This Week's Odd's & Ends, Including a Very Brief, Very Rare Foray into Politics

During the last week, I've fought the family cold (nearing victory, finally!); worked on my migraine management strategies (migraines SUCK!); taught my wife some chemistry (and a new word: stoichiometry) as she delved into soap-making; tied some more flies and earrings, including my new "hair crawdad;"

procrastinated my car maintenance jobs; made a prototype "Altoids tin fly-box" for the Christmas season; prepared for a furlough (which didn't materialize at LANL); and did some work on my piano project. The upright got a new bottom shelf (for books and such) with an access panel for "digitizing" the pedals,

and, after a little engineering and fabrication, the bottom cover will become a "flap" like on those cool barrister/attorney bookshelves (the brackets that I attached to the flap (pictured) were made from some of the SOLID MAPLE piano guts).

Tonight I cut all the parts for the sides and made the pins for the flap to ride on (ground the heads off some of the big screws that came out of this thing). As soon as I get all that together, I'm at a stopping spot on the upright because I REALLY need to get that car work done.

The gig schedule is filling up! I can't believe we already have shows lined up into May. (Everything below is in Los Alamos, NM unless otherwise noted.)
- Oct 31, Halloween Party with the Los Alamos Beer Co-op (Affordables)
- Nov 2, Pajarito Brewpub & Grill (Affordables)
- Nov 16, Los Ojos Bar in Jemez Springs, NM (Affordables)
- Dec 14, Los Alamos Family Council Fundraiser (Craig Martin Experience)
- Jan 25, Pajarito Mtn. Ski Area (Craig Martin Experience)
- Feb 8, Blue Window Bistro/K2 Women's Weekend Fundraiser (Craig Martin Experience)
- May 10, Family Strengths Network benefit TBD (Affordables)

I set up a profile on a site called Thumbtack, which allows me to lay out my philosophies and share reviews others have made of my musicianship and teaching skills. So if you're interested in hiring a musician (piano or guitar) for a gig or for lessons, please consider me. Check out my Thumbtack profile here. I have some openings for lessons (piano or guitar, half or full hour) on Thursday evenings (5-6 pm in Los Alamos) or Fridays (2-3:45, and 4:45- 6 in White Rock). If you can't make those times work, but still want to take lessons, let's talk anyway. After the New Year, I plan to offer lessons at other times as well, but at my home.

That's the fun stuff. Now, not so fun--

I've been thinking about politics the past few weeks, what with all the hubbub surrounding "Obamacare" and the government shutdown. I'll spare you the details of all my thoughts until they're a bit more solid, but a conclusion I've come to is that our political system, regardless of your political affiliation, promotes dependence on something, either industry (Republicans) or government (Democrats). Not a one of those fellas and gals is truly interested in our "freedom," but rather in making more money and having more power and influence. And that, in the land of the free/home of the brave, is a truly frightening thought. Smokescreens are blown up to divide us and distract us from what I see as a central issue of our dependence on the systems we should resent. We send our kids to school to be trained to work from the neck down and don't ask questions. These systems are eroding the health of our bodies, our souls, the environment, our nation, and our society. It's past time for change.

And now, off the soapbox. Hopefully folks aren't out to burn me at the stake now. Anyway...

Have a great week!

The Carhartt Vest Project

Years ago, my K-9 search & rescue training partner Glenn moved to Alaska. He liquidated a lot of his stuff to me including a bunch of camo clothing, an old armoire (which I repurposed into an entertainment center), and a Carhartt jacket. I used the jacket off and on in the winter to change the oil and stuff like that, but the sleeves were too short (I must be part ape because this is a common problem for me). Also, I wanted a more rugged vest that I could wear to chop wood and do other such jobs in the shoulder seasons. So, I took the sleeves off the jacket and serged the edges of the lining

finished the raw edges of the lining with the widest bias tape I could find

and stitched it all back together. Voila!

I should note that roughly a year passed between taking the sleeves off and finishing the thing, but hey, it's done now. And it works much better for me as a vest than it did as a jacket.

Have a great week!

The Digital Upright Piano Project--Tear Down

I've wanted a place to set up a music studio at home for a while, but our small house doesn't allow us dedicated studio rooms (me for music, my wife for art). A couple years ago we bought my wife a nice, tall drop leaf table to work at, and it sits in a corner of the dining room, waiting for her daily dose of inspiration to hit. Since she lives by the adage "A clean desk is the sign of a lazy artist", I've neglected to include a picture of her workspace here. However, upon seeing how productive my wife's workstation helped her to be inspired me to make this stand/shelf thing out of stuff I had lying around the garage.

