Zen And The Art Of Kazoo Making

Monday Morning Game Plan

2012-02-20T02:09:00.002-08:00

The New Album Cover

Good Monday Morning from the homestead. I love this time of day. It's about 4:30 am now and peaceful. I have been working on several things the past couple days including the new album and the new Kickstarter Project resubission for the documentary project. This morning I have been working on the album cover for the new music CD, "Don't Be Kazooless". I kinda like this one and may end up keeping it, but too early to say. LOL I tend to change my mind at the last moment sometimes. LOL.

Back in the workshop this morning to make a Special Order Dual Resonator Kazarp Kazoo that I will be shipping to Clarkston. Mi on Friday. Never made it back to work on the broomwire cello yesterday. I will get back to it later this week. Going to be an interesting instrument for sure.

I have been working on the new Kickstarter Project for Kazoo Documentary the past couple days and hope to get that posted sometime this week. I really am excited about this documentary and have a good feeling about this resubmission to Kickstarter. I appreciate very much those people that joined as Backers on the first submission of the project and their encouragement to resubmit.

Work is also progressing well on the new album. I have started mixing several tracks and continue to record more. I will be posting some more samples soon. So as you can see the old kazoo makers is keeping pretty busy here on the homestead.

The new website updates have been posted so be sure to drop by and have a look. Until later, wishing everybody a great week.

Doc Kazoo

The New Aswego Electric Broom Wire Cello

2012-02-18T22:43:00.001-08:00

THE ASWEGO ELECTRIC BROOM WIRE CELLO

In the picture above you will see from front to back three items. A section of pine handrail, an old wooden salad bowl and the bottom to a 1960's metal bread warmer.

For some time I have been comptemplating use of the salad bowl for some sort of instrument. I had thought of prehaps a diddley bow. Also for some time I have been wanting to make myself a washtub bass. This morning I went to the workshop with no goal in mind at all. Just a play day of sorts. Finish up the cleaning and just see where I end up. In cleaning up I came across that old salad bowl and things just seemed to flow that direction for the rest of the day.

Last fall I made a couple diddley bows for a performing musician who wanted me to consider a cello type diddley bow for later this year. The instrument I am making is kinda similar to a chello with the present neck I have in mind and will be played seated. The neck could be made longer for plaing standing up. So today was spent trying this and trying that. Hunting for parts in bins of old hardware that I never throw away. Looking for the parts I needed and making do with what I found so I wouldn't have to drive to Lowes.

I found enough of this and that to use for testing. I can pick up the new hardware later and replace the parts bin stuff. First testing in an acoustic mode seems really promising. As you will see in the following picture the prototype is assembled. Or rather the prototype neck. The body construction is a one of a kind deal. I may end up changing the neck a wee bit. That has no effect whatsoever on the body.

This construction uses traditional "broome wire" for the string. The wooden salad bowl has a 4" sound hole drilled beneath the metal top and has four 2" vent holes spaced around the sides. The metal top is attached to the salad bowl securely with screws.

Initial sound test as you see it in the above picture is what I espected. Very nice sound but needs amplification. Much like you would compare to a semi hollow body electric guitar played without amplification. The next step is to install the pickup, plug her in to an amp and see what we got. Maybe I will do that tomorrow afternoon. I am anxious to see how it sounds. There are a couple other things I want to add such as a foot plate on the bottom to improve stability when playing. If all goes well tomorrow I will start sanding, staining and sealing next week. So it was a great day at the kazoo factory.

It is so easy to turn off the world when I am in the workshop working on a project like the cello. So easy to loose track of time. Nothing is more fun for me than working on a new instrument idea. Lots of try and see moments. Some bringing great satisfaction others moving me own to considering other alternatives. Nothing is more challenging than working with parts onhand and adapting what's available to work. Takes me back to a time when there were no Lowes or Ace Hardware down the street. Just the dozens of coffee cans my dad had filled with old hardware. I spent my childhood sorting nails and screws into coffee cans LOL.

Maybe I will have a sound test tomorrow for the cello.

until later, be good, take care of each other and have fun!

Doc Kazoo

From The Aswegohomestead Studio

2012-02-12T13:57:00.000-08:00

It sure is nice to be recording and mixing again. It's been a while since I did any mixing. I have recorded a bunch of morning practice tracks over the past year but not much that was worth mixing. Most were just tracks of some new lick or progression idea that I may want to mess with later. It's a lot of fun to actually be laying down tracks to mix for this new album. Being a "by ear" picker that can't read music being able to record song ideas really helps simplify my songwriting quite a bit. Being an old man it sure helps overcome a terrible memory. LOL

I posted a couple same tunes from the album in music video's at YouTube. One new original Doc Kazoo tune and one old traditional blues song. Weather has turned cold down here in Florida with freezing temps the next couple days. Perfect for working in the studio. What makes it even better is being able to record, mix and produce high quality audio recordings on the computer. For years the only recording gear I had available was a reel to reel or cassette recorder.

Now those were definitely not the good old days of home recording. At most I could record one track either mic or instrument as line in type recording. Multiple tracking was accomplished with a four track Peavy mixer/amp and a mic at the speaker cabinet. There was no such thing as mixing after recording. No ability to add effects. It was a what you see is what you get type situation.

