Such a strange world

[emanresu]

Hey.

I've been obsessed by music in various ways my whole life. That meant I did the related work, practiced and generally being curious about musics.
Had one summer off completely from playing or listening - that felt strangely freeing. But then the obsession got stronger and continued with it.
Not gonna go into the details - not so important.

Thing is at 45 I discovered that I actually love fixing a car. Like pure robust love.
At 46 found out that I could build. At 47 that I could learn welding and immensly enjoy the process.
See where this is going?

Atm. I practice way more than before but the more important(and fun) things are creeping in.

One time, at a guitar camp, someone told "eeh, all the classical guitarists are crazy". That puzzled me for years because I didn't feel crazy.
Just that the music, the obsession... only to know well one thing - that really is crazy.

Imho, we need to do different shit to stay sane. That's all.

Do you agree? And if yes, at what age you discovered that you are good for more than one business?

[Stringswinger]

Hey.

I've been obsessed by music in various ways my whole life. That meant I did the related work, practiced and generally being curious about musics.
Had one summer off completely from playing or listening - that felt strangely freeing. But then the obsession got stronger and continued with it.
Not gonna go into the details - not so important.

Thing is at 45 I discovered that I actually love fixing a car. Like pure robust love.
At 46 found out that I could build. At 47 that I could learn welding and immensly enjoy the process.
See where this is going?

Atm. I practice way more than before but the more important(and fun) things are creeping in.

One time, at a guitar camp, someone told "eeh, all the classical guitarists are crazy". That puzzled me for years because I didn't feel crazy.
Just that the music, the obsession... only to know well one thing - that really is crazy.

Imho, we need to do different shit to stay sane. That's all.

Do you agree? And if yes, at what age you discovered that you are good for more than one business?

Sometimes we need to do different shit to make things work. Nothing is static and we need to be flexible about all things (work, venue for life, significant others, guitars, music etc.).

Places change, people change, we change.

I have had 4 long term careers and 4 long term relationships where we lived together. I have also had many other short-term careers and relationships that for whatever reasons did not work out.

My long-term careers were in sales, management, law and music. They often overlapped and at this point, I consider myself retired. I am still involved in some management (I own quite a bit of rental housing) and music (I played 30 paid gigs last year, none of which paid me less than $200 a pop). I assume I will be involved in those two activities for a bit longer since at 68, I can still do them. That could change. I have been with my current wife for almost 29 years and I have not strayed (the opportunities were there and TBH, were sometimes tempting), but I think it is still working for both of us, so I am staying the course in that area.

Musically, I heard Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass in the early 70's and those cats gave me a lantern and showed me the path. I am still on that path, and it feels like I still have a long way to go. I am always working on Classical music as it keeps my reading sharp and I like it, but at heart, I remain a dedicated jazzman.

[deacon Mark]

I picked up the guitar because my father was a guitarist, teacher, and did studio work in Los Angeles from about 1960-73. He had a drinking problem my mom could not stay married. We came back to her hometown in Illinois was I was 5 years old. I finally got in touch with dad on a more regular basis a few years later. He sent me a Lyle archtop guitar sort of an L5 copy. I learn to play on that with him and some teachers around where I live. BTW, I have that guitar upstairs and it plays great and in excellent condition not even any scratches really.

My motivation to was I wanted to be like my dad a good player who could read and do advanced playing. I found Johnny Smith my dads idol a biggest influence and then went the Joe Pass and Kenny Burrell. I skipped all the rock players in general and had to go back to them at least a few years later. I realized playing guitar and music for a living would not be good. I hit the books in school and realized my path would need to be some job in business. I was also obsessed with baseball and pitched in college. Could throw hard but not going to be MLB.

During college I taught guitar and played gigs mostly things that required reading because I am by guitar standards a good sight reader. My ear needs work. I then went to grad school and during that took up a job working for State of Illinois. I ended up doing that for 34 years. I never planned it at all. Unlike SS I found the perfect person at 25 and very few relationships before that that stood out. 32 years and finally a battle of breast cancer, coming up on 7 years she died.

All during this time I played the guitar at various levels and amounts of practice. I did play some gigs not many was with a big jazz band for 2 years. It all had to fit in between family and work. The guitar could not be an obsession in sense I needed to be glued ever day playing it. My other vocation is I am permanent deacon in Roman Catholic Church ordained almost 19 years ago. That is not a job it is life in vowed religious community. I am not a priest cannot say Mass. I can however and do, preach at Mass usually about once a month. I do baptisms, marriage, and funerals and again guitar has to take second status. I do sometimes play with the choir.

