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catheglass
Lokahi
USA
312 Posts |
 Posted - 03/05/2007 : 9:40:08 PM
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Well, here's another artist in your midst, fellow t'patchers.
I'm a glass artist (un huh, yep, check that name to your left) and a fine jeweler. (fine doesn't necessarily signify the quality of the work, it means I work in precious metals) Been earning my living with fine art and fine craft for many many years, both mainland and Hawai'i. But ya know, music is how your soul speaks, and I'm sure that the ki ho'alu and 'ukulele in my life make the artwork much mo' bettah. |
cathe |
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Julie H
Ha`aha`a
USA
1206 Posts |
Posted - 03/05/2007 : 10:26:42 PM
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I can never figure out if I'm a computer geek or an artist, but those two sides of me are sparring all the time. For $$ I do layout design of semiconductors, those integrated circuits or "chips" that go into everything from telephones to televisions, automobiles, stuff.
And I have paintings hanging in several places.
I worked in "Silicon Valley" before it got that name. The very first chip I did in 1969 had 4 bipolar transistors. The one I'm working on today has over 2.5 million devices. I started out at $2.10 an hour. Can't divulge what I'm charging now.  (But it's enough to buy ukes and steel guitars and go to workshops now and then.)
Did the first 8-bit microprocessor, the first ROM and the first RAM at Intel in and around 1970. Had Intel stock before it went public, then sold the whole lot and blew all the money in Argentina trying to forget a man. Sigh... Never been good with money.
But the scientific side and the artistic side have always been intertwined in my family. Dad an engineer and professor at the University, Mom a teacher, both accomplished symphony musicians and lovely, lovely people. My siblings played guitar and piano. We had a family choir, sang at churches and other facilities. A rock band in the sixties. It does not seem strange to me to have all those facets in one family or in one personality.
I run huge programs at work, however, I'll be darned if I can manage one of those slidy boxes at the supermarket check out counter. "No, mam, turn your card around and slide like so. Now push the button: credit or debit. No, no, not that button, the other, then push the green one! No, the green one! OK, let's try that again..."
I drive away singing a sweet Hawaiian song at the top of my lungs, and I'm happy again.
Julie |
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rendesvous1840
Ha`aha`a
USA
1055 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2007 : 12:43:42 PM
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| As Wanda says, I do body repair for the local transit system. But that's just to finance what I really want to do, which is play music,camp, fish,hunt,& spend vacation time in Hawai'i with Wanda. |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2168 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2007 : 3:31:43 PM
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| I've waited tables, washed dished, cooked, and done a grundle of janitorial. Since 1981, I've been a window washer ( a Norwegian Bachelor type ) and part time musician. Last 8+ years with a polka band, but learned ki ho'alu in 1974, so it's had its influence. Work is what you got to do, fun is what you get to do. I drive my customers nuts by my incessant whistling. I tell them not to worry, I'm whistling tunes that they don't know, and I'm whistling the harmony. I also tell them that I whistle because it's hard to carry a guitar on a ladder. I do music not for my own sake, but for the continued wellbeing of those that must be around me. I'd go "postal" otherwise. |
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Karl Monetti
`Olu`olu
USA
756 Posts |
Posted - 03/06/2007 : 3:52:02 PM
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I'm with Reid on the artificial intelligence thing. That's all I've got left!
My mother-in-law mentioned to my wife the other day that I 'hide my intelligence well", whatevr that means!
Been playing 50 years. College and grad school took a big chunk out of that, but i did learn to fingerpick there. Been a vet for 36 years, managed to play a little almost every day of that time for myself. HAve been in several small bands. The most memorable experience having been in an eighth grade band being asked to play for some event at the school. Having just gotten my first amplifier i had forgotten to plug it in before the lights went out for the preformance on stage. We were set up in fromt of the stage on the gym floor and i knew the outlet was right behind me. I found it but could not get plugged in, so i figured ( and here you gotta remember the old saying, "if you don't think too good, don't think too much") if i could only guide the prongs into the slots by putting my finger in between the prongs and slowly pushing them in......That five foot jump from a sitting position and the attendant 75 decible cussword still rank as the greatest impression i have ever left on a listening audience.
Now that i am retired i play weekly for a small group at noon, one night a week hosting a jam at a coffee house (for free drinks!) and trying to get something going with my best buddy on a slack key/cowboy/blues band. Sort of like thumbstruck but without the polka band. I fit that all in around being a house husband and my newe gig building travel guitars. It all fits together somehow. |
Karl
Frozen North |
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thumbstruck
Ahonui
USA
2168 Posts |
Posted - 03/08/2007 : 11:42:47 AM
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| The guitar, you can pick it but you can't eat it. |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2007 : 04:41:09 AM
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| Karl - I love that picture of you on your profile page. Aloha is wherever you take it to. Paradise is wherever you make it. I'll use your picture as a way to get through the cold, gray winters here in the Cleveland area. as Emily Dickinson wrote, "Hope perches in the soul; and sings, and never stops at all." |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Ianui
Lokahi
USA
298 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2007 : 1:33:45 PM
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I retired in 1990 after 30 years in the banking business. Retired in 1979 after 24 years in Marine Corps, mostly in USMCR. Started developing PC programs for banking indistry and operate a company that does analysis of bank loan portfolions for compliance with federal mandated Community Reienvenstment and Fair Lending laws, plus demographics and mapping. Do a little concert promotion but not as much as before, Am in the middle of producing a CD for a known artist, which we hope to have out in June. It will be a BIG suprise to all of you Trying to get a weekly Slack Key internet radio program to function, and have recently dabbled in an artistic endevor called fuzed glass which my neighbor who is a retired New York Fashion designer is pushing hard to have happen.
