On Saturday Afternoon I visited a friend, Brian, and sat with him as he played on his Fender Precision Bass. We sat in his room in his house in West County, and he brought a plate of snacks. He ate mozzarella basil salad with chopsticks, munched on crackers and guacamole, and drank raspberry iced tea. Brian took out a hookah bowl and a tin of strawberry tobacco from a cabinet in his room and placed them on a table. He improvised with tin foil and lit coal. He opened a window which looked out into a garden under his deck. He turned on his powerbook g4 and opened garage band so that he could play along with drums and guitar from computer tracks. After a while, he took a break and put an album into his turntable. He played some older techno music and smoked for a while. While he was smoking, his cat, Milly, came in through the back window and sat with me on the bed, while he played. She eventually left and sunned, nearby. Afterwards, he went upstairs and made a s’more on the open range in his kitchen. He went downstairs and turned on music, listening to a few songs. Then he started playing again for a half an hour or so. Afterwards, he turned on his television and played video games for about 20 minutes, and then he played again for about ten minutes.

I asked Brian to do what he normally does on a Saturday afternoon, which for him is playing guitar, drums, or bass. I’m not sure if he realized that he naturally took breaks while playing. I included them here, because I think they are important to note.

For me, the process resembles how I feel when I am writing. I like to sit on my roof with a plate of snacks, too, and a cup of something. I generally drink tea or hot cocoa, sometimes juice or lemonade. I usually have a yogurt or a sandwich or fruit. I lay out a blanket and let my cat out the back door, and he sits with me. Sometimes he runs around the roof chasing moths or dragonflies; usually he sleeps near me. I sit for a while and write poems or fictions. Sometimes I use my VAIO while I’m laying out to write, especially for fiction. I like hand-writing work a lot, though. Often, I’ll take a break and read whatever trashy fiction I’m secretly enjoying at the moment. I don’t smoke. Sometimes I’ll go inside and cook, too. I take breaks sometimes. My wireless carries into the roof, so I’ll check email and facebook. Sometimes I chat on MSN or AIM, but when I’m writing I prefer to be somewhat distanced. I play music sometimes while I write.

One can see that these processes both involve artistic media, and both are generally observed in solitude. Both require occasional breaks and are best with food and drink. Both use computers. Both involve cats. Although, where I use a spoon or fork, he uses chopsticks; I’m tempted to start using them too, now.

Talking about Jamming

After I listened to Brian playing his bass guitar, I asked him about the things he did. I asked him to tell me about his bass guitar. He told me that he had always owned a Fender Precision; he believed that the Precision was the best bass guitar in existence. He asked me if I knew the Pixies, and I said yes, I did, and he explained that the bassist for the Pixies preferred the Precision. He said that he could never imagine himself wanting another bass, and the only time they had been separated was during the years he spent in Japan. He told me, laughing, that even in Japan, he bought an imitation Precision because he couldn’t bear to be parted with it.

I noticed that he chose to bring his food down on a large platter; he explained that while in Japan he picked up many habits, like using chopsticks and eating food as a collage on a large platter. He chose guacamole and mozzarella basil salad because his mom had cooked them the day before and he wanted a quick fix. Brian is 24 and lives with his parents in a house they built three years ago. He transferred to UMSL from KU after returning from Japan. He told me he enjoys living with his parents because he sees no reason to move while in school. “My room has everything I could need,” he explained, pointing out his movies, games, music, turntable, computer, fridge, and instruments. “I can’t think of what else I’d look for.” Brian is planning to return to Japan for a while in the spring.

He explained that he used garage band while playing instruments because he had transcribed the songs from his band, the Complimentary Toothpicks, into tracks on the program. “I can practice our songs,” he says, “and alternate between the instruments.” He says he almost always prefers playing with a drum line so he can synchronize his playing. He explained that the tin foil on the hookah allowed the smoke to sit inside the bowl. The metal foil heats up well under the self-igniting coal, so it lights the tobacco faster. He explained that the smoke from the tobacco filters down into the water bowl in the bottom where it mixes with steam, creating a pronounced and distilled flavor, which drifts up through steam holes into the snake.

He told me that his cat, Milly, didn’t understand the back window for a long time. She couldn’t fathom that it was connected to the rest of the house and so refused to leave his room for a long time after coming in the window. Now she enjoys coming in to sit with him.

He let me play his bass for a little while and explained that each fret represented a half-step increase. Each string was five half-steps down from the previous string. He taught me some bass lines from the song he was practicing and explained the virtues of finger-picking, “because you have more control.”

He explained that most of the vinyl albums he has are Detroit underground techno, because he got them in a box from a friend. He asked me to listen to the clearer sound; when the record spins faster, he said, the quality is much higher, but the top of this album only has one song. He played Thriller, by Michael Jackson, which has about ten songs on one side, and asked me to compare the difference in quality.

Brian and I jammed the song together; I played bass and he played guitar.