Now given all that I am crazy running and cycling freak. Been a long-distance runner since age 17 although stopped running about 5 years ago due to dystonia. I can still ride a bike. I like to ride and run as much as play the guitar. What this says is I am good a more that one business as far as doing. The real joy has been the last 5 years where I have dedicated much more time to playing the guitar and a few gigs. I can say the while I am much slower riding, running, and my old job would take me now, my guitar playing is way above what it previously was. I play now more than ever and dedicate much more practice. The circle has come around.

I don't have any words of wisdom but one should play the guitar if they like and buy I nice one if they can and want to. Play those guitars now while you can. Don't wait and if you really want and super guitar figure out a way to get one. I am not sure what the Lord has in mind guitar-wise in heaven. The goal is to get there and possibly the place is filled with D'angelicos, L5s, Super 400s and others. However, I have a few loved ones I want to see that make guitars seem like dust on the scales.

[emanresu]

One very cool thing I noticed when trying those new things - the world becomes more interesting.
I mean, after pouring concrete, similar types of floors started to attract attention.
Sitting at work, I found myself staring at a brick wall...judgingly. Because I've had to lay down a bit of stone too.
And after learning some welding, I found myself curious about the quality of welds everywhere.
Or staring at the wooden building's supporting diagonals..

[Doctor Jeff]

It's been proven that doing a variety of different things that exercise the mind and body help stave off dementia. By that token, I should be a genius til I'm 100.

My M.O. is that when I take up a hobby, I tend to go whole hog. In fact, I have to resist the urge to go overboard. But I really enjoy researching and learning about whatever I'm getting into.

I have been playing music with various levels of intensity since a kid, but fairly seriously beginning in college. I love playing and listening, and also to some extent the buying and collecting of guitars. I also dabble a bit in guitar repair and put together some builds from parts--Teles and Strats. I find the latter quite enjoyable, and will be doing at least 1 a year and donating to my high school for a fundraising auction.

I got into woodworking about 2005. My then-wife's father (a doctor) was into it, and she wanted some shelves built, so...one thing led to another, and now I have a very well-equipped shop. (In fact I splurged over the weekend on about ~$500 of shop equipment.) I have built a lot of stuff, at least one of everything, but what I'm into now is table clocks, i.e., Craftsman or Arts and Crafts style. The designs are beautiful and really complement the wood. It's not a huge project like a piece of furniture or a kitchen remodel, and I don't have to worry too much about where I'm gonna store it til I sell it or give it away.

I also turn a lot of pens and small bowls, and make knives and cutting boards. Today I heard about a new idea--a squirrel box. Google it--like a birdhouse for squirrels. Some of them have cameras in them to watch the little guys.

Other hobbies: cycling (mainly with an electric gravel bike these days, though I still have my Trek road bike), hiking, fly-fishing, reading (more accurately--listening to audiobooks when driving), collecting various things (duck decoys, vintage inkwells, midcentury modern furniture). There may be some more I've forgotten about LOL.

[emanresu]

Very pretty!

Nowadays there are so many new (and old) neat ideas just floating there to be picked up and DIY.
And the fending off dementia perhaps? - I think it doesn't seem wrong. Because when doing these things for yourself,
for own fun, then the head starts to get busy constantly. New problems, how to solve them... the mind is
in motion all day. Doing something as a job, professionally, same thing over and over - the mind is comfortably on rails. Not quite the same effect.

[benhatchins]

i have couple of different hobbies, which have nothing to do with each other. The world does feel especially strange lately, and music helps process that. Jazz has always reflected uncertainty and emotion. Improvisation mirrors life more than we admit. Sometimes all you can do is respond in the moment. These conversations remind me why forums matter. Looking for clarity can feel like calling the alo yoga customer service phone number , calm but philosophical. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[Alter]

I sketch a bit, but jazz still creeps in

[DawgBone]

I'm no good behind a desk but pretty decent with my hands. Have refurbished four or five motorcycles, can do basic welding and I mean basic. Done auto body work and a couple spray jobs on cars, fixed up my first house, built my own cabin, and done a good bit of handyman work. Done a lot of bullet casting and metallic reloading. I don't really like woodworking but I did build a nice cab for an old Gibson amp that needed one.

None of those are hobbies let alone anything I would call myself a professional at. I can't afford hobbies, it was a matter of being able to afford whatever it is I was wanting to do at the time. I shoot deer not for the love of hunting but for a reduced grocery bill. Same with the chickens but the feed got pricey and my incubator broke. I have a sportster out in the shed I need to put some time on but finishing my last record and now my home interior has been my priority in the last year so I been dragging my feet on that. I have a new record I'm about halfway done writing so the bike is still on the back burner but it'll surely be sweet if and when I finish it.

[Stevebol]

Woodworking is my therapy.

[charlieparker]

Hey.

