A Funny Thing…

…that happened on the way to deep space

Balbriggan, Co. Dublin

My week in Ireland is coming to a close, so I’m going to keep this short while I process my experience with the Shakuhachi Summer School, and mentally prepare myself to leave this heart-home. I love Ireland so dearly and the leaving is never easy, but I’m lucky to live in the beautiful Skagit Valley of Washington State, with the amazing Colleen Raney and our two cats, Molly and Leopold Bloom.

Molly, left: Leo, right.

So…

Here’s a funny story. You know the Voyager? The deep-space probe with a 24k gold record with various nature sounds, examples of human language, and samples of music from different countries and eras, selected by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan. 

I was standing in line at this wonderful coffeeshop / bookshop in Biddeford, Maine idly glancing at the new releases. I noticed one about the Voyager, flipped it open to the chapter about the music selection, and there in print was my father’s name. It didn’t tell the whole story, and in fairness, neither will I right now. This is the very abridged version.

It was decided that among the music samples from around the world, the shakuhachi would be included. The choice was a recording of Shika no Tone (“Distant Call of the Deer”) played in duet by my father, Kodo V and his nemesis, Notomi Judo. Notomi was a dentist who fancied himself the rightful soke (Headmaster) of Kinko-ryu and tried many times to usurp my father. My father was so disgusted that this recording even existed that he withdrew its eligibility and recommended Yamaguchi Goro’s Sokaku Reibō, which is now hurtling at 38,000 MPH somewhere out past the outer solar system.

Sometimes I wish I had the kind of pluck that would torpedo a project like that because the other person involved was a jerk. Because I guarantee you, if it was up to me? I would have sent that thing flying into space without a second thought. There have been several projects over the course of my career saddled with remarkably awful people that I just grinned and bore, driven by some fear of missing out. There’s a lesson in there / out there somewhere…

More anon,
Hanz