Today we of the San Francisco Lesbian & Gay Freedom Band played well in our gig at the Golden Gate Bandshell. We were the first band of a two-day Golden Gate Band Festival, including an Air Force band. It was the first time I had worn a band uniform… see the picture of Doug Litwin (clarinetist) and me below.
Saturday, May 29, 1-2:30pm
San Francisco Lesbian and Gay Freedom Band at Yerba Buena Gardens Festival (3rd and Mission), free, http://www.sflgfb.org/
Saturday, June 12, 10am-1pm
SFLGFB at Golden Gate Park Festival (better to see the May 29th gig if possible since this one will be abridged), free, http://www.sflgfb.org/
Saturday, June 19, 8-10pm
Bay Area Rainbow Symphony at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak St at Van Ness
more details and pay for tickets at http://bars-sf.org/ (may sell out… if you want me to pull a ticket for you, let me know in advance… even I have to pay for them tho)
I had a blast with the San Francisco Lesbian & Gay Freedom Band campers who went to Cazadero this past weekend. Here are the pictures!
Please let me know if you want a hi-res version of one of the pictures or if you want your picture removed from this page. Also, please RSVP for the Performance Salon on Saturday, May 22, at http://willdoherty.org/party/
Cool Antony and the Johnsons music video: http://pitchfork.tv/videos/antony-the-johnsons-epilepsy-is-dancing
The Zaptet woodwind quintet performed its second concert with me on oboe. For a description and pics, check out http://www.zaptet.org/blog/?p=5. I posted pictures of our first concert on the site as well.
I recently picked up the oboe I hadn’t really played since my wrist injury 29 years ago. I saw an ad for the newly forming Bay Area Rainbow Symphony. When I contacted them, they weren’t sure if they had any oboe players and I felt I had to help out, at least so the orchestra could tune with a proper A from the oboe.
Fortunately, when I arrived at my first rehearsal, which was the second rehearsal of the orchestra, another oboe player was already there and in much better practice or perhaps even talent than I. He is a great guy and, when I told him how broke I am lately, he offered to pay for $50 of the makeover my oboe really needed, since one of the octave keys was sticking and making me squawk like a duck. What a kind offer! I ended up paying for the work myself, but I really appreciate his encouragement.
Last evening, I went to the third rehearsal of the orchestra, knowing that the first oboist wouldn’t be there. I struggled to play his part and the guest conductor Jay Pierson was very encouraging, despite my fumbling for notes as I sight-read the part. Very talented Jay also composed a “Rainbow Fantasy” as a sort of theme for the orchestra to play.
The orchestra is desperately in need of bassoon and certain other players, so if you are looking for an orchestra in the San Francisco Bay Area, please check it out at http://bars-sf.org/.
The first concert will take place on June 8 — so mark your calendar! You can buy tickets here: http://www.oldfirstconcerts.org/performances/168/
Sweet Sacrilege turned me on to this bizarre but oddly compelling and addictive music video from The Knife called “Pass This On”:
The eighth annual Festival in the Desert (Festival au Desert) took place in Essakane, Mali, on January 10-12, 2008. I made it late the first day, stayed the second day, and had to leave really really early the morning of the last day. So, I missed my most anticipated musician playing at the festival: Tiken Jah Fakoly. I got to experience lots of really good music though.
One apparently traditional event at the festival is camel racing. At the same time, with a bunch of jostling in the crowd, a ceremony of women took place, perhaps a form of “dressage” to show off their finery for potential spouses.
January 3, 2008, Embassy of Niger, Abuja, Nigeria
The guy arrived after I waited three hours for him (see January 2 entry). He looked at my passport and told me the DRC Chancery in Abuja usually only handles U.S. Citizens who have a multiple-entry instead of a single-entry visa to Nigeria. I explained that I couldn’t return to Nigeria, so didn’t need a multiple-entry visa, that I would enter Congo from another country entirely. He told me to wait while he supposedly called someone who apparently told him it would take a week to obtain the visa. So, rather than showing my anger, I just thanked him and said it was too bad I probably wouldn’t be able to do my research in the DRC. Then, I left. They had told me it would be easy to find a taxi, but I didn’t see any. I tried calling Folly – who I had already paid 300 Naira for taxi’ing me around and waiting a couple of hours at the Chancery before sending him away – but he didn’t pick up, so I went to the end of the street and luckily found a car to bring me back to the hotel.
Over the course of the rest of the day yesterday, my anger gradually faded into a fairly deep depression. I realized that unless I got my visa for the Niger the next day, that is today, I wouldn’t be able to travel through Niger to Gao and Timbuktu in Mali in time for the Festival of the Desert. I would have to try going by plane to Bamako and, if there is still time, to go to Timbuktu, although probably not to Gao. Another possibility is just to go to Bamako to take the flight from there, or perhaps from Accra, giving me time to try again for a visa to the DRC.
After Pays Dogon, I managed to get back to Bamako in reasonably good shape. I stayed a couple of nights at the marvelous Hotel Djenné, created by the former minister of tourism who had a great idea when she invited artists to decorate the place. On the bus ride there, I met a Dutch woman and her French traveling companion who was working on developing schools for young women in Mali. I met some other travelers over breakfast. O, and the first evening, I went to pick up the package I had left at Hotel Yamey and to try to visit Damien, the French guy working at his father’s restaurant, the Café du Fleuve. Unfortunately, he wasn’t around so I returned to the northern side of town to eat at the Restaurant San Toro, also owned by the former minister of tourism.
As a single person, I felt very conspicuous when I entered the restaurant, especially when they had no place for me, but after awhile of sitting and listening to a man playing the kora, I got into the spirit of the place and they eventually served me delicious juices and a vegetarian platter. I was craving good food after weeks in the “brousse” (countryside). Better nourished, and after a walk and a stop at the somewhat seedy cafe where I saw a transvestite, I returned to the hotel and slept well. I had tried to treat Samuel Sidibe and a professor friend of his to lunch, but he was busy, so I just stopped by to pick up the conference proceedings he had obtained for me. They included a griot’s account of the history of the Mali Empire, a crucial contribution to my book.
I spent the rest of the day trying to get a flight in January from Timbuktu to Bamako and managed only to confirm my place on the waiting list. That evening I again tried meeting Damien at the Cafe du Fleuve and instead ended up sharing a delicious meal with a Dutch fellow Michiel and a female friend of his, also Dutch, Lisa Winnen. They were very kind of me and my spirits revived considerably in preparation for my trip to Accra.
