Stretching

So much has happened since my last post! It has been a scary, emotional and exhilarating time. Met up with some dear, hilarious Williams friends in Rome over Easter and got a crash course in the history and correct usage of the bidet. Realized how much I love my X-large black fleece mittens which temporarily transform my hands into flippers. Did my first solo piano-vocal concert. Premiered a new show with the cutting-edge a cappella group "Les Grandes Gueules," roughly translated as The Big Mouths or Gullets. Worked on new tunes and arrangements for the forthcoming CD. Was invited to join two new vocal groups: Attache Parisienne in Paris and Dejavo in Torino, Italy! Performed in a prison. Traveled to Belgium to lead a vocal jazz workshop as part of a self-improvement weekend led by a wonderful Gestalt therapist. The two days also included long hikes in the Belgian Ardennes. It was a stretch to work in such a different context, but it turned out to be a beautiful, intense, instructive experience with a lovely group of people. I wish them all well and thank them for their enthusiasm in discovering vocal jazz!

Here's a photo from the first hike. Temporarily shed the Parisian persona and caused some chuckles with my brand spankin' new blue hiking boots!

Happy Easter!

This is many people's favorite holiday, and I have to agree. Free of the pressure of Christmas shopping, massive food quantities of Thanksgiving and nerve-racking firecrackers of the 4th of July, Easter provides a gentle yet festive segue into Spring. Gotta love that! Of course the bunny/egg vibe and chocolate don't hurt either. :)

So in this spirit of changing seasons, here's another snippet from my forthcoming album - albeit shot in a black-and-white November setting (and skillfully edited by Gildas Bocle'). As usual, all comments are welcome!

Wishing you well.

Linguistically challenged

It's one of those days - random words from different languages clouding my ability to make coherent sentences (this one just took 10 minutes)! Aufmerksamkeit, gentil, ragazzo, alors, lass' es dir gut gehen, cerniere - no rhyme or reason to them whatsoever. Just need to go with it!

Ready for a deliciously monolingual vacation -

For the guy in plaid

Things are usually pretty tame in Paris as far as fashion statements go - fancy, often black and chic, but not much in the way of fuchsia hair or creatively placed tattoos. Every once in awhile, though, someone stirs things up with a refreshing fashion SCREAM. Take the woman I saw meticulously burning a pattern of cigarette holes into a flowery scarf the other day, or the bald guy with the dreadlocked dog. The past few weeks I've been particularly intrigued by a guy who hangs out in the metro (Paris subway). From the waist up, he looks pretty mild-mannered and could be a waiter, banker or mailman. The neck down tells another story: every time I've seen him he's been wearing the same short brown plaid skirt and pink knee-high socks with pink slippers. His mood is usually somewhere between seriously pissed off and generally disappointed, though his constant muttering falls on deaf ears among the blase' Parisian travelers. Would love to know the WHY and HOW of this guy, but until the right opportunity comes along to introduce myself, why not dedicate this artsy video - in Japanese - to that somewhat forlorn guy in the metro?

Comments? Questions?

January fog

Something about January in Paris is really heavy. The holidays are over, it's gray, and people generally seem more miffed than usual. Is this in spite, or because of the new non-smoking law in all restaurants and cafes, which miraculously took effect on January 1st?

Whatever the reason, I shall now attempt to perk up the sluggish ambiance with a musical snippet, which I hope will be a hit on the new CD - hope you like it! (Video shot and edited by Gildas Bocle')

Gaudi' and pickle relish

Sometimes you just have to say "What the ----?" and roll with it - like the other day. Was in Barcelona, Spain, in a taxi just after discovering the most beautiful, inspiring building I've ever seen (and it's not even finished!), Antoni Gaudi's Sagrada Familia temple, and suddenly a long-forgotten condiment came to mind: pickle relish. I have absolutely no idea why. I was never particularly fond of pickle relish and barely realized its absence after so many years of living in Europe. But it's true, in all my travels I have yet to see pickle relish in another country. And now here it was, in my brain, popping up every half hour or so for the rest of the day, interfering with (or perhaps embellishing) my visit of this unforgettable city. It then came up so often that it lost all meaning and the syllables became like a foreign language. Picklerelishpicklerelishpicklerelishpickle... Has this happened to you?

On that note - another video, with subtitles due to bustling Paris street noise!

By popular demand...

Here are a couple of photos of me in action - one fun, one slightly psychedelic. They were taken by Alexandre Tome, by the way, and the black and whites in my other posts are by Hermine Cleret. Good stuff.

Off to Barcelona for a 2-day mini-break before the January onslaught!