Bamboo wands

 

Oh hi, Natty!  How ya doin' Honey?  I just got done with dinner.  Nothing special, just fries with an egg and bean sandwich.  What are you having?  Yeah my meals have been boring lately, but they're quick and easy, plus my tummy is very happy with me.  You're welcome to share my food with me.  I spent the evening trimming a bamboo to make my final pair of wands.  I guess I could just use some hickory that someone I didn't know ground and shaved into drumsticks, but I bet even the people who cut down the hickory tree didn't know the history of it.  I know where and when and the situation of my drumsticks, or wands (sounds cooler).  Not that I cast any magic with it, I don't practice magic, but drumming is a spiritual thing.  The wands you see above are American.  I used to ride my bike to the laundromat when I lived in Tempe, and a neighbor frequently threw out bamboo that grew in his yard onto the side of the road.  So I would gather the bamboo and take them home, and my apartment was filled with bamboo.  I lost most of my wands when I lost my home, but the above pair I still have today, which makes them about 20 years old since I cut and shaped them.  I had them with me when I lived at the mosque, you can see the tips are flattened from when I drummed on the pavements of Tempe.  This pair was also used for most of the Shadowplay recordings since 2000, the tape covers the fractures caused by hitting the rim too hard.  The fat one is for the left hand.  I like bamboo drumsticks because they are usually curved not straight, plus bamboo makes its own tone, so what your hear is both the bamboo and the drums.

This current bamboo I'm working on came from a patch I grew by the wall to my parents' yard.  I call it a patch, but actually I only let one grow tall while I cut down the rest.  It's about 10 years old.  I harvested it and destroyed the patch a few months ago, then let it sit under the sun and rain for a couple of months.  It has turned black and white since then, and there is a parallel fracture all along the thinner part.  Story of my life.  Maybe the fracture will make it useless.  InshaAllah it won't be.