This new fangled computer type Digitial Audio Workstation (DAW) software is more fun than Christmas morning and a lot cheaper than studio time! Having a home recording studio is great when you wake up at two in the morning with an idea in your head and want to record it before you forget it. LOL Back in the late 60's early 70's I had a good friend that was a studio guitarist at Capricorn Records up in Macon, Ga. He loved getting called in for a two in the morning session. It paid more! LOL

So for the next few weeks I get to play recording artist. Then the hardwork starts when I change shirts to "mixerman" and start putting everything together for a final master CD. That's also when the fun starts. I will be posting some more samples of this album over the next couple months so be sure and check back and have a look and listen. I am really excited about this new album and most happy to be laying down tracks.

till later,

Doc Kazoo

Zen Orchid and the Art of Being

2012-02-08T13:47:00.000-08:00

Isn't this a beautiful orchid? We have had it for over five years. I bought this for Ms. Kazoo the first day we moved to the homestead. This year it presented us with six beautiful blossoms, the most ever. It may sound crazy but I have become very attached to this orchid and learned much from it over the years it has been here at the homestead.

When we first moved to the homestead I had great aspirations to raise vegetables and harvest/sell the wild saw palmetto palm berries that are used in herbial remedies. Suppose to be really good for baldness. We have an abundance growing wild and I spent a month clearing access to them with a pickup truck. Well the first year went really well. I planted lots of veggies and they all grew like weeds. Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, beans, potatoes, herbs all were beautiful and filled with food. I had been able to plant early as the first winter had been mild with not one frost. Then Hurricane Season arrived.

Here in centeral Florida Hurricane Season is really just a mini monsoon season with regular afternoon storms as the winds from the Gulf of Mexico meet the Atlantic winds just before sunset almost everyday somewhere across the state. Well the first year Hurricane Season brought one tropical storm after another and before long my gardens were under 6-12" of water most of the time for nearly two months. Everything but a a few tomatote plants were drowned.

You can't kill wild saw palmetto even if you burn them for submerge them so they were loaded with berries. The problem is they were flooded at harvest time when you only have a few days to pick and I could not get to them for harvesting. The next year was a drought with similar results on my agricultural aspirations.

There was no third year. As a footnote the next two years had really bad winters with hard freezing from December to February.

It took a lot of care and money that first year to get everything healthy and full of fruit before the flood. You would think that the beautiful orchid pictured above has received the same care and attention but I fear that is not the case. It spends all summer sitting under oak trees and seldom gets anymore watering than Mother Nature provides. Fall and Spring it spends on in the Florida Room (enclosed porch) where it does get the weekly watering. Winter it comes inside and receives great attention. I have never given it plant food. When it's sitting under the trees all summer it collects leaves and acorns in the pot and I just leave them to naturally decay. Much like orchids in the wild get food I guess. Sometimes I will crunch up a handfull of oak leaves and drop in the flower pot. Other than that it's on it's own. I have come to the conclusion that if kept away from freezing an orchid will survive anywhere without any help.

I have come to realize that people are much the same as the orchid. Both can survive with little outside care or attention and actually flourish. Both weather times of distress and still achieve great beauty. Both truly have very few actual needs. I think if there is such a thing as reincarnation I would like to return as a wild orchid. Prehaps a purple variety like our orchid. Maybe deep in a South American jungle or prehaps on a small American homestead with an old geezer that sometimes forgets to water me but enjoyes my company. One never knows what gift Karma will give and when it will be given. The trick is to know when it has been given. Only then can you receive it.

Well an old kazoo maker will ramble from time to time. This afternoon is studio time recording tracks for the new soon to be released album of some original tunes and a few great traditional folk/blues tunes. I had hoped to be finished recording by now and in the mixing phase but been busy in the workshop making kazoos. I did get a dozen raw acoustic guitar tracks recorded and one mixed. Then diaster struck and the card I had all the working files on crashed and I lost everything. Bummer! So I will be starting over totally fresh. Which sometimes can be a very good thing. I at least have a better idea now of what tunes I want to include on the album. I do believe it is going to be a really good mixture of style.

Before you think "Hey Doc, you should have backed up your work!". That SD card was my backup LOL. The external hard drive all the original files are on crapped out last week!!!! Talk about raining!! When it does it pours. LOL

As I was taught by the great Voltaire in his work The Candide, "all works out for the best in the end".

Doc Kazoo

Sixty Years On Planet Earth

2012-02-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

Recently some agency of the Federal Government released information indicating that kids today have a very poor knowledge of American history. This doesn't surprise me but it does concern me since among these students are the future leaders of our nation. Without knowing where as a nation we have been it is impossible lead us to the best our nation can be. There is great truth that history can, will and is repeating itself each and every day around the world. To be ignorant of history or to be aware of yet ignore history can only lead to bad decisions and dire results.

