24 December 2010
article by Rattlebrained
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Last week we (Swamp Train) realized that we didn’t seem to have any pictures with all the band members in it until Blaise put his hands on the above taken last summer at La Capsule, the first time Alain played with us.
We’ve all agreed that it’s not that exciting…
17 December 2010
article by Rattlebrained
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Before the snowplow....
30 September 2010
article by Rattlebrained
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Every once in a while these last years someone in the blues band I play in would ask “why don’t you get a snare?” And I would answer “because I’m happy with my washboard and bones, and have enough to learn already”. But sometime last winter Blaise, who already had and old drum set lying around, bought a newer one (used) and so as much out of curiosity as anything I pick up his old snare and added it to my set. I had mixed feeling about this, one being the worry that if I actually learned how to use it, I might be pushing the band towards and more electric blues style that I wasn’t sure I actually wanted to be playing. But temptation comes in all forms and there it was…
18 July 2010
article by Rattlebrained
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St. Gingolph
A few picture from yesterday's boat ride around the east - upper lac - side of the Lac Léman (lake Geneva). We were...
24 May 2010
article by Rattlebrained
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The contest started earlier than announced on the poster, irritating since G. was coming with his girlfriend and hadn’t arrived yet and wasn’t the only one. But Bonny B. had someone pull paper slips from his hand for the starting order so we were ready to roll and guess who was first in line…
There are advantages in playing first, the obvious one being you’re the leading reference the jury gets so if you do good, all the better. Especially when, as it was the case here, the jury had 5 criteria to judge by putting notes from 0 to 10. Stage presence, originality, sound, energy and nuance. I didn’t look at the scores so don’t really know but I can imagine we did well on sound and energy and possibly originality although that’s kind of a far fetched notion in today’s blues… I would have preferred: Fun!
Either way it’s all pretty subjective and depends on what music you like to hear. As this blog’s regulars have certainly already figured out my heart goes to acoustic, roots, country, folk, ragtime, good time & lonesome blues and if it has to be electric: I need energy, lots of it!…
8 March 2010
article by Rattlebrained
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Just as it looked like the Spring was getting closer wouldn’t you know that the temperature would drop again, flirt with the -6° to -12° C (21° – 10°F), encouraging all the show that fell on Saturday to stay put and freeze up the town some more instead of politely melting away like I wish it would.
Sunday woke with the sun, not of the let’s melt all that snow kind but unfortunately closer to: “the sun is shinning, don’t forget your sunglasses it’s really bright out, hey it’s freezing! Where did you put my gloves?” kind. Brrrr…
6 February 2010
article by Rattlebrained
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When it comes to cell phones I’m pretty cheep, nothing smart around here plus I prefer a netbook for traveling, especially considering the cost of a phone internet connection in this country. Nevertheless, since my three year old one is showing signs of use and my contract was up for prolongation I stopped by the company’s local outlet to check out their offers.
Sure enough, for the symbolic sum of 1 swiss franc an all new fancy 6303 was passed over the counter. Which is satisfactory I hope, we’ll see when I get the next bill since there are a couple of irremovable links to the web that are there to push if you don’t watch out, plus the fact that depending on the application, you don’t know if you’ll end up there or not… Isn’t society’s drive to consume fun! Forget to lock the keyboard and there goes your next vacation…