September 1, 2019
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Clawhammer and Nails

When you play clawhammer banjo, you need to repeatedly bang your fingernail against the strings on purpose. There are some people who have very very strong nails who never have a problem with this, others whose nails can’t handle the rigors of playing at all, and players like me who are somewhere in the middle.

I grow out 3 nails on my right hand, just a little. I don’t grow them long, but just long enough so they are past the tip of my finger. I play best with the nail of my index finger, but I keep my middle fingernail ready just in case I break the other one while I’m playing and need an emergency nail. I use my ring fingernail to achieve percussive effects. If I don’t let my nail grow out too long, I can go several months without breaking a nail, but at a certain length it weakens considerably.

Sometimes I use nail hardener on my nails, but I’ve come to think it doens’t really make much difference. For me the important thing is to be on the case with a nail file keeping my playing nails at just the right length and shape. Other players have different solutions.

Some people use picks, with those designed for clawhammer or pics that are designed for bluegrass banjo or guitar and modified for clawhammer. I’ve read about other people who make picks out of ping-pong balls. I’ve tried out various pics but I’m not satisfied with any of them. I like to feel the connection between my finger and the strings and if there is any instability it really bothers me and affects my playing.

Other players go to nail salons once a month or so and get fake nails applied. Ted, who plays guitar with me in Jack Antler, does this and he is very happy with the results. I’ve never been to a nail salon.

Yesterday morning I cracked the nail of my right index finger. It was the kind of crack that pointed directly into the nail. It wasn’t a big crack, but big enouth that it was difficult to completely file out, and I know that playing with it would cause a bigger break.

I was going to simply switch to my middle finger. After some practice, I can play just about as strongly with it as with my index. However, I had scheduled a session with Ted for that morning, and it does really take some practice for me to get used to changing fingers. It happened that I was going to the drugstore to pick up something or other we needed at home, and I remember reading on Facebook something from Joe Newberry (a great player who I really look up to), saying he uses drugstore press-on nails with some success. I ventured into the nail care section of the store and bought a box of these things. I wanted only the biggest ones they had but all the boxes there came with a selection of sizes. I bought a box anyway and went home to apply one.

It turned out application was easy. I filed the crack in my nail right down. Then I stuck on what amounts to clear, very strong, nail-shaped double-sided tape, then pressed on the fake nail. After that it was easy to shape the fake nail with a nail file. I played for hours with Ted yesterday and it felt right and I was able to play well with this stick-on product. Hopefully I’ll get a few days playing out of it.

September 1, 2019
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A fab time with great friends

We’ve had a delightful time this weekend with our pals Candy Minx and Anthony Stagg, who are visiting from Chicago. We’ve known Candy since our university days in the early 80s, and Stagg since the early 90s. For those readers who remember my first blog, Mister Anchovy, that name came from Anthony, who will always be the Emperor of Ephemera to us. He also dubbed Sheila, Tuffy P (he says they are our hip-hop names).

the loud customers…me, Candy, the Emperor of Ephemera, 2-knife Tiff, Stephen G and Tuffy P (showing off her good arm)

Last evening, along with Candy’s daughter Tiffany and our friend Stephen, we were the loud customers at a really good Thai place in Mimico called Nimman. It turned out to be a perfect place to eat and laugh and tell stories and catch up.

August 29, 2019
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Now that’s an entrepreneur!

There are crews out on Twenty Seventh Street paving the street today after about 3 months work replacing water mains. There are front-end loaders, dump trucks, big-assed rollers and paving machines up and down the street. Dust blowing around everywhere.

And what do I hear? Turkey in the Straw, of course. There’s an ice cream truck weaving around the work vehicles selling “soft-serve” cones up and down the street. Doesn’t look like he has many customers today.

August 29, 2019
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Kitchen Sink Banana Loaf

There they sat – 3 bananas, a day or 2 past their prime. Bonus: house-guests are on their way. Resist the temptation to toss those bananas in the freezer where they will sit until I do a freezer purge. The only reasonable thing for a house-husband to do is make some kitchen sink banana loaf. The first time I made this, I started with a recipe from Food Wishes on the YouTube as a basis and then each time after that I tried different things in it.

Success!

