Accordina-ing to whom?

Cacao on a Slug Budget

Summer seems to have arrived finally. The weather is perfect here in Kingston - in the 70s for the next 10 days according to Weather Underground. Enjoy it!

I plan to enjoy it as well. Usually in July I am rushing several instruments to completion before we head off to Lark Camp at the end of the month. Due to Covid, Lark is cancelled for yet a third summer.

Good thing too. The Pandemic is far from over! Actually a number of epidemiologists that I follow suspect that the current BA-5 variant will produce the 2nd largest surge of the Pandemic, due to the fact that it is easier to catch than measles during a measles epidemic. Masking and Social Distancing at this point is the best and practically only defense against catching this. Unfortunately the politicians under pressure made the decision to remove mask mandates as well as testing. Even if one has been vaccinated and boosted, and even had it before, catching it is still possible, and way too easy.

Coronaviruses are like that. These mutate much faster than Influenza. The year before Covid-19 arrived there was a common cold version. I caught it in November 2018, then again in January 2019. This was the crud that was going around at Lark Camp where I caught it a third time and I “lost” August. I did some investigating and found out that this was a coronavirus. When I started hearing of the one in Wuhan that winter, I thought to myself “This will be bad if this gets out!”

Fiddle Tunes just took place in Port Townsend. Everyone attending was required to be vaccinated and boosted, and tested before arriving. I went up on Wednesday for the usual gathering in the Campgrounds. Most people weren’t wearing masks. I stayed mostly off to the side and kept my mask on. By Friday there were reports of two individuals who were staying at the Fairgrounds having tested positive. It will be interesting to see how many more cases develop.

My friend Brian reported a similar event, the last Kate Wolf festival. Vaccination and Testing required. The event was entirely outside for only 4 days. Masking was largely ignored. Sure enough, a significant percentage were reporting illness afterwards.

Even though its “mild” (that term is relative - compare it to death) for the vaccinated and boosted, this puts some - I have heard 13% - at risk for developing “Long Covid” symptoms.

Again, the two best epidemiologists that I follow are yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com and www.tiktok.com/@laughterinlight

The Dollar is Super Strong! Currently $1.01 = 1 Euro. (ts a good time to get an instrument from Europe. I took advantage of this rate to order the Accordina of my dreams: the Ludovic Beier Signature model by Marcel Dreux (see accordinas.com). The rate for the British Pound is $1.19 = 1 GBP.

These harmonica-like instruments use the same fingerings and similar reeds as C-System chromatic accordions. These go great with Django-inspired jazz. Here is what these sound like, played by the Maestro himself:

In the Workshop… well I have been distracted with other things, and have been out there minimally. I am revising my business model so that my stress is reduced. I still am making my $500 Folk Flutes but am now in summer mode - new orders won’t be finished until September or October. Instead of taking 25% deposits for my more expensive flutes, I have been putting names down onto a waiting list and only taking a deposit when I am ready to proceed with an order.

However, I have run into some Ghosting on my waiting list. I am about to require a $100 nonrefundable fee to be placed on my waiting list. Part of this is in response to inflation - thus I don’t have to raise my prices. Its mostly to ensure that these waiting list individuals have some skin in the game, and respond to me when I decide to make their instruments. If I decided not to make someone’s instrument, I refund the fee. But if they decide to take up something else such as the Cello and decide that they aren’t interested in the flute, they can cancel but they don’t get the $100 back. I am working out other details.

I currently have only 7 instruments in my queue - and all summer and into the fall to finish these. My clients are wonderful - urging me to take some time off this summer to let my hands heal up somewhat, innovate and try some new ideas on their instruments. This includes making the silver bands even more elegant with millgraining on the raised bead part, and possibly basing the keywork on the Laurent keys. I hope to finally get started on the glass flute making.

Casey’s Curated Chocolate Page. This is my new Substack project. Many of you know that I am something of a chocolate addict, snob and influencer. I’ve come up with a less snobby concept that looks at Chocolate in the “Escargot on a Slug Budget” sense. One can easily spend way too much money on single origin bars that cost an arm and a leg such as my favorite Claudio Corallo from Sao Tome. Its great stuff with a great history (that being an escaped cultivar from the 18th century) and the current exchange rate makes it a little cheaper.

Instead I am selecting (or “curating” - I guess that also sounds kind of snobbish but I’ll keep it) chocolates that one can find easily that taste great but are inexpensive, such as my current favorite Trader Joe’s $1.99 Dark Chocolate Truffle Bar.

Each post of the CCCP will have 5 or more sections:
What is great and the chocolate bar variety
The same in the Frozen, Liquid or Baked forms.
Something for the Bean to Bar Do-It-Yourselfers (DIY)
Chocolate and Pepper - I will explore this realm
Humor - reviews of really awful chocolates such as anything made in Russia.
Misc - occasionally I will write about other stuff in the Chocoverse.

I do hope to avoid coming off as a Snob - hence the term “Cacao” will be used only when necessary to advance a narrative or if it is part of some product’s name. Chocolate for the Masses!

My Laurentflutes substack blog that you are currently reading is a great vehicle for my occasional writings. I don’t know if I will ever get to writing solely about instrument making on my Winter Nurse blog. Sorry about that. A few other ideas have sort of been flash-in-the-pan conceived during my hypomanic peaks. I’ll write a bunch on these for a few days, and then burn out as I head for hypersomnia.

Formalizing my role as a Chocolate Influencer (something I have been doing since my friend Paul led me down this path of addiction) might work. I am actually in no rush on posting right away and am taking the time to sort out what I want to say, who it is for, etc. I definitely will monetize it but the first CCCP 3-4 posts will appear here for free, as well as other occasional posts that will give people a taste. This could be fun!

Enough said for now! Most likely the next post will be the first CCCP post. I will have something on Millgraining. Summer in Seattle just started but I do have something interesting about this winter’s heating season to report on. I’ll get to that later. I am on my way outside to make a spot for chips from the crew trimming around the power lines today, and for the arrival of some kiln dried firewood on Thursday next.