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Train times kinda depend on your flight to Paris CDG. After you land get a train into Paris (La Gare du Nord), then catch a train to Laon.
😉
Trains from Gare du Nord to Laon:
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Had sun today and it’s getting below freezing at night. Which is way better than grey and damp.On the ‘band’ front, Barbara is mending some damaged ligaments in her left wrist which will take a while. But Fred and I are meeting on Thursday afternoons.
I’m playing my SCGC on Nights in White Satin (Heyward), Windrush (orig.), Under a Stormy Sky (Lanois), Shenandoah (trad), and Ashokan Farewell (Unger). I’m thinking of matching Shenandoah with Edgar Meyer’s “Short Trip Home.” They have similar cadence and are both in D major.
This will be fun stuff to gig, and even more fun to record –if we can get there. 🙂
So… who’s coming for solstice? 🙂
Daniel
We got some snow yesterday and a few flurries today. None of it stuck.
The pleasure of snowfall lasts only as long as the snow falls. Unless it’s cold enough to collect and stay on the ground. then the snow brightens up everything. That has not happened yet. We might get lucky this year. Who knows?
Practiced yeterday with Fred, my bass player. We discussed our new project which will get off the ground as soon as Barbara’s wrist heals from a fall. Barbara plays violin. We’re getting her to stretch from classical to folk, country, and Jazz.
For Solstice, we’re having a celebration. We’ll be having a little bonfire to burn off the bad and welcome in the new year. We’ll be eating, drinking, and having a good time.
If you’re in the neighborhood on Dec 21, give me a shout. We’ll pick you up at the train station. 🙂
Daniel
Ermagerd!
That’s pretty. Specs say Rosewood. Looks like Indian. Is that right, or has RH pulled a rabbit out of hat?
🙂
Daniel
Thank you Luke, that’s kind of you to say.
Being in the choir has allowed me to work on things like breath control and not letting notes slide around.I noticed after posting, that the opening few notes there are wobbly because I had to push the record button, start playing, etc. Something else to work on. 😉
Well of course it.
So I nailed the solo in the video. Which made me confident for the concert.
Then I got to the church (tiny little thing, almost taller inside than it is long) and I started getting nervous.
[I never get nervous before gigs, for good or ill. That’s because one mistake doesn’t kill the gig. but with these choir concerts I get one shot. So I get a little edgy.]
I took my guitar outside to practice and get several reps in between the guys who like to talk to musicians who are practicing.
After the concert started the nerves would not go away. Kind of distracting really. But when it came time I went and got my guitar. I took a deep breath and kicked off the song.
Got to the solo… It started well, nailed the first double stop section, then landed on the high D in time and on target… yay.
Second run and the second double stop section went well and I thought I was in the clear. double yay.
But no. I thought. And that was the problem. On the return to the theme where I play a figure on the e string between index and pinky mostly, I landed on a c natural instead of a C sharp, and then spent the rest of the bar plus a second trying to find a way back to D major. Finished on a G instead of D. grr.
🙂 Probably sounded less bad in real time than it does in my head right now on the morning after.
But the choir director’s wife did tell me she prefers the octave mandolin to the guitar…
Oh man. The older the more I appreciate Sting’s solo material.
I do Fragile on emando. Might need to port that over to guitar too. 🙂
Daniel
mmm.
OK well first meeting/jam/rehearsal is in Cuissy et Geny, about 30 miles into the back country at Fred’s house on Thursday the 3rd of October. All three of us will be there and we have about 3 hours to decide what to do. 🙂[Here’s what I think about in the car on the way to Fred’s house quite a bit…
[Cuissy et Geny is just the other side (south of us) of the 3 year front line between French and German forces during WW1. The line fell on a road called Le Chemin des Dames, named in the 1600’s for King Louis’s two daughters who used the road to travel betwen Paris and Reims visit one of their mothers on a regular basis. The site was also a battlefield in the Napoleonic wars in 1814 between a resurgent Napoleon and a Prussian led coalition. Napoleon won the battle, but lost the next one a few weeks later here in Laon. (He just didn’t have enough men, and the Prussians didn’t fall for the ruse when Napoloen had one of his generals attack the Prussian position from the east -several kilometers away from the main conflict on the south side of the Laon plateau.)
[I pass through all of this on my way there. It’s maybe like living in Gettysburg…]
I haven’t backed off the guitar at all. I’ve been picking it up as often as possible, and oddly I got out my Gary Vessel mandolin today too. I was just as nice to revisit as the dread.
But I’ll tell you, said the preacher to the choir, the SCGC sounds just so amazing. I’ve been doing Jimmy Page material like “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”. And this guitar just says, “hit me harder!” It’s so satisfying to really push this beast. The strings are only two weeks old, and it’s getting time to change them. 🙂
Oh, and if anyone is interested in negotiating a price for my Rainsong OM-1000… It’ll be going on the block. 😉
Salut! from L’Aisne,
DanielLooked like everyone in Paris was having a great time, which is a very nice change. Usually things range from slightly disgruntled to protesting. 😉
But during the Olympics the city was really hard to navigate. Road closures for events were common. An acquaintance who works in Paris was told to work from home for the duration of the Olympics. It was just too difficult to get to the office.
We stayed home and watched the Olympics. Though we went to see the flame pass through town. 🙂
Daniel
Here in northern Europe we use radiators to heat in the winter and the summers are moderately humid. So RH levels are pretty stable.
My instruments needed set ups about 6 months after leaving California (miss you guys, but not the fires!), but they have been fine since (that was 2013, roughly). [Oh My God. That was more than 10 years ago!]
I’ve never used case humidifiers. But I always keep things in the case rather than sitting on a stand, That helps make any change in humidity slow and gentle rather than abrupt.
Daniel
Josephine had an affair while Napoleon was in Egypt. I wouldn’t recommend bringing her up. 😉
Welcome Mike!
Stay away from both Russia and Elba! 😀
Daniel
