Cowboy Hat
Cowboy, baybee
Does anything say Yankee so well as a cowboy hat? If you are really from Texas you can be forgiven. It is your native headgear. But of course if you are from Texas then you may be exuding an exponentially greater nativistic chauvinism than the average American, so that the hat is more the crowning statement, if you will, in the overall package of hubris, than the defining one. Yankee.
Just kidding.
Still cultural stereotyping is the topic of exploration for the next few posts.
A while back I promised more about our trip to Tortola. The best laid plans . . .
Now I intend to catch up. Suddenly I find myself with a fractured left hand and no ability to play guitar or record, or even do summer house projects (This bums me out most. Really.)
I've never had a broken anything before, except nose! Losing my left hand is like losing well, my hand. Really, two appendages: hand and guitar.
In an effort to deny the long dark teatime of the soul, of a month or more without playing, I am going to blog, man, blog.
Have thumb, will hunt and peck.
Now as for cowboy hats, the vanity of tourists, and cultural conflict
in Tortola . . .
posted by Borderliner at 3:59 PM
6 Comments:
Were you driving?
Ugh, sorry about the hand, that's pretty lousy.
Just started guitar lessons by me for the two oldest tonight. First problem- All guitars too big. Second problem- one's a lefty (child, not guitar). Maybe I'll rig one up like Jimi used to (guitar, not child).
But you can still sing...
But father, I don't want to marry, I just want to sing....
Sorry, just being silly.
Hey, my previous comment went in when there was only the picture. I'm sorry to hear about the hand. How will you get through the healing process without the guitar? Bionics? I think you could tap stuff out on a keyboard. Maybe it is a bit too percussive, but it might help you to put tunes to the stuff that runs through your head.
About Mr. Quick's comment: I found a very small but real and functional guitar at Wal-Mart for forty bucks and got it for my daughter. Since I moved I don't have one, so I play hers sometimes and it sounds fine, if a bit uke-like. She is keen enough to try it, but the father is the problem there.
If I was driving at the time, I would have been no more and no less sober than other pilots.
Re: Guitars, Cornelius.
'B' is a lefty too. In fact so is 'F'. Arrgh. I had already purchased a 'real', child-size guitar and had the bridge set up and everything, so I don't want to flip it.
Sooo . . . I . . . have been . . . makingherplayrighthanded. There! I said it. The evil oppression of right-handedness.
I try to rationalize: Her left-hand will be amazing and dexterous on the fret-board.
Actually, even the small guitar is too big, and B is as big as a 7 or 8 year old.
Here is one hint: Tune the guitar to DADGAD and learn a few of the chords (easy). That way, your pupils will be:
A. Way cooler than any of their guitar-playing peers now and through high school, you know the shleps playing in boring old standard tuning.
And 2nd. In the meanitime, all those years of bashing away on it will actually not sound so bad because of the open tuning.
Also. The kids can actually learn some chords because many require only one or two fingers.
The chords, not the kids.
Post a Comment
<< Home