There are a few things required to make this tasty treat. You need about 2 cups of flour. You need some soft butter (or some vegetable oil in a pinch), some sugar (yes honey works fine too). You need 2 eggs. You need baking powder and baking soda. Oh oh….should be a teaspoon of each but I used the wrong measuring spoon and put in a half teaspoon of each. What will happen? Time will tell – it’s in the oven (in the back of my mind, I’m thinking oh crap, baking follows formulas – this promises to be a disaster). You need a bit of salt. Some vanilla is good too.

The other thing you need is anything else you like and happen to have in the pantry. I used a handful of chocolate chips, a handful of blueberries and lots of walnut pieces. I failed to measure any of these. You might also try some dried cranberries or some raisins. I never do it quite the same way twice.

This is a machine-free lazy house-husband’s banana loaf. Mix the dry ingredients together with a fork until you’re happy that everything is mixed together. In another bowl cream your soft butter and sugar together. Mush up your bananas with a potato masher and add them in. Mix in the eggs one at a time. Put the dry and wet ingredients together. Add all the extra stuff like blueberries, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix it together. No need to over-mix. I suspect bad things happen when you over-mix. Oh oh again….I think I was supposed to add a little milk to the mix but I forgot. Mea maxima culpa.

You could make one big loaf but I use two loaf pans and make two small ones. That way you can make friends and give one away. It’s a good idea to grease up your loaf pans. I used cooking spray, but however you want to do it is fine. Bake it up on a fairly low temperature, like 325F. It takes around an hour, but when it starts to look like it might be ready, you can poke it with a skewer and if it comes out cleanly, you’re good to go.

UPDATE: They’re out of the oven. I tested a wee slice for purely scientific purposes and the verdict is: YUMMY.

August 25, 2019
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Tuffy P in a cast

Yesterday afternoon, Tuffy P tripped out in the garden and used her right hand to break her fall, protecting herself from a head injury. Unfortunately the impact injured her right arm. I drove her over to St. Joes for an x-ray.

sign by the x-ray room

She has fractured her distal radius, apparently a common arm injury. They gave her some nasty drugs and set, or as they like to call it, reduced the break. Then they put a plaster cast on, took another x-ray and sent us home.

We were very impressed with the team at St. Joes. We went to emergency and given her injury was not as severe as some of the things ER doctors have to deal with, we feared we would have a long wait. However, it turned out we were in and out in 4 hours. The team seemed to be highly organized, experienced and dedicated.

There was a humourous moment when Tuffy P came out of the sedation. Her first groggy words were, “I’m never voting for Doug Ford!” Then she commented on the colours she was seeing from the drugs they gave her (lots of alizarin crimson) and asked the ceiling to kindly stop moving around. I think the drug which caused the reality bending was ketamine. When I broke my ankle a couple years ago they gave that to me as well, causing a different set of weird effects.

This morning we showed up at 7 for the fracture clinic. The bone guy looked at the cast and the x-ray and said they did a good job last night and nothing more needs to be done today. We were in and out of the fracture clinic in an hour. We go back in a week for another x-ray. At some point they will likely replace the plaster cast with a fiberglass one. She will need a cast for about 6 weeks.

I’m cancelling my planned trip down to the Rockbridge Festival in Virginia just after Labour Day so I can be around to provide all the support I can for Tuffy P.

August 22, 2019
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Destroy all Monsters

I confess I’m not the best house-husband. Sure I do some chores around here, but I’ll never be Marie Kondo and many times if it weren’t for Tuffy P (who sees everything), I simply wouldn’t notice many things until desperate measures are required. This was the case with our fridge. It was really beyond cluttered. There were – let’s say a few – science projects happening, and I have little doubt that if I didn’t get to it, Godzilla might hatch in there and burst out of the fridge and we’d have to call in the army and all that jazz.

We have an old and modest-sized fridge. It has one feature; it keeps stuff cold. Well, maybe that’s not entirely true. In fact, it has two features. The front door of the fridge is covered in mosaics, and that’s a feature we really enjoy. The weight of the mosaics has caused the door to sag a wee bit, and this caused the light to fail to shut off when the door closed. Fortunately, Gorilla tape took care of this little problem nicely. We thought about buying a new fridge a few years ago, but then we came to our senses. I have no idea how old this one is, but it keeps on cooling.

