News February 2006
I hope you’ve all had a great holiday season. And no, I haven’t forgotten about "Christmas", as some in our federal government seem to have--I know there are some of you who celebrate other things toward the end of December (Hanukkah, for example). One of my philosophies is the idea of respect of other peoples, other cultures and other traditions. I may not be aware of all the elements of those traditions, but that’s no reason to ignore those whose traditions differ from mine.
I’ve recovered from an extremely busy Christmas gig schedule, which included a last-minute Christmas Eve mass, my regular masses at St. Augustine’s and Christmas singalongs at two schools and a Rotary Club meeting, and climaxed in a very successful five-night gig with Stone Soul Picnic at the Casino du Lac Leamy. The band has since been called back to play Fridays and Saturdays throughout March.
Hot Ice is currently recruiting new musicians after the loss of both its vocalists and its bass player. We now have a new bassist, a German-Venezuelan by the name of Rico, and hopefully we will be back on our collective feet soon.
In the meantime, I have purchased some new equipment. After over 28 years, I finally bought myself a flute. I wanted to learn how to play as early as the fall
of 1977, but my parents said at the time that the flute is "an instrument for girls," and so I started studying the clarinet instead. Over the years I’ve looked back on their statement and wonder how we can then account for male flautists such as James Galway, Moe Koffman, Joe Farrell, Pedro Eustache and Tim Weisberg. I taught myself how to play the flute when I was in high school, and I’ve never really lost the chops. And when XS Cargo started offering clarinets, trumpets and flutes for $120 each toward the end of November, I felt this was too good an opportunity to ignore. It may not sound like much at that price, but what I bought is perfect for my playing level.
I’ve also bought myself a Shure SM-58 microphone, a model which has been a music industry standard for many years. Prior to that I’d been using a Beyer MCE-81, but that microphone had limited me in that it requires an external power source, which not every mixing console has built-in. The SM-58 has no such requirement, and besides, the MCE-81 is designed more for recording than for live performance.
I am looking for 2006 to be a year of growth--in the expansion of my clientele, my equipment arsenal and the size of the gigs I do. May 2006 be a year of prosperity for you all.
I’ve recovered from an extremely busy Christmas gig schedule, which included a last-minute Christmas Eve mass, my regular masses at St. Augustine’s and Christmas singalongs at two schools and a Rotary Club meeting, and climaxed in a very successful five-night gig with Stone Soul Picnic at the Casino du Lac Leamy. The band has since been called back to play Fridays and Saturdays throughout March.
Hot Ice is currently recruiting new musicians after the loss of both its vocalists and its bass player. We now have a new bassist, a German-Venezuelan by the name of Rico, and hopefully we will be back on our collective feet soon.
In the meantime, I have purchased some new equipment. After over 28 years, I finally bought myself a flute. I wanted to learn how to play as early as the fall
of 1977, but my parents said at the time that the flute is "an instrument for girls," and so I started studying the clarinet instead. Over the years I’ve looked back on their statement and wonder how we can then account for male flautists such as James Galway, Moe Koffman, Joe Farrell, Pedro Eustache and Tim Weisberg. I taught myself how to play the flute when I was in high school, and I’ve never really lost the chops. And when XS Cargo started offering clarinets, trumpets and flutes for $120 each toward the end of November, I felt this was too good an opportunity to ignore. It may not sound like much at that price, but what I bought is perfect for my playing level.
I’ve also bought myself a Shure SM-58 microphone, a model which has been a music industry standard for many years. Prior to that I’d been using a Beyer MCE-81, but that microphone had limited me in that it requires an external power source, which not every mixing console has built-in. The SM-58 has no such requirement, and besides, the MCE-81 is designed more for recording than for live performance.
I am looking for 2006 to be a year of growth--in the expansion of my clientele, my equipment arsenal and the size of the gigs I do. May 2006 be a year of prosperity for you all.
posted by Jamie at 9:59 p.m.
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