I got a fever, and the only prescription is more rauschpfeife!
Hey, look, I'm at work! I haven't been since mid-Friday afternoon, because I got sick. :P Despite which, I hauled myself out to the New Hope Ren Faire on Saturday to play with the band. Given that John had a damaged ankle, Butch was badly overheated, Melissa had just flown in from Europe the night before, and I had what later turned out to be a 102-degree fever (good thing I didn't know that at the time, huh?), I think overall we did relatively well. There was one set where John said, "Hey, did you notice you skipped a whole verse of 'Ai Vis'?" ... nope. Didn't register.
I *did* notice the part where I accidentally started playing over Melissa's vocals during "Ev Chist'r," and also the part where I never managed to kick myself over into harmony mode for "Quen a omagen." Also the two times I had to decline John's invitation to introduce songs, and the time where I had to sit down mid-set, but hey -- that's what Panther makes those awesome little folding canvas stools for, right? Seriously, though, I'm actually kind of proud of myself for playing three full sets on rauschpfeife while I was that badly off (I spent the next three days straight in bed/on the couch) without completely trainwrecking anything in any way obvious to the audience. (I hope... I did hear one comment that the 'pfeife mysteriously seemed to lose volume briefly in one song, but that was from a friend who's familiar with our stuff)
On the other hand (so to speak), my tambourine seems to have decided that a sacrifice was required in return for my surviving the gig; while we were carrying my stuff back to the car, the damn thing bit redshinma's finger so hard he bled all over it. Oops. Sorry, dude. :)
One final post-New Hope note: Yes, Saturday marked the debut of our new t-shirts! If you want one of your very own, you can order here.
Another recent musical endeavor I'm rather proud of: "Uncle C" was kind enough to join me for a brief demo for the mini-monkey's preschool class last week. I brought foam crowns and pirate hats to get the kids in the mood (I wanted those foam knight visors, but the craft store I hit didn't carry them any more), and talked a little bit about musicians and their instruments in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, before we played a couple of pieces and taught them Tangle Bransle. The dancing wasn't necessarily the biggest success ever in terms of successfully completing either the tangle part or the bransling part, but boy did the kids like the crumhorn and the rauschpfeife! They also had about a ton and a half of questions about whether C's boots were Captain Hook-like or not, amusingly enough. :) You can see us absolutely definitely not having a good time
I *did* notice the part where I accidentally started playing over Melissa's vocals during "Ev Chist'r," and also the part where I never managed to kick myself over into harmony mode for "Quen a omagen." Also the two times I had to decline John's invitation to introduce songs, and the time where I had to sit down mid-set, but hey -- that's what Panther makes those awesome little folding canvas stools for, right? Seriously, though, I'm actually kind of proud of myself for playing three full sets on rauschpfeife while I was that badly off (I spent the next three days straight in bed/on the couch) without completely trainwrecking anything in any way obvious to the audience. (I hope... I did hear one comment that the 'pfeife mysteriously seemed to lose volume briefly in one song, but that was from a friend who's familiar with our stuff)
On the other hand (so to speak), my tambourine seems to have decided that a sacrifice was required in return for my surviving the gig; while we were carrying my stuff back to the car, the damn thing bit redshinma's finger so hard he bled all over it. Oops. Sorry, dude. :)
One final post-New Hope note: Yes, Saturday marked the debut of our new t-shirts! If you want one of your very own, you can order here.
Another recent musical endeavor I'm rather proud of: "Uncle C" was kind enough to join me for a brief demo for the mini-monkey's preschool class last week. I brought foam crowns and pirate hats to get the kids in the mood (I wanted those foam knight visors, but the craft store I hit didn't carry them any more), and talked a little bit about musicians and their instruments in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, before we played a couple of pieces and taught them Tangle Bransle. The dancing wasn't necessarily the biggest success ever in terms of successfully completing either the tangle part or the bransling part, but boy did the kids like the crumhorn and the rauschpfeife! They also had about a ton and a half of questions about whether C's boots were Captain Hook-like or not, amusingly enough. :) You can see us absolutely definitely not having a good time