rongo rongo in town! One Night Only! It was the kind of event that seemed to destined to be the headline for a performance. A Community Performance.

Success! We got 3 strangers to join in the performance and were kicked out of two separate locations by security guards.

I had a few extra hours before my flight home and wanted to meet some of the DC0 folks. Spidere set up a plan to meet at Union Station. When I saw someone walking with a hula-hoop and looking around, I guess it must be him. We quickly made a sign and picked a good spot to set up.



Joined by Eccoglyph, we laid out an assortment of kazoos, improvised percussion instruments, bells, maracas, and castanets. But, before we even started, a security guard told us that musical performance was prohibited on the property. We packed it up and headed outside.



A taxi stand provided a long line of hassled commuters. Perfect! A captive audience in need of a reason to smile. We began playing, waving and saying hi to people walking by. This caused about half the people to avert their gaze, and the other half to smile back. Spotting a young girl, I recruited her for a bit of bell ringing. FZ! found us and had brought the ultimate improvised percussion instrument --- a plastic bag. We continued our concert until the second security guard came to move us along. However, he had time for a quick photo.



The second location was also where one of my favorite improvised musical instruments made its appearance. The catbell; it's surprisingly easy to turn a hollow ceramic cat into an instrument. Having had a fever, and knowing only one way to cure it, it seemed that the answer was clear: the performance needed more catbell.



Our third location was between a fountain and a busy crosswalk. It was getting dark, and the passersby seemed to be in more of a rush. We got fewer smiles and more gaze aversion. Then, two women actually stopped and asked what we were doing this for. Just for fun---want to join? And they did, even agreeing to pose for a photo.



We wrapped up our performance after this triumph of public participation.

FZ!'s Report of "The DC Non-harmonic Orchestra":

Due to poor planning, I got to the event late, and after a brief but exciting search of Union Station, I found my rongo-enhanced DC0 troupe out by the boarding area for buses and cabs. By the time I arrived, Eccoglyphe, Spidere, and rongo rongo had warmed up the audience, and I felt a little like a special guest performer joining the band onstage.

A little personal background: musical creation has always been a bit of a blind spot in my creativity. Growing up, my parents were in a band, and some part of my childhood psyche must have held a grudge against music as a whole, because I never quite got the hang of any instrument.

Even long afterward, musical attempts have met with only moderate success. My greatest achievements for pennywhistle and piano have been Mary Had a Little Lamb. Even though I was a bass harmonist in my school's choir, it was mostly because I had a deep enough voice that no one else could really figure out what note I should be singing - our choir director was very laid-back, of the "joyous noise" sort of school. The closest I've ever felt to actual musical creation has come from playing quite a lot of drums on Rock Band.

So the prospect of playing music in front of an audience was rather intimidating. The fact that it was a crowded line of grumpy, self-important people in Union Station didn't help. And even though I wouldn't be doing so alone, there was a moment at first where I actually considered chickening out.

I pulled out a pair of drumsticks and started playing a very basic beat on a nearby box. I had spent the day decorating them with two colored Sharpees, and they were still a little tacky. It wasn't anything complex or skillful, as I've found that playing drums is a bit harder when I don't have a series of notes rolling down a videoscreen in front of me.

But it wasn't long before I realized it wasn't much fun for me. While Spidere was rocking out with the Catbell, rongo rongo was rocking the hula-hoop, and Eccoglyph was literally adding the bells and whistles, I felt deeply out of place with my lame little drumming. So, in desperation, I switched to my backup instrument - the humble plastic bag.

Instantly, everything was better. Playing a non-instrument is much, much more fun than playing a real one badly. Maybe it's just that there's no high expectations to live up to.

Of course, before long I found myself discovering two distinct musical sounds I could play on it. By the time we were shooed to the third location, I was already discerning proper hand positions for use of the instrument I had dubbed the "squeezebag". It's a shame the Instrument Creation task is retired.

Before long, we were playing in front of the fountain of Union Station, being passed by a steady stream of congressional aides and professionals who had just left work. Because this is DC, where people are trained to avoid looking silly at all costs, the passers-by did all they could to avoid looking directly at us. This is when I realized just how much fun I was having.

"I am a grown man playing music on a plastic bag in front of self-important people in suits. This is awesome."

Eccoglyph's Two Cents:

Not much to add except to say that upon reflecting on our orchestra's performance, I couldn't help but wonder whether our musical selection was really accessible to the masses. Being a public orchestra, we couldn't really rehearse. If all of our musicians had joined up ahead of time, we'd have been a private orchestra. I also attempted to excuse our lack of rhythm and melody during the performance by telling myself that if we sounded too coordinated, we'd just intimidate potential members. Being that we got a total of three people to join us, perhaps my hypothesis was flawed. Our "music," more reminiscent of the Hogwart's alma mater than of any tune, may actually have frightened people away. I believe it was FZ! who dubbed us the DC Nonharmonic Orchestra.