Didn’t busk ye…

Didn’t busk yesterday. I had no clean clothes, and my arm was killing me. I have to build in some time for basic maintenance, and the Lorin Swap is not only unpaid, it takes up most of my Sunday.

So I took yesterday to have a long look around my life and figure out a few things. Last week was wonderful. I was on vacation and all I had to do was busk, blog and cook/do dishes. Adding my job back into the mix changed things. And I discovered a very hard fact. I am not healed. Playing the bodhran brings the injury right back. A week of daily playing, even with a daily yoga practice, combined with work, showed me a hard limit.

Will three days a week be possible? Don’t know. But I’m not giving up. Arnica is a marvelous thing, and I have a great acupuncturist. I can also learn more a capella stuff and take the bodhran out of a couple of songs that can go either way. I can also limit my computer time and cut the little devices out as much as possible. The iPod and the texting on the phone are killers. If I read paper books, the temptation to use those things will not be as great.

I did get a few gear things done over Friday and Monday. My sign is blocked out. I just have to trace and paint it now. My old busking setup looked like this:

 

In the BART station I was just setting my bodhran case out for people to put money in. It worked, but it lacked something. And last week a kid tried to grab the money and run. I stopped him before he got properly started, but BART is not Faire and I need a better setup. Bard in a Box doesn’t really work any more, as I’m not selling tapes–who even has a cassette player any more? I don’t want to paint out the old sign, though. So I began by covering it:

 

 

I’ll be painting Busking my way to Ireland on it, with the help of my wonderful and artistic partner, who painted the horn last time and is going to xerox the mockup I made tonight. A bit of time and some carbon paper and I’ll have something.

So off to catch the lunch crowd at Montgomery BART, and then to downtown Berkeley BART or wherever I can find a spot and the Open Mic at the Freight tonight.