How many open jars of mustard is it reasonable for one fridge to hold? True, we like our mustard, but still, it was almost silly. I ditched everything obviously past it’s expiry date. I ditched everything that looked like it ought to be past its expiry date. I ditched everything that didn’t have any expiry date. I ditched the can of anchovies I opened before last Christmas. I ditched the unidentifiable vegetable and cheese matter. I ditched the jar of pasta sauce I can’t remember opening.

Truth be told, our now very clean fridge is almost empty, and Godzilla will have to emerge in somebody else’s place.

August 20, 2019
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Where do you get your whiskey? (or why traditional music #823)

If you’re an old time banjo or fiddle lover like me, there’s only one answer to that question – Rockingham, of course. I think I may have shared this You Tube video at some point in the past but it’s such a wonderful performance I can’t resist sharing it again. This was at the faculty concert at Midwest Banjo Camp in 2014, and it was posted courtesy of MBC – a fabulous place to immerse yourself in this music. I was out there in the audience somewhere.

It’s Bruce Molsky on fiddle, Joe Newberry on clawhammer, Mike Compton on mandolin, and I believe it’s Tom T. Ball on bass. What a great group of musicians!

August 14, 2019
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Learn4Life – nature walks

I’ve posted many photos on this blog from the nature walks I attend with naturalist Miles Hearn. These walks are facilitated by the Toronto District School Board. Sign up for the fall term begins today. I mention it here because people have asked me about these walks. They’re really fabulous. I’ve learned so much about the birds and plants around me in all seasons. Miles’ love and enthusiasm for the natural world and his level of knowledge is nothing short of remarkable.

I’ve signed up for the Wednesday walks for the fall. There are 11 GTA nature walks in this cycle. One of the great things about these is that if you can’t make it for one of your scheduled walks it’s no problem to attend other days instead.

You can sign up for TDSB Learn4Life courses online. The nature walks tend to fill up fast, so if you’re interested in attending these, I suggest signing up ASAP.

Each of the walks is in a different spot. The group meets at a designated spot at the designated time, and throughout the walk, Miles talks about the plants and birds we see (and hear) along the way. Miles has never cancelled a walk in the many years he’s been doing them, and I can tell you, he’s never late and he always starts on time. The walks are typically 2 hours through varied terrain. They’re fairly leisurely with lots of stops to talk about what we see. For those particularly interested in birding, by far the best cycle is during the spring migration, simply because there are more interesting songbirds around. However, I enjoy the walks throughout the seasons – there is always plenty to learn.

August 14, 2019
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Slow progress, but progress

For some time now I’ve been working on learning fiddle. I have to say that compared to other instruments I mess with, it’s difficult. Early on I decided I would try to learn this instrument by ear, and dispense completely with written notation. This I think is the normal way to learn folk music. Of course the normal way consists of passing the music on from generation to generation – learning from the old guys. I’m not surrounded by fiddle players or even many people interested in fiddle, so I’m learning with the help of an online learn by ear fiddle course.

The course is very cleverly put together. Although I still sound terrible on fiddle, there is no doubt two things are happening. I’m accumulating skills and I’m improving my listening. The latter has also helped my banjo playing, simply because I’m hearing what is going on in the music much better.

One challenge is I don’t want to stop playing banjo to focus on fiddle, and at the same time I’ve been playing some button accordion again after taking a hiatus from that instrument. It’s difficult to find the time and keep up the discipline to play everything, and when I’m having difficulty with fiddle, it’s easy to blow off fiddle practice to learn a new tune on banjo, which at this stage is much easier for me.

When I started messing with the fiddle, my fear was that I was starting into it some 20 years too late. I had almost convinced myself that it was something I couldn’t learn. I’ve played banjo with some very very good fiddle players, and I’ve frankly been in awe, convinced that short of say, making a deal with the devil, humans just can’t play that thing. However, I found myself with a fiddle and I took it on in a way as my folly.

It became quickly apparent there is a steep learning curve, at least early on, but I’m starting to think I might actually be able to learn to play this thing. At the same time, it’s teaching me patience. I recognize it is simply going to take a fair bit of time and lots of effort, and I’m determined to stick with it.

As an adult learner, what’s the toughest thing you’ve taken on?