In my first decade of arriving on this planet we were a nation evolving as a world power. We were a nation continually evolving as a nation. At school each day we started with the Pledge of Allegiance. At my particular school we had a half hour in the morning when we read a verse from the new testatment. If we had memorized a verse and recited it we were presented with a small pocket new testament. I believe it was 3rd grade. I still remember that little verse John 3:16 and the childhood memory of the day I recited it. No one was forced to participate in that half hour. We had assorted faiths and some kids would go to the library for that half hour and read or study. The mere fact that some of us would go to the library was a lesson in diversity of religions in America for young minds. A good thing for everyone.

But today we are told it is not a good thing by the supreme court. Now anybody that has read my pervious post know I am not religious nor belong to any church but I do believe in a higher power and that my visit to this planet is only a brief pause in a longer journey. Like Jefferson I hold that the teachings of Jesus as he taught are worth following. That doesn't however make me a Christian anymore than defining me not Jewish. I am a little bit of everything. In the past 200 years the supreme court has gently pruned and shaped our constitution, as originally drafted. Thought it is true that the original draft of the constitution was never meant to be carved in stone and that many of the ammendents were needed and just to meet a changing society. However, those ammendments that attempt to direct morality are doomed to failure. As example I offer prohabition of alcohol and removal of prayer in schools from both ends of the legislative spectrum. I do believe it's now banned at town meetings. Over the past six decades the how the supreme court has managed to transform 50 individual states into one. This was a threat that Jefferson identified over 200 years ago and feared that what could happen is exactly what has happened.

The problem with this is that the citizens of North Dakato have different ideas of how they want their state run than say Florida. In the beginning of our republic were indeed 13 individual states united and now we are 50 states consolidated and uniform. When I was a kid in NC and went to visit aunts and uncles in Virginia I found that you couldn't buy stuff on Sunday there that we could at home. Some of the items seemed crazy to me like eggs, and toilet paper. But that was the law that the majority of the citizens of Virginia choose do have that law. Even in NC our county sold no alcoholic beverages yet a neighboring county did. It is the ability to have these differences yet live together in harmony that made America unique. We were free to set rulels of behavior based on what the majority wanted. Now the only choice is what the federal government says we can have. The federal government can't keep up with world politics much less county public ordinances or the individual legislation of each state.

Recently a central Florida town meeting was told by a resident that they had to stop saying a prayer before the town meeting. I think he was an atheist but not sure. Regardless he didn't like it and asserted it violated separation of church and state. Now he could have just walked out side for a moment as a minority voter and allow the majority to enjoy the prayer. Then rejoin the meeting and go to work. Just makes no sense to me. I think thou protest too much!!! We need to return the time when individual state's rights are where they should be as determined by the people that live in that state and not men and women granted a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court. Our congressmen in Washington should first have loyality to the voters of their state and not backroom deals and legislative powers that be. Regretfully it is easy to loose one's point of view in Washington as a legislator and get lost in the lavish adornments like the congressional spa. There will come a time, prehaps not in my remaining years, but eventually when voters realize the need for a major shake up in Washington and term limits will be established as well as serious campaign funding reform. Something has to be done to bring the Federal Government back into balance.

In the 1950's we had reports of UFO's all the time. I even saw one. Not once but twice on different nights hundreds of miles apart. That's another story LOL. Then in the 60's the UFO sightings sorta disappeared. I have a theory on why this happened. There were alien visits and they were looking around to see what we were all about. After ten years of watching all the inhabitants of our planet they figured the best thing they could do was to recommend to their alien friends that planet earth should be avoided at all cost because we were hell bent on destruction. So every alien space chart since then has the Milky Way marked as a "Do Not Enter" galaxy. LOL

I have voted in every election since I have been eligible to vote. This is one right that I will always exercise. In 2012 it is so important that all Americans who can vote do so. I don't care who you vote for. That's none of my business and I am not endorsing any specific candidate for any specific office. I am an old time, true independent. I vote for the person I trust to fill the office they seek not a party or special interest group. What I am speaking about is exercising your Right To Vote not which candidate or party you vote for. Could you imagine what the election results would be if every American eligible to vote cast a ballot? What a concept to ponder indeed. This is what defines us as "We the people, by the people and for the people".

God Bless America,　
Doc Kazoo

The Big Crash Of 2012

2012-01-31T04:38:00.000-08:00

What a way to start the new year! Day before yesterday my external hard drive crapped out resulting in the loss of hundreds of data files, pictures and video. For some reason the drived decided to not be recognized by my computer despite the fact that it lights up and appears normal. So yesterday was spent replacing a what pictures I could from online sources and trying to get the hard drive recognized. At the end of the day I was able to retrieve most of my recent images. The good news is that it was the data drive that crashed and not the system drive so my software was not effected. Like my dad use to say, "no need crying over spilt milk". Bottom line is I should have been backing this data up more frequently and life goes on.

Sometimes I think that this old mind is like an aging hard drive. The more stuff that is put in the more stuff I forget. There's information in there that was stored decades ago with an unidentifiable file name of "new folder**". Sometimes I will be looking for a certain file and come across something I had written years ago or maybe a picture or video I had forgotten. Prehaps a song I had written and recorded or some software I forgot I had. I have found that my memory tends to function much in the same manner with the exception that there is no permanent deletion. The human memory is never written over and is always retrieveable. Quite often retrieved when we would prefer it not be. I just wonder what happens when the memory gets full, or does it?

