Roman Edirisinghe

My buddy Ryan made this, in anticipation of my eventual audition for a cruise ship job. With all of these people rooting for me, I hope I pass the audition.

Today I had lunch at the Ethiopian Cottage with Brian Ritchie and his son Silas. Brian is Shakuhachi master, and has musical connections in Japan, so I’ve asked him to connect me with a teacher to study either Shamisen or Koto when I visit Japan in October/November. Silas is pretty heavy into his musical projects. He is a singer-songwriter-guitarist, and is also deeply interested in electronic music. We compared some notes, and agreed that Winter is a great time to get recording done. Brian thinks the most efficient way to record music is to have a rehearsed band go into the studios and record the songs live. I would tend to agree, but the manner in which I’m approaching my own record is different. I’m very anal about it, and I’m painstakingly constructing the songs from ground up. When I’m done, and ready to perform the songs, I will pick the right musicians to play them.

Lunch was good, and was quite different from my initial experience with the Ethiopian Cottage. We had gone on February 14th (Valentine’s Day), and we didn’t get served for over 2 hours, and people who had been there a short amount of time and threatened to leave got served before us. The lamb was undercooked, and we simply found it detestable. However, I’ve regained my faith in the restaurant. The food was amazing, and the service was reasonable.

How fitting that the grapes are flowering sweetly again, and their succulent aroma assaults my nostrils as I prepare to depart from this house for good…

Read part 1 

I just sold this item on eBay, and I will never see it again. Although beaten & bruised, it served me faithfully on many a gig, and I owe it much gratitude. In a way, it is part of shedding the One Drum skin, since I used this effects/preamp unit quite extensively for bass and guitar when I was in that band. Farewell, Digitech Studio Tube GSP 2101!

Winter is officially over, so it seems. Unofficially, the Wisconsin springtime can’t seem to make up its mind. The weather has been sporadically sunny and foggy, warm and cold, but I am very, very happy that the cold North winds have slowed their relentless brigade.

Spring has traditionally been a time of new beginnings, and of dusting out the old. Last night, while reading Stephen King’s Bag of Bones, I felt inspired… no, compelled, to write. I’ve had intentions of writing a book about my life for a long time, and I never took any concrete steps toward realizing that goal… until last night. I wrote about a paragraph until sleep’s weight conquered my eyes. I’ve got a long way to go.

My fear is this: I am a great one for starting projects, but I’m not the best at finishing them. I’ve been working on my CD for a couple of years now, and I don’t see an end in sight. Will this writing project be a similar story? I hope not. The best I can do is chip away at all of these projects, and hope that my efforts aren’t futile. When I was a kid, I once wanted to be an author. I don’t think that desire ever went away.

Weather.com says Milwaukee is currently at 18°F, but feels Like 5°F. I was walking to class and the wind chill was dreadful. While I like a lot of things about Milwaukee, winter is not one of them.

I now have about 8 students signed up, and I’m really enjoying teaching. To share my passion is very fulfilling, and it doesn’t feel like work. At this point, I don’t have enough students to justify quitting my day job. If this keeps up, however, there will come a point at which I will have to make a tough decision.

Waiting here at George’s Tavern in Racine, Wisconsin. We were supposed to be on 2 minutes ago, but there are some issues with the sound system, so we’re waiting ’til they’re ready for us.

Nice place. They (or someone near here) has free wifi, so I plugged right in, so to speak.

This is a sort of farewell gig for me and Holly, as we’re both departing the core group of the One Drum collective. What a sweet farewell it will be. This lineup features Cory Coleman (vocals, dundun & bass), Kristin Urban (vocals & percussion), Cecilio Negron, jr. (drums, congas, vocals), Holly Haebig (vocals & guitar), and yours truly on guitar and vocals. Poor sound guys. It’s 8:43 pm and they’re still fiddling with the system.

This is where the fans & the musicians both learn patience.

According to Wikipedia, 33 is:

• the largest positive integer that can not be expressed as a sum of different triangular numbers.
• the atomic number of arsenic
• the “smile to the camera” word in Spanish, as is “cheese” in English. Diga treinta y tres (“Say thirty-three”) is the same as “Say cheese”
• a recurring, important number to the Freemasons, used often in their sacred rituals

33 was also:

• Jesus‘ alleged age at his crucifixion in 33 A.D. (historically unverified)
• The age of Alexander the Great when he died

For the sake of amusement, here are Biblical references:

• Genesis 33, Exodus 33, Numbers 33, Deuteronomy 33, 2 Chronicles 33, Job 33, Psalm 33, Isaiah 33, Jeremiah 33, Ezekiel 33

And from Islamic Holy Q’uran:

• Surah (chapter) 33, Aayah (verse) 33

33 in 69 languages, in order of complexity, highest to lowest (from A Playground of Thoughts):

