Re: [Harp-L] Re: Get a career!

["David Brown" <nonidesign@xxxxxxxxx>]

In 1989 I filled a backpack, spun a globe, and bought a ticket to Australia
with absolutely no plans on what to do when I got there. When I left I had
loads of people tell me I would have a hard time getting a job, having a
"life", etc. when I returned because Americans just don't do that kind of
thing and that it was a foolish (some BS about a gap in my resume timeline,
for example).
I ended up being gone for a whole year in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia,
Thailand and Burma. I did all kinds of things like work as a bouncer in
Sydney's King's Cross red light district (at least it was back then), play
blues in clubs, work as a teak smuggler and border scout for the Karen
rebels in Burma, work as a bouncer in a Malaysian bordello and I even almost
died from Dengue fever in the opium triangle. All in all it was a hell of a
time!

...but I could have just gotten a "career" and missed it all.

I have played harp all over the world since then while just travelling. Some
of my best memories are times like when I sat in Rome's Piazza
Navonna playing a slow song with a Colombian guitarist, or playing old Hank
Williams Sr. tunes outside of a bus station in Oklahoma with another
traveler on his way to NY, or when I sat in playing over-effected harp with
a Lithuanian death metal band at an outdoor fest in Vilnius, and on and on
and on
.... all hardly "career" building moves...but some of the best paying
moments in my life.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I eventually got a Masters degree, a house , a
wife, a daughter, a cat, and what I call a good life. Things change,
sure...but I"M HAPPY. And yeah, I finally got that "career" everyone was so
damn worried about. Hell, I'm senior management!

In the last two months I was in a car crash, broke my leg, had an operation,
and then had a pulmonary embolism in my lung that almost killed me at 45
years old (I had a 3% chance of living). So you can understand why I am
going off and writing like a windbag here.

I played out at an open stage a couple of weeks ago. My friends and family
were there. The lung worked just fine. I blew and kept thinking how lucky I
am and that I but for a slim 3% I might never have been able to do this
again. I haven't felt that thrilled to blow since I sat-in with Willie Dixon
almost 30 years ago.

 Michael, don't give a shit what some drunk kid, or anyone else, thinks
about how you live your life. Don't let her rent ANY space in your head. I
think it's GREAT that you had that particular gig. It will stay in your good
memory bank a lot longer than she will, and think of the slice of life YOU
got to experience while she spent another night just getting a buzz on and
standing in the street. People like that spend their whole lives getting
revenge on themselves.

A real career is a life well lived. Sounds like you are doing just fine with
yours.

I am really loosely translating here, but there is a quote from somewhere
that goes:
"Tell me not what you own, but where you have been, so that I can know how
wealthy you truly are".



On 10/21/07, Robert Bonfiglio <bon@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Hey Michael,
>
> I agree with the young lady.  Playing for a burlesque show is not a
> career, more like some kind of dream!!
>
> CPA, now that's a career; all the CPA's are in the audience paying
> money.  Just imagine what you would have said when you were in high
> school thinking about being a musician and someone told you you could
> get paid for PLAYING -not working - while women were taking their
> clothes off.
>
> I feel sorry for you; but if you just go to night school, you can
> become a CPA.
>
> Harmonically yours,
>
> Robert Bonfiglio
> http://www.robertbonfiglio.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
> Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
> http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l
>