débarbu & goings on
J'ai rasé ma barbe eh.
Je l'avais depuis 4-5 mois!!
If anyone is wondering what is going on in my musical life..
-I still play with those older men (& one woman) in the klezmer band, except these days I basically play the piano. Who would have thought I'd have ended up playing piano every week in a weird café..? I don't even "play" piano. Anyways it has made me interested in it a lot more as an instrument. You might say I'm a maniac for it these days, I think about playing it when I'm not around one. I'm always striving for the better something-or-other...
-I like who comes to play in the band these days, most of the self-interested maniacs seem to have got tired of it and left, only the music/folklore nerds remain. However I wish some new people would come "apprentice" with us.. Supposedly this 14 year old might start bringing a brass instrument and try to play along at least, and I met this Yiddish-speaking/singing woman in Montreal recently who said she would be in Ottawa for a few weeks sometime and might try to come by.
-This past sunday an elderly old man came up to us after we played for our regular 2 hours. He said that he had driven from Montreal to see us play and that he wasn't disappointed, in fact he was very impressed by our "improvisation". (In fact, there was no real improvisation, only people with fanatical/lapsing memories for hundreds of song segments.) Naturally (being Jewish) many of the older men in our group grew up in Montreal and they started asking him all kinds of hard-hitting questions. He said "You may have lived the first few years of your life in Outremont--and I've moved there to live the last few! I'm 97[?] years old!"
This was replied with exclamations of disbelief and "I should look so good at that age.." "Maybe I've got plenty of time ahead of me after all..."
But in all seriousness--Imagine what that guy has seen in his years. I bet he has some stories to tell.. it's humbling in a way to be complimented by someone like that.
Who knows where he was born? And all the things he had to do to get by during the 20s-40s?
-There was an awkward moment as well... there is a new manager in the café I guess (not the owner--the person who keeps everything going on the floor and behind the counters). He's much younger. Last week we had just played some melancholy Russian waltz (god knows which) just as he was walking by and he said "the Godfather song!" I decided that he had mistaken it for the famous "Godfather Waltz" from the movie of that name. But no one paid him any mind.
This past Sunday, though, he came around--all smiles--and offering two giant plates of all kinds of bagel slices with different cream cheeses/spreads, olive and pickles, and a bowl of assorted sliced melons. "Can you guys play the Godfather song again!" he said. Since they hadn't paid attention to him the last week, they didn't really know what he was talking about, and the "spokesman" said "Ah, yes, hem, the Godfadder song, hem, zat is an OK song, how does it go, we can play it." They all kind of sat around and looked uneasy and only when the new Manager walked out of earshot did I explain why he was asking for that song. "Oh, all the waltzes sound the same." said the man and shrugged. He started playing the Godfather Waltz, I cleared out and made a run for the washroom, even though I actually always loved that song and used to shed a single tear over it in my youth.
-My violin lessons with Indri are going OK I guess, it's a very hard instrument to learn. (As everyone knows.) Tomorrow I have a solo lesson since Indri is out of town--I wonder what that will be like. We have gotten into quite a routine in the last while--Lunch, Violin Lesson, Arguments, Supper, me going to work 5-9. Hehe ;)
My father asked if I wanted to send any posters with him to be drymounted since he's bringing some in next week. (I have to pay for it though.) I went around my house and took down 2 that I thought should be -- one small Lederhosen Lucil poster and one big Iva Bittova. I don't know why those two possessed me-- I don't even listen to either of those crooners anymore. Something about an awkward crooning woman tragic figure on poster maybe...
Je l'avais depuis 4-5 mois!!
If anyone is wondering what is going on in my musical life..
-I still play with those older men (& one woman) in the klezmer band, except these days I basically play the piano. Who would have thought I'd have ended up playing piano every week in a weird café..? I don't even "play" piano. Anyways it has made me interested in it a lot more as an instrument. You might say I'm a maniac for it these days, I think about playing it when I'm not around one. I'm always striving for the better something-or-other...
-I like who comes to play in the band these days, most of the self-interested maniacs seem to have got tired of it and left, only the music/folklore nerds remain. However I wish some new people would come "apprentice" with us.. Supposedly this 14 year old might start bringing a brass instrument and try to play along at least, and I met this Yiddish-speaking/singing woman in Montreal recently who said she would be in Ottawa for a few weeks sometime and might try to come by.
-This past sunday an elderly old man came up to us after we played for our regular 2 hours. He said that he had driven from Montreal to see us play and that he wasn't disappointed, in fact he was very impressed by our "improvisation". (In fact, there was no real improvisation, only people with fanatical/lapsing memories for hundreds of song segments.) Naturally (being Jewish) many of the older men in our group grew up in Montreal and they started asking him all kinds of hard-hitting questions. He said "You may have lived the first few years of your life in Outremont--and I've moved there to live the last few! I'm 97[?] years old!"
This was replied with exclamations of disbelief and "I should look so good at that age.." "Maybe I've got plenty of time ahead of me after all..."
But in all seriousness--Imagine what that guy has seen in his years. I bet he has some stories to tell.. it's humbling in a way to be complimented by someone like that.
Who knows where he was born? And all the things he had to do to get by during the 20s-40s?
-There was an awkward moment as well... there is a new manager in the café I guess (not the owner--the person who keeps everything going on the floor and behind the counters). He's much younger. Last week we had just played some melancholy Russian waltz (god knows which) just as he was walking by and he said "the Godfather song!" I decided that he had mistaken it for the famous "Godfather Waltz" from the movie of that name. But no one paid him any mind.
This past Sunday, though, he came around--all smiles--and offering two giant plates of all kinds of bagel slices with different cream cheeses/spreads, olive and pickles, and a bowl of assorted sliced melons. "Can you guys play the Godfather song again!" he said. Since they hadn't paid attention to him the last week, they didn't really know what he was talking about, and the "spokesman" said "Ah, yes, hem, the Godfadder song, hem, zat is an OK song, how does it go, we can play it." They all kind of sat around and looked uneasy and only when the new Manager walked out of earshot did I explain why he was asking for that song. "Oh, all the waltzes sound the same." said the man and shrugged. He started playing the Godfather Waltz, I cleared out and made a run for the washroom, even though I actually always loved that song and used to shed a single tear over it in my youth.
-My violin lessons with Indri are going OK I guess, it's a very hard instrument to learn. (As everyone knows.) Tomorrow I have a solo lesson since Indri is out of town--I wonder what that will be like. We have gotten into quite a routine in the last while--Lunch, Violin Lesson, Arguments, Supper, me going to work 5-9. Hehe ;)
My father asked if I wanted to send any posters with him to be drymounted since he's bringing some in next week. (I have to pay for it though.) I went around my house and took down 2 that I thought should be -- one small Lederhosen Lucil poster and one big Iva Bittova. I don't know why those two possessed me-- I don't even listen to either of those crooners anymore. Something about an awkward crooning woman tragic figure on poster maybe...