Public display of affection. [Archive]

Ken

Aug-08-2004, 6:38pm

Sitting in the car waiting for my wife or daughters at the hair dressers, sitting in the car waiting for a railroad train, when I was first starting to play, on a local street corner where the owner of the local theatre heard us and got us up on stage before the show, and finally with the back of my mandolin resting on my wife's belly when she was pregnant with our first daughter, who did not end up taking up the mandolin, but is a hell of a saxophone player. These are just the ones that come to mind first.
Ken

ira

Aug-08-2004, 9:03pm

was in my old clunker of a car in her last few weeks, in a k-mart parkinglot in milford mass. i brought my mando into the store as it was a steamy summer night. went in, got some diapers, and came out,put my key in the drivers side door lock and it broke. while waiting for my wife to come with the other set to open the passenger door, i picked away (pretty poorly as i'd only been playing a couple of months), but got some strange looks from many, dancing from some little ones, and a buck in my case from the guy collecting the carts who was happy to hear the tunes.:)

John Rosett

Aug-08-2004, 9:29pm

shouldn't this thread be called "public display of affliction"?
john

John Flynn

Aug-08-2004, 9:34pm

I did some gardening on a Monday and took a couple of thorn sticks in the hand, but didn't think anything of it. By Friday night my right hand had swollen up about twice its normal size and felt like it was on fire. I went to the emergency room and they admitted me immediately for an infection, cellulitis. I called my wife and told her to bring some stuff for me for the hospital stay, including my travel mando. I was laying propped up in my hospital bed with an IV needle in my left hand and my right hand swollen up, playing the mando for the nurses and the the guy in the next bed and his family. I actually got some pretty good audience reaction and it helped pass the time.

WireBoy

Aug-08-2004, 9:37pm

I'm glad i had hand carried my mando thru the Portland Airport last week. #My plane was delayed 5 hours. #there were plenty of quiet spots with a view out a big window to pick at 11:30pm.

peterbc

Aug-08-2004, 9:56pm

I've played while driving down to Oregon (don't worry, I was a passenger), in a train, and on ferries. Now all I need is to play on a plane and a space shuttle!

brewmaster

Aug-08-2004, 10:42pm

I only had my mando for about 2 weeks and took it with me to get a beer with my buddy. We parked my car then drank our brew but when we came back my car had been towed. With a bit of a buzz I walked the streets nearby our local baseball park playing mandolin while my buddy sang and carried the case until his wife picked us up. It was a costly yet funny outing to the pub for sure.

Scotti Adams

Aug-09-2004, 5:56am

..on the main float at a Sausage Day parade.....dont ask http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

ab4usa

Aug-09-2004, 6:01am

Stuck in a trafic jam on my way to a lesson. It's really easy when your left handed!

Aug-09-2004, 6:12am

Hey usually in my home. Unless you count the hours of practice with the bluegrass band im in. Or the gigs at the nursing homes or upcoming festivals!

Harrmob

Aug-09-2004, 6:32am

Just me and my mando have "gotten it on" several places; on a plane (could not hear very well), on a boat, in the car in parking lot at Disney World, National Airport waiting on plane (almost missed the flight on 9/10), little league basball bleachers, once on a treadmill while walking (good idea, but impossible), several local park benches... but the best "solo act" I ever had was in college I worked for a music store and it was my job one night to guard the musical instrument display they had in a local shopping mall. No mandolins but lots of heavy metal guitars with marshall stacks and foot pedals and drums and keyboards and you name it. I was in a mall that echoed for ever, playing as loud as I could, all night long!

John Flynn

Aug-09-2004, 8:00am

Stuck in a trafic jam on my way to a lesson.
Done that one too! Good to know I'm not the only one. I even got to the point that when traffic would creep up slowly, say less that 10 MPH, I could steer with my knees and keep playing, without missing a note!

patsites

Aug-09-2004, 9:18am

I played at the SLC Airport during a delay...... I actually jammed w/ half of an unknown bluegrass band traveling to a gig in SF. It was an upright, guitar and banjo, their mando and fiddle who were already in SF so we jammed for about 2 hours right in the terminal to mass applause, very cool and I got a free shoe shine, HA, HA. I'd never curse a delay again if I knew it could be like that!

straight-a

Aug-09-2004, 9:47am

I took mine to the hospital to pass the time while my wife had an endoscopy to check for a stomach ulcer.

jim_n_virginia

Aug-09-2004, 11:58am

I met this cute young blonde in church who plays guitar and we made a date to meet at the city park and pick some. She showed up and she was pretty good and we knew a lot of the same songs and we started jamming.

Little did we know that this park is a haven for the homeless so in a little while we had a rather large audience of homeless people.

The girl ended up being my music partner in our little acoustic duo and that was our first gig! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

mandofiddle

Aug-09-2004, 2:00pm

A band I used to be in played at a wedding a few years back in Richmond, VA. They actually flew us from CO to play. Anyhow, on the tarmac in Richmond at about 10pm, we had to sit in the plane for about an hour and a half before they'd let us off because of a massive thunder/lightning storm. I passed the time picking on the mandolin. That's the strangest place/situation I can think of...

mandopete

Aug-09-2004, 2:18pm

.....why, in the downstairs bathroom of course!

