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September 27, 2006
My Parents from Dublin
Sorry again for the tardiness in bloggery, I know this entry is 3 days late but I was exhausted from constant activity on top of a regular working week.
This is a picture of my father's feet. My parents visited me for the first time since I left Ireland over four and a half years ago, and spent 6 days here. When we took a day trip out to Høvedøya, an island in the Oslofjord, Dad decided to stick his feet in the water saying, "imagine having to travel for three hours to put your feet in the North Sea!" - whatever that meant.
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Posted by barry at 8:22 EM
September 18, 2006
Our Band from Dublin
Sorry if I'm a day late with this blog! Yesterday I was still deeply occupied in organizing Oslo concerts for the very original Irish alternative pop/rock act Si Schroeder. Although Si is one man, he plays with a band, and here you can see his companions in sound, Kevin the keyboard player and Bryan the flame-haired drummer, having breakfast in my yard like the merry men they are.
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Posted by barry at 7:03 EM
September 10, 2006
Our Band from Beirut
Following the successful live performance I did last week, the days just seemed so empty and purposeless, so I signed up for more Mu duty. Luckily, this week at Mu we put on a very special little concert, and had some very interesting guests staying in our building: we were visited by the Middle East's ONLY improvised/experimental band, the Moukhtabar Ensemble, from Beirut. This was booked before the war broke out, and we had no idea whether it would take place or whether the band would get blown up or what would happen.
To say that they're "from Beirut" is a little inexact, as at least three of the seven musicians live in Paris. Be that as it may, at least one of those chose to spend the duration of the recent war living in Beirut, so this seems to be a close-knit group, very happy to be united.
The ensemble are: Mazen Kerbaj (trumpet, biscuit tin), Béchir Saadé (clarinets, flutes), Christine Sehnaoui (alto sax) (pictured), Sharif Sehnaoui (guitar), Charbel Haber (guitar), Jassem Hindi (electronics) (pictured) and Raed Yassin (double-bass). They were joined for their two Oslo shows by Sweden's David Stackenäs (guitars).
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Posted by barry at 1:31 EM
September 3, 2006
Backstage
Here's a picture of a drumkit. It's downstairs in the bar and is part of the Dacianos setup for tonight. I'm upstairs in my apartment, "backstage" if you like. In just over an hour I will be doing the first Dacianos live show in 9 months, the first show as a 3-piece with Marius Kolbenstvedt and Håkon Larsen, and the first time playing in my own bar - a "living room concert", in a way.
Posted by barry at 6:56 EM