So I have the computer restored enough to function normally and will work on it more later to try and restore some data files I really would like to have back. This morning I am back in the workshop putting the finishing touches on a beautiful Collector's Kazoo made of Arizona Carob Wood. After spending the past couple days working on the computer I sure look forward to getting away from the keyboard with some sandpaper in my hand and some music on the radio. Time to stop the world for a few hours and have some fun.

Be sure and take a look at my Kickstarter project and join me in producing a great kazoo documentary.

"From Tree To Kazoo - An American Folk Treasure"

May each of you have a fantastic week. Take care of and be good to each other. Most of all have fun!

Doc Kazoo

The Old Kazoo Maker

Sunday Morning Thoughts

2012-01-15T06:08:00.000-08:00

Good Sunday Morning!

Another freezing morning here at the homestead! Thank goodness warming will start today and continue through next week so I will get something accomplished in the workshop this week.

I have spent past few days of cold temperatures working on the production plan for the documentary I hope to produce this year. There are lots of details to work and I am excited about getting started. I did start on a new kazoo design last week making the prototype for a "Spirit Chaser Kazoo".

As I was working on the script for narration of the documentary writing about the African influence on the American Kazoo I had an apithany regarding the manner in which some of the earliest kazoos may have been made by African American slaves based on the design of an African instrument that was used for hundreds of years in tribal ceremonies. I will be sharing this in the documentary and more of the history of the American Kazoo.

KAZOO CONTRIBUTORS WANTED

If you are a kazooist and have any pictures, video or audio recordings of kazoos and would like to share please send them to me for possible inclusion in the documentary. If you have any interesting kazoo history facts or legends send those too. If your work is used it will be accredited to you in the documentary closing credits.

Email: dockazoo@aswegohomestead.com

Please only submit media on which you hold copyright or is from the public domain. Be sure and include permission to use your submissions in your email and that the subject line of the email reads "Docmentary Submission".

Thanks,
Doc Kazoo

Morning Coffee With The Old Kazoo Maker

2012-01-13T04:12:00.000-08:00

I think around four in the morning is my favorite time of the day for a cup of coffee and pondering the mysteries of life. LOL Well at least it's good for coffee and pondering. Not sure about the mysteries of life but it is surely a time of meditation and thought. This gives me a few hours to "ease in to" a new day.   I just hate rushing to anything. When you get to be my age tomorrow is just not something one hurries to. LOL Far better to slow down and savor each second of each day.

I once know an old 80 year old lady in Scotland years ago that told me "if you have one foot in tomorrow and one foot in yesterday all you can do is use today as a loo". Now that may sound pretty crude to some but I have found the message pretty danged accurate.

When I first started offering my special order kazoos online when I provided an estimated shipping date it was always based on what I thought was the absolute soonest date that I could ship. 99% of the time I was able to meet this deadline and all was fine. The kazoo was made, there were no crisis and I was able to simply move from one day to the next working on that kazoo always remaining in the here and now.

It is that other 1% of the time that kept forcing me into tomorrow and a very uncomfortable situation. Instead of just flowing with the work from day to day I was now forced into tomorrow trying to figure out how to speed up to meet the shipping deadline. Wondering if I will need to send an email advising of a delay. I had created a potential crisis for myself when I specified the original shipping date. This is bad enough when you are making one kazoo and have this problem but when you are working on four kazoos and one has a problem a domino effect happens and the other three kazoos join in the crisis.

I no longer have this problem as I simply add two days to the time I figure that under optimum conditions I can make the kazoo. So when I start working on the kazoo I am already two days ahead LOL. I don't have any need to be concerned about tomorrow because something messed up today that I have to fix. I stay in today, avert a crisis and have fun making a kazoo.   Now I always ship on time and most times I ship early without a crisis pushing me into tomorrow, today!

This is I as well do in all areas of my life. I have found the here and now a much better place for me to focus my energy. Yesterday is done and gone and tomorrow only an illusion. I think old Forrest Gump was half right about life being like a box of candy. Life is also like a kazoo that starts as a seed that grows to the tree and end as a kazoo.

I once read of two monks that were traveling between two monistaries when they came to a river crossing swollen from spring rains. A lady was standing there unable to cross. One monk picked her up and carried her across the river and sat here down then proceeded with the other monk to their destination at the monistary. As they were about to enter the gate the one monk ask the other why he had carried that lady across the river as it was against the rules of their order.    "I left the lady beside the river but you carried her all the way here" was the reply.

Remaining in today is a true pleasure, being always in the here and now is even better. When I am working on a kazoo if I am sanding I sand, if I am carving I carve. It is essential for me to stop the world outside of that to create a kazoo as it is as well to best enjoy life.

Well as you can see an old kazoo maker will ramble early mornings with a nice hot cup of coffee and his thoughts. May each of you have an apithany today!   I love having an apithany; They remind me I haven't learned everything quite yet. :) Now the sunlight is peaking through the trees and it's time to pick a little guitar and get ready to head to the workshop.

Be sure and check out my Documentary Project at kickstarter.com "Journey From Tree To Kazoo".

