David Barnert

Sorry I couldn’t join this time. It was a lot of fun in February. Maybe next time.

Where did you put the video? 😉

I saw “La Cage aux Folles” (the stage musical) at the Stratford Festival in Canada tonight. There’s a mermaid joke: Why does a mermaid wear seashells? Because she grew out of her B shells. Concertina content: Various times in the show an actor pretends to play a concertina (although the sound of an accordion emulates from the orchestra pit).

Here he is in happier days.

John Roberts, anglo concertina player extraordinaire, has sent an email to “Dear friends” announcing that due to declining health he is “retiring as a performing musician, and I feel I must also withdraw from outside responsibilities, including my Old Songs commitments.” He requests no phone calls, “For the time being, should you wish to get in touch, please email first and we’ll get back to you as we are able.” But please, do not bombard him with emails either. For those who may not know, Sunday, May 5th was John’s 80th birthday and he gave a sold-out performance for the occasion at Old Songs in Voorheesvile, NY (near Albany). The concert was streamed live and is now available for on-demand viewing: That’s my bald head visible in the audience through the whole thing, right, 2nd row, on the aisle, with my much shorter wife, Julie, to my right. Note me blotting a tear at 2:12:37 and 2:13:14 as he finally sings the song I was hoping to hear all evening.

I’d remember if it was Jody, whom I’d known for years at that time. It was someone I didn’t know.

The first year that the NorthEast Squeeze-In (NESI) had a Limerick contest, this was the winner. I’m sorry, I don’t recall the author’s name. The poor lady who plays the Chem-NITZ-er: What a nightmare to find one that fits ’er. On the draw she’s okay, Nothing gets in the way. But on the squeeze the damn thing de-tits’er.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise.

Agreed, even though the observed phenomenon has nothing to do with the Doppler Effect.

Both the ventilator and the fan blades create pulsatile air pressure changes all over, including at the reed. Reeds vibrate differently in different pressures.

If you want him to see it, tag him: @SIMON GABRIELOW (he’ll see it now).

E played on the A string and concurrently open E string. (This is a fiddle we’re talking about, not a concertina).

I remember that song. The whole album. I was a counselor at a sleep away camp on Cape Cod in 1973 and the album was in the staff lounge. I heard it many times. But I have to admit that when I saw the title of this thread my first thought was the song “If” by Betty Comden and Adolph Green.

Yesterday I visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts to see an exhibit called “What, Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine.” I couldn’t help noticing this graphic, which, according to the accompanying description had to do with physical violence and nothing to do with musical instruments.

I recently heard a Cello & Piano recital, a husband and wife team, who played the 5 Beethoven Cello Sonatas in one performance. The cellist (the husband) had just acquired the 200+ year old cello (Beethoven’s dates are 1770-1827), and when he finished playing, he said “I wonder how many Beethoven cycles this instrument has played.”