2022 年 10 月 18 日
🎻 We violinmakers are a strange lot. We don't compromise on quality - which puts us at odds with the must-have-now mentality fed by the digital age. We have to have endless patience, not only with our craft, but with the oh sooo sensitive (😂) artists who use our end products. And we don't change our habits quickly.
Here's a case. When I clean up violin bows I use a silver polish known as Kersten's Original. It is good, and does the job. It always has done. But the other day my tube of Kersten's Original ran out. Shock horror! 😲. I looked it up on Amazon, thinking that I could get a new supply within days. No sign of it anywhere. It was then that I noticed the price label, still stubbornly stuck in place on the tube. 6 DM. Six Deutchmarks. Now Deutchmarks left the scene on 1 Jan 2002, when the Euro took over. That means, yes, my tube of Kersten's Original had lasted two decades........not bad, Kersten!
私のシルバーポリッシュは使い果たされています...価格はまだ6ドイツマルクと表示されています
In case you have forgotten, Deutchmarks looked like this.....古いお金...
It's getter darker earlier now. Autumn days. So I had fun this week uploading these photos.... the evening before the Main Matsuri Festival back in August. Tables and benches had been set up in front of the main stage. Nearly all the dancers and musicians had gathered for a dress rehearsal . OMG it was so sultry and warm! 😓. Beer was almost out of the question. Radler ("shandy") was the most popular drink......Rieko Akaishi-san (sword dancer) and Rio-san..."praktikantin".....暗くなるのが早くなりました。 秋の日。 ということで、今週は楽しく写真をアップしてきました....
Takuya-san (Taiko Drummer) and Akari (Mochi) san - Enka singer.......
Three vital bottles........
Is this Satoshi-san from the Dance group Razaris? he moves so fast on the stage I get him mixed up with his colleages. Anyway, no doubt about the smiley singer - this is Ai Sion-san.....
And here we have dancer Yurie Nishi-san in a charateristic happy pose, alongside Sammy -san, frowning percussionist extraordinaire......
As evening draws in, it's time to clear the decks, return to hotels and get ready for the opening day tomorrow.......夕方、ホテルに戻り、明日の初日に備えます...
But now to wrench you back to the present.
It's ok, October does have it's charms, and there is always something quirky to discover.....like the Ubahn entrance at Bockenheimer Warte, in Frankfurt. I just wish that city landscapers would have more courage and use more fun and fantasy - like they did here. 今は10月です....
Nearby is a multilingual ticket machine......I like the way the Latin Alphabet is mixed with Japanese Katakana (チケット), Arabic, Korean and Chinese🙂.
Outside the city I am always stopping my bicycle to take photos in the gardens and woods.....a late rose in Langen....dripping with the morning dew......in Japanese, a pink rose is a sign of confidence.....ランゲンのピンクのバラ
Pumpkins for sale in Egelsbach....かぼちゃ.
...and in certain parts of the forest toadstools どく毒キノコand mushrooms きのこare popping up......It's actually odd to find this field in the middle of the woods...but it used to be an American military ammunition depot.....don't worry, all the ammo is gone now....しかし、それはアメリカ軍の弾薬庫でした....心配しないでください.弾薬はすべてなくなっています....
Only a couple of the bunkers remain. This one has been preserved as a home for bats.....コウモリの家
Other toadstools seem to like rotting tree stumps.......
Nature is wonderful, creating its own designs......
Do you write a diary? I don't keep so much as a diary, but a repository of writings, thoughts and things. I find the physical act of putting pen to paper has some clarifying quality which the finger-tapping on a phone lacks.....日記を書きますか？
Physical imprints......yes, the farmer leaves big ones.....
But he does have big tools.......
October: lovely warm orange.....素敵な "暖かい" オレンジ
Dangerous red....危険な赤
Photo: Svitlana Borzenko
...and eye-catching red......
These days I receive little titbits from my son of life at the Karlsruhe Musikhochschule....including a view from the music library, housed under the roof of the 18thc. Jagdschloss.....カールスルーエ音楽学校....
photo: Joshua Ruddock
and some whacky experimental music project......
Heaven knows what was being performed here.
So I will end my post here...........🖋.
✋ But no, this video has just arrived. このビデオはちょうど到着しました。Liudmila Firagina, the best `cello teacher I ever had, has been playing with a project called Cellifamily. The solo 'cello is played/sung by Simone Drescher......But what is the music I wonder? Vivaldi? a movement from Villa-Lobos's Bachianas Brasileiras? I had to wait for the answer, but it had been staring me in the face all the time when I got it. This is none other than Bach's "Erbarme dich mein, o Herre Gott" BWV 721.「主なる神よ、わたしを憐れんでください」BWV721....Hmm, not sure about that translation.....🤔
Simone Drescher has taken the slow-moving upper voice of the chorale and transformed it into........well, what exactly? I was reminded of the Irish tradition of lament, or "keening" . For surely what we have here is a lament for Ukraine. The flowers say it all. ウクライナへの嘆き。 花がすべてを物語っています。
I send out this blog pretty randomly to whoever I think might be interested. Some of you have subscribed (if you are on your mobile then open the menu at the start), which means you get a deluxe notification via email. Thank you! Some of you though have not been receiving the notification emails. Could be they have ended up in your spam folder. If you don't want to be sent this blog, don't hesitate to tell me and I shall take you off the list (well, there is no list as such!). No problem.
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THE END
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終わり
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