Cheers,
Doc Kazoo

The Meaning Of Live According To Kazoology

2012-01-11T01:03:00.000-08:00

Good Morning!

At least it is here at the homestead. My favorite time of the day before the sun come up. It's been a few days since I had a chance to post anything in my blog. Been busy kicking off a major kazoo factory project. I won't repeat a lot of stuff here that is already in the factory blog other than to say if you don't know what I am talking about you can read more at the factory blog. Just click the link below, it will open in a new window.

"Journey From Kazoo To Tree - An American Folk Treasure"

As is also mentioned in the factory blog, I made a sawmill run last week and picked up some really beautiful cherry wood. I have made two cherry kazoos so far and they are absolutely beautiful. I really love this wood. I don't think it will last too long. I picked up the last three pieces he had. I also ordered some red cedar to be milled as there was none in stock. I love it when this happend as then I get to go out in the log yard and pick out a tree. That's always fun for me. After a few minutes of looking at a line of local harvested red cedar logs I marked the one that I wanted and will go back in a couple weeks to pick up the milled wood. This is so much more personal than going to a home improvement center and looking at stack after stack of commercially raised, harvested and milled boards.

There is something special to be able to touch the actual tree I will be transforming into a kazoo. To look at every side and angle before selecting it. I will go back to the sawmill the day it is milled so I can see each slice made as it comes off the saw. Looking at each piece as it comes off the saw and is stacked is like opening a Christmas present. You never know what you are going to get until you open the log so to speak. This is when the grain and knot patterns are revealed that I will use in my kazoos. Like a new dad I am ready to take it to the workshop and start making a kazoo. That's not the case however. For now the wood will be stacked and moved to the drying building for a few days to cure.

When I pick up the wood after curing I will then be able to see any flaws in the wood. Those sections that will have to be cut out and thrown in the scrap bin or trash. This is when I will know if my log selection was good or bad. The first kazoo from this tree is always special and so much fun to make. This is when the Christmas present becomes fully open and the gift is revealed fully.

Be sure and stop by the ArtFire Shop and have a look at the two new beautiful cherry kazoos.

The Cherry Picker's Kazoo

The Cherry Wine Kazoo

Well an old kazoo maker will ramble at 4am and a pot of coffee. LOL Time to go pick a little morning guitar and figure out the workshop "Plan Of The Day", or "POD" as we called it in the navy. Please do be sure and check out the new factory project I mentioned at the start. This is a project that I have much passion for and think you might find it interesting.

Till later,

Have Fun! - It's The Meaning Of Life!

Doc Kazoo

A young apprentice approached his teacher and ask what was the truth of kazoo making. "Have you eaten your dinner?" ask the Master Kazoo Maker." "Yes" replied the young man. "Then go wash your plate" softly spoke the old teacher and the young apprentice walked a way immedialtely understanding.

Zen Kazoo by Doc Kazoo

Doc Kazoo Music Video Belle Lynette

2012-01-05T13:26:00.000-08:00

For the past year or so I have been writing some new songs and working on a new album to release this year. This video was made during a morning practice session where I just set up the camera and let it record. This clip is one song from a 45 minute session.

I make these videos to share with a few musician friends but more to help me get these tunes finished and ready to sit down and record with the proper gear and software. This audio was made with the built in camera condenser microphone and there was a bit of background noise. I did a little bit of audio editing with tools available in Sony Vegas but it's really limited inso far as audio editing tools. This video is more to help me finalize the lyrics and guitar to start recording individual tracks.

I have about ten new original songs and a couple traditional folk songs I would like to get recorded and ready to start mixing this coming spring. So I will be posting more of these music video in the next few days. These tunes are certainly a "work in progress". This album is going to be a wee bit different than my first album. I always refer to the first album as my "Woodie Guthrie Protest Songs" LOL. These new songs are more kin to my music roots back in Carolina.

Doc Kazoo

Winter Freeze and Workshop Fever

2012-01-04T23:22:00.000-08:00

Winter definitely has arrived at the Kazoo Factory. Morning temps in the 20's with frost and daytime highs in the 40's for the past couple days and until Friday have kept the workshop closed most of this week except for shipping. Just too danged cold for these old kazoo maker bones in the workshop.

So I have spent most of the week updating the website and ArtFire Studio inside where it's warm. I must admit that after a very busy kazoo making Christmas a wee break feels good and my online updates had fallen behind and needed work. As my old friend Voltaire would say, "all works out for the best in the end". Over the years I have found that there is an ebb and flow in life. Here on The Homestead and in the workshop this is especially true.

Life for most all human beings is driven by the time of day, day of week, or month of the year. Here on The Homestead it's more driven by the seasons of the year. Being an independent kazoo maker I am pretty much always in control of my time on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. I can just as easily be found in the workshop at three a.m. as I can at three p.m. This is totally controlled by my biological clock and not Greenwich Mean time or social habits. When I am rested I work, when I am tired I rest, when I am hungry I eat. Each without regard to time of day or night. After many years at sea standing watch four hours on four hours off where you never get eight hours sleep at one stretch I continue this practice today. It works well for me as a folk artist and kazoo maker. Some of my most beautiful instruments were born in the workshop at three or four a.m. when the world is asleep except for an old owl hooting in the distance and a fat racoon that makes an occasional visit outside the workshop door.

