Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Pedro Delfino.



When I was at grad school in Arkansas, there was this dude, or maybe even multiple dudes, who would play bagpipes outside at random locations around Fayetteville. In theory, this is awesome. Now I don't know if you've ever heard bagpipes live before, but they are loud. Really loud. Maybe not Lightning Bolt loud, but right up there in volume. The sound carries a very long distance, too. Anyway, one evening the guy was out happily tooting away at a school near a plaza we were skateboarding at. For whatever reason, the sound got in my head and made it hard to focus on skating. I wound up sitting in the car until everybody was ready to go elsewhere because it just wasn't working for me.

Thrasher - December 2020 Volume 41 Number 12

2 comments:

JCM said...

I am Scottish and used to play the bagpipes when I was at school. THAT was rare as I went to a posh school, and about 7 people out of a thousand played them. If you go to Edinburgh, you'll maybe see a couple of folk playing. Westminster Bridge in London too for whatever reason. There must be more folk playing in the US than the UK I reckon.

Justin said...

This guy very well could have been an anomaly as I don't think I've seen many people playing bagpipes in the years since. You'll get them at the occasional funeral or memorial event, but not out in the wild too often. I'm almost positive there were at least a couple guys playing them in Arkansas. The college town was a bit more eccentric and liberal so it attracted free thinkers from elsewhere.