Spent $55 of the $100 birthday (+ Christmas returns) money my mom gave me on a set (pair?)of bongos today. Kind of on a whim. But I see them as a program component, serving as a steam valve, a zen state inducer, a physical creative outlet, something fun amid all the serious work.

As a teenager I was one of those incorrigible table tappers and in my 20s dreamed of being in a place (i.e. not an apartment) where I could have (& play) a drumset and having the money to afford a kit, & maybe a prodigy guitarist/songwriter for a daughter or son & have my rock ‘n’ roll dreams come true after all. Then I kicked it (on cocaine) on the congas with my boricua boy Hector at Balanza. Then watched my Sandinista friends pound the bongos in Nicaragua and really got interested in lessoning from Alejandro, the turrets talking talent in CPU (Contra Politicos Ultrajantes?) & did talk about it w/ him & dabbled one night (on coke).

FF to a couple weeks ago to that super Saturday morning w/ S&W. We passed through Milano’s music on Main in Mesa & picked up guitars to ooh ‘n’ ahh over but then I went over to the congas & bongos to price ‘em out. Congas too expensive, too big. Bongos affordable. One set (pair? couple?) had a nice dark matte chery finish rather than the generic blond or natural or pyucky [yucky pukey] sunburst. I thought about using the Kirchhoffs Christmas money like that. But I wanted to think about it a bit.

One way it seems like a healthy, therapeutic channeling of energy & creativity. Another way it seems like I don’t have any spare energy to channel and that all my creativity ought to be focused on a memoir.

I had rebate forms to mail today which took me to the post office downtown around the corner from Milano’s. Errands done I thought I’d walk in and ask about bongos. The was like “Top o’ the line” tapping a triple “and low-end,” hand on the finish I liked, adding “but it’s a serviceable bongo, see?” and he gave it a smarting slap to produce a sharp tone as he walked right off stage giving me no opportunity for a Q&A session. I thought “what the hell, I’ve wanted one, I have gift money (and should still have enough left over for a pair of climbing shoes), let’s do it.” Got it home and tapped along to two Radiohead songs and one Quicksand song—not bongo groups by any stretch.

Should a 36-year-old without access to the performers’ side of a stage be buying bongos? Are bongos the kind of thing one should be allowed to learn midlife? The seasoned seniors would aww-shucks it and say ‘yes’ with the pre-gay flapping forward of the hand at the wrist. I just hope it doesn’t become one of those expensive toys/distractions that gets 2-3 intensive & well-intentioned sessions and thereafter nothing but dust.