Richard Jernigan -> RE: Advice on my soundboard stiffness (May 30 2018 3:15:14)
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I can empathize, estebanana. I lived for 18 1/2 years on a tiny tropical island at the north end of the world's largest coral atoll, Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, ten degrees north of the equator. The view from my top floor apartment was palm trees, a white sand beach and the brilliant blue Pacific. I had a great job, made very good money, went diving and sailing every weekend, and vacationed in exotic places. I went back to Texas for Christmas and New Year every year, but after ten years or so I said to my daughter, "These Texans are looking stranger and stranger to me every year." On the island I had a hi-fi rig that I loved, a couple thousand CDs of classical music, and several hundred in other genres, including flamenco. When I would hit San Francisco on my trip back to the USA, I would stop at Tower Records in North Beach. More than once after I presented my debit card at the cash register, the phone rang and my bank wanted to make sure it was really me. But somehow the tropical environment seeped into my musical tastes. It seemed more and more odd to be listening to Bach, Beethoven, Bartok, Stravinsky, cante flamenco, jazz or rock 'n roll in that remote tropical "paradise". What seemed to fit my tropical music moods best was Balinese and Javanese gamelan. I didn't begin to lose interest in playing classical and flamenco guitar until the last five years or so, when I began to experience numbness in fingers 3 and 4 of the left hand. I retired at the end of 2009, and we spent a month in India. Performances of Indian music and dance, of a variety of genres, were very attractive to me. Finally moving back to Austin, at a performance of the Symphony, much improved during my absence, I said to myself, "Now I'm back home." The Symphony and the excellent classical and flamenco series of Austin Classical Guitar have been wonderful. Practice has led to an effectively complete recovery of the left hand. At the Charreada in San Antonio last year the mariachis played "El Gavilan," "El Torito," and "El Riflero," old standards of the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, before they became the official mariachi of the PRI ruling party, moved from Jalisco to Mexico City and hired conservatory trained musicians. I managed to refrain from getting up to dance, but the gray haired grandmother sitting next to me in the viewing stand smiled and tapped me on the shoulder. After the Mexican style rodeo we went to Tito's on South Alamo Street and ordered enchiladas poblanas. We've made plans to make it to the Bienal in Sevilla in the Fall. Home again... RNJ
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