Rattlebrained

Up here in the mountains, Spring usually means two months of rain and mud. It is not yet clear if we are there or not but feeling a bit of warmth in the air these last few days has been nice. Still, it can be dangerous too!

Early in the week these blocks of ice fell from the roof…

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I’m usually the last person that is aware of whatever meme is going around; mostly, if ever, I learn about them in whatever last year’s magazine found in the dentist’s waiting room. But last week this one caught my attention as it spiraled by for at least the fourth time and inspired a song:

………..

I may not care for techno
I may not care for house
But the good ol’ Harlem Shake
Has me up all raised and roused

It’s a pulsating movement
Everyone join in!
Fight your persecutors
Let the mutiny begin!

Thrust your pelvis forward
Thrust your pelvis back

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I don’t know about you, but when I don’t like the sound of something in my drumset I tend to not use it. So it’s important to me to have drum stuff that have sounds that I like.

When you first start playing the drums you usually don’t have the experience to know the difference that different materials can make sound wise; a metal or wood snare for instance. And if you don’t have a drummer friend or a teacher to guide you can spend hours on drum forums trying to get an idea of where it would be best to invest your hard earned cash.
I was fortunate to be able to borrow the basics of an old drumset when I started: a brandless metal snare, a kickdrum, high-hat and a bunch of cymbals. And with hindsight I believe anything better would have been wasted, but after a year or so of practicing I became more acuity aware of two factors: one – my wanting technique made it difficult to fully exploit the equipment I had, and two – even so, as my playing improved I became less than happy with how parts of my equipment sounded.

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August has passed in a flash as it will when you’re having fun ;-)…

First I spent a couple of weeks helping friend Bill prepare some of his cool home made instruments for his first art show! This event will take place in Fribourg at the Atelier-Galerie J.-J. Hofstetter on September 9th at 8pm. He has programed a series of concerts with them (the instruments) and various other musicians so check out the schedule if you happen to be near by.

Bill, as it has already been mentioned here and there in this blog, also plays with the Fanfare du Loup Orchestra

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The other day going to Zurich. Taking one of the small trains down the mountain and then the express. The local train was already in the station so I climbed on and sat down.

Shortly thereafter a teenage kid started banging on the side of the train with his hands, hitting it repeatedly and hard just outside my window. I couldn’t see his face as he had a baseball cap on sideways – pointed left – and kept his head in a awkward looking down to the right position. He seemed highly strung and his body position mixed with light blue mid calf long shorts, tennis shoes and shirt gave off a feeling of uncontrolled energy. He eventually wandered over towards two other teenagers but was soon pacing the platform in an almost comically exaggerated hoodlum’s gait. You know…

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Almost summer weather today so I walked north west, up and out of town, just over the crest were one can look over to France’s Franch-Compté region. I like it better than the view of the Alps that you see if you go up the opposite way. Less dramatic, an invitation to walk with your mind across the hills.

On the way up I saw a small white butterfly, probably the first Ive seen up here since spring comes a month later than down in the Plain (which is what they call the central area of Switzerland that is not the Alps or the Jura). Nice to get some air after three days of facing the dust that had accumulated in my studio over the winter.

Tuesday I practiced with Dave, the two of us will be playing locally…

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Yesterday I took the excuse of meeting an art consultant who had recently contacted me to head down to Geneva and check out the jam at the BAG – Geneva’s Blues Association – something I had been wanting to do. As luck would have it however I hadn’t really check out who was participating and earlier this week had already learned that the few I knew wouldn’t be there. Never mind, in any case I was planning to eat with and old friend and hoped he would tag along for company.

Of course or perhaps out of habit I also visited a few galleries and as one little chat lead to another, ended up late in meeting my friend. We had a beer but he wasn’t interested in listening to a blues jam, and in fact dragged me to the ==Les Enfants Terrible, a curious furniture creation/repair and wine shop/bar that has a live act every Thursday, and could possibly be a place to play with CBB. Two acoustic guitarist where singing inaudible songs due to atrocious acoustics and a noisy crowd…

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