Worldwide Open Mic Thumbnail Guide | Brad Spurgeon's Blog

Major Updates to the thumbnail-guide-to-PARIS-open-mics-jam-sessions-and-other-live-music

May 4, 2014
bradspurgeon

Paris Skyline

PARIS – It was the list that started all of my lists of open mics around the world, and started in Paris four years ago. It has grown to a huge popularity, and led to my more than 20 other such guides of open mics and jam sessions around the world. Today I finally got around to updating my Thumbnail Guide to Paris Open Mics, Jam Sessions and other Live Music, since making sure the list is up-to-date is the key to these things, and the biggest pain in the butt! But that pain is always washed away when I get emails, meet people and hear from other sources of the utility of the list. Then the pain turns to a great feeling of usefulness and purpose!

A word about the updates: The Tireuse open mic has been taken off the list, as it has finally really ended – it used to be called the Ptit Bonheur la Chance – as has the Anthracite jam, which I can find no evidence still exists. I have, on the other hand, added several new open mics and jams: The blues jam at the Angora, and open mics at the Café Oz Blanche, at the Blues Bar and the cabaret open mic of the Soirée Buzz. And there is, happily, another old open mic returning after a brief disappearance: That of the Lizard Lounge, the first Sunday of the month. I have also begun to add a new feature, which I’ve been incorporating in my worldwide open mic guide lists elsewhere, which is to put links from the guide entry to a sample story that I have written about my own experience at the open mic in the past. (How many other city or country guides to open mics can boast doing that nice little multimedia trick??!!!???)

Just to remind open mic people around the world, and readers of this blog, I am also this year updating all of my other open mic guides around the world as I do my sixth musical adventure around the world. So keep posted for the updates, each time I visit a new country this year – more than 20 of those….

In the meantime, here, again, is the updated Thumbnail Guide to Paris Open Mics, Jam Sessions and other Live Music.

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Worldwide Open Mic Journey 2014: The Multimedia Consolidation – Shanghai

April 20, 2014
bradspurgeon

Shanghai, China

SHANGHAI – My worldwide open mic journey began in China in 2008 after the Formula One race in Shanghai, and little did I know that it was a journey that would continue for six more years and cover most of the globe, every continent except Africa (where I once lived and played music in an open mic decades earlier) and Antarctica, and that it would spawn a book, a blog, an album, a documentary film, numerous podcasts, music videos and other multimedia projects.

This year, 2014, I have decided to finish all of the projects and tie them together into a consolidation of multimedia. As part of my personal impetus to gather it all together for myself, but also put it into perspective on this blog, I have decided to create a page for each city I have visited on the journey, tying together samples of the whole multimedia adventure linked to that city.

So here is the page devoted to tying together the pieces of the open mic adventure that I have lived in Shanghai since I first started. At each subsequent Formula One race that I visit this year, I will add a new such page. Keep posted….

Worldwide Open Mic Journey 2014: The Multimedia Consolidation – Bahrain

April 8, 2014
bradspurgeon

MANAMA, Bahrain – My worldwide open mic journey began in China in 2008 after the Formula One race in Shanghai, and little did I know that it was a journey that would continue for six more years and cover most of the globe, every continent except Africa (where I once lived and played music in an open mic decades earlier) and Antarctica, and that it would spawn a book, a blog, an album, a documentary film, numerous podcasts, music videos and other multimedia projects.

So here is the page devoted to tying together the pieces of the open mic adventure that I have lived in Bahrain since I first started. At each subsequent Formula One race that I visit this year, I will add a new such page. Keep posted….

Worldwide Open Mic Journey 2014: The Multimedia Consolidation – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

March 31, 2014
bradspurgeon

Kuala Lumpur Skyline

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – My worldwide open mic journey began in China in 2008 after the Formula One race in Shanghai, and little did I know that it was a journey that would continue for six more years and cover most of the globe, every continent except Africa (where I once lived and played music in an open mic decades earlier) and Antarctica, and that it would spawn a book, a blog, an album, a documentary film, numerous podcasts, music videos and other multimedia projects.

