Bless him!
So, I had 50 Euros worth of recklessness to deal with. .
Now there are a lot of things you can do in Amsterdam with 50 Euros. You can blow it here, and get wasted. .
Or you can waste it here, and get blowed. .
Would you think me extremely boring if I told you I spent it on a glorious Italian meal in a snug little back street restaurant?
I had Frogs Legs to start, fried squid in tomato sauce, with bolognaise, hot buttered toast, stuffed olives and a bottle of Chianti. Bloody superb!
If you eat on your own, it's best to do it early afternoon I find.
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There's a great programme about late sixties songwriting on Radio 2. It's being broadcast after The Organist Entertains too, which was on after the Mark Radcliff show. What a fantastic hodge-podge!
Radio Two is seriously good at night. There was a Roy Orbison documentary on last night, and I can't get enough of Mark Lammar's Shake Rattle & Roll (current series now finished).
Perhaps Suzie Quatro's Rock & Roll show will be back in the new year? It's a lot more mainstream than Shake, and they complement each other well (I bet Lammar whould hate to think that!).
They're playing Bowie now.What a shame he was a such a pretentious clothes horse, because despite all the pap, he really was an amazing songwriter/performer.
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Been very busy. Didn't get back till ten tonight, got another lesson. The three exams my 'students' took went well. Two Merits and a Distinction. So that's five people I've put through their exams with the Trinity Guildhall this year, all passes with three Distinctions and two Merits. I've been to see the headmaster at a local school and they've asked me to start doing classes there in the new year (subject to a police check). All amazing to me, because a couple of years ago it was a dream to make a living from teaching and playing music. It turns out one of the lads I teach on a Monday night has a Dad on the board of governors at the local school. He put my name forward, I've been to see the headmaster and everything. And me, who bloody hated school!
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As for the playing, I'm playing more than ever. Averaging seven to eight hours a week I guess. I enjoy the posh residential home and the trendy Indian Restaurant, and the private parties. The Steinway at the Country Club now fits me like a comfortable old shoe.
I'm less bothered about the 'one off' bookings. I played today at a 'friendship club' which is all over-sixties, raffles and people that don't walk very fast. When I play at these places I think to myself 'has it come to this'. . but I should remember that it's this or real work.
Anyway, I'm going to form a boogie band once I get that left hand pumping and working. I've been practicing. . Mike Sanchez has inspired me.
Yea! I've got a ticket to rock! and it's blues coloured, in a boogie bag! with rock & roll typescript on rockabilly paper. . (erm . .)
Funny really, looking at the oldies there today, I know quite a few people over sixty that are just plain straight up groovy, they would have bloody hated the tea and cake politeness of it all that fannying around.
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And here's me and afro with a couple of stoners in a coffee shop in Amsterdam. It wasn't all Italian food y'know!
2 comments:
When I do my art rock funky keyboard experimental album, I'll call it "that fucking cheese picture".
I think it'd work!
and thanks for your comments. Cool you're still visiting.
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