New flutes headed to Belgium!

Well, I just finished a flute order and will soon ship them off to Belgium. This was an order for both a 'bansuri' and a 'ney' and will also include a few surprises...but I won't give that away just yet - someone in particular might be reading this! :) I'm always excited doing flute orders, and, I must confess, a little nervous. No matter how well I make an instrument, I end up making them to my technique. There are so many variables in people's physiology, etc., that I simply have to wait until they are received, played and evaluated according to the customer....

Tick, tock, tick, tock....

But, I'm always happy to make flutes. It keep me sane in an increasingly mad world. And, I have recently started focussing on a variation of the 'ney' found in Algeria and the neighboring countries of North Africa: the 'gasba'. I've long been tinkering with hybrids of all sorts, but this flute has been calling out to me recently. I had assumed it was basically a 'kawala' but apparently I need to do more research! Gee, twist my arm....




It's a never-ending quest. I will soon be getting more bamboo from Hawaii. That will hold me down until I get to the Philippines later this year (I LOVE Philippine bamboo for 'bansuris') and, until I harvest more 'ney' reed, all I have is stock for very large flutes. Bigger than 'Sah' neys, even. Then again, I now have 'gasba' on my mind.....

I hope all is well...

Peace,
J

Take your Life back...

Okay... I've had enough of all this Fear floating around in the air recently. Everything I am seeing and hearing seems to be geared to making us all feel like helpless little sheep waiting to be sheared, fucked and cooked. I cannot subscribe to this, folks... even if I go down in flames....

Am I struggling? You bet. Am I tweaked out over money? You bet. However, I am convinced that I am someone of Worth and that I have something(s) of value to offer the world...

Now, how do I do that? Personally, I work mainly from home: making, marketing and delivering my own products and services, and taking advantage of some business models that work for me because they put me in control of all the dynamics that ordinarily I would wait for someone else to provide. That doesn't work for everyone, though.....

Security is an illusion. Job security is a joke. Spare me the Old School rant...it's dead. For those of you who have good paying jobs and the notion of relative security, I am truly happy for you. Truly and sincerely.... If you paid your dues, did your time and now are in a position to reap those rewards, I salute you! Some may have gotten lucky, some may have toiled away in college for years... whatever - I am happy for you.

But that is NOT me. And that is NOT the countless people I know who have had all of their senses and concepts shaken to the core recently. To this group that is pissing in their pants and frantically trying to grasp anything to make them feel like they used to, I am compelled to remind you that you are each an 'utterly unique energetic event' - never before manifested on this planet. And you are a reflection of whatever Great Freakshow that put us all here. You have worth. You have choices. You have Power..... to create, to Be. Find it. Use it. Get your head out of your ass and dare to be something and someone better than you were programmed to be.

And, devil take the hind-most....

Peace,
J

Happy Birthday!