This is such a wonderfully intresting and tragically wasteful exchange of
e-mails that I just can not resist the urge to write something despite my
better angels telling me not to...
A few points:
1- Yes, once again I am just amazed with my jaw open and my eyes popping:
how and why is a shakuhachi list-serve so consistently the source of so much
anger and discord? It is the most bizarre and strangest thing. If the
emotions weren't so real and the insults flying so really painful it would
be hysterical. I am just speachless.
2- I actually read the entire string of e-mails at work. I should be fired.
I am filled with shame.
3- I understand Jason's frustration with the $ thing. Shakuhachi study is
not cheap. The instrument is expensive, and it is simply not the kind of
instrument you can learn on your own. You need a teacher. And teacher's
need to study for many years to become actually knowledgable about the music
and instrument. The sad reality is that formal shakuhachi studies, nowadays
at least, is a bourgeous past-time for people with a large amount of
disposable income. But this is not the fault of anyone around. The only
thing you can blame is the shakuhachi itself for being so damn hard to make
well, and for having music notation so damn nutty that you need an
experienced and professionaly trained teacher to explain it to you. Also,
any instrument that requires at least two years of initial huffing and
puffing with little or no worthwhile musical output is clearly only going to
be the instrument of choice of people with a lot of spare time on their
hands. (In other words: people who aren't working around the clock to
support their families.)
Didigeridoo, on the other hand, is cheap. You really do not need a teacher.
I don't even think it has musical notation. And it doesn't make 20 +
years of didgeridoo making experience to make a top quality instrument. So I
could see why someone taking up both of these instruments would react with a
large degree of indignation at the economics of the shakuhachi world.
4- Important general warning: You can not just make casual comments about
anyone or anything on this list concerning the shakuhachi world without
realizing that anything you write about anyone will be read very soon about
the person in question. We are a very small community and this list-serve
is not some private channel of intimate conversation - rather it is a very
loud public speaker system that blasts your message right into the living
room of every single english speaking shakuhachi player on the planet. (And
let me tell you: I have learned this lesson the hard way...one particularly
stupid incident still sends horrible spasms of guilt and shame throughout my
body, oy! If there was only an un-send button!)
5- Yeah, I love Perry too.
6- I also really appreciate Ronnie. The shakuhachi festival was like a
crazy alternative shakuhahci reality dreamland fantasy come true. It was
not cheap to attend, but, for me, it was worth every single dollar.
Sorry to send e-mail # 85 in 30 hours... Hey, is this a new record for the
list?
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jan 06 2006 - 10:00:44 PST