Birthday (not mine) and ethnic humor

[altivo]

Still with the threatening clouds and humidity but no rain. I hope we're not headed into another drought like last year's.

Today was Gary's birthday, so we went out for Mexican dinner, which was good food but very noisy environment. I hear enough shrieking kids at work without going somewhere to listen to more of them after I get home.

A good friend of ours lent me his Irish flute and a baroque flute to try. I can play both, but as I suspected, my trained ear and small hands are going to want an instrument with some of the extra keys on it. So the search begins. Thinking Irish, I dug my bodhran out of the closet only to have Gary hand me a couple of printed sheets full of really nasty bodhran player jokes. Maybe I'll put it back.

Example--

Belfast bartender: What's that in the bag?

Customer: Three kilos of plastic explosive.

Bartender: Oh grand. I was afraid it was a bodhran.


Another--

Bodhran player: You can sell me that red saxophone and I'll have the concertina over there too.

Shopkeeper: You must be a bodhran player.

Bodhran player: How did you know?

Shopkeeper: Because this is a butcher shop. I can sell you the fire extinguisher if you insist, but the radiator has to stay here.


Oh, and for his birthday Gary wants noise cancelling earphones... to wear while mowing the lawn. Argh. (See previous post.)

Comments

[corelog.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! Good jokes! :D

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

I thought Gary might want the noise-cancelling headphones for when he encounters bodhrans.

I have a past with bodhrans. <shudder> It's better to not ask about it.

[drelonek.livejournal.com]

Speaking of noisy kids, I went with my grandmother today to Target because she was getting some wedding gifts or whatnot.

Anyway, at some point this kid near the checkout(we're in the pharmacy area, which is sorta nearby) starts screaming, "I want my yoyo! I want my yoyo! Mommy give me my yoyo!" and just crying and yelling and squealing. And he goes on at full volume for something like 10 minutes. Of course, we go towards checkout near that time, and it's some lady with 3-4 kids, piled int two carts, and another lady(who seemed older, like a grandmother or something). I couldn't fathom why the grandmother couldn't have taken the screaming yoyo kid outside or something, as she sort of just stood there with the cart complacently.

The yoyo? It was some crappy $3 yoyo ball geegaw near the checkout, where they have all the random stuff that's pointless but they try to get you to buy anyway. And candy.

No intentions of having children here, no sir. Ugh.

[hrrunka]

Oh, bodhran's aren't so bad. There can be maybe half a dozen in a circle before it gets too crazy (assuming the folk playing them have half a clue, of course). Djembes, on the other hand... ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*pokes you in the tummy with his tipper*

I wonder if wolf skin makes a good drum head... ;p

If you liked those, maybe I should send you the rest.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Bah. He plays the hurdy-gurdy sometimes. When it misbehaves, you'd swear someone was disemboweling a live cat with a dull teaspoon. That far exceeds any hearing damage a hundred bodhrans could do. The reason hurdy-gurdies were favored by street beggars is that people paid them to go away.

I won't pry into your past with bodhrans. Everyone has ugly little secrets. Myself, I've always liked them. Normally I don't care for drums much, but this is one that can actually be quiet and refined.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, the fact that they are children is only part of the equation. The problem is more the parents than the children. Many of them certainly should not have kids.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I've ever heard a djembe, but seeing that Lark in the Morning sells them with Greatful Dead logos on is enough to put me off. I can tell you've cultivated the experienced filker's tolerance for almost anything as long as it comes in controlled doses.

I think the key to the bodhran is that it should be a subtle undertone, not a solo instrument. I've also been told that one should put half a Guinness into the player and pour the rest over the drum before playing it. (Actually, I prefer Harp to Guinness. Not as sticky.)

[hrrunka]

Heh! "Filker's tolerance" I like... :)

Djembe come in various sizes, and the larger ones can definitely be loud. Nothing wrong with loud in the right place, but all the way through every song and it begins to get a little wearying.

Accomplished bodhran players can sometimes get away with a short solo, but generally I'd agree; they're usually best employed providing a subtle undertone, and they work better at that when not bone-dry.

[corelog.livejournal.com]

*giggles, flapping your tipper with his tail* Well, my skin's not going anywhere, but you could always ask and see if Morph would turn himself into a wolf-skin drumhead...I'll bet he's got decent timbre! :D

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*ponders what a nice decoration that tail would make dangling from the drum*

Oh wait, wrong culture. Nah, I have no desire to beat on Morph or you. Good bodhrans used to be made from horse hide, actually. Only the part under the saddle, they say. I think mine used to be a goat, though. Sad, but I never was fond of goats.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Assuming the folk playing them have half a clue, of course.

Because if not, it can lead to jokes like this one:

Q: What's the difference between a bodhran player and a foot massage?

A: A foot massage bucks up the feet.

[songdogmi.livejournal.com]

Bodhrans are nice, 'tis true; I saw and heard one well-played last night at the Ark. In fact, there's one well-played on my first CD, and not by me. But it wasn't necessarily the bodhran that was the problem during my years I had a bodhran player accompanying me. The biggest issue I had was, did it really need to be tuned after every song? I could go the entire night without tuning a guitar, assuming I played my older guitar which has always kept in tune well. But the bodhran player had a ritual after every single song, using a bit of water to be rubbed into the skin. It got real tiring, and it pretty much killed show timing. I can't say I heard much difference after the tuning, myself.

The bodhran played last night had some hardware to maintain the proper tension, and it just took a couple of quick twists of a couple of nuts to tune it. Very unobtrusive. That, I wouldn't have minded.

Sorry, I know you said you wouldn't pry, and you didn't. It's just late and my filters are off. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

The moisture matters, more with some bodhrans than with others. It's what gives the drum that sort of thumping sound rather than letting it ring like a snare drum. It also makes the tipper rebound properly rather than sliding along the surface. But I agree, messing with it after every tune is pretty excessive. Once or twice per session should be adequate unless you're in a dry desert or something. ;p

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm prone to quietude as well, but good for you that
you did the tasty Mexican's.