Rattlebrained

Saturday afternoon, Dave and I once again headed south west towards France and the Devil’s Bridge Inn. It seemed that it would be just him and me since the other “official” members of the band couldn’t make it, so I had been psyching myself up for a guitar-washboard duo. However a phone call on the way there informed us that Denis would be playing after all and that possibly an old saxophone playing friend of his and Dave’s would be coming too.

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Well here it is, the first Messin’ Round video! I was a bit burnt out last night and IMHO my washboard playing lacked many things, but you have to start somewhere…In any case it was a lot of fun!

Tonight Dave and I play again at the Auberge du Pont du Diable, just the two of us since unfortunately neither Bill or Denis are available. Should be brilliant. Come and join us if you’re anywhere near; good French cuisine too!

Saturday’s fun brings today’s burnout so I will keep it short – for my own sake.

I helped friend Bill install and animate an afternoon activity at our local “Fête de quartier” (neighborhood fete). He organizes different musical workshops for the young, and sometimes not so young, which might interest anyone who had already identified the cool sculpture pictured here as a musical instrument.

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Dave, his son and myself went to play some Blues in the streets of Bern yesterday morning. It was the first time I’ve ever busked and because the news has recently been filled with articles about the growing amount of beggars in swiss cities, the fact that many pretended to be street musicians and what the authorities where doing about it, I was a bit worried. Especially since I felt that Dave wasn’t about to be bothered by any official regulations. Not that there is really any risk here, a fine perhaps, but I guess my tendency is play by the rules which means knowing them, which I didn’t…

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We played last night for the private party of an aerodrome club in nearby France. It was fun even if I still drag along a feeling of not playing well enough for the rest of the band. Uselessly stressful and probably somewhat the cause of my not playing as well as I can in a relaxed setting. Something to work on in any case.

Since I would like to do some street playing with Dave…

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Yesterday I went for a nice long walk to get over my fatigue from Friday night’s fun. Much of it was spent chasing bumble bees and butterflies with my camera, a somewhat Zen activity which I find to be relaxing. Zen because with digital technology, you can focus and follow the insect with the little screen which means that you have both your viewpoint and the camera’s. This gives a feeling of being very much in touch with it, which is one of those odd things…

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Last night we went to play at the delightful little Devil’s bridge inn again. Depending on the crowd, each time is a very different experience. Yesterday’s was a group of friends who had reserved the placed, and hired us, for their yearly get together. A noisy assembly that had hired a bus to be driving to and from, enabling all to get merry, wild and plastered; a smart move. The French authorities have been very severe with drunken driving since the new law was passed about a year or two ago. This has made things a bit tougher for restaurants, the drink markup being the usual way to cover the meals expense and at first folks were thinking twice at going out for a meal. On the bright side there have been a lot less accidents due to drunken driving and it is also the reason that more and more establishment now have small bands for the evenings entertainment. They up the price and offer a concert. The only problem now is getting properly paid for playing, a free meal is nice but….

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