1. Huli: ngui ki, ngui tebone-gonaga tebira
2. Ndom: tondor abo mer an thef abo ithin
3. Nimbia: gume bi ni tanran
4. Hindi: tayntees
5. Tzotzil: ‘ox lajuneb xcha’-vinik
6. Ainu: rep ikasma wanpe etu hotnep
7. Alamblak: yima yohtti tir hosfi hosfirpat
8. Nahuatl: cem-pöhualli-om-mahtlactli-om-ëyi
9. Malagasy: telo amby telopolo
10. Yoruba: metalelogbon
11. Welsh (Traditional): tri ar ddeg ar hugain
12. Breton: tri / teir ha tregont
13. Manx: tree-jeig as feed
14. Scots Gaelic: trì deug air fhichead
15. Georgian: otsdatsamet’i
16. Danish: treogtredive
17. Javanese: telung puluh telu
18. Latin: tr?gint? tr?s
19. French: trente-trois
20. Zulu: amashumi amathathu nantathu
21. Basque: hogei ta hamairu
22. Arabic: thalâthata wa thalâthûn (masculine), thalâth wa thalâthûn (feminine)
23. Ganda: amakumi asatu mu ssatu
24. Maltese: tlieta u tletin
25. Assyrian: klaay-‘td’laa
26. Kurmanji: sî û sisê
27. Dutch: drieendertig
28. German: dreiunddreißig
29. Swahili: thelathini na tatu
30. Ojibwa: nisimidana ashi niswi
31. Italian: trentatré
32. Spanish: treinta y tres
33. Swiss French: trente-trois
34. Tigrinya: selasan-selesten
35. Turkish: otuz üç
36. Balkan Romani: tránda-te-trin
37. Hungarian: harminchárom
38. Tagalog: tatlumpu’t tatlo
39. Polari: trey dacha and trey
40. Scots: thertie three
41. English: thirty-three
42. Norwegian: trettitre
43. Swedish: trettiotre
44. Sukuma: makumiadatu na idatu
45. Hawaiian: kanakoluk?m?kolu
46. Finnish: kolmekymmentäkolme
47. Estonian: kolmkümmend kolm
48. Romanian: treizeci ?i trei
49. Ancient Japanese: misodi amari mitu (ancient), misoji amari mittsu (modern)
50. Kiribati: tenibwi ma tenua
51. Wolof: ñetta fukka ak ñetta
52. Croatian: trideset-tri
53. Seneca: së niwashê së
54. Indonesian: tiga puluh tiga
55. Mandinka: ta? saba ni? saba
56. Wu Chinese: ??? sezhekse
57. Tok Pisin: tripela ten tri
58. Vietnamese: ba mu’o’i ba
59. Igbo: iri ato. na ato.
60. Thai: s?hm sìp s?hm
61. Welsh (Modern): tri deg tri
62. Aymara: kimsa-tunka-kimsani
63. Cuzco Quechua: kinsa chunka kinsa-yoq
64. Chinook Wawa: klone tahtlum pe klone
65. Mandarin: ??? s?nshi s?n
66. Japanese: ??? sanjû san
67. Cantonese: ??? saam¹sap⁶saam¹ (Cantonese has six tones, and they are given by numbers after syllables. The tone number means: 1 – high level, 2 – high rising, 3 – middle level, 4 – low falling, 5 – low rising, and 6 – low level.)
68. Esperanto: tridek tri
69. Tongan: tolu tolu

Blogger Gene Smith has a list of 33 things on his blog, Atomiq.

The Tr?yastri??a, or the Heaven of Thirty Three Gods, is referenced in Buddhist Cosmology.

Today is World Vegan Day, the Day of the Dead (Día de Los Muertos), Samhain Day, and All Saints’ Day.

Can you guess anything else about this day?

I had an interesting experience while waiting for Nicole’s flight to arrive: I met Mickey Hart, one of the drummers of the Grateful Dead. I was coming up the escalator, and he was looking at me, and I looked at him, looked away, looked back, and then walked up to him. He was on the cellphone, and I didn’t want to intrude, but I said, “Mickey Hart?” and he nodded. I shook his hand, and moved on. His hand was slightly callused, and reminded me of shaking Jahmes’ hand, which is far more padded. A few minutes later, he was joined by Mike Gordon, bassist of Phish, and an older gent I didn’t recognize. I didn’t want to be the annoying fan who spotted the celebrities, so I kept to myself.

What an interesting experience. It was somewhat surreal, seeing a guy I had only seen in concert, or on album covers and videos, standing right in front of me. I sent an sms to my buddy Ryan, and he told me the Rhythm Devils were playing in Milwaukee.

After I left the airport, I remembered I had read two books by Mickey Hart a long time ago, and had thoroughly enjoyed them both.

Even later, I was mulling over the notion that they were waiting for a late ride, and Mickey may have assumed I was the driver, which was why he was looking right at me as I got to the top of the escalator.

My devoted readers may note that I haven’t stopped thinking about this. Roman is starstruck. I shook Mickey Hart’s hand.