I've been obsessed by music in various ways my whole life. That meant I did the related work, practiced and generally being curious about musics.
Had one summer off completely from playing or listening - that felt strangely freeing. But then the obsession got stronger and continued with it.
Not gonna go into the details - not so important.

Thing is at 45 I discovered that I actually love fixing a car. Like pure robust love.
At 46 found out that I could build. At 47 that I could learn welding and immensly enjoy the process.
See where this is going?

Atm. I practice way more than before but the more important(and fun) things are creeping in.

One time, at a guitar camp, someone told "eeh, all the classical guitarists are crazy". That puzzled me for years because I didn't feel crazy.
Just that the music, the obsession... only to know well one thing - that really is crazy.

Imho, we need to do different shit to stay sane. That's all.

Do you agree? And if yes, at what age you discovered that you are good for more than one business?

Rebuilding cars is on my bucket list. Nothing like a classic car. Don't have the time or the space, though, to do it now.

[DawgBone]

Rebuilding cars is on my bucket list. Nothing like a classic car. Don't have the time or the space, though, to do it now.

Having done rust repair I would rather just assemble a new kit car myself. Restoring a car is so much work and money now plus I need a two car garage. The '27 T-roadster kits used to be pretty affordable from Speedway. So were the Porsche speedsters. Not so much anymore. I sold my MC and a lot of cool parts I had for it because I was tired of moving it all and had young kids I kind of needed to stay alive for. I only wound up with another bike again cause an old biker I know has like 25 different project bikes laying around and he gave it to me for nothing. But at least bikes are manageable space-wise and I have a truck to move it with now. I told my wife that when it was done I plan on parking it in the living room, non negotiable since I built the house LOL.

[Stevebol]

I'm finishing up the last big project on the double-wide. There's a big gravel bed so I'll make a Japanese landscape rake and do the 7 Islands of Japan with some buried rocks.
Then find a big brass Godzilla.

[DawgBone]

I'm finishing up the last big project on the double-wide. There's a big gravel bed so I'll make a Japanese landscape rake and do the 7 Islands of Japan with some buried rocks.
Then find a big brass Godzilla.

Sound like a nice landscape project. Lemme know if you need any rocks. You can come take all you want for nothing, just bring your truck. I've done enough dry stacking and rock hauling. My back is only good for about an hour of that kinda work now....

[RLetson]

I've had a number of friends who took up, mastered, and exhausted hobbies/semi-pro pursuits. A grad school friend, a blue-collar Texan, was publishing poetry when I met him, with a side interest in shooting handguns. Then he took up photography (and took prizes for his work). Then he started flying and eventually was multi-engine instrument rated. All this while finishing a Ph.D. in English and retooling his professional resume to become a university administrator. He died in his early fifties (of breast cancer of all things), by which time he was a college president. (He used to joke about running something like Northern South Dakota State--which was pretty much where he wound up.)

Another friend from the same period was a graduate of the Chicago Art Institute's school ("I am not a potter--I'm a ceramist"), but when I met him he was a painter specializing in airbrush abstractions. He refused to sell his work, but he gave us one that's on the dining room wall right now. He said it was of subatomic particles. He was also a collector of all kinds of interesting items that he found sculptural, including toy robots. I contracted that interest from him and still have several hundred robots, rockets, and rayguns (the 3 Rs of space toy collecting) around the house and stored away in the basement. His version of the conquer-and-abandon pattern was musical. He was a very good guitarist--told me that his ambition was to play Bill Broonzy material well. And once he achieved that, he was no longer interested in guitar. This puzzled me to no end, since one of the constants in my life since age ten has been playing guitar. But then, I'm not sure yet that I'm as good as Howard was nearly 50 years ago.

FWIW, I no longer collect space toys, partly because the house has no more room for them and partly because it became an expensive hobby. I no longer build model biplanes--again, no display space, and no work space either. I no longer fiddle with movie-making, though there's a Bolex H-8 rig stowed under this desk as I type. (Can't get the film stock or processing anyway.) I still write, but not for publication (aside from book reviewing), and I really ought to finish the book on slack-key guitar that I contracted for 25 years ago. (The publisher probably thinks I'm dead.)

[DawgBone]

and I really ought to finish the book on slack-key guitar that I contracted for 25 years ago. (The publisher probably thinks I'm dead.)

So you're saying you're a Ledward Kaapana fan? I like the stuff he's done with Raiatea Helm, George Helm's (correction: niece). Kawika Kahiapo is pretty awesome too.

[RLetson]

Led's a scary-good musician and one of the few left of the players I started interviewing in the 90s--mostly the Dancing Cat crew. I was told a funny and revealing story about Led showing up for a recording session in Nashville (for "Waltz of the Wind," if I recall correctly), where the studio guys thought he was some kind of Hawaiian hick (he doesn't read music)--until he started playing and blew their minds. He's one of the players I need to talk to again, partly to catch up, but mostly to get background on his family, particularly his uncle, Fred Punahoa, who was enormously influential but nearly unrecorded--just two tracks on a live festival album.

