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| 01/14/2008: "Misc"
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There are several nice unsold flutes sitting around the studio, and I haven't yet paid January's rent. Thank heavens for that 22-year track record with an easygoing landlord, eh? Also haven't had the stomach to put up more eBay auctions, which is stubbornly self-defeating in a way. It's just that it's such a tacky neighborhood...
Maybe it's time to go back to paying $1,200 five months in advance for an upscale arts and crafts show booth, then flying across the country, renting a car, and staying in a hotel for the duration of an exhausting three or four-day exhibition? It's about the only way to find those customers who won't bat an eye at the $600-1,000 price range -- pretty hard to crack that price point on the Internet when selling quirky bamboo flutes outside of a established tradition such as shakuhachi, etc.
On the other hand, the shows are infinitely more work and were on the verge of killing me. *Sigh* you just can't win... Anyway, we'll put up info and pics on currently-available flutes soon.
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Changing gears: let's complain some more about cellphone cameras! I'd briefly mentioned attending a Stevie Wonder concert last August, in a very nice, intimate outdoor amphitheater (~4,000 seats).
I carry a medium-size camera bag just about everywhere, which serves as a general-purpose Manpurse as well as holding a digital camera or two, a charger, compact tripods, etc. This was slung over my shoulder as we entered the amphitheater and the ticket-takers made the usual quick inspection of incoming bags. There was one compact camera in mine, which I hadn't even thought about as a potential issue-- certainly had no particular plans to take photos.
"Oh, you can't bring this camera into the concert," announced the bag inspector.
"Really? Well, how 'bout if I just promise not to use it? I really wasn't planning to anyway."
"Sorry," insisted the inspector. "We have a strict no-photography, no-camera rule; you'll have to store this elsewhere before entering the concert."
I was obliged to leave the head of the line and trek out to the parking lot, lock the camera in the car trunk, then trudge back (muttering in aggrieved annoyance all the while, you may be sure.)
Naturally you've guessed the rest of the story: throughout the entire concert, hundreds of people all around us were constantly taking pictures with their goddam cellphone cameras, and many even appeared to be sending snapshots to friends on the spot.
By rights, armed security guards should have been escorting such violators out of the venue by the score-- actually, the exemplary Tasing of just a few who objected would surely have kept the rest in line without further fuss. But noooo: these egregiously blatant violations went completely unpunished, while I'd had to return to the parking lot beforehand merely to stash a small camera!
Is that stupid or what? Either you have standards and you stick to them, or not. Why should these #!@*&%!!! cell-cam outlaws go unpunished-- after all, a a camera is a camera! What an utterly ridiculous double standard. DEATH TO THOSE WHO WIELD CELLPHONES INAPPROPRIATELY IN PUBLIC!
(Unfortunately, the concert was so good that I was too blissed out afterwards to whine, moan and complain bitterly to the staff while pointing out the outrageous inconsistency of their "no pictures" policy. That would have been fun! Oh well, maybe next time.) --r.
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