The Morning After

This past weekend was busy enough. I was fortunate to stumble across a 1946 Orpheum archtop guitar at a yard sale, for under $200. While I hadn't planned on it, I have been hoping to get into more jazz and swing styles of playing, for which an archtop is well-suited, and I couldn't pass this up. I'll probably end up spending the same amount again on fixing it up. But the result will be a fine vintage instrument that could sell on eBay for $1000 easily. (That is to say, I could, but I won't.) Sunday found me in Baltimore, at a house party, where a jam session gave me a chance to try out a banjo-uke. I got one a few months ago that I was meaning to re-string and use for early jazz and jug band-type stuff. I think it's worth a shot.

In other news, my post on male friendship got quite a response, most of it from Mark Shea's more-famous-not-to-mention-vastly-superior weblog, Catholic and Enjoying It. Ah, but who am I to compete with such a megastar as Mark? You can read the comments yourself. Meanwhile, within my humble cyber-abode, is one of my favorites, from Shan, a correspondent in Australia:

"G'day. In Australia we make a big fuss about mateship, which extends beyond friendship into sacrifice. The thing is, every Aussie is supposed to be a good mate, take it on the chin, look out for your mates and they'll look out for you. So you can be mates with someone you don't know that well. (It comes from the ANZAC experience at Gallipoli in WWI)... Sometimes mates are friends, sometimes they're not... At the school where I teach, my students often describe 2 boys being friends as gay, which is sad, but there's even a move away from being mates, which is even sadder. Even the appearance of friendship is becoming an unacceptable thing... Maybe we need a theology of friendship?"

Good point, Shan. Maybe we do. There's a great book from Sophia Institute on friendship, but I can't seem to find it at this time. Stay tuned on this one.