It works well for practice and has space for a few odds and ends, like headphones, a few cords, and some music. What became glaringly apparent, though, were the lack-luster aesthetics, and the inefficiency of having my electronics in a closet, sheet music and books in my bedroom, and keyboard in the main room. Plus, my new keyboard (not shown in the pic) doesn't quite fit. I've been wanting to delve into recording for a while, but was constantly setting up and tearing down my "studio." I wanted to co-locate as much of that as possible but keep the small footprint. I'd seen plans and ideas for building a custom case to look like an upright piano, but I thought, why not just gut an old piano that isn't worth tuning/fixing/restoring? It already has a "shelf" for the keyboard, and I can add shelves above and below for books, speakers, laptop, and whatever else I want to store. With the "flaps" and panels on the front, I can hide stuff away when I'm not accessing the interior of the piano (the "studio"). The 2-3" thick sides will bear as much weight as I want to put in it, and, if I was building from scratch, I wouldn't bother with the finer detailing present on older pianos. I'm up-cycling something someone else doesn't want, preventing it from becoming firewood or land-fill. But the best reason I can think of is this: with this re-purposing project, I'll have a more interesting story to tell and will end up with a cooler looking piece of furniture.

The first step to this project was finding a FREE upright piano. That was more difficult than I thought it would be--people were reluctant to part with even their non-playable heirlooms when I told them I was basically in the piano dismantling business and their "antiques" would end up forever altered, not restored. [(it never ceases to amaze me the strings people attach to "free" stuff or "gifts," but I digress.)] After a few months of searching, I found a decent looking 44" upright on Freecycle with some nice woodwork. I paid Expert Piano out of Albuquerque to have it moved, which turned out to be money well spent. Those guys were certainly better (and stronger) lifters than my friends and I, as TWO of these pros were able to dead-lift this beast (500? 600 lbs?) up a couple feet to set it on a dolly and roll it right into their van. It took them a little over an hour to move the piano across White Rock (and move a second piano between neighbors--the woman who gave me this piano also acquired a nice Baldwin from her next door neighbor, and we split some of the travel costs). It probably would have taken me and 3 friends most of the afternoon! Here's the piano, after they rolled it into the garage and I removed the access panels.

I removed the "guts" by unscrewing screws and carefully removing pieces of the case to get at the keybed, action/hammer assembly, pedal mechanisms, and finally the cast iron harp (I googled "dismantling a piano" and got a lot of great information; you should do the same if you're interested in this kind of project). 100 years of dust bunnies were gobbled up with the shop vac, but the only "treasures" I found were a penny, a couple paperclips, and a broken pencil. With the harp exposed, I removed the strings and the tuning pegs (all 228 of them, one at a time...), which enabled me to get at the large number (25? 30?) of 5/16" lag screws that held the harp to the sound board. Only two were stubborn enough to require drilling and a bolt extractor. I started at the bottom and worked my way up to the top, until finally, the harp was free. I took the key shelf out then walked the harp assembly over to my workbench, where it currently stands (it's heavy enough that I can't lift it safely by myself). The soundboard (3/8" solid fir/pine/spruce?) was cut out with a circular saw and the edges were pried away; I'll salvage as much as I can but I beat it up pretty good getting it out of there. Here's the empty case where once stood a piano. It's taken me about 6 good hours to get to this point.

For now, I have to take a break from this piano project for some car work--timing belt, water pump, spark plugs, radiator fluid, air filter, and oil/filter change on our 4Runner in preparation for a road trip in November. We are running out of nice fall days!

In a future post I'll show the finished project and how I got there, but it'll involve installing new casters, re-installing the bottom, sanding and finishing parts of the inside, installing adjustable shelving above and below the keyboard, and finding/installing speakers for the digital piano. As an aside, my wife and I are already starting a list for art projects using the leftover pieces (IVORY and EBONY keys, hammers, steel pins, ancillary woodwork, etc.). 

Have a great week!

The Legend of the Perennial White Belt

No, this isn't a script for the latest martial arts blockbuster starring Jet Li. This is the story of my humble martial arts journey, from white belt to black belt and back again. It's a break from the music and art discussion that has dominated this blog so far, and yet another facet of my being.

