Gifts, Part II

Who is the gift for, the giver or the recipient? I admit that I enjoy giving at least as much as receiving gifts, and perhaps that's partly due to ego satisfaction.

In the previous chapter of this story, Jonathan gave me a very cool Apple Crisp gift. My turn.

I bought him an accordion at an auction at folk music camp. I wasn't intending to get it, but couldn't say no when I saw it go up for bids. I managed to keep it a secret for a few weeks & gave it to him at his birthday party.

Chanukah's coming, Jonathan.

Recording

We recorded a couple of jigs last weekend.

Shooting Star/ Old Favorite

For a different feel this time, we weren't trying to rock out, but do something sweet sounding. The first of the two jigs is by Jonathan, the second is by this "trad" guy who lives in Ireland. I hadn't realized it before, but this does come off sounding appropriate to the winter holiday season. Perhaps we'll use it on the Apple Crisp Christmas Album ("Apple Crisp: Home for the Holidays" ?). You listen to it while sipping eggnog & trimming your tree.

Recording is still new for us & hard work. It usually takes a full day to get one recording done, and it's far from perfect. We don't do overdubs, so all one hears in our recordings is from one continuous take. That practice may not persist, I'm learning about editing now, so we can go in to fix mistakes.

I also added an older recording to the recordings page, "Katy's Rambles/ Lady of the Lake". It should have been there with the others, I don't know why it got missed before.

When is summer coming back?

I had a gig last night, in a ballroom 33 floors above FaHaMa. I looked down & could see our performance spot. I miss it already, & can't wait to get back out there in the spring. I feel like this past summer was just a warmup for what we could do there, given a full season. We still haven't entertained any guerilla squaredancers, or had any of our friends sit in with us.

Website News

I've been doing a little web programming, so here's what's been happening with applecrispcontra.com.

Content in pages now matches the width of the window when it's resized. Wohoo. that took way more time than it was worth.
There's a photo gallery with many more pictures from Pinewoods.

Nice to see our website getting good use - at our last gig, the caller had already visited our website and showed up with a printout of our tunelist, so he had a good idea of what kind of dances we could easily accompany. Now that's doing your homework.

Also, we got a great fiddler to play with us for the Thursday night dance in March.

Contra Jam

Since Apple Crisp's schedule was getting quieter, we decided that we would invite some friends over to play some music, hopefully learning some new tunes and making some new friends in the process. We made Apple Crisp, as to live up to our name, and thanks to our musician friends who are also very good cooks, we had a nice pot luck dinner of lentil soup, pizza, couscous, and many other good things. Time flew, as it always does when you're playing music or dancing. It sounded great, and hopefully, some of the people that came to the jam will come to our gigs.

I was very excited by some of the new tunes we learned. The tune Skippin Cat definately sounded skippin to me, and some of our other sets from our tune list sounded more lively than usual. I also enjoyed playing a bit of button box, and I felt as though the band was more whole, since we had a range of instruments. The musical chemistry that went on was very fun, and by the end we were all reluctant to stop playing. My dad recorded it, although I haven't listened to it yet. Thanks to all that came and on that note, all that cooked!

Life Imitates Joke, Part II

How do you get to the Thursday night dance?

Practice, Practice, Practice.

Our biggest booking, by far - we're playing at the big big dance. Thursday, Mar 2, 2006. Save the date now.

Silly me, I kept waiting for the email to tell us when we're playing. Apparently it was sent & never arrived, meanwhile the schedule was already published & I hadn't thought to look on it. I promised the booking person that I'd have a hot fiddler in the group when we played, so we're tracking one down now.

After 23 years at the Cambridge VFW, the Thursday night dance is moving to Springstep in Medford Square.

MIT Contradance with Apple Crisp, 11/8, 8 pm, Lobby 13

I know I'm behind in my calendar reading when I don't remember Apple Crisp is playing an MIT contradance until I see the flyer at another contradance. Prove to me that you're more on the ball than I am by being at the dance.

Contradance with MIT's Folk Dance Club
Lobby 13
8 pm - 10:30 pm
*Free* for MIT and Wellesley students, $3 for other students, $5 for nonstudents

Curious about contradancing, but never tried? MIT is a great place to learn!

Curious about Avi's 'found' instruments? Come see some of them!

Besides, what else are you going to do? Sit at home and answer all those calls from politicians asking you to vote for them even though the polls are closed?

Jamming at Jackie's

We went to a Birthday/Jamming party at our friend Jackie's. Carolyn snapped this pic of us with our accordions. Nice going Carolyn.

(click on picture to zoom in)

The Instrument Choose Us, Part II

Our instruments choose us by showing up via a variety of channels. Here are more of their stories.

Part I

(Episode II, in which we learn what happens when you don't obey a musical instrument)

Piano Accordion (#1)

There was a fundraising auction at Pinewoods, and a youth-sized piano accordion came up on the block. Jonathan's birthday was just a few weeks away. How could I not? There wasn't much competition for it, so I got a great price and it's in excellent shape. It's a 120 bass, 41 key "Noble" brand. The auction was after Jonathan had gone to bed, so he didn't know I had bought it. All the adults at camp saw me win it for Jonathan, but we managed to get to the end of camp week without anyone spilling the beans (I had another camper bring it back to Boston for me, to keep it out of his sight). I had reservations about him having it, so soon after he started playing button-box accordion. I didn't want his button-box development to stall, given the availability of a piano accordion which is so much easier to navigate. So I tried to give it to him in a limited capacity

(someday, a chapter of Jonathan's memoirs will open with, "Gifts from my dad were often a complex proposition...")

I thought maybe I'd hold onto it, keep it in my studio, where Jonathan could play it now & then. Then the following year at his next birthday, he'd be solid on button box & we'd swap accordions - I'd start learning button-box & he'd take the piano accordion. Well, that was my plan, anyway. Clearly I was not listening to an instrument that was choosing us, and they just won't be denied...

Piano Accordion (#2)
Jonathan and I went to a contra dance a week after his birthday. I dropped him off with his mom at the end of the night, who told us she had just replied to an email from someone in her school who was giving away an accordion. I watched Jonathan jumping up and down with joy & thought, "maybe him having a piano accordion wouldn't be such a bad thing...". He got it soon after, it's also in very good shape, and now we each have one. This is also a 120 bass, 41 key piano accordion, but with a slightly bigger keyboard. Brand is "Video", made in Italy.

Not all donations work out. I accepted a mostly-built harpsichord from a friend who was moving. It's been in my basement for about four years. I'm happiest knowing that an instrument is being well used, so if someone out there was going to give that harpsichord the love it deserves, I'd be glad for them to have it.

I was helping another friend move, recently. We had his place pretty much cleared out, except for a drum kit. I asked about it & he offered it to me on the spot. I took it home, where it sat for a month or two, without being set up. Another mutual friend ours was in need of a drum kit, so I passed it on.

Seth asks me the other day if I'd like his ballaphon (african marimba). Seth really liked the idea of buying it, and having it, but I don't think he felt as strongly about playing it. Some instruments come to me because their owners don't want to keep holding onto them, but don't want to entirely let them go either. He can come visit the ballaphon whenever he likes. "Seth", I say, "I'm trying to write an article about how instruments keep finding us. But I can't seem to finish it because the instruments keep coming".

There's a chance that an upright bass will be making its way to us at some time.

Keeping my ears peeled for the next instrument to make itself known.