Eight strings, no waiting
Mar. 30th, 2012 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slipjig3I love getting gift certificates, but they all too often put me into hand-wringing option-lock mode—so many things I want, but can't seem to find The Thing. (Yes, I know, John Carpenter fans, it's the head that just sprouted legs and scampered off somewhere. Stick with me here.) So when it came time to extinguish the Amazon gift card that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mgrasso, yendi and zeyr had given me at my bachelor party, the one that was burning a proverbial hole through my carpenter pants, I began to tense up. I'd made a firm decision going in not to further pad my ongoing Criterion Collection habit—at least for the moment—but that left me stranded at the station outside NowWhatVille. The books on my wish list weren't appealing to me. Our wedding registry had too much of a whiff of practicality. Board games, though appealing, would be added to the backlog stack of games I haven't gotten to play yet.
Thank godsfigmentj was lounging next to me in bed at the time. "How about a mandolin?" she said. I swear, my heart lit up in my chest, ET-style.
It's a beginner's mandolin (appropriate, since I'm a beginner), flat-backed and American, and it's black and sleek and shiny and sounds strong and resonant and looks like folk-sex. And it's miiiiine, which is the bestest of all, since I've been coveting one for a few decades now. (I did own one before, which had cost my college friends eight bucks on the Soviet black market and is basically unplayable. It looks pretty hanging on the wall between our bedroom and the loo.) My happiness, it oozes from my very flesh.
It's been a long time since I've undertaken a new instrument, even though it's not terribly dissimilar from what came before. On the one hand I'm getting a bit of the frustration that comes when your skill level hasn't caught up to what your brain wants your hands to make; on the other, it is going to be so much fun discovering how the mandolin forges its music. It's not unlike taking a lover: you have to learn what makes it sing, what touches will make it purr and dance under your fingers and keep it happy and satisfied, but once you do, you'll quickly discover just how well it can return the favor. And I'll say this about the mandolin: she's got some wicked curves.
A few thoughts, based on my first 24 hours in my mandolin's presence:
1) I'd heard that mandolins have a tendency to slip out of tune if you so much as look at them funny. I think I looked at it funny.
2) I shall never take the luxury of my guitar's fixed bridge for granted ever again. Ever ever.
3) I've never used a pick in my 25+ years of playing guitar, so that much at least is a new skill set to absorb. Tip: if you don't have a pick, your Star Market Preferred Shopper key fob will work wonders.
4) It's been brought to my attention that I look anything but happy in that photo. All prior attempts at getting the shot looked stupid as a result of my attempted smile, so I went instead for badass. And failed. I shall never be a model, alas.
5) I totally want to get a Dead Kennedys sticker for it. Or a skull and crossbones. Or OBEY. Okay, maybe not OBEY.
6) Mandolin totally needs a name. Accepting nominations.
mgrasso, yendi and zeyr had given me at my bachelor party, the one that was burning a proverbial hole through my carpenter pants, I began to tense up. I'd made a firm decision going in not to further pad my ongoing Criterion Collection habit—at least for the moment—but that left me stranded at the station outside NowWhatVille. The books on my wish list weren't appealing to me. Our wedding registry had too much of a whiff of practicality. Board games, though appealing, would be added to the backlog stack of games I haven't gotten to play yet.Thank gods
figmentj was lounging next to me in bed at the time. "How about a mandolin?" she said. I swear, my heart lit up in my chest, ET-style.It's a beginner's mandolin (appropriate, since I'm a beginner), flat-backed and American, and it's black and sleek and shiny and sounds strong and resonant and looks like folk-sex. And it's miiiiine, which is the bestest of all, since I've been coveting one for a few decades now. (I did own one before, which had cost my college friends eight bucks on the Soviet black market and is basically unplayable. It looks pretty hanging on the wall between our bedroom and the loo.) My happiness, it oozes from my very flesh.
It's been a long time since I've undertaken a new instrument, even though it's not terribly dissimilar from what came before. On the one hand I'm getting a bit of the frustration that comes when your skill level hasn't caught up to what your brain wants your hands to make; on the other, it is going to be so much fun discovering how the mandolin forges its music. It's not unlike taking a lover: you have to learn what makes it sing, what touches will make it purr and dance under your fingers and keep it happy and satisfied, but once you do, you'll quickly discover just how well it can return the favor. And I'll say this about the mandolin: she's got some wicked curves.
A few thoughts, based on my first 24 hours in my mandolin's presence:
1) I'd heard that mandolins have a tendency to slip out of tune if you so much as look at them funny. I think I looked at it funny.
2) I shall never take the luxury of my guitar's fixed bridge for granted ever again. Ever ever.
3) I've never used a pick in my 25+ years of playing guitar, so that much at least is a new skill set to absorb. Tip: if you don't have a pick, your Star Market Preferred Shopper key fob will work wonders.
4) It's been brought to my attention that I look anything but happy in that photo. All prior attempts at getting the shot looked stupid as a result of my attempted smile, so I went instead for badass. And failed. I shall never be a model, alas.
5) I totally want to get a Dead Kennedys sticker for it. Or a skull and crossbones. Or OBEY. Okay, maybe not OBEY.
6) Mandolin totally needs a name. Accepting nominations.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-30 10:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-30 11:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-31 02:09 am (UTC)Not "This machine kills fascists"?
smirk
Date: 2012-03-31 02:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-31 02:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-03-31 02:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-01 01:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-04-02 12:31 pm (UTC)I don't know about badass, but you look intensely protective of your new baby. ;)