On a seasonal basis Mother Nature remains in control. Winter cold and summer heat dictate work hours in the shop. Spring and summer rains dictate more care and mowing of the homestead. Hurricane season can signicantly upset the apple cart as does Wild Fire Dry season. This week Mother Nature is in charge and all I can do is adapt and enjoy the change.

I do have to admit that Workshop Fever is starting to set in now that everything is caught up online and I have some new cherry wood down in the workshop just crying to be made into kazoos. I have a 6" cherry kazoo blank sitting here on my desk that I have been looking at for a couple days now and Mother Nature says I can start transforming it into a kazoo Friday.

Until then there is no need to push the river when it flows by itself and the Plan of the Day for today is to have no plan and just let the river flow.

"Doc Kazoo"

Kazoologist At Large

2012-01-03T05:42:00.000-08:00

We got our first blast of artic air last night and just before sunrise the homestead thermometer was at 35F. Burrrrr!

The high today is suppose to be in the mid 40's and colder tomorrow but warming again Friday. So the workshop is officially on Artic Hours. Today and tomorrow it will be mostly closed. These old bones just don't do the cold anymore LOL!

I took a ride yesterday to the sawmill and had a great time plus got some beautiful cherry wood. I just posted a Factory Blog on the visit so I won't repeat myself here other than say this includes the first of a new three part video documentary "From Tree To Kazoo"

Here's a link to Part 1

http://greataswegokazoofactory.blogspot.com/

I am really excited about this video project. A big part of the kazoo factory mission is the sharing of my craft as a folk kazoo maker via video. It would make me very proud to inspire the next generation of kazoo makers. I once had a good musician buddy ask me if I wasn't concerned that by making my "update video's" someone might imitate me and become competition? Well I am getting old and quite buntly am a lot closer to death than I am birth LOL. It would please me greatly to be able to watch a young kazoo maker begin their journey and know that another kazoo maker will follow after me.

Insofar as competition is concerned. Well I stopped competing years ago, even with myself. As I explain in the lyrics of a song I once wrote, "Simple Life" . I live a simple life. I need a table to eat at, a chair to sit in, bed to sleep in and a workshop to create in. Add a little food and water and I'm set. I don't make kazoos as a business. I make them as an artist and I sell them to be able to make more. I create each kazoo with the same passion Mozart had when composing and Whitman when writing. I find the act of creating a kazoo the greatest reward of all. This is how I keep the price of my kazoos so low, the quality of my kazoos so high and the risk of kazoo maker competition at bay.

I once had a Gestalt centered professor tell me that I needed learn how to stop the world and that they couldn't tell me how to do it but when I did it I would know. I was a young First Class Petty Officer just back from Vietnam and finishing a year of training in San Diego enroute to my first shore assignment at a Navy Brig as a corrections counselor. This professor had truly become a mentor and quite often threw riddles out that totally confused me LOL. Took me years to understand this one and a couple more to be able and do it! LOL In the workshop there is a switch that turns off the world whenever I open the doors and walk in. It just happens automatically now.

In the workshop I turn off the cell phone, turn on some music and put on my "Doc Kazoo Hat". When I am making a humble kazoo nothing else exist. Now how can you put monetary value on such a reward? Many may follow in my footsteps but there will always only be one original, genuine "Doc Kazoo" Aswego Kazoo!

I leave you this chilly Florida morning sunrise with a few more lines from a manuscript I am presently editing.

A wise man tends his own garden,

and remains free of politics,

sits in judgment of no man,

and avoids material slavery.

A wise man knows both birth and death,

understanding a deeper relation,

between mortality and immortality.

A wise man remains focused on what,

while the fool ponders why.

One accepts natural law,

the other follow,

precepts of thought.

May you stop the world for a moment each day,

"Doc Kazoo"

Kazoologist and Poet At Large

Happy New Year 2012 From "Doc Kazoo"

2012-01-01T01:21:00.000-08:00

Good Morning New Year's Day 2012

I hope everybody had a safe and happy New Year's Eve celebration. I just finished writing a New Year's message on the Factory Blog and invite you to have a look at that post and I won't repeat that again here.

I just wanted to take a moment here to thank all of you from around the world that purchased one of my kazoos last year. You are appreciated very much by the old kazoo maker. You kind comments have been humbling indeed as well as motivating. The value of your artistic support far exceeds any monetary profit. There is nothing more rewarding to any artist than to have their creations accepted and appreciated by people like you. It is indeed an honor for me to have one of my kazoos in your home, studio, museum and/or on stage performing.

One of my kazoo owners and performing musicians up in Gainesville, Florida, Tom, sent me an email after his first public performance with a special designed FatBoy Kazoo that fits his harmonica neckbrace. In it he said that when the band took a break between sets the audience called them back on stage shouting "kazoo, kazoo, kazoo!!". Now that warmed the old kazoo maker's heart beyond belief. I was fortunate to have Tom visit the studio workshop with his FatBoy and beautiful vintage Guild Guitar and got to make a wee video. Tom will be coming back to the studio in a couple weeks for another visit and I hope this time to do some humming and strumming with him. I feel a new music video coming soon!