I earned my first white belt in a Jukido dojo in Gooding, ID when I was 10 years old. I loved everything about the art—the flow, the camaraderie, the discipline. Jukido is similar to Jiu-jitsu with less emphasis on ground techniques and competition and more emphasis on practical self-defense. I earned a brown belt in Jukido sometime in high school. Things were going smoothly in my progression to Shodan. When I entered my Senior year of high school, Idaho’s Magic Valley, where I lived, was undergoing a Kokondo revolution, but not in a way that was good for Kokondo. Many of the instructors, including my sensei, were leaving the Kokondo system to study and teach Sanjiuriu Jujitsu instead. Many of the principles and techniques were the same, so I was able to earn a black belt in that art by the time I graduated high school. I practiced with my black belt for maybe 6 months before I went to college and abandoned it completely. The closest Sanjiuriu dojo was 15 miles away, classes were at night when I needed to study what I was paying good money to learn, I didn’t have a car, and public transportation did not exist. Thus ended my study of Sanjiuriu, and my shiny new black belt was relegated to the bottom of a drawer (it’s still there). Here's a picture from 1994 where I'm trying to remember what move comes next in that kata (Pinan Nidan?). Look at all that hair!

From 1993 through 1998 (while in college & grad school), I studied Judo, earning another white belt with ease. Eventually, that white belt turned brown, too. Judo is “the way of gentleness,” but don’t be fooled—it is an intense workout every session. In the Denver, CO area (where I lived from 1997-1999), Judo is taken very seriously. Many Colorado Judo-ka regularly travel to Colorado Springs to train at the Olympic Training Center. One positive aspect of Judo is that it trains grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, at full intensity. By the time I graduated from Colorado State in 1999, I was in the best shape of my life as I was training 2-4 nights per week in the dojo and hiking, climbing, or skiing on the weekends (in addition, of course, to my academic studies). Judo’s shortcomings lie in the fact that true self-defense techniques against punches, kicks, and weapons are not overtly taught until a student earns his or her black belt (though many would argue that most martial arts students do not start their true martial arts journeys until reaching Shodan). And in the end, Judo is largely about competition in tournaments, within a weight class. As most of us know, our opponents are rarely the same size as we are. One tournament I entered was an exception—we were ranked by our “Judo experience,” regardless of size, and I was beaten by a guy that easily outweighed me by 100 pounds because he was able to get hold of me and pick me up. So size does matter, when everyone is playing by the same rules.

After Fort Collins, I didn't do martial arts for a while. I drove to/from my job (getting a start on my career), climbed, mountain biked, and skied. I got married. I moved, three times--from Fort Collins to Boulder, from Boulder to Longmont, from Longmont to Los Alamos, NM. I had kids. I earned a third white belt in Shojin Ryu Jiu jitsu (which I really only did for a couple months). But recently, my martial arts journey has come full-circle.

A few months ago (after another hiatus...) I found a Kokondo dojo within a few blocks from my house. I took my 6-year-old son a couple times to see if he would be interested in learning. He was not. I didn’t push him, because it really didn’t appeal to him, and after all, I didn’t start my martial arts journey until I was 10. However, while I was visiting the dojo, Sensei Ridlon talked me into restarting my Kokondo studies (it didn't take much convincing). And so, after a 20-year journey, I was back to Kokondo—as a white belt. If you’ve been counting, you’ll recognize this as my fourth white belt. I could not in good conscience show up wearing any other color (even my Jukido Brown Belt from 20 years ago!) as I didn’t remember much of anything, Kokondo-wise, from my teenage years. Also, I spent most of my youth and teens learning Jukido techniques, and this is a Karate class (with a lot of kata). I’m having a blast, though, relearning techniques I’ve forgotten, training with people I’ve never trained with, and learning as much kata as I can stuff into my brain. Hopefully I can continue this Kokondo journey and be wearing a more colorful belt with pride once again.
 

Yet, isn’t starting anew the plight of the lifelong learner? Isn’t life’s journey a series of beginnings and endings? Should we not continue to seek new and important thoughts, ideas, and challenges? Should we not be open to the new opportunities that lie at our doorsteps? If we are not open to new thoughts, we cannot learn new things. We cannot grow. We need to keep the fires of curiosity alive. I’m proud of my four white belts as they reflect my desire to learn and explore new ideas and techniques, a willingness to embrace the opportunities that have appeared before my eyes. I hope you take this tale not as evidence for a lack of dedication to a single specific discipline, but as a notion to “go with the flow”—be open to change. To paraphrase Douglas Adams, although you may not go where you intended, you will end up where you need to be.  Even if, just as in many of our kata forms, it is back where you started.

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Postscript:  A few things have changed since I started this essay. My son recently started Brazilian Jiu jitsu, which he enjoys. Last night's practice looked like it was a blast, as he had a big grin on his face the entire time. As for me, after several months of practice and remedial work, I was reinstated as brown belt in Kokondo. In between berating me for forgetting everything from 20+ years ago, Sensei Ridlon has me teaching students how to fall and throw. It's been a blast, and I'm glad that martial arts are part of my life once again.

Have a great week!