vivdunstan

Crikey I so wanted to type 2024 there haha!

I've got off to a flying start this year, partly with 2 books that were hang overs from before, but also a quick read for my book club. But then I also quickly read 3 other books that had been hanging around for too long, and I wanted to pass on to charity shops. I'd previously started reading a couple of them.

1. An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson
2. Don't Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri
3. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
4. Egyptian Myths: Meet the Gods, Goddesses, and Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt by Jean Menzies
5. Tutankhamun: The Treasures of the Tomb by Zahi Hawass
6. ABBA: The Treasures by Ingmarie Halling and Carl Magnus Palm

An Academy for Liars is a dark academia book, with rather a lot of violence and gore added to the mix. It was ok, but I had to push to keep reading it to the end. 3/5 stars.

Don't Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri was an incredible insight into the experience and history of black hair. A strong 4/5 stars.

Days at the Morisaki Bookshop was another 3/5 star read for me. Ok, mostly, but a rather odd writing style, and an unexpected and lengthy shift away from the cosy bookshop setting mid way through. 3/5 stars.

Egyptian Myths by classical historian and YouTuber Jean Menzies was an entertaining and informative text, full of striking large format illustrations from Katie Ponder. I did find the order and structure a little confusing in places, but I learned a lot. 4/5 stars.

Tutankhamun: The Treasures of the Tomb is a large format coffee table book, filled with huge photographs and details of many hundreds of items from Tutankhamun's tomb. The items chosen are a selection carefully curated by Zahi Hawass, and it's not exhaustive. But for what you did get it was jaw dropping, including multi-page folding out large photographs. Both Martin and I were stunned by parts. 5/5 stars.

ABBA: The Treasures is a large format squidgy book telling much of the story of ABBA in photographs, reminiscences, and reproductions of paper ephemera connected with them, tucked into folders inside that you open up and work through the contents of. It's a nice book, but a rather narrow perspective on their life, focusing mainly on some of their 1970s international tours, which one of the authors accompanied them on. I did feel that I was missing out on the wider story. But the folders of paper ephemera were a delight. I was particularly amused by the customs list, for the Australian tour I think, including a "piano accordion". 4/5 stars.

Delighted to manage an hour's play on my piano accordion. Very light headed neurologically, and challenged by bellows control! But delighted got a play. Mainly my own arrangements e.g. Despacito, Aladdin's Speechless, and Bergerac theme. And here, Bateau Mouche by Henry Mancini, from movie Charade.

There's always a limit to how long I can play for. I end up getting too light headed, and brain fogged very quickly, and can no longer control my fingers or arms, or read the music properly. But very happy with today's hour's play! Took me a while to "wake up" enough to not totally stuff it up. But had lots of fun.

Overjoyed to get my wee Maugein chromatic button accordion out for the first time in well over 6 months. I'm still learning this new to me type of accordion (I'm a very long-term piano accordion player) including even where the right hand notes are! Delighted with how much had stuck and making plans for progress. Had fun working through some tuition books, as well as Sous Le Ciel de Paris and even the Pirates of the Caribbean film's main tune.

Sad news from France, with the closure of accordion makers Maugein. I was delighted with the compact chromatic button accordion they built new for me last year. Built to a high standard, and the company staff were so helpful to deal with throughout the process, coping with my schoolgirl French!

Here is my adored French box, photographed on the day it arrived in June 2023.

Fandoms colliding for me here. An IF Comp winning interactive fiction author playing an accordion built from a Commodore 64. He’s Swedish, playing a traditional Swedish tune. Though lacks a bass side and notes. More like someone playing classical music on accordion.

Just recorded a version to share of the tune I played for my Mum this afternoon on the chromatic button accordion - no piano keyboard - that I am still figuring out where all the notes are 😜 This tune is Sous Le Ciel De Paris.

Given I was feeling really light headed today, and was struggling to read the sheet music by the time I recorded this version after we got home I am very happy with that!

This tune really stretched me in my CBA learning, and was one I dearly wanted to learn. It was the very first thing I played on unpacking the French squeezebox last year, playing some bars by ear, goodness only knows in what key! And it's also one of Mum's all time favourite tunes. I am going to continue challenging myself with tricky tunes, alongside working on more fundamental repeated exercises.

Delighted to be working on some accordion music arranging, for the first time in far, far too long. This time a rarely heard tune from Guys and Dolls - skipped in the movie. Agog at the chord progressions as I figure them out. Never seen anything like them before. Arranging in Notion on my MacBook Pro with a MIDI USB controller keyboard.

Again making a rare exception of posting one of Martin's pics here. This was taken while he waited outside the accordion tuner's house this morning.

Overjoyed to get my piano accordion out, even for a quick play. Here is a recording from this morning's very short practice, of me playing part of "He's a Pirate" from Pirates of the Caribbean. On downside I noticed a newly out of tune note. One that I play regularly, so that's a major issue! So now arranging to get the box looked at - will probably just be a very quick fix - with the excellent accordion tuner who fortunately lives near us, just outside Dundee.

Bonus points to anyone who can identify the newly out of tune note. Which exasperatingly is used a lot in this piece! (sorry!) Double bonus points if you can tell the bellows direction of the affected note.

Managed to get another good practice in, on this totally new to me system that I’ve been learning since June. Tonight I worked at length on core right hand exercises. Then enjoyed playing Sunrise Sunset fully, with all right hand harmonies as in my own arrangement (originally arranged for the piano accordion). Then played loads of tunes from my own arrangements. Lots of tunes I had never played on this wee chromatic button box. Generally tonight I was just playing the core melodies, and skipping most harmonies. But I was delighted by how I was finding the notes, over up to three octaves, and playing at a good generally reliable speed. I am now ready in the New Year to start working through Maugain tuition book 2 for the chromatic button accordion. Which among other things develops multi note skills on the right hand, with lots of repeated core exercises to build that tech wise up. And since that’s exactly what I want to play in my own arrangements this will be excellent timing for me. Rather staggered that I’ve got this far so quickly, especially with more intermittent play in recent months. But the skills are building and sticking.