I play my Martin D-15 and make up a new song every time I play because I can never play the same thing twice.
Mostly I just have fun and try to make it to 71 |
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wcerto
Ahonui
USA
5052 Posts |
Posted - 03/11/2007 : 1:45:01 PM
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Don - I hope it is Gary Haleamau!
Any stories to share about what the wives do while all you guys sit on the edge of the bed playing your guitar while the chores are being done? Or wives playing while the hubbies get the chores done? Or for you professionals out there who travel to gigs....what about the spouses? Do they travel with you? Do they stay home and take care of their jobs? Do they get bummed when you travel? What about kids if you travel? How do you juggle touring while still taking care of normal things like paying the electric bill, buying groceries, paying the guy who cuts the grass, getting oil changes on the car?
I remember when Paul was involved with a dulcimer club that sometimes played at various senior citizen gatherings, hospitals, etc. They played the same songs over and over and over. I got so tired of listening to "Bile dem Cabbage". Now Paul uses dulcimer for all kind of music. He just sang played Koke`e at a dulcimer workshop and it was so well received that he had a request for that song again the next night! Down with "Bile Dem Cabbage"! |
Me ke aloha
Malama pono,
Wanda |
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Reid
Ha`aha`a
Andorra
1526 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 01:35:55 AM
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Wanda, Sarah and I do almost everything together - one way or another. In music, I am now her technoid, roadie, engineer, editor, sometime arranger and cheerleader. I also am the instrument buyer, tech and general historian and researcher. Sarah is the poet, linguist, composer, player, singer, chanter and performer. Together, we make nearly one complete person.
...Reid |
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islandboo
Lokahi
USA
237 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 08:06:14 AM
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quote:
Together, we make nearly one complete person.
...which makes you a darn near perfect couple!  |
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Ianui
Lokahi
USA
298 Posts |
Posted - 03/12/2007 : 1:44:08 PM
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| Gary - one can only wish but you will like this one all the same |
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Julie H
Ha`aha`a
USA
1206 Posts |
Posted - 03/16/2007 : 8:53:24 PM
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| Ah, I always will think that Sarah is the prettier one. |
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Tonya
Lokahi
USA
177 Posts |
Posted - 03/17/2007 : 08:43:17 AM
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| Bryan Tolentino (I don't think he'd mind me sharing this) works for the US Post Office, I believe in Honolulu, but not sure doing what. He travels to Japan and the mainland for many performances--'not sure how he handles it with his work schedule, but it never seems to take away his smile. |
http://www.uketreasures.com
http://www.ukuleletonya.com |
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Mark
Ha`aha`a
USA
1628 Posts |
Posted - 03/18/2007 : 09:02:54 AM
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quote:
Or for you professionals out there who travel to gigs....what about the spouses? Do they travel with you? Do they stay home and take care of their jobs? Do they get bummed when you travel? What about kids if you travel? How do you juggle touring while still taking care of normal things like paying the electric bill, buying groceries, paying the guy who cuts the grass, getting oil changes on the car?
All good questions. It's amazing how many people think that playing music professionally is somehow different from any other gig that involves traveling. Lots of people do that -- sailors, truckers, salespeople, reporters, freelance pallbearers...
I toured full time from the 70s to the 90s, with three years off to run a big music festival. Folks always asked me if my wife would go on tour with me... hey guys, there is absolutely nothing more boring than being on tour if you ain't the one working! (And sometimes even then...)
Here's what you do: you drive, or fly, someplace far away. Then you wait around to get into the concert facility. Then you wait around to do a sound check. Then you wait around to play your set. If you aren't playing the gig, you wait around some more. After which you wait around to get paid, then you either a) go to the motel, or b) go stay with someone you don't know very well.
Then you wake up and do it all over again. Except for the days when you don't have a booking; which is when you wash your clothes, fix you car, pay your bills, change your strings and... wait around.
Most of my tours lasted between 3 to 10 weeks -- the economics just didn't work out otherwise. Was Annie bummed out? -- sure she was. Just as I was bummed to be missing her. Did she resent it? Nope.
B'sides, we fell in love when I was on tour.
Romantic, ain't it?
How do touring musicians juggle the day to day? Same way every body else does, but it's easier now, cuz you can do so much online.
I never paid anybody to cut my grass, tho'. Was I missing something?
The other 2/3 of the equation, which nobody seems to consider, is how most touring musicians spend most of their time when they are home: looking for work. As in -- booking the next tours. Even if you have an agent, you still devote a huge amount of time to this. In my case, I never found an agent who would work 1/2 as hard as I did, or do one tenth as good a job.
And that, my friends, is why I quit touring. It got to where I just couldn't stand hearing from some bozo why I wasn't "good enough" to play their club, festival, music camp, house concert, coffee house or theater... in spite of the fact that I had played there every year for the five years before they took over the booking. Bitter? Moi???
Actually, I'm not. I had a great ride and enjoyed it. Tho' just last week I actually heard from the new director music camp I used to work that I wasn't "good enough" to come back!!! Sheesh.
Nowadays I tour less frequently and make up the slack with local gigs, teaching, writing, recording, waiting for my recordings to actually generate some royalties (another topic, I'm sure)....
Oh, and I'm busy with some other occupation you may have heard about...
BTW: "Good enough" has nothing to do with musical or entertainer chops --- it's always something like "none of my friends who don't like folk music anyway know who you are," or "we had a ______ (dulcimer-player, slack key guitarist, left-handed unicyclist) last year and it was terrible," or "you'd need to do all the publicity cuz we only book local acts," or "someone said your classes were really hard," or "we don't hire acts that have a _____ (dulcimer, synthesizer, white hetero male, guy with a big nose) in them" or "I heard from a friend who knows someone who overheard somewhere that you were a jerk."
cheers,
Mark
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