12/31/10

Paul Crouse's 'Singing Around the Table' pix

Paul Crouse came to Singing Around the Table 26.12.10 to sing, and he also took some lovely pictures of the stage. Paul worked a professional photographer in the U.S. as you can tell. You can view Paul's pictures on his SmugMug page here. I am hoping that in this coming year he will have a chance to take pix of huge crowds singing around the tables!
Happy New Year to all our band and table-singers - thank you for all your lovely singing this year - may 2011 be a happy, healthy, musical and song-filled year for you and all your friends and family!
The picture on the left is Jay Gregg by Paul Crouse.

12/28/10

Christmassy Things

Merry Christmas! How was yours?
メリークリスマス!あなたも楽しかったですか。

International Carol Singing outside Kyoto City Hall on Christmas Eve, Friday 24th, went well with about 30 people including children. We were especially pleased with the turnout as we only made the plan on Tuesday, and the booklet on Friday! It was really cold so after that some of us went to Gnome to eat Yorkshire pudding - their new Christmas menu. I don't usually eat Yorkshire pudding on Christmas Eve but, as it's a favorite food of mine, it seemed like a kind of Christmas present.

On Christmas Day itself (25th) I just had a really good rest. I spoke to friends and family on the phone, and uploaded some photos from 2010 to my Facebook, which I had been meaning to do for ages. It was nice to review the year while I did it. Then I watched an old black & white DVD called "That Hamilton Woman" which I have seen before but I really like.

The Christmas "Singing Around the Table" on 26th (Boxing Day) was small and lovely. My friend Jay Gregg stood in for Tomoko on fiddle, as usual Tatsuya Shirasaka played wood-bass, and Yuko-san grabbed a few tunes on her accordion when she wasn't busy with the bar. Peter Damashek played fiddle for a couple of songs and sang most heartily. We used the same new bi-lingual wordsheets for both events: David and Yukie (who run Kyoto Contra Dance) and my friend Hiroko provided the Japanese words to some carols and New Year songs, so we were able to sing in both Japanese & English (the Japanese was in hiragana and romaji too so we had three or four versions of some songs).

Today, 27th, I went to the Shimizus' for a warming winter nabe (table stew) and he told me about some videos now on Youtube of our gig at Pick up on Dec 4th: Little Drummer Boy, with the audience and the final medley.

I'll post a few more pix of Carol Singing soon.
Happy remainder of the holidays!

12/20/10

Christmas Sing Songs

Next SINGING AROUND THE TABLE is 26th December, usual time, at GNOME.

Plus.... INTERNATIONAL CHRISTMAS SONGS & CAROLS at Kyoto City Hall 7pm 24th December. We will provide word sheets for well known Christmas Songs in English and Japanese. Please bring 20 copies if you have any carols you would like to introduce in other languages. Organised by Singing Around the Table, Contradance Kyoto and Kyoto Petit Bal, supported by Deep Kyoto. We hope to see you soon!

There are links to some of the carols on Contradance Kyoto's website.

次の「歌声パブの日」は12月26日に、いつもの時間に行います。それに、24日にさらに京都市役所の前で午後7時からインターナショナルクリスマス・キャロルを行います。有名な英語と日本語のクリスマス・ソングの歌詞を提供します。また、他の言葉で、紹介してくれるクリスマスの歌があれば、歌詞カードを20枚ぐらい持ってくれれば皆で歌えると思います。とにかく、そとで歌うので、暖かい洋服は不可欠です!

歌声パブ」、「コントラ京都」と「京都プチバルの共同企画で、「ディープ・京都」の応援もいただきました。
次のコントラ京都のメールに連取のためのルンクを送ります。
お待ちしております!



12/17/10

CELTSITTOLKE Launched

Hey, looks like all systems are go!!!! Celtsittolke Launched 8th Dec 2010 - Irish/Celtic bands of the Kansai (Kyoto/Osaka) Region of Japan. Not much happened in my house, except perhaps a celebratory glass of sake, but by all accounts the album is now downloadable on Amazon and several of the artists, e.g. Kaneko san, have been interviewed on an associated radio program - so lots going on in the world of Japanese!!!. Hurray! Some great, tight, serious bands on this album. Our band, Macfiddles (you can here v brief samples our tracks here) has been described as the least 'arranged'...TRUE! There are certainly some smart works on this album. Promotion concert in Osaka May 15th 2011.

PickUp Live


この間12月4日でSamurai Celt Mine とライブして,京都祇園のPickupと言うライブハウスでMarty Braceyと。すごく楽しかった。この写真はその時からです。