Joe Parker

Aug-09-2004, 2:30pm

On a flight from Atlanta to Albequerque,during the holidays,I played my mandolin to accompany my 3 brothers singing Christmas carols in an attempt to get the flight attendants to bring us more beer. Needless to say we had a great flight and during one song the attendant stretched the microphone from the galley and piped us into the cockpit.After that things get a little fuzzy...

JPP

LeftCoastMark

Aug-09-2004, 2:42pm

Middle of I-40 westbound, 30 miles east of Amarillo TX.

Traffic was backed up for miles as an ice storm the previous night had packed the grades with ice and the big trucks couldn't get up them. Traffic didn't move all day and it was very cold. I was in a Ryder truck moving my parents to Prescott AZ.

I had my mando in the cab, and played there....and out on the freeway for the other poor souls stuck with me.

mandowilli

Aug-09-2004, 3:06pm

Last month in the middle of the concourse of the San Jose, Costa Rica airport while a cheerful customs agent was searching my bags, he asked me to open the case, and then asked if I could play something, and I did that too.

I selected Dawg's "Vivace."

willi

wah

Aug-09-2004, 4:06pm

I try to take the Pomeroy with me wherever I go so it gets taken out at some very random moments. I take it out of the car at the car wash, so I play while sitting on the bench waiting for my car to get cleaned. I went to a ballgame and was in the parking lot early enough to pick a little. Tailgating at a Dead show is always fun, you'll usually end up with at least one guitar. It's been played in several different airports, numerous parking lots (usually while waiting for my girlfriend). Last Year on my way back from Colorado we stopped at Dinosaur National Monument and since I didn't want to leave it in the car (it was pretty hot) I carried it with me and played it while waiting for the tour bus and somebody commented on how nice it was. Yesterday it was at the side of a stream in the Sierra's and today it's in my office (I practiced Leather Britches before I turned on the computer). I'll take it out anywhere - I need all the practice I can get!
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif
Wayne

sailaway

Aug-09-2004, 5:32pm

Um, I take the mando on my morning walk and do those scales and Fischer exercises for an hour or so. sure wakes up the squirrels and birds and scares away the other walkers... been thinking of packing in a lightweight gig back on the back of the motorcycle , would make a nice way to spend stopovers. Ya can't play a mando horse back riding though as it scares the horses... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

Ted Eschliman

Aug-09-2004, 8:24pm

We just moved into a tad nicer neighborhood recently, and Mrs. Mandohack hides her head in shame everytime I head for the front porch to do a little impromptude outdoor entertainment, picking some Bach, Broadway, and an occasional fiddle tune.
Have to admit, though, after three months of really decent Nebraska weather, the neighbors have been nothing but overtly kind in their compliments. The rally of support has been quite encouraging.
Maybe they just feel sorry for me...
#http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

dixiecreek

Aug-09-2004, 8:29pm

the Golden Gate bridge. Heh.

Joe F

Aug-10-2004, 2:35pm

Sitting in my car, waiting in line for a car wash. #Fortunately (for everyone else in line), it was dark and chilly enough to keep the windows closed, so they couldn't see or hear me.

mandodebbie

Aug-10-2004, 3:22pm

I had to play for my boss at work one day. He had never seen a mando close up before, as he was a die-hard guitarist, so I was asked to take my instrument (a Hyburn) in one day. I had only been playing for a few months, so I wasn't very impressive. However, he complimented me on it's general tone and thought the manufactuerer had created a rather decent product. (For $150.00 dollars, yeah!):cool:

jamesrenz

Aug-17-2004, 10:27am

In a shop in the village of Namche Bazaar in the Himalayas.

TommyK

Aug-17-2004, 10:36am

.....why, in the downstairs bathroom of course!
Standing or.... Seated http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

TommyK

Aug-17-2004, 10:41am

WV Mike

Aug-19-2004, 6:50am

I travel by vehicle a lot on business and need plenty of practice. I've practiced at my local tire shop (got $2 in tips by the way), at a local garage while waiting for parts, at a local city park at lunch, several parking lots while waiting on my wife to shop, at numerous Interstate rest areas in WV, PA, MD,OH, and NC, at numerous state and city parks, outside of more hotels than I care to mention. #The coolest was atop the lookout tower at Droop Mountain State Park. #What a view!

Mike

rixter

Aug-19-2004, 11:50am

Headed from west coast to east coast by plane when I got word that my sister had taken a turn for the worse with her cancer. Had a long holdover in an airport in the early morning hours and so just went off and sat alone and played, mostly SAD songs. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif Another fellow came and sat a respectful distance away and just listened. When I was done, he got up and walked away without saying a word. Later got to stop over and visit sis in the hospital and I played and sang some songs of faith in her hospital room. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif