tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6564134964285988310.post1183143443446607496..comments2024-02-28T23:43:49.197+01:00Comments on City On A Hill: Today Around TownEd Wardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12846657618234700638noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6564134964285988310.post-70590415125364249752010-06-07T01:11:00.608+02:002010-06-07T01:11:00.608+02:00Ed, I have a scholarly little tome called "Fa...Ed, I have a scholarly little tome called "Fanfares: Structures socio-musicalse aux sens larges" by some dude called Philippe Meunier, who may be a sociologist, ethnomusicologist or just a trainspotter from Brussels. <br /><br />The book somewhat elucidates the history of fanfares in France and Belgium, as well as the influence of jazz, Balkan music, techno, funk and "chanson réaliste", whatever that is.<br /><br />Of course all the elucidation is done in French, but it might be of interest: you can actually download it for free as a PDF - http://www.lamediatheque.be/ext/thematiques/site_fanfare/Fanfares.pdfetnobofinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05405364954348521371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6564134964285988310.post-4852407538224775042010-06-06T14:28:40.498+02:002010-06-06T14:28:40.498+02:00Hey
Not like I'm an expert, dude, but I know ...Hey<br /><br />Not like I'm an expert, dude, but I know just a wee bit....it's an ol'skool/ancienne regime trad thing, and usually there's just a practice or two... it's just a way to dust off what you learned, however briefly, back in schooldays.... and comin' from New Orleans, it makes complete sense to me...<br /><br />The thing that makes the Most Complete Sense to me, though, is the time, a couple years or so ago, just about this time of year, when a friend was in Paris and we went to the goofy bar where Serge, the big-ass-butcher-ass guy who LOVES both Le Rock Et Le Roll (everything, indiscriminately: hardcore, fake Stevie Ray Vaughan bands, ska, punk, rock classique, what-ever-the-fucque, so long as its loud and annoying and loud) well, he always has bands in on Fridays, and he makes his wife and daughter work the bar so he can videotape them (and then he has acres of boxes of these videos that he plays when he's not playing Pink Floyd) (and the bar is wallpapered in the greatest collection of picture disks you can imagine, the ceiling mostly 'early 80s New Wave hilariousness, but the glass boxes on the walls from all across the last, uh, three centuries, swear to God) (for which you gotta give him credit, 'cause most collectors just park them up their ass...) (anyway, we go there on a Thursday, when there's never-ever any music, and sure 'nuff, there's risers on three sides of the the absurdly tiny stage, all of them surrounding The Single Smartest Man In The History Of Dudes In Bands In The History Of Dudes In Bands, who is playing a snare drum, while all around him are like 27 or 32 or 29 or more lovely French gals in their twenties, each wearing a white t-shirt with the name of the band and a pink mini-skirt, and black fishnets, and they're fanfaring through dead-simple arrangemnents of things like "Le Freak" and "Superfreak" and such. And really, it's pretty much all I need out of music, now that I think about it. <br /><br />Well, I couldn't help but start steppin', ala New Orleans, and when they quit commencin', I got to talking to a couple of the gals, and they very charmingly invited me out to the next night's gig, held annually at the fuckin' Palace at Versailles, first major hall to the left as you come in. The deal was that it cost ten Euros, but if you came naked, you got in free, and there were going to be dozens and dozens of fanfare bands, and you had to get there early because it would always be oversold, and they wrote my name down to put it on the list regardless, and my pal, in town for just a couple days, a guitar player for that Big Time Industrial Band you can guess, who was there in that very moment and everything, had us go out to dinner at a very lovely restaurant the following night on the Left Bank, with his friend, a very worthy guy, and . . . and . . . and . .. well, I didn't go.<br /><br />Do you have a sense that I have a sense of regret? If only so that I could fill you in more on the culture of fanfare?Nasrudinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09517784416454641146noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6564134964285988310.post-56945556533146649202010-06-06T14:14:19.721+02:002010-06-06T14:14:19.721+02:0018,000 people turned up, so my estimate was pretty...18,000 people turned up, so my estimate was pretty close to on target.barthttp://bart-calendar.livejournal.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6564134964285988310.post-63859781580629793172010-06-05T23:54:08.872+02:002010-06-05T23:54:08.872+02:00Glad you got your electricity back, and hope you&#...Glad you got your electricity back, and hope you've got things worked out with Orange...<br />No real insight into the origins of the Fanfares thing, but it's been held in the Beaux-Arts district (not the Comédie) for as long as I can remember (we moved here in August 99) and is usually a lot of fun (some great groups, some dreadful, often hilarious costumes, hot dog stands of varying dodgyness...).Magic27https://www.blogger.com/profile/08701211538213404730noreply@blogger.com