Zombie Steps

I apologise if the arrival of this latest blog entry is inadvertently interrupting the international ubiquitous carnival of kitsch that Hallowe’en seems to engulf surrounding October 31^st. As you read on, I can only express my sincerest wishes that the content of my character, details of my latest experiences and tone of my prose abhors you all sufficiently enough to grab your attention away from the special edition Haribo bags, fake-blood induced dry cleaning visits and ‘is-there-facepaint-left-on-my-face-or-am-I-really-this-hungover’ visages that may greet you all over the coming week without breaking your ghoulish moods. Unless of course, like me, you don’t really do Hallowe’en, in which case I’ll try not to sound like too much of an arse. In the inevitable words of some anonymous, but sadly inevitable, vacuous TV-series life coach: it’s important that everybody can come here, take what they want from it and feel free to enjoy themselves.

I had my first master-class last week with a Danish man called Claus Olesen (not to be confused with the shop on Northumberland Street). I was pretty sure, before even speaking to him, that I would like Claus and back this first impression up with two facts: 

-He's called Claus.
- He had a nice, full, ginger beard.

The lesson itself was good, and being taught in front of other people was not as intimidating as I feared. I also found Claus’ (did I mention, his name was Claus) appearance as encouraging as his playing. Maybe one day, if I practise really hard, my disappointing ginger chin fuzz can develop into a robust, glowing facial border to rival his! This evening was filled with a concert of Turkish music, in which my teacher was playing. The concert was really enjoyable and approximately 50% of the audience particularly appreciated the dress elected by the singer. I’d have been more impressed if she had a ginger beard, though.

This week has been a ‘week off’ of sorts. There were no official classes at the Conservatorium and a couple of rehearsals that had been booked in weeks ago were cancelled with more or less exactly the smallest amount of notice to make booking any mode of transport home for a couple of days unviable. The inverted commas are present as a means to express the abundance of activities that have gone on in the place of normal classes. I did manage some time off, which included a trip to Amsterdam during the massive Amsterdam Dance Event, in venues all over the city. Last year, my landlady put up a Chicago-based DJ (called Sadar Bahar, if anybody is interested) who was playing in a small record shop. He was a soul DJ and it was awesome. After his set I was allowed to goggle at the vinyl being swapped between him and the shop owner and listen to 1970’s Nigerian jazz. It was awesome. After that, the shop owner put on some unreleased Sun Ra live tapes. They were also awesome. I quite enjoyed myself, in case I haven’t successfully put that impression across.

Things have got a little darker, colder and wintrier. This is actually incredibly welcome, as it has temporary alleviated my on-going battle with bike riding and temperature control! The changeable, arguably slightly crappy, weather is something that the Dutch seem to almost proud of! A regular point of conversation relates to asking how you’re coping with the conditions, asked as some sort of friendly test of manliness. I tend to smile politely and reply with something along the lines of ‘fine thanks’ (out of character for me, I know) but one of these days I should really explain to the Dutch that us hardy Brits are relatively untouched by the meteorological challenges that their country poses as we have a more or less an IDENTICAL climate. That said, our weather is probably slightly better in the sense that it enables you to never run out of conversation with relatively uninteresting people.

I was going to end on that upbeat and positive note. I feel, however, as if I can’t start with a Hallowe’en oriented paragraph without coming full circle and mentioning a further seasonal event which I witnessed on my way into study today.

They put the Christmas lights up.

In October.

Jesus Christ. (…Coming Soon.)