Flying the ocean

Up, up, and awa-y-y-y! Am off to Amrika - the land of the free, the home of the brave, Coca-Cola, and the Wonderbra!

I'm excited, as heart-wrenching as it was to watch my thick roll of Indian bills being transformed into a thin layer of American dollars. Amerika ist not all that wunderbar after all - from the INR < USD perspective.

I have a big list. And you know how it goes - big lists always leads to big adventures. Two gave me big headaches.

1. Dreamcatchers: I got two people asking for dreamcatchers. Now where the hell am I going to find that?! I'm hoping I'll figure something out once I get there.

2. A capo: Brother Willy says he wants a capo for his Flamenco guitar and a (way I heard it over the phone) 'Bolerias' instructional DVD. Any conversation with my brother, if the topic being discussed is music, always leaves me feeling small. It would usually go like this -

Him: 'I want a..you might want to write this down..'

Me: 'Okay, tell me..'

Him: 'B..'

Me: 'P??'

Him: 'No, B. B for banana'

We somehow get the spelling down. Bulerias.

Me: What's Bolerias?

Him: Yada yada yada yada yada

(Me feels very ignorant now)

Him: You understood that?

Me: Kind of.

Him: You know classical music right?

Me (Indignant): Of course I do! What do you think I am? Stupid?

Him: Okay.. you know the different styles? Allegro, Andante, Adagio....?

Me (Lying): Um..yeah

Well..you get the idea. Demeaning.

Anyway, thought I'd get some expert advice first so the very next day after my enlightening phone conversation with my brother, I went and registered at www.flamenco-teacher.com. Posted a message titled 'Bolerias help!' (Go figure how I could misspell that the very next day~) Very helpful and extremely knowledgeable members on there. One member by the name of Behzad gently corrected me - 'You spell it with an U and not an O. Bulerias/buleria.' Embarrasing.

Was directed to www.lafalseta.com for the traditional capos. When I got to lafalseta, I looked and looked but did not see any thing - links, alphabets, nothing in the general order of C, A, P, and O. Wrote to site owner. Got a nice reply back, take a look -

Hello Jerusha,

Thanks for writing. In the US and most places, it's
called a Capo from the Italian word, capotasto. In
Spanish, it's called a cejilla. Same thing. Capo's,
or, cejillas are used to raise the pitch of the guitar.
As you place the cejilla higher up on the neck, the
pitch raises. The ones I sell are traditional wood
cejillas. There are modern ones made with metal that
you can get just about anywhere.

Isn't that nice? I mean, my whole experience both at flamenco-teacher and lafalseto, and also from my many years spent with Brother Willy the Fish has led me to believe that guitar-playing people are generally educative. But then, I guess it's the same for everyone. We all like to talk about stuffs that we think we know well. Like the way I like talking about myself. I like people like Tom and me who writes and uses grammatical spacing :P

Anyway, going back to the subject of Amrika, I'm leaving Sunday night. Will be in San Francisco for some days, will also spend a couple of days in L.A.

Will sling a camera around my neck, wear my shorts and a flip-flop (as suggested by Rami) and look every inch of the Japanese tourist. Maybe also don a hat/cap/traditional headgear/tribal dancing feathers.... just for the heck of it! (shorts - not really. I hear it's freezing over there, that is, freezing by Indian standards so I'm guessing I'm gonna be mistaken for a stray Eskimo a lot).

Will also enthusiastically take pictures in the middle of the street with strangers/people/dogs/houses/sunsets/sunrise with missionary-like zeal.

Will try not to waste time sleeping.

Will make good use of time eating.

Will be back in a few days. Don't miss me too much. Is that a tear I spy? Still so sad then, dearest? Weep, and I'll count the tears..or something like that..

May even blog from there. Will be back with lots of pictures.

Wish me God speed.