CAN I HAVE MY CAKE AND EAT IT TOO? THE ANSWER MY FRIEND IS BLOWIN' IN THE DIDGE

A KIM CAKE

Ymmm …

Hmmm …

I’m a tyro didgeridoo player and yet I want to busk with my didge in the coming brisk and crisp weather.  If I learn to play the didge then I can truly become that brutto tempo busker that I’ve longed to be for quite some time now (see my blog, THE BRUTTO TEMPO BUSKER: THE ONLY WAY TO BE, September 29^th, 2013).

My idea of the quintessential busker is still, and simply, a strummer somewhere along a sidewalk with an open guitar case.  

Times have changed.  Nowadays the buskers are a-go-go, having the accoutrements of a small battery powered amp, along with a microphone and stand, and self or studio produced CD’s on display and for sale.  All of this seems campy to me, perhaps even a profanation of my notion of the quintessential busker because ... it does complify my idea of the traditional simplicity. 

(Admittedly, dear reader, there are times when my blog postings are public caterwauls, and let this be one of them.)

Well I can up all of this modern busker campiness a notch, I think.  Allow me to loiter in my own little Lotusland for a while.  When the Canadian Winter blows in shortly, I am going to blow my didgeridoo.  Yes, whilst all the guitar buskers have packed up because of the bitter cold, I can don my toque and parka and mittens and ski pants and thermal boots and drone into my didge.

Do I know how to play a didgeridoo?  Nope, not really.

Do I know how to play a didgeridoo well enough to be busking with it?  Yep, of course.

Here is my logic:  When I go guitar busking, very, very seldom do I strum cover tunes.  I tend only to thrum original songs, songs that I imagine at my buskspot and then practice while I busk.  I’m thinking I could do likewise with the didge.

There is, however, one significant difference between the two busking instruments:  You can’t guitar thrum if you are a beginner and only know three chords, C, D, and G for example.  Knowing only these three chords would make it really hard to produce an hour or so of pleasant melodies that would appeal to your neighbor vendors and potential consumers passing by.

With the didge I need only to know how to drone.  I know I can doo this because I have been busking with the didge (in summertime only) and only droning and people do stop and toss coins my way.  This coming winter will be better because I am finally getting on to circular breathing and, therefore, am able to focus on blowing different types of sounds and noises to attract more consumers.  I can doo this.

And while I’m busking with my didge I shall imagine certain shibboleths for my t-shirt company.  T-shirt company?  Yes, I am loitering in my Lotusland, remember.

My t-shirt company will be a spin-off of my long-time t-shirt company, GHOTI – (fish).  My sons and I sold GHOTI-(fish) t-shirts to skateboard shops in Kamloops, Medicine Hat, Swift Current, Saskatoon, Brandon, and Winnipeg.  We were successful because of our company brand, GHOTI-(fish).  GHOTI is pronounced FISH.  The GH is like the GH in the word, enouGH (with the F sound).  The O is like the I sound in the word, wOmen.  And the TI in GHOTI is pronounced shh as in staTIon.  Pretty clever, hey (hey … remember I’m a Canadian, hey).

Anyway, GHOTI-(fish) won’t cut it when it comes to the selling didge shirts.  Methinks the catch here to success, will not be fish (pun intended), but with shibboleths.

I’ve thought of some t-shirt slogans for busking in a general sense and some for strictly a didge sense.  First the general sense:

THE KING OF THE COINS, COINS R US (when you have a partner busking with you), (MY LIFE) IS A COIN TOSS, TOSS A COIN – HEADS OR TAILS I WIN, CLINK [klink]: MONEY TO MY EARS, NUMISTATIST [nu:mizmetist]: COIN COLLECTOR, TOONIE TUNES, I’M A MAJOR PLAYER (on this corner), and GUITAR SLINGER: I GET TO PLAY ALL DAY -- EVERYDAY.

And now the shibboleths for the didge t:

DOOIN’ STAND-UP, JUST DOO IT, DOOIN’ IT, I’M A DIDGE DIGGER.

When I doo stand-up this winter, perhaps I’ll become the bellwether of busker t-shirts.  At any rating, I will busk with my didge.  But really I will practice with my didge whilst I busk, and this practicing will be just icing on the cakewalk.

ANOTHER KIM CAKE

CAN I HAVE MY CAKE AND EAT IT TOO?   

THE ANSWER MY FRIEND IS BLOWIN’ IN THE DIDGE.

Marching in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week are BRAD HORNUNG (NHL HOCKEY SCOUT) and KENNY MCINTYRE (WHL HOCKEY PLAYER EXTRAORDINAIRE … WHO NOW STICKHANDLES HIS WAY AROUND SOUTH KOREA).

 

 

BRAD AND KENNY JUST BEFORE WE HEAD TO THE REGINA PATS HOCKEY GAME
(YES, HOCKEY IS HERE.  REMEMBER READERS, THAT HOCKEY IN CANADA IS A RELIGION!)