Banjo banjo boinging bright...

So I have a banjo! Whoo Hoo! Huzzah! Hallelujah! and general exclamations along a similar theme!

Here is the story.

I was walking along one day on my way to a wedding with a couple of friends and a old man with a loong hoary beard grabbed my arm and told me some boring story about nearly being strangled by a sea bird. I know it didn't make much sense to me either, and later there was a banjo.

Okay so that is not how it happened, and wouldn't make any sense if it did.

Here is how it really happened:

I was at a coffee shop talking this guitar, a pretty little Epiphone with some nice inlay, when along comes this double bass and starts talking big, I stand up and he is already up right and we have it out. When I woke up there was this cute banjo standing over me bandaging my head. It was love at first sight need I say more?

Alright so that was not praticuarly truth filled either.

But seriously, I was roaming the Yellow sea with some Peruvian Pickle Pirates, looking for the fabled Golden Bananas of Barbadoo.... Okay so maybe it wasn't exactly the Yellow Sea we were in... okay! okay! There wasn't a sea. The Pirates and I - What? Ok no Pirates either. I was alone on dry land. In Yesan. On a Wenesday. It was a fairly nice day. But I was on a Quest! (And this part is true.) A Quest! Which I will always think of as the "Quest for the Can!" [cue Dramatic symphonic flourish]

The Quest for the Can:

Following the failed "Quest for a Banjo, Pereferably an Affordable One!" I resolved that I should make a banjo from found material, also known as a Canjo. A banjo is basically three things. A Neck, a drum, and a some strings. I "found" a sutible neck on the electirc guitar I had but never played. Strings are easy to find no problem. Wood and screws to join everything together was as common as, well, wood and screws. So I had everything I needed. Except a drum. Or drum substitute. As told last time sutible substues are... shallow drums like Bohdrans and tamborines and thin metal enclosed things like cookie tins and gas cans. So I started searching. And searching and searching here, there, over yonder and in between. In Sapgyo, Yesan, Seoul. Nothing. Nada. Nilch. For two weeks.

Then I went to one of the Music shops in Yesan and asked about tamborines to a guy there and then explained what I wanted it for, and he said he had a banjo, with no strings on it at home. I said "oh" and then we jamed out for an hour on guitar.

I thought about this for a couple of days and did a slow double take, and went back and asked "Hey can I buy your banjo?" he (Mr. Kim) said "let me go home and get it" so I hung out in the store for an hour or so jamming out again Mr Kim came back, and brought in this poor beat up banjo, no strings, no bridge, dirty with the finger board starting to peel up. "Needs a little more than strings, I can have it fixed in a week" so he started fixing and I started jamming again. Before I left for the evening he told me "three or four days." I asked him about money and he said we'll talk about it later.

So in three or four days I went back. He finished fixing it up, put some strings (they are a bit big but work) on it handed to me, I tuned it and then we jammed out. I ask him how much again, and he said "Not for sale, I am letting you borrow it, bring it back before you go." I told him I would and thanked him profusely, and then went to the bus stop where I hopped on a bus (after about a twenty minute wait) and rode into the sun set.

And thus was the surprising and entirely unexpected end of " The Quest for the Can."

Summer vacation start tomorrow night! WHOO HOO!