Earth and Music

Happy belated Earth Day. Recycle, take public transportation, ride your bicycle to the grocery store, turn off your lights, plant a tree.


Celebrating Earth Day, Green Apple Festival at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Crowded, but decent music, including Umphrey's, Mad Professor, and Disco Biscuits. Did I say you should recycle?

Speaking of music, my guitar. Cliché, I know, but I have to do it. It's one of those things everybody does at some point. Kind of like puberty. I'm sorry, that was a horrible analogy.


It was my very first guitar. I learned everything on it. It has endured one or two thousand hours of playing, it has been walked into walls, dropped on concrete, played in the rain, has a couple thousand miles logged in it, kicked by drunk roommates, pushed over by Quentin, and countless other stupid and careless things by me...


Nothing but a humble mid-range Fender, bought on sale. I've purchased and sold two other guitars that were technically "better" than it, but I'll never let this one go.

I also bought a djembe recently. Primal, portable percussion:


It's the real deal, handmade in Kangaba out of a single piece of dugura wood (bonus: the makers plant at least one tree for each djembe they make) and goat skin. Kya seems somewhat smitten with my djembe. Everytime I pick it up to play it, she comes trotting over to give a sniff. I thought it was my immaculate drumming, but then it dawned on me that the goat skin probably smells like the rawhide bones she enjoys gnawing on so much. It's pretty funny.


I wanted it as light and portable as possible so I got a smaller one, only about a foot across. But it still sounds great.


Awesome. Gotta go hit up the drum circles soon. Also, you should recycle.