MOKPO, South Korea – This short post has practically no connection at all with my dateline of Mokpo, South Korea. Or rather, maybe it does: Because I failed to find anywhere to play last night in this less-than-lively town on the south tip of Korea, I decided that my blog post would be connected to the worldwide open mic guide.
I have just returned to make updates in the Thumbnail Guide to Paris Open Mics, Jam Sessions and other Live Music, the only major change being the return of what used to be called the open mic at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance bar, but which is now called, “La Tireuse.” As most readers of this blog will know, I’ve written extensively about the former, and now the great news is that after being closed down from May to September, the open mic was reborn last month at the renamed bar, which is under a new ownership. It looks as if it will continue to operate in the same way, and is being run by the same genial MC, Ollie Joe. I could not keep it off the guide any longer.
The Coming Weeks of the Worldwide Open Mic Thumbnail Guide and Adventure:
I also decided I would use this short post just to mention that in the coming two months I will hardly be present in Paris at all, as I complete the final stages of my around-the-world open mic adventure in visiting another six countries and putting up at least another six editions of the Worldwide Open Mic Thumbnail Guide. I’m in Korea now, and in the next seven weeks there will be a rapid-fire succession of new entries covering cities in Japan, India, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Brazil.
I also intend now to add during the same period a new section to the Thumbnail Guide: Up to now the only open mics that I have listed on the guides have been those that I have played in myself. I will continue to keep those under their own listing, but I will henceforth begin adding a list of open mics that I have heard of from other people and intended to play but couldn’t, or just thought seemed like good open mics. But they will be listed under a different category so that my own list remains the only one I can really vouch for, and the other list will be recommendations from others – for which, if you want to send me information from the places you know, please do.