So here is the page devoted to tying together the pieces of the open mic adventure that I have lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malasyia since I first started here in 2009. At each subsequent Formula One race that I visit this year, I will add a new such page. Keep posted….

Worldwide Open Mic Journey 2014: The Multimedia Consolidation

March 16, 2014
bradspurgeon

Melbourne Skyline

MELBOURNE, Australia – My worldwide open mic journey began in China in 2008 after the Formula One race in Shanghai, and little did I know that it was a journey that would continue for six more years and cover most of the globe, every continent except Africa (where I once lived and played music in an open mic decades earlier) and Antarctica, and that it would spawn a book, a blog, an album, a documentary film, numerous podcasts, music videos and other multimedia projects.

So here is the page devoted to tying together the pieces of the open mic adventure that I have lived in Melbourne, Australia since I first started here in 2009. At each subsequent Formula One race I visit this year, I will add a new such page. Keep posted….

This is a Blog, Right? So What the Hell! (800th Post)

February 24, 2014
bradspurgeon

Thumbnail Open Mic Guide

PARIS – This has been probably the lowest month ever in terms of me updating my blog. I should be ashamed of myself, or feeling guilty, or thinking that I’m lax, undisciplined, a scoundrel in the world of blogs who is incapable of updating on a regular basis. In fact, I’m celebrating! For a month of February the blog has never had more page views. The reason? Because my Thumbnail Guide of Open Mics Around the World continues to feed the blog and give it action and interest with evergreen material. But most of all: Because I am able to announce that I will continue once again this year my 20-country (at least) around-the-world open mic and open jam session adventure. It will all start in exactly two weeks from today with a return to Melbourne, and then will follow – as usual – the Formula One world championship car racing events as I continue to make my annual trip around the world to cover that series AND continue my exploration of the world’s open mics and open jam sessions. And I will update the open mic guides that I inaugurated last year, and actually, a few years before that with the Thumbnail Guide to Paris Open Mics and Jam Sessions. Is this a crap post or what?!?! Answer: It’s a blog and I can do what I want, and have fun with writing! Thanks for your ongoing interest!

PS: One or two of you might have noticed that I’m in the process of updating the look of the blog as well – although it is far from my desired end-result….

PPS: Oh, yes, I forgot to mention: This is the 800th post on this blog since I began it almost exactly 4 years ago. (We’re a week or two shy of that anniversary.)

Update Info on Worldwide Open Mic Thumbnail Guide (Singapore and Paris)

December 15, 2013
bradspurgeon

PARIS – I now have 21 city installments of my worldwide open mic guide. As a reminder, it all started with my now very popular Thumbnail Guide to Paris Open Mics, Jam Sessions and other Live Music, and due to that guide’s success, I decided this year to do a similar guide for each of the cities I travel to during my worldwide open mic tour.

An Update of Singapore and Paris and Call for Help

This year, once I got going on this multi-city, worldwide guide of open mics, I decided that I would also break away from my original intention to only report open mics that I have myself taken part in. With 21 guides around the world, and more in plan, I decided that I have to expand the approach, and encourage other people to contribute to me the open mics in these cities that they know about and that I have not visited. I keep them in a separate list on the same page, however, so that there are those where readers will know I have gone, and those where I’m intending to go but only learned about from others – so they don’t yet have my seal of love or hate…. As a result of this, today I was able update the Thumbnail Guide to Singapore Open Mics, Jam Sessions and other Live Music and add three new open mics, thanks to the MC of a couple of them who wrote me to inform me of their existence. I’m hoping I will get back there next year and try them myself! I have also updated the Thumbnail Guide to Paris Open Mics, Jam Sessions and other Live Music with three locations, including two at Belushi’s bars and another monthly one on Thursdays, at the Lou Pascalou.

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Note and Update on Worldwide Thumbnail Guide of Open Mics

October 4, 2013
bradspurgeon

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.