Bingen! (Running out of punny titles...)

So, last weekend I went to Bingen am Rhein for their annual jazz festival Bingen Swingt. My main reason for deciding to go is because the NDR Big Band was performing, but I'll get to that later.

So as the weekend rolled closer, I decided to book my accomodation. Unfortunately, the only youth hostel in the town was full up - I was too late. A stroke of luck, however -- Heather and Joel were also in Bingen for the festival, and they had 2 beds booked in that hostel. Thus, that problem was taken care of. Thus, on Saturday, I hopped on a train for the 2.5 hour or so ride there.

Upon arrival, I noticed that the town is quite small. It kinda reminded me of Nelson whenever we went there for band festivals in high school. The Rhine valley is as pretty as advertised, though. River, vineyards...very nice.

This dude was kind of interesting. It's a Louisiana band, and there was a washboard player. All well and good, as the washboard is a valid instrument in the genre...but he's wearing his washboard. The guy has freakin' washboard armor. A little awesome, a little confusing...a little disturbing. Amusing nonetheless.

No doubt the highlight of the weekend for me was Saturday night, which was essentially a program of big band music featuring the NDR Big Band, and the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebow, which are among the premier big bands in Germany and the Netherlands, respectively. They played good sets, both of them -- the NDR guys did a large work based on the music of Frank Zappa, which was interesting. It was quite heavy, very rhythm-section-centric. Admittedly, it was a kind of music that is difficult to listen to in an outdoor concert. The Dutch band did a tribute to Ray Brown, with a very good American vocalist, and it was somewhat lighter and more crowd-pleasing. Both bands are really tight and have some killer monsters for soloists. I most enjoyed a set when both bands took the stage, laying down some classic big-band sound. Sure, I guess it's gimmicky and kind of kitsch, but there's no disputing the raw power projected by 2 killer brass sections, and 2 world-class bands' worth of soloists. They were jamming out on this one modified minor blues, and pairs of musicians, one from each band, would alternate choruses during the blowing section. It was actually riveting, especially the two pianists. I have a video of part of it that I should try to upload somewhere, eventually.

All in all, an excellent weekend of great music. Only thing is, I really really need to find a piano to play on now...

Interlaken blog (Interloggin'?...)

For the long weekend a week and a half ago, five of us decided to go to Interlaken, Switzerland, for a couple of days. It's well known as an outdoorsy area, a beautiful sub-alpine region noted for its hiking, skiing, and other active pursuits.

I'll let a couple of these pictures speak for themselves -- Interlaken is indeed amazing. Notice the blue color of the water; the lakes are fed by glacial-runoff, which makes them really cold, but really refreshing to have a quick dip in.

We hiked up the Harder Kulm, about 700 metres over 3 kilometers or so. Of course, my usual days consisting of sitting in front of a desk, I accomplished the hike up and down with some difficulty. I really should start exercising more...but I digress -- here's a shot from partway through the hike -- We've overlooking the town and one of the lakes, and it's definitely more breathtaking when we were there. The highlight of the next day was a white-water rafting excursion down the Lutschiene river, a glacial stream that feeds one of the lakes in the area. The water was cold, of course, but it was tonnes of fun. And of course, with me not knowing how to swim, things got interesting when we hopped into the water for a quick dip in the ridiculously freezing water (in wetsuits and lifeys, of course). A couple of pictures follow:

Of course, I had to try some Swiss Fondue. It was indeed tasty -- melted cheese with white wine and some spices, which you dip bread into. Yummy! All in all, the place (and the country in general, as first impressions go) is simply beautiful. It's definitely one of those places that I will want to return to, when I'm a little older and a lot richer -- Switzerland is an expensive country. However, this trip out was worth every penny.

Prague Blog (Prog?)

So a couple of weekends ago, we went to Prague. It was the biggest group of us yet -- all six of us Fizzers, Heather and her friend Adam. A couple of us didn't have reservations for the hostel (it was really quite the last-minute thing), but luckily they managed to provide accomodation. Sidebar: The Boathouse hostel is really good -- really nice operators, clean rooms, etc...highly recommended! So anyway I'll post a few pictures out of the small pile that I took, that are generally representative of what we ended up doing:

Of course, of all Bohemian composers, a couple stand out among the rest -- I simply had to have a picture with Antonin over there. I originally wanted to go to a concert too, featuring some works by Dvorak and also Bedrich Smetana (they were playing Die Moldau from Ma Vlast, one of my favorites) but alas, I wasn't able to make it.

Much of the time was spent puttering around town, just generally taking in the sights and everything. Here's a shot of the famous Charles Bridge -- initially it struck me as a giant version of the Alte Mainbruecke that is here in town in Wuerzburg.

Later on Matt and I ended up breaking off of the main group and went out and about the town -- this is the gate to the big castle that overlooks the city. Back in Munich the chuches had tonnes of statues of angels smiting demons and such...apparently the Czechs are a little more down to earth, what with the statues of people smiting other people with various weaponry.

We went out to a sketchier part of town near this TV tower, and it was interesting -- a world of difference from the kitschy tourist setup that seemed to pervade the core of the town. We go from the clean streets and tonnes of people, warm and inviting, to...well, it kind of felt like Whalley. Except with more graffiti. On people's front doors. But that wasn't the point of the expedition I guess, it was just to check out this TV tower. ...Who puts sculptures of babies, climbing up and down and around the tower? Creeeepy.

The cast of this expedition -- minus Heather (who was in bed at the hostel, rough train ride apparently), and Adam (who was taking the picture). From left to right: Mark, Adam, Phil, Greg, yours truly, and Matt.

Classical Music

(Somewhat sparked by Shannon's entry) I like classical music. Not a lot of people do, really -- the golden age of the music has passed, and often times I am sort of disappointed that so few people enjoy the genre. However, once in a while stuff happens that rekindles my faith in the cultural future of the world. Tonight I was flipping channels (German TV, I really don't understand much besides MTV, its European counterpart VIVA, and soccer games), when I happened across a channel that was broadcasting an outdoor Berlin Philharmonic concert. And it was great! Thousands of people were just sitting outside in the open air listening to one of the premier classical music ensembles this world has to offer -- young and old, kids, families; it was really heartening. The orchestra starts a march, and the whole park full of people starts clapping along, people just having a good time. No stuffiness, no pretension, it was just eveyrone enjoying good music. ...I really need to find one of these open air classical concerts to go to! P.S. Still working on the whole picture thing -- I'll have some from Prague and Switzerland up soon!

Yes I'm Still Alive

Just a quick post to alert the world to my continued not-dead-ness. Work's picking up, not much time to blog then so I figure I'll write up a good-sized post on my trip to Prague last weekend, and post it later. Until then, ciao!