Music Scene in San Francisco Chinatown

[Blue]

Returned to the San Francisco Bay Area after an eight year absence. The city's Chinatown is much larger than that of London's, although not as large as that of New York's. Municipal notification signs written in Chinese can definitely be found outside of Chinatown, reflecting large concentrations of Chinese-speaking people in the other districts such as the Sunset District. Egg tarts in the bakery taste thousand of times better than egg tarts found in Taiwan.








Encountered many erhu playing buskers along the streets, but no dizi players. There was this mini-orchestra consisting of several old people and two smiling children. Seeing those children reminded me that one needs to be excited as a child to enjoy playing musical instruments even if one (yours truly included) is not that adept at it.  (Sorry that the picture and video of this mini-orchestra is so blurry: one of my hands was carrying 8 boxes of See's Candies!)





There were certain things that indirectly reminded me of certain people in London. There was the Chinatown Post Office staffed by people likely of Cantonese heritage. And there was this church of a certain denomination.




In my next posting, I will write about my encounter with Clarion Music.

[Blue]

Was able to locate Clarion Music in Chinatown thanks to the GPS function of a newly acquired tablet. Originally this shop started out selling Chinese musical instruments, but eventually it acquired ethnic instruments from all over the world when many musicians were allowed to trade their instruments for the Chinese ones.

The shopkeeper heard me trying out some of the flutes and xiaos and said that I lacked mood and melody compared to the store owner who often plays the dizi outside his shop. I replied that I played flutes for fun and distraction rather than for a living. Then I asked if there were any complaints about playing the dizi in an area of a relative high population density. The shopkeeper remarked that the sound of the store owner playing the dizi can travel more than 5 blocks away and no one would complain. The store owner went to participate in some sort of concert and wasn't in the store that day; however, there were pictures of him with famous flute makers.

I was disappointed to hear that the advertised dizi classes on late Saturday afternoons were not offered during the summer because of low demand. One could take courses at a local San Francisco community college, however.

Many root xiao flutes with open blowing holes were on display and most of them are made by the Bao family. Typical prices were between USD200 to 300. Wooden non-bamboo Shakuhachi (foot eights) were sold. Somehow the collection of dizis did not look as impressive as the xiaos. Price of those dizis were around USD40-60.

[davidmdahl]

Sept 2, 2013 14:17:21 GMT Blue said:

<snip>The shopkeeper heard me trying out some of the flutes and xiaos and said that I lacked mood and melody compared to the store owner who often plays the dizi outside his shop. <snip>

I think it remarkable that a music store employee would criticize the playing of a customer, especially in such nonsensical terms. That is crazy bad judgment. I suggest disregarding the comments of this idiot.

[Blue]

The inventory at Clarion Music in San Francisco to a certain extent resembles the inventory at Hobgoblin Music in London. Additionally, both stores welcome customers to try their instruments. However, the shopkeepers at Hobgoblin make no comment or judgment at one's ability to play their instruments.

Frankly, I didn't really take the Clarion storekeeper's comments to heart at all. I don't practice as much as before and my playing sucks because I'm so busy at work! I used to play at the company rooftop at noontime, but now I have a 30 minute siesta right after lunch because I'm so exhausted these days.