Why Anna is not car free: Reason #1
This photo sucks. Anyone want to give me a new camera for Christmas??
I play in a band, Andy’s Tea Party. This past Saturday we had a show (with local favorites Dead Fingers and Monarchs – which I also am a part of).
The instruments that I played that night are as follows:
1 Accordion (approx. 20 lbs)
1 Digital Piano (approx. 40 lbs)
1 Glockenspiel
1 Set of Finger Cymbals
1 Voice
Various equipment including but not limited to: piano stand, music stand, pedals, wires of all shapes and sizes. Also included in the photo (which is a far cry from all the instruments that are used) are bass amp, bass, computer, computer keyboard, another stand, omnichord, autoharp…oy!
Now I know you’re all going to pipe up and say “get a Madsen!” or “get a Big Dummy, ya big dummy!”, but there is no way in hell that I would risk my precious musical intstruments by having them exposed to the elements and my clutzy tendencies. I’ve already broken my keyboard once, and it was just sitting innocently on it’s stand (a combination of pure ingenuity and a fair bit of magic got my baby working again).
So, while I love the idea of being car free and love riding my bike…I love playing wonderfully functional and in tune musical instruments more.
Sue me!
I don’t think people need to try to be car-free, but car-lite. I still own my car but, between my girlfriend and I we only put about 3,000 miles on it a year. Seems to me finding a balance is better than worry about going 100% car-free.
the self powered bike band
http://www.myspace.com/gingermyninja
i don;t think their music is all that interesting
and you will not really generate a lot of power from a bike
but here is someone playing music and touring totally car free
wle
hey
i just noticed
you play accordion
*I* play accordion
dude!
though probably not the same kind
i play diatonics and button chromatic C system
wle
You really don’t need to explain… We are all behind you.
Jon
I heartily second the ‘car-lite’ approach. I’m fond of using a tool analogy – use the right tool for the job. So if the day’s job is to haul a worried mom, daughter, and squawling cat to the vets office, I use the car.
Good reason.
You guys are behind her because she can go more than 30 mph.
Eh, I’m totally guilty of using a car when it’s convenient or the difference between making life easy or effing impossible. I just don’t see why I should lay down thousands of dollars to own and maintain one when people who have them (like my girlfriend) already exist.
I also live in a place where cycling just makes sense.
and I love bikes.
I certainly feel like I’m in the car-lite category, but if people can survive with going car free I’m behind them too! (even if they’re only going 10 mph Matt!).
I probably didn’t approach this post in the best way – I just wanted to point out that there are many obstacles when considering car use vs. bike use, and I feel like my situation might be a little more unique since I play all these crazy instruments.
Matt, you bring up a point that is a pretty personal shortfall for me – being able to depend on other people if a need arises. I think I’m too proud when it comes to asking for help; I’m much more comfortable giving than recieving. Something to work on!
And WLE, that show was actually my accordion debut. We’ll see if it stays in the repertoire!
I am car-lite, but not car-free. After wasting hours and hours of my life stuck on the capitol beltway in D.C. (it all probably mounted up to years if I cared to calculate it), I took early retirement and moved as far away from urban congestion as I could. I now live west of Glacier National Park. It is beautiful but rural with no mass transit and no car rentals. Most medical care requires a trip of 3 hours by vehicle. I also mainly heat with wood and buck and split my own fire wood (8 cords a year). All this means that I need a vehicle. However, I ride my bike many more miles than I drive my truck. You’re doing your part so don’t apologize for having and pursing your talents and creativity as a musician. We need music and art, too.
You don’t need to be car-free. I’m not. We simply don’t need to let the still dominate car culture to dictate how we live. I don’t want for my life to revolve around the care and feeding of a car. My husband and I live close enough to town to ride our bikes or take public transit (our route long promised and still waiting) and I made sure I found a job that did not require a car or a long commute. At the moment, there is a lot of snow on the streets and the multiuse paths are covered most of the time so bike commuting isn’t necessarily practical for me or very fun but most of the year it is my choice.