
Friday’s a little more densely populated and we pick up a new guitar line, shop for new pickups, hunt for ukuleles, ponder archtop guitars and get very excited over bowl-back mandolin cases. It’s an interesting trip. I get to meet up with Brennan (from Petal Blight, but in his capacity as buyer for Bill’s Music Warehouse in Catonsville) and together we critique and sample and think. I’m glad to have a guide through all the insanity. Part of my job is definitely Dave-wrangling. I’m perhaps too time-oriented for most musical applications, but in this environment I was very glad to be in charge of the schedule, making sure we got to meet with the people we NEEDED to meet with.
I developed some very specific and non-positive opinions of a couple of companies and a couple of reps. I think I’ll try and be careful about sharing them (this self-censorship kind of angers me, but I don’t want to cause any trouble for the shop), but just for the record – there are also some very GOOD companies out there. Composite Acoustic, first off, is everything I want them to be. As the company that I hope to have building me my new guitar (when I’ve got the cash), it’s good to know that the people involved are bright, attentive, excited and friendly. I made it a point to drop by and hang out there for a couple of minutes every day. It was a good way to rest, if only for a moment.
A lot of the luthiers were a lot of fun to meet. A lot of ukulele builders. The people from Kala Ukuleles were also a lot of fun and I got to play with their new U-bass. It’s madness with four strings. Four tiny strings. Not quite as cool as Dan Zimmerman’s Lego bass, but perhaps a close second.
Friday night Kristen managed to come out and join us at one of the literally hundreds of concerts going on. While most of the convention was going and seeing something really loud and electric, probably backed by a lot of booze – the folk community gathered with Rick Shub (the inventor of the Shub Capo) at a classy ballroom for first bluegrass, then swing – and then John Jorgenson’s gypsy jazz swing band. It was an amazing night. I was worried that Brennan wouldn’t be able to make it, but thankfully he managed to get away from his dinner in time to join us for this absolutely jawdropping musical spectacle. Lightning fast and fun, without and of the abstract masturbatory meandering of so much modern jazz – and so emotive – I was very, very impressed.
Afterwards we called a cab and got our first REAL cab experience, careening frighteningly through the Anaheim streets – we finally had a cabby who sort of made me fear for my Life. It wasn’t GOOD – but it was sort of “right”. Of course, “right” almost made us all throw up and made Dave make a little squeaking sound at one point… but I’ll just pretend it was one of the neighbouring Disneyland rides and write it off to The Experience. Meep.
