Happy Insurrection Day
I really am enjoying my Winter break!
I read somewhere that the incoming POSOTUS (the incoming Piece of Shit of the United States) wants to make January 6th a National Holiday. Part of me is all for it this Monday morning. I really enjoyed letting go of my work brain and had a lovely and productive time of it. Worked on some necessary infrastructure here such as a temporary hand rail for the front porch as we rebuild the bannister. I also finally got set up far enough to finally start woodblock engraving. Thus I am not really wanting to get back into the workshop and start my 2025 work year. I’ll pretend that we are suffering the blizzard. Actually its supposed to be sunny and mild.
The work year will start with a few diversions. Errands in the middle of the week. Friday an overnight to Portland to viisit friends. And then a trip next week to the Bay Area to collect instruments and data that belonged to my late friend Alan Keith including the French bagpipe that he is holding in the picture above.
That was the one I made him in trade for an old Econoline Van set up as a camper. The van almost killed my friend Gey Bertrand and I when one of the axles fell out as we were barreling northbound across the Aurora Bridge loaded up with all of Lo Jai’s equipment. We could have lost control and plunged over the guardrail only to crash through the roof of Dusty Strings below.
After its electronic harness fried, stranding my toddler daughter and I on a narrow shoulder on the highway to Port Townsend, I gave this vehicle to my friend Jon who extracted the engine and transmission and got them working to power his sawmill. The body was hoisted up a tree and used as a treehouse by his daughters. Eventually it came back to earth and was used as a tool shed. It remains rusting and rotting in the forests at the end of the Zelatched Peninsula, 30 miles away.
Alan played many different kinds of bagpipes and other instruments and even made some bagpipes, and a percussion instrument called a Rommelpot. He played Highland Pipes at our wedding in 1988. For years we’ve been in the same Galician Gaita band, as well as the various renditions of French bands with his fellow musicians above (Debbie Dawson, Vickey Yancy and Arrigo d’Albert. You might recognize that other guy).
There is a treasure trove of photos of Alan on his Facebook page which I hope is publically accessible: See https://www.facebook.com/alan.keith666/photos
In recent years Alan focused on playing Scottish Smallpipes and then Uilleann Pipes, playing a full set in Mountain Mahogany wood by the master luthier Michael Hubbert. Alan mentioned to me in the late summer that his French pipes were idle. I suggested that we trade back his French pipes for the old Econoline Van in its current state and he totally agreed to this premise. He promised me some other instruments and thus I am off soon to collect these. Oh I miss him!
Alan also played accordion in various styles, including the Parisian Cafe Musette Style. For this he played a 3-reeded Hohner Corso Accordion which we are picking up from Michael Arralde’s this week with the top reed tuned 10 cents above and the bottom reed 10 cents below, creating that wet Musette sound. Alan also played the Cabrette - a simpler French bagpipe that features one drone next to the chanter. Usually the drone is silent. I will be collecting this as well.
In the late 19th century the Auvergnese who left the countryside settled on the Musette Accordion and the Cabrette bagpipe as the preferred sound for the Parisian Cafes. In one such cafe, they were once joined by a 16 year old banjo guitar player. One night the cabrette player took the night off. They actually preferred it this way. The banjo player once showed up with his guitar instead. By then the bagpiper was long gone. So they invited a fiddle player and a bass player and the banjo player’s baby brother joined in on guitar along with another guitar player. Eventually the accordion player took a break because it was too crowded and everyone liked the resulting sound.
The 16 year old kid was Django Reinhardt.
Nancy will be playing Alan’s old Hohner. I’ll be pumping away at bellows blown Cabrette. Added tothis will be the jingle bells around my ankles that Alan wore while playing as well. Our instruments will be equally loud and rauckus. I am looking forward to that sound.
We don’t usually go for all the trappings and trimmings of Christmas. No lights on the house or large inflatable displays like the ugly one from Frozen on Highway 104 about a mile west of us. Our tree consisted of three ranches fallen off our Poplar tree duct taped together at the bottom and supported by a bucket of rocks. One Nancy and Lila dressed the tree it was a lovely reminder that the days are getting longer. We may keep it up for awhile. We did exchange gifts based on our usually minimalist wish lists.
I received lovely gifts from my family. My egg cooking is now transformed by the new Sensarte non-stick and teflon-free pan. I am also using this to make a Praline-Ancienne similar to the carmelized praline cores of a now-extinct Cluizel chocolate bar. I ejoyed this and other culinary explorations over the holiday. An amazing gift that Lila dug up was an original 1953 black and white embossed publicity photo for the Dr. Seuss movie The 5000 Fingers of Doctor T. The photo is from the Dungeon Ballet scene which is the Hollywood Version of Bosch’s Hell Panel from the Garden of Earthly Delights. Here is that scene. One can rent or buy the movie on YouTube. Its one of my favorites.
In general we need more days off and more National Holidays. Maybe one to commemorate the day Humans landed on the moon or one to celebrate the Pussy Hat March the last time the POSOTUS was at the White House. I should edit this and have more to say but will say it later and probibly neber get adround. two redditing.
Enjoy!