It would take another trip to Hawai`i to finish the project properly, but that kind of travel is a lot harder at 81 than it was at 56, when I spent ten days on O`ahu interviewing musicians and surviving family members who didn't get to the mainland the way the Dancing Cat guys did.

[DawgBone]

Led's a scary-good musician and one of the few left of the players I started interviewing in the 90s--mostly the Dancing Cat crew. I was told a funny and revealing story about Led showing up for a recording session in Nashville (for "Waltz of the Wind," if I recall correctly), where the studio guys thought he was some kind of Hawaiian hick (he doesn't read music)--until he started playing and blew their minds. He's one of the players I need to talk to again, partly to catch up, but mostly to get background on his family, particularly his uncle, Fred Punahoa, who was enormously influential but nearly unrecorded--just two tracks on a live festival album.

It would take another trip to Hawai`i to finish the project properly, but that kind of travel is a lot harder at 81 than it was at 56, when I spent ten days on O`ahu interviewing musicians and surviving family members who didn't get to the mainland the way the Dancing Cat guys did.

I can imagine it is. Didn't realize you were in your 80's. You seem mentally spry here on the forum at least. Might be a nice feather in your cap to your musical life to finish that book. I've been a pretty big fan of steel guitar, slack key, and hawaiian music related stuff (and history) for a long time. Even one of my old Austin guitar compadres is back in the Honolulu area now. Great musician. I see he still plays pretty frequently. It's on my bucket list to go but that's a pricey trip and I'd also like to make a trip to Greece so it'd be a toss up if I could afford to go anywhere just for pleasure that wasn't related to gigs.

[RLetson]

I'm not sure that I'm quite as physically spry as I was a few years ago, but I am ambulatory enough to trudge around an annual summer workshop with a gig bag on my shoulder--currently Western Swing Week at Ashokan.

As for the slack key book--I see finishing it as a promise kept to all the players and their families who were generous with their time and memories when I was doing the first couple rounds of research. Especially given that they were sharing those memories with this guy from Minnesota. Fortunately, the late George Winston supplied introductions and contacts, and Hawaiian hospitality took care of the rest. I owe it to George and those good people and the memories of the ones who have gone to finish the job. Can't die yet--too much work to do.

[Eugle]

I never liked cooking. Did it only if needed. But at 37 I discovered that it is actually fun. Now I cook very often, look for new recipes, discuss them with friends, etc. My new hobby.

[Aiq]

I've been messing about with a little drum kit, does that count?

20-30 minutes a couple times a week is an enjoyable low-impact workout.

[ragman1]

Such a strange world

You're not wrong about that :-)

[emanresu]

I never liked cooking. Did it only if needed. But at 37 I discovered that it is actually fun. Now I cook very often, look for new recipes, discuss them with friends, etc. My new hobby.

When I was 10, I learned a way to bake a cake that needs nothing but itself to be delicious. I did it over and over. Hm. Must revive that one...

[enalnitram]

I got obsessed with music when I was about 5 years old. Looking back I suppose it was odd, because no one in my family was. I spent all the money I ever got, on recordings and guitar stuff until I was living on my own. In college, I was on track to become a computer programmer, but dropped out, realizing it was going to make me miserable. I became a music major. Right around that time I began to understand I needed different deep pursuits, not just one. Focusing on one thing and getting great at that, was not going to be my thing. I went back and forth doing music and computer jobs. I love being crafty and making and repairing things. I started messing around with parts guitars in 1990, when I was about 21. Since then, I worked for a time as a setup tech in a guitar factory (won't name it, because it sucked...but I picked up invaluable skills while there). Also in my jaunt as a wannabe luthier with a few clients, I had an email friendship with Rick Turner, that continued until he passed away. I also like working on cars. I have had a 1972 super beetle for about 11 years. I do all the work on it. It is my 3-season daily driver. I have made four acoustic guitars. The last one was a brazilian OM. Two of them are out in the wild being used by pro musicians. One of them is my main acoustic. I taught guitar for 20 ish years. I played a lot of gigs in the 90s, jazz and rock. I gig sometimes, only when it is something unusual I can be passionate about. I currently work in clinical research in a health care system as a data engineer. I also love to cook and invent cocktails. And three or four nights a week, I will stay up way too late writing poems and playing online blitz chess.

I'm not a great guitar player, luthier, auto mechanic, or data guy but I am competent at all of those things and definitely need this vielseitigkeit, or I would feel einengung/gestaltungsdrang.

There are so many interesting things to do and to learn!

[pauln]

Red bugs rule! Been driving my 68 for the last 35 years.