Performing Musican Tom Picking & Humming

If you ever get down to my neck of the woods be sure and stop by the studio workshop. Visitors are welcome Mon-Fri by appointment, The homestead is located just west of Eustis, Florida in the woods of Lake Seneca. Just send me an email letting me know when you would like to visit and we can set that up. The homestead is located just west of Eustis, Florida in the woodlands of Lake Seneca, Florida.

dockazoo@aswegohomestead.com

Well an old kazoo maker will ramble just before sunrise and after a pot of coffee LOL. So I will shut up now and say thank you again to each Aswego Kazoo Owner around the world!!!! Thanks to you there are now Aswego Kazoos in all fifty states and eleven countries and one territory!!!!!

Doc Kazoo

Old Kazoo Maker

Great Aswego Kazoo Factory

Doc Kazoo's Studio Workshop Pondering

2011-12-30T05:48:00.000-08:00

Visting Sculptor Karen and Kazooist From Glasglow Scotland

One of the best things about being an independent artist is the freedom to spend each day doing what I want to do. I am in total control of my daily schedule. Working alone in the workshop presents the opportunity to allow the mind to ponder. I do enjoy pondering things. In these days of IPhones and IPads I think pondering is quickly becoming a lost art. It's just so easy to instantly Facebook or Twitter that now people fail to ponder what they are about to say and do before they say it or do it.

My studio workshop is a special place for pondering. Surrounded by my favorite things, it has the right atmosphere in which to ponder. The studio of each artist I know or have ever known is the same for them. The studio of each has been a sanctuary that enables creativity. A special place where there are no distractions from the outside world. My studio workshop is quite some distance from the house. It has no computer access and my cell phone is always turned off. The closest neighbor is a couple football fields away with a beautiful view of the homestead landscape. In my studio I am able to "stop the world" in a manner of speaking so I can properly ponder.

This has certainly not always been the case. I can remember when the studio was a 12'x12' metal storage shed in the backyard with neighbors within spitting distance on each side. One favorite old studio filled the dinning room of my home years ago. . Still even in those places the studio atmosphere was always the same. Each was a special place where I could practice my art. Today the studio workshop is nearly 1000 sq ft and fills two buildings sitting on five wooded acres in the country. Only in the past couple years since becoming a full time independent artist have I come to need this much space for my studio/workshop. In the old days as a hobbyist and as a part time artist working outdoor markets on weekends a corner in the garage worked just fine.

No person can act any different than the picture they hold of themselves. It's just impossible. Whether your studio is a building, spare bedroom or corner in the garage it represents the image you hold for yourself as an artist and is sanctuary from a world filled with distractions. It is a place that when you enter the artist immediately appears and creativity begins. My studio workshop is a reflection of myself as an artist, a cacoon insulated from the world with solitude.

Visitors are welcome to my workshop studio by appointment. Most of my visitors tend to be customers who are also artist from performing musicians to sculptors. It's always a pleasure to have visitors and especially when they bring their kazoo and guitar LOL.

Gainesville Florida Musician "Tom" Picking and Humming

If you ever get in my neck of the woods be sure and set up a visit to the Great Aswego Kazoo Factory and have a look around my studio workshop. Just send an email and tell me when you would like to stop by.

dockazoo@aswegohomestead.com

Wishing everybody a Happy New Year 2012

Doc Kazoo

"Tibi ipsi esto fidelis'

2011-12-29T08:03:00.000-08:00

Recently I was interview by ArtFire as Spotlight Artisian and one question I was ask was what advice I would give to other artist. One thing I failed to mention was the when and how of being a working independent artistian. If you truly have passion for your art and a burning desire to share your creations with the world don't wait! Don't have to have everything perfect and don't expect to get rich! Most importantly don't expect a big pay check, at least anytime soon. Do be prepared to work with very little profit, at least in the beginning.

That pretty much addresses the what, now what about the when? Sometimes you really do have to stop thinking and start doing. As an old teacher once told me "To think different is to think different, to act different is to be different". The hard part is to be ready to transform from that which you are to that which you can be. It is virtually impossible for any sane human being to hold two conflicting thoughts. The best option is to just jump in do it. Most things put off until tomorrow never seem to get accomplished and there is no gurantee of tomorrow.

In the title of this blog I wrote "Tibi ipsi esto fidelis' which is Latin for "To thyself be faithful". This is the best advice I can offer any aspiring independent artist regardless of their form of artistic expression. My mentor once suggested I have a tatoo of this put beneath each eyelid so I wouldn't forget LOL.

Doc Kazoo

Independent Folk Artist and Kazoo Maker

Again I share another verse from the manuscript presently being edited

The more I walk alone;
the less I require.
The less I am,
the more I become.
Among fields of knowledge,
flirt hints of wisdom,
until nothing becomes all.
The more I know myself,
the fewer are my needs,
better I see my way.
Before one can know all men,
he must first know himself,
and walk alone.

