Tuesday, June 25, 2013

As good as a cockroach?

A spiritual guru named Byron Katie supposedly achieved enlightenment one day when a cockroach crawled across her foot as she lay in bed in a halfway house. The cockroach was probably unaware of its role in her enlightenment. Even though I primarily ride my bicycle while playing guitar to relieve my own pain from the sensory issues and social rejection I experience from my neurology (I have a form of autism), it gladdens me to see the reactions of others to what I do. Most of the time the reactions are positive. I imagine someone having a bad day and driving home in a bad mood when suddenly they see a bicycling guitarist. The shock of seeing something so bizarre, so out of the ordinary, brings a smile to their face involuntarily and lightens their mood.

I have thought this, or at least hoped this was the case, for years. Just last night two (count 'em, TWO) different people volunteered to tell me this is the case for them personally. I just got a new heavy duty rear rack on Saturday, and I wanted to ride all weekend but the weather threatened rain. I went out Sunday night at sunset when I saw a break in the clouds. A teenage male friend of my neighbor's daughter was leaving when I left, and he told me that more than once he had been having a bad day when he looked up and noticed me riding and playing. He told me it cheered him up and that what I do makes his life better.

I did not ride as far as I had intended to the Hansen Chevrolet parking lot at the corner of SE Oak Avenue and SE Pine Street because it looked like rain could happen soon. Instead I rode to the parking lot of The News-Review newspaper and circled around a couple times then headed home. I heard people talking as I passed by a house where a guy had called me over to play for him a few days ago. I stopped there and talked with him again and played some more tunes including one he requested. He told me I make people's lives better by what I do.

So this was bizarre. I went out for a short ride daring the weather, trying to generate some publicity to get more people to come to my shows, and in the space of a few minutes I talked with two different people several blocks apart who both told me the same thing. This is not an ordinary topic of conversation, and I swear I did not initiate it. Both people told me this out of the blue of their own free will. I guess I needed it.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Three months later...

As you may have noticed, I don't post very often to this blog. I used to post maybe once a month, but sometimes three or four months slip by before I notice I haven't posted anything or before I find something to say.

Here's an update of the past three months: I still perform a two-hour show every Wednesday night at a local coffee house (Till It Shines). This has been going on since last October 3. Since January I added three songs by Christina Grimmie and Sarah to my show (Above All That is Random 4, 5 and 6) and one song (Sleeping Sun) by the Finnish metal band Nightwish. I have also come up with some more original instrumental tunes. In general, my show has gotten better over time, and I am a better guitar player and even more a better singer than I was six months ago when I started this gig. There is a small following of audience members who attend my shows. One guy has only missed one show and only because he was sick that night.

Last month the weather was nice enough on some days for me to ride and play outside, and generally since then I have gone out for a twenty-minute ride or so when weather permits. Sometimes I go out two or even three times in one day with an hour or two break between rides, but I am still way out of shape from not riding in wintertime. For now at least I can only handle a half hour riding at a time, and even then I am out of breath from the effort.

I have updated the Facebook page of "The Bicycling Guitarist" pretty regularly the past three months but still need to make the page look prettier. I also need more photographs, sound files and videos to post. Hopefully these are in the works. It might take a few more months, but by the end of summer I might have some professional quality multimedia to share with all of you.

Namaste

Monday, January 14, 2013

In the newspaper, and more

Last Wednesday a reporter from my local newspaper (The News-Review) interviewed me for an hour before my fifteenth weekly performance at Till It Shines Coffee House & Deli in Roseburg, Oregon. She stayed for part of the show too. Her story was published in today's newspaper, but you need a subscription to view the article online, sorry.

As consolation, watch this video that was filmed last Saturday afternoon of me playing the novelty song Fish Heads on a bicycle in the DeForest Kelley Memorial Gymnasium, better known as He's Dead, Gym.