i know of a guy who sells off any instrument he hasn’t played regularly for two years. it’s a little extreme, but i ought to thin the stock a bit.

so i took inventory tonight when i got home from the reading. one of these days I’m gonna be a total guitar geek and drop pictures of everything here, but until then, here’s the current list:

2000 Danelectro 59DC reissue (punkety punk punk punk — bright red and snarly)

1997 Martin Backpacker (good for fun)

1991 Washburn J20S (limited edition jumbo, serial #142, solid cedar/solid walnut — my workhorse for songwriting and general business playing)

1975 Yamaha 12 string (solid top, great shape)

1975 Yamaha classical — strictly a student instrument, but sounds ok.

1948-52 Regal archtop — a real beauty. planning eventually to install a 1947 DeArmond Rhythm Chief pickup in this. I keep putting it off. need to do this soon.

1925 pre-Harmony Oscar Schmidt (read: back when the name meant something) Stella 12 fret 00 slothead. My vintage pride and joy, and the quintessential Delta blues instrument. In dynamite shape, including original tuners and bridgepins. I probably play this more often than any other instrument.

1920s 12-fret slothead no name instrument, probably also made by Regal. “Blackie.” The instrument is used strictly for slide playing. Tuxedo sunburst finish, hand-numbered frets (not uncommon on catalog instruments) and removable metal nut for Hawaiian style lap playing. This sucker screams when you drop a brass slide on it.

Other instruments:

2 Plains flutes
1908 Portuguese guitar — a twelve string mandolin sized instrument used in fado (love this thing)
Custom Appalachian dulcimer
East German made Concertina
Mbira (Central African thumb piano)
Sarangi (North Indian bowed sitar like instrument)

AND: the “canjo” — a single string instrument made by the guy who built the dulcimer, with a resonator made from an empty can of Grandma Brown’s Baked Beans. It’s actually really cool, very well made, and sounds like a cross between a dulcimer and a banjo with some sitar to it as well.

I’m trying to sell off some of this stuff eventually, and will keep you posted if you’re interested in anything…i think pretty much everything except Stella and Blackie are gonna be up for grabs, possibly the archtop as well.

1. Tonight, 7:30, Village Arts Center/Gallery, 1 Ekman Street, Worcester. A reading from the local poets who appear in the inaugural issue of the online journal of political Literary work, “The November 3rd Club.” Includes Lea Deschenes, Victor Infante, Skip Shea, Dave MacPherson, and others (including yours truly).

2. SPEAK tomorrow night in Uxbridge, 7-9:30. Alternatives Gallery, 5 South Main Street. Theme: “Foreign.”

see you somewhere.

I’m currently listening to Romeo Void.

Anyone know what happened to Deborah Iyall? I always thought she was a far better lyricist than she got credit for.

(i know you’re going to find this hard to believe, but i’ve been working on this for a while. feedback not just welcome but desired; i want more from this poem than i’m getting.)

this is my spare room.

there are enough guitars in here
to start a guitar store
if i wanted to call this room
a store.

i write often enough in here to call it
an office,
pretend i’m an artist often enough
to call it a studio,
and toss in my sleep often enough
to call it a ship.

yes. it seems like i sleep in a ship
that is a studio and an office
and a store to hold and sell off
things i love.

back when this town was built
there was no such thing as a spare room.
every room had a body
and it gained a new one
when someone died or moved on.

i live in a spare room
that is just waiting to be reassigned
in a town that used to make things
and now is a place where people sleep,
where there are spare rooms everywhere
and ten thousand impermanent purposes
in every square mile.