Sunday Morning at the Bag.

This Sunday morning marks the end of two weeks off and tomorrow I return to daily relief teaching - Roma Girls' for one day and three at Nuova Lazio High School.
We're also into (long) practices for Anything Goes which is being put on by Roma Girls'. The band is mainly made up of adult musicians (and a couple of girls and me).

An example of a band.

I've put out fliers to get work as a solo violinist, but have had no interest shown yet - hey, I only sent out two flyers and I did get asked to play in our local cafe. I'm not worried about the lack of replies because I feel my violin playing is getting stronger as I continue to put in hours of practice - it's really fun. What I should be doing is practising double bass for Anything Goes. I'll put in some time today. I'm also working on my guitar playing with a certain amount of urgency because I might be involved in a bit of a jam in Italy in October.

* * *

It's good to see The Curmudgeon Ink putting out the occasional post -  READ HERE  Other that them him it's pretty quiet around here.
For those of you who don't know, The Curmudgeon is a retired old fellow who lives way up north. He's on a few committees for things like bowling clubs and church groups. He seems to forget how old he is and spends quite a bit of time injuring himself playing sport.

The Curmudgeon

While the quality of his posts varies, he is famous for having more blogs than any other blogger on the internet.

* * *

Well, that's about it from me today.
Enjoy your Sunday and remember that tomorrow it's back to work.*
Ciao.




* except for retired people

Mercoledì

I'm going into Roma later today to hear brother Rod play his first solo gig.

Roma

brother Rod

Solo gigs are certainly a challenge, and they can be lonely - there's no one up there with you to feed off. I guess you have to feel ready and believe in yourself. Presentation is an important part - overcoming your fears.
I'm sure Rod will do fine.

* * *

Okay, back to me and my practice.
I've also applied for a solo gig - playing violin in a restaurant (Italian) in Inferiore Hutto. I've done lots of practice, so if I get the gig, I'll be ready with a few tricks up my sleeve - but I certainly know how Rod will be feeling today.
Friday is the first practice for Anything Goes. That's a double bass gig.
I'm also practising a lot of guitar because that's the instrument I'll be playing in Italia - it's too tricky to get a violin onto the plane so I'll buy a cheap practice guitar when I get there. My mate Antonio has a friend whose father is a blues guitarist so it's possible that there could be a bit of a jam. That will be somewhere near Monteforte d'Alpone - the good musician gets ready for such things by doing lots of practice.

Monteforte d'Alpone

So I'm off to do you know what. I'll start with an hour on the guitar.
Enjoy your day.
The Curmudgeon promises to post today.
No news from Robert.

Practice Time

The Testore Trio has a practice tomorrow. We've done away with the black shirt photos because people said they made us look like facists.

Guitarist Wade was more worried that the shirt wasn't up to his high dress standard.
I can't show his photo here because people might think that he's shopping for shirts at Italian op shops - he likes a close fitting shirt.

So we'll be going for a more 'mixed up' and a less 'uniform' approach on our next gig.

The four suggested uniforms below have all been dropped from contention as well.

 I guess we'll just concentrate on the music.

Everybody has buggered off.

TSB is in Scotland, The Curmudgeon is in Aussie and Robert has deleted all his posts (again).

Don't worry, Richard's Bass Bag* is always here for you.

WE ARE OPEN!

* the original bass bagging site

Giovedì.

I watched a film in Italian last night, I've watched quite a few lately.

Action movies are the easiest to understand because there's less dialogue and a lot of action. Last night I watched Unknown.

senza identità

HERE'S THE TRAILER

I listen to Radio 24 a lot in my car. Radio is hard to understand, but you do pick up tell tale words like Trump, Europa and calcio (soccer).
I try to talk as much Italian as I can as I go through my daily life.
I say spingere as I push a door open, andiamo when I'm heading off somewhere with someone, mi ne frega if I really don't care about something and grazie mille as a sign of thanks. I also say pronto when I answer the telephone.

Learning a language is a big job and you have to make it part of your daily life. It is easier to speak another language when you are relaxed (try speaking another language after two glasses of Chardonnay), this is why children seem to do so well with languages - they don't care about mistakes and when they don't know a word they just make one up.

Okay, I know you probably didn't watch the entire trailer for Unknown but watch it now and see how much you can understand.

I'm off to do some practice.
Ciao.

My dad could beat your dad in a fight.

Have you ever noticed that, when The Curmudgeon whinges and moans, he sounds like a school boy? Sometimes he even claims that words are spelt incorrectly.

"Our house is bigger 

than your house."

Have you noticed that all those people at The Curmudgeon Ink never all post at once?
If you want exaggeration, The Curmudgeon Ink is a series of posts you should check out.

"We had a huge storm last night and this outside

chair was blown over!"

What gets me is that Robert works hard to support this old age pensioner by paying taxes and all he seems to do is play tennis, fall down banks at golf clubs (probably pissed) and post pathetic little blog posts.

See HERE.

I guess what really gets to me is that, while he's doing all this, I'm busy practising my instruments, writing quality posts, drinking Chardonnay and taking pictures of my two German bows.

Aren't they cute!

I guess that what I'm trying to say is that The Curmudgeon needs one thing in his life...

SUBSTANCE.

Substance is why the posts that come out of Richard's Bass Bag* are so enjoyed by people of all ages, beliefs and sizes.

Okay, I'm off to do more amazing things - like practise my violin and make dinner for Shelley - lucky woman!

See you later when I'm not so busy.

* the original bass bagging site

No post this morning.

Sorry, there will be no post this morning because Richard (of RBB) has to take his wife's car to the garage - it's due for a warrant check.

Not the actual car but same model and colour.

For your entertainment, here are a set of cars that look nothing like Shelley's car.