In newspaper newsroom jargon a “space holder” is an article that sits in a spot on the page in earlier editions to hold the space for a more important article that will take that same space in later editions. You might say this blog item is a space holder, as I sit tight and make yet another mention of The Highlander Pub where I went to play last night, before making the rounds of a few other bars and pubs that are just beginning to open after their summer breaks.
But it is tomorrow, Friday, 20 August, that marks the real surfacing of the opening of the bars and pubs after their summer breaks as they obviously decide to make use of the penultimate weekend of the month to try to drum up a bit of business in an otherwise dead month. I have a list of no fewer than eight bars and clubs I will be able to – and probably will – go to tomorrow night as they open up for business with inaugural re-opening evenings. Only one of these is a place where I can play music. But it just shows how desperately bad Paris has been until now and why I have multiple, absolutely multiple posts on the few places that have stayed open during this traditionally down month in the French capital.
Next week, I will return to my world travels and will add a little more variety to the blog as I hit such cities as Liege, Milan, Singapore, Nagoya and many others (at least that’s what I think will be happening….).
But for the moment, hold onto this space with a couple of brief videos from last night. The open mic at the Highlander was run by Rudy – since Thomas Brun went on holidays – and also with help from Etienne doing the sound. The two opened the evening playing a duette of bass guitar and acoustic guitar and with Etienne on the vocals. It was nice. There was another local duo group that sang in perfect American English but seemed to speak perfect French too, and the guitar player had a strat backing the acoustic. Nice.
I myself sang “Mad World,” announcing that I might sound really mad singing the song since I was in the habit of singing it with someone else, who was not there, and then I sang “Cat’s in the Cradle” and then my own song, “Since You Left Me.” It all went well, and I left in a sweat to seek out a little more nightlife on my vacation, which I did not really find, as Paris is half dead. May it come back to life, and live on strong again – like, tomorrow, for instance….