Loki and His Magic Didgeridoo

Quotation of the day:  "There's a difference between being homeless and being homefree.  I'm homeFREE."   --Loki, 26th of August 2009, in front of the Austin library, 8th and Guadalupe


Before I get to my "chance meeting" with Loki, a brief update. Last night I attended my first "Drum Circle" there on the north end of the Pedestrian Bridge.  It was a hoot, to say the least.  But I'll save that for a later post where I can go into detail.

Thing I wanted to mention was that I was riding the Beast along and spotted a one dollar bill lying there all abandoned and frantically waving her little arms, asking me to pick her up.  Naturally, I took compassion on that pore little thang and gave her a place of refuge in my pocket.

She returned the favor this morning by providing me with my morning pick-me-up, a cup of coffee at (choke, gasp, shudder) McDonalds.

Okay, okay.  I don't much care for McDonalds but they have "Senior coffee" for 42 cents (wow!) which comes with two refills.  A rare bit of good karma coming from the High Priest of the Obesity Gods.

Began the long ride up to the main library.  Stopped to take a few pictures of Juan Pelota's then walked the bike up the various hills, stopping wherever there was shade to catch my breath.  By the time I made it to 8th and Guadalupe I was pretty well bushed, so I took a couple of minutes to pull my old act together.

Noticed a young street person on one of the arse-buster benches in front of the library.  And young guy (turned out to be "Loki"--as in the Scandanavian trickster god) was carring a white plastic bucket inscribed with, "This bucket kills fascism."  Also had a didgeridoo (man, I had to look that one up to see how to spell it!).  And of course the old Streetman is always looking for photographs his readers might like, so here was an...opportunity.

He was chatting, so during a lull in the conversation, I gracefully but clumsily inserted myself into the conversation by saying, "Hey, brother, I like your rig.  Mind if I take your picture?"  And he graciously consented.  Took a couple, probably should have taken more.

So here he is, but you'll have to wait for the picture until I get the upload cable.  Loki: young, well-mannered, helpful.  I asked him where the most "street-person friendly" place was, in his experience.

"San Francisco," he said.  Ahhhhh.  Grace Memorial Church.  I remember it well.  But it turned out that he'd never been to Grace, preferring to hang out in the Haight/Ashbury district.  And of course his didgeridoo was useful in the Dept. of CC--that's Cash-Creation, for the uninitiated.  Yeah, buddy.

Also had a guitar strapped to his back.  Strapped for cash, if you'll pardon a very baaad pun.

Where do you eat breakfast or lunch?

He told me about Veggie Haven (or Heaven, not sure which it is).  "What you do," he said.  "is crack the door, hold up one finger, and they'll fix you up a box of rice and tofu or whatever."

And the price?

"Free, no charge."

Dang!

I asked him about his didgeridoo and he said that he makes them.  Makes them?

How do you drill the hole?

"I use agave or pvc pipe. With the wood, I drill in as far as I can, then put some coals down in there and use my heat gun to keep them glowing.  Keep some water handy just in case.  Let the coals slowly burn through the center."

Ingenious, yeah?  And the pvc??

"I use a heat gun on it, too.  By twisting the pipe when it's hot, I can deform it and tune it in the process."

It turns out that twisting does one thing and bending does another.  Apparently bending the heated pvc pipe allows one to search for the elusive note, "...usually E or C" Loki said.

Interesting.

So here was Loki, a free-spirit moving from place to place, homeFREE, no less.  He explained that he was homefree by choice, that to have a home would mean being shackled to rent and/or mortgages.

And so he wanders, on his own little personal Walkabout.  He was a delight to meet, and his gift to me was the gift of where-to-find food.  And that is a kindness indeed.  Go in peace, magic Loki, kindred spirit.

Thus does knowledge of the street pass along.  It's an oral tradition, one person telling another, word-of-mouth moving from person to person, a long freight train of oral transmission.

Finally it got to me.

Now you have it, too.

Free...no charge.  Sometimes...to keep it ya gotta give it away.

Me ke aloha,

Elijah Streetman, Semper Fi