This could be a “how I spent my winter vacation” post. I am walking on air at the moment, as I have travelled the world to 20 countries since last March and interviewed on film people in all those 20 countries who play in, organize and watch open mics and open jam sessions, for that film I plan to do on the phenomenon. I am in the process as of today of capturing all the HDV tapes I made of the interviews – all 22 tapes – into my Premiere Pro software. Going over this stuff and seeing it again just makes my heart heat up, and I feel optimistic, knowing I have some absolutely fabulous material – masses of it. But as they say, “the proof will be in the pudding.” You can have all the finest ingredients, but it is the final melange of these ingredients that will make the cake – or not. But I’m optimistic for the moment. So I played in the Monday open mics last night in Paris, to celebrate.
Or rather, I played at the Galway Pub open mic, as I went to the Tennessee bar open mic and listened to a few songs and drank a beer, then went to the Galway and listened and drank, and then played, and then returned to the Tennessee. But they closed it down early, so I missed out by one slot…. Still, there was a wonderful re-discovery at the Tennessee with Greta, the German woman I showed on this blog some time back, who yesterday played, of all things, “The Star of the County Down,” and did a great job.
There were other cool bits and pieces too, as you will see from the videos.