Rattlebrained

Yesterday’s event went well but for the moment I don’t have any pictures to show and I’m sure it’s hard to imagine especially since my writing lacks the necessary skills for descriptions.

The weather was better than predicted since we expected rain and it was just a bit overcast, however a strong north wind was blowing and it was near zero degrees so most of our drumming probably ended up blown down the street. One of our worries was that the garbage trucks would make so much noise that all of ours would be covered, a needless worry…

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A few week back Bill hired me to help in a project that he had just been engaged for, which takes place today at lunch time. Along with two other guys, I will be banging a series of rhythms (rock, swing, waltz, samba…) on a big metal oil barrel while three other musicians blow into home made horns. Really home made! With bits of garden hoses, plastic tubings, big coffee cans and a bunch of little details to hard to describe here. Ill try and get a picture or two.

While we play, six actors will be dancing and moving 5 large, and way to heavy, white cubes with a big letters to form different words. This for a reason that I dare not say yet, since it is secret.

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Friday night’s concert was the last until Dave comes back in the fall. Once again we played in our local joint where I first heard Dave and were we (Messin’ Round) first played before we really became a band. A good way to measure where two and a half years of washboard playing has led me.

Friday nights concert was a mixed bag, the worst thing for me was not being able to hear Dave’s guitar very well, or anything else for that matter. The sound was just not circulating in the corner I was in and my washboard covered most of what was there to hear, so it was pretty strenuous

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In Africa, someone steps on a landmine every 20 minutes, often children; in the world 20’000 people a year are injured or killed by them…

I have been aware of a high tech way of finding and removing them being developed not far from where I live…

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Yesterday afternoon I warmed up my washboard a bit before heading to Lausanne with Dave to meet Bill at the swiss public radio building. Dave who was carrying two guitars almost got stuck in the rotating doors so it was with high spirits that we entered the place, received our passes and were invited to proceed.

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When I first started playing the washboard, I though it would be fun to use magnet to stick things that make noises to it. But with it being made of zinc or aluminum, not sure, I was forced to glue magnets on the washboard behind the metal. This was fun but it was never really that convenient.

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Have you noticed how often I use the word “great” in these posts? It’s despicable, really, so many other great words to use:

brilliant, excellent, first-rate, outstanding, superb, virtuoso, best ever, daisy, dilly, exquisite, fine, gnarly, groovy, smashing, spiffy, super, unreal, wicked, wonderful….

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