No Mistakes In Artistic Expression

2011-12-29T06:30:00.000-08:00

Doc Kazoo In Scotland

The image you see above is the view I saw every morning from my window for several years. The mountain to the right is Benmore. Most of the year the top was covered in snow. In this picture we are at the height of summer. All two weeks of it LOL!!! I lived just outside of the small town of Dunoon in the 1980's. I spent many years at sea sailing and living around the world. I sailed around this planet once and across the Atlantic more times than I can remember. Had the opportunity to see a lot of the world and meet a lot of the inhabitants of this small planet of ours. I can honestly say those travels and experiences were enligntening to a young kazoo maker. However my favorite place on earth is here in the homestead workshop and my favorite thing to do is make kazoos.

When I was a kid I loved to draw and one summer my mom signed me up for art lessons with a lady artist in town that also taught kids. Each Saturday I would go to town and spend an hour in this magical place learning to use charcoal, pastels and watercolora. I can't remember the teacher's name but I have always remembered one thing she taught me. "An artist never makes a mistake". Over the years I have tested this lesson in all my artistic endeavors, from painting to songwriting and even to kazoo making. I have found it to be absolutely true in both my life and my art. Some of my most beautiful and uniques kazoos were the result of a mistake that was transformed into a totally new kazoo creation. Musicians do this all the time when performing and they hit a wrong note or chord. The audience never notices because the performer makes the mistake appear to belong at that place in the music.

There are many things I learned that summer on Saturday afternoons in that studio overtop of the old town drug store. Not only techniques of painting and drawing but a personal understanding of art and the artist. A definition I have held for over half a century now and a path I have followed to many discoveries. In reality there are mistakes in conventional terms but never in artistic expression. On that stage they are vehicles to innovation and understanding.

"Tibi ipsi esto fidelis"

Doc Kazoo

I leave you with a short verse from a personal manuscript I am presently editing to publish in 2012.

I remember her a young woman,
with a haunting smile,
beneath a stylish hat.
I remember drive-in movies,
swing sets full of children,
popcorn at intermission.
I remember watching her dress,
for Saturday evening dances,
and visiting family.
I remember her inner strength,
and her sense of peace with God,
and how she loved her children.
I remember pants painted with red clay,
and eating wild grapes,
while sitting in treetops.
I remember her constant presence,
in good times and bad.
But most of all it seems,
I remember her love.

A Morning Winter Chill At The Factory

2011-12-28T05:27:00.000-08:00

Well it would seem that this morning we get a reminder that we are indeed in winter. A nice cold front enveloped central Florida overnight. Not quite frost but close. I love getting up early each morning before sunrise. This is indeed my most favorite time of the day and I love to greet each sunrise slowly with a strong cup of black coffee and my morning thoughts.

Most mornings, when it's warmer, I usually softly pick a little guitar as I gather myself and ponder my Plan of the Day.

Today at top if the list is a Special Order Alabama Vest Kazoo that I will be starting to fill an order for shipping Saturday. The rest of the day is pretty open and really needs no plan. It does feel kind of nice to slow down the pace a wee bit after the Christmas orders. Today the workshop will open a little later after it is warmed some by the morning sun.

I have learned that it is best for me to avoid addiction to clocks and pay more attention to each season. What works for me in summer doesn't work so well in winter. So is true with spring and fall. So is true in the seasons of life. What worked for me as a young man would probably kill me now LOL. The seasons they do change but a minute is always a minute. Just a measurement that has no change.

As winter starts to arrive the workshop will be changing to "Artic Hours". Which means it opens later and closes earlier during winter months. When summer arrives and mid day temperatures are too hot for working the workshop opens earlier and takes a long break until late afternoon as the sun starts to set. This is "Tropical Hours". Spring and Fall are regular full day work hours. Artic and Tropical Hours are old Navy terms for modified work hours.

As I have grown older and made more kazoos it has been found better to follow the seasons of the year than the hours in each day. As an old teacher once told me "To think different is to think different. To act different is to be different". So for now I choose to act different and pick a little guitar, sip some coffee and greet the sunrise.

The trick in life is to be ready at any moment to change what your are for what you want to be.

Doc Kazoo

The Old Kazoo Maker

What Is Zen Kazoo?

2011-12-27T22:16:00.000-08:00

Now that's a difficult question to answer.

It's in one of my kazoos at the Annual Fourth of July Kazoo Parade in Nazareth, Pa

It's humming along with a Fellow Kazoo Maker at George Festival in Eustis, Fl.

Some things are most difficult to put into words. Such is true of both Zen Kazoo and Doc Kazoo. Zen Kazoo is everything and everywhere.

Welcome to the ramblings of an old kazoo maker. I'm not sure with whom I will share this blog. Honestly right now it is more for myself and prehaps my grandson at some future time. Right now the what is more important than the why. LOL

One of my first lessons of Zen Kazoo came from my father who once told me that every person had an idea that could make them rich. The trick was for each of us to identify that idea and take it from an idea to a reality. As a kid I thought rich meant financial wealth. Today I know that my old man was using a different definition. As an old folk artist I now find that I understand much more each day that I practice my craft as a kazoo maker.

More later,

Doc Kazoo