Sunday, May 01, 2011

Marylhurst Handmade Musical Instrument Show


A great spring day, and after hitting the gym, we went to the musical instrument show at Marylhurst University, an annual event we have been attending for the last few years. 


Great fun to walk around among all the sights, sounds, and smells of fine woodwork. We also sat in the chapel theater and listened to an hour or so's worth of musicians demonstrating instruments only just recently made, another delight.


Some pictures:



How about a rare flamenco guitar? 
Made by Manuel Reyes, in Cordoba, Spain, 1955. 
A mere $22,000 ...
and the guy behind the table was 
playing it as we passed by ...


Mandolins ...


Asymmetric palor guitars ...


Violins and violas


A set list, and the makers of the instruments. We heard Dave Bertman, 
Doug Smith, Maria Olaya, Mike Doolin and a bit of Steve
Hawkins, and they were all accomplished and fun ...


Collectible items ...


Harp guitar ...


Look at that rosette ...


Banjos ...


Flutes and recorders ...

And many more instruments–acoustic, electric, thumb pianos, and lutes and ouds and viols and tiny stringed things I didn't recognize and could not pronounce the names of. Had a great time. 

Oh, yeah. And in case you been entombed in a bank vault or visiting the moon or some like, Osama bin Laden is like Monty Python's parrot, i.e., he is no more. The U.S. sent a covert ops team into Pakistan where bin Laden had been living (apparently as the invisible man) for some years. We probably won't evern know who it was shot him in the head, but they did collect the body. ID'd, and sunk in the sea. 

He's dead, Jim.

One shouldn't feel too good about the killing of a fellow human being if one is trying to learn how to become a compassionate soul, but in this case, there might be some kind of cosmic dispensation. If Paradise exists, I wouldn't look for him there if you make it. 

2 comments:

triksterut said...

Hey Steve,

I read your blog (and your books) on a regular basis. I came across this and thought it may be of use to you with your guitar playing:

http://www.piknboard.com/

It essentially lets you add some rhythm to your playing.

Jeremy

Steve Perry said...

Cool toy. I don't use a pick, so it wouldn't do any good on my classical guitar, but it might be something steel-string acoustic players would find useful.