Capn Morgan's Spiced Confusion

devilish stuff this cap'n morgan's spiced rum. because .... it doesn't taste of rum. it tastes of the sort of vanilla syrup a child rising to the challenge of early obesity might pour over ice cream in his or her bid to be the fattest kid on the block .... pronto.

however if you are determined to tackle this tipple don't be surprised when the following morning your brain has absconded. You may also notice that the vague discomfort your taste buds experienced as you imbibed has spread throughout your whole being because ......... while you were waiting for the gustatory hit to turn up, you absent mindedly drank a small bottle of the stuff.

am i glad i only bought the one.

don't say you haven't been warned.

"Old enough to know better but far too old to give a damn"

Taken on one of Swansea's few sunny Sundays in September 2012 by my good friend Betsabé Longo who came all the way from Uruguay to help me on my musical journey.

MILESTONE

well, yes, i've done it. i've gone from complete-harmonica-dork-who-can-do-a-bit-of-blues to, dare i say it, a musician. last friday i played ambient tango harmonica for the best part of three hours at la Parilla in SA1, UK entertaining bar staff and diners alike.

and OMG am i proud of myself?

go on

do you need to guess?

the answer is yes.

this has been one solid, long term build, boys and girls. still plenty of work to do but if i can cover that gig i guess i can do it in any restaurant in any part of the world.

thanks loads to my busking angel who sometimes turns up when i need him, if he's not trying to cop-on to the barmaid or being sick on someone else's daps.

thanks also to the big hearted dance angels: madeline and angela and gary and tim and felicia and heathers 1, 2 and 3 and alice and martin .... and obviously not forgetting pauline cakes for her early encouragement ...... or 'pops' ezard who showed me how to use my breath to paint colours in the air ....... and everybody else who helped ......

peace and love

xxx

Meeting Ms Melancholy

Her eloquent eyes were our first connection. Briefly she took my attention away from the manuscript in front of me. Then she walked. I didn't see which way. I couldn't stop in mid tune after all could I? But when I came to the end I did regret that I hadn't.

They do flash past mind. Connections I mean. Beguiling like silver salmon crashing up stream. Gone before you realised what they are. Energised by the laughing river they wriggle through the rapids to oblivion. And then there they aren't. Leaving this ancient bear blindly swiping at the shimmer, catching nothing but spray trails.

This one though wasn't all a-glimmer. This one wore a soft melancholy that showed itself more strongly when she returned three tunes later to talk.

does the groove have rules?

This ramble has been sparked off by a discussion at the Tawe Tango Taster and Practica Night on 20^th June 2012 and is looking for a response from anyone who wants to give one.

The second thing I realised, after first deciding I wanted to share my thoughts on this with the seagulls and the bats, is that absolutes are ill advised in tango discussions. Its easy, as you will find if you haven’t already, to lay down the law when you don’t know much about it. But experience shows that the further you get into this dance culture each fresh piece of knowledge acquired reveals a new question to be dealt with. There might be a right answer somewhere. But I don’t know it, and I haven’t yet met anyone who does. So most of the discussion on what is appropriate music for tango must be subjective.