Superman

Today I had a trip out to Superbagnères to trap the lesser spotted S. It was a lovely day; 1775m up a mountain, I found him sitting on a restaurant terrace in his shirtsleeves, polishing off a Ben & Jerry's. See extra for an alternative view. After the obligatory souvenir photo, we headed back down for the three and a half hour drive home.

In the evening there was yet another concert: the Duo Presque Classique. They were billed as playing classical pieces on unusual instruments (see extra), and that is more or less what they did. The amphitheatre was packed and most people loved it, but I was a bit ambivalent. After jazz improvisation on a harpsichord, the other extreme is Vivaldi on a ukulele. They are talented and versatile musicians, but basically they just took the themes from some of the most popular classics (Schubert, Gounod, Fauré, Vivaldi, Mozart, Bach) and reproduced them on various instruments -- each piece not more than a minute or two long. For me it removed the soul from the music.. I was particularly unfond of the organetto used to slaughter Bach and Mozart. On the other hand we heard some pieces played on a musical saw, which I always like to hear. And they are good showmen with an amusing line in patter.

I was a bit sad though when I belatedly realised that the player of unusual instruments was Kif, formerly of Les Croquants. They were an iconic duo when we first moved here, playing chanson française with a unique sauce of ska (e.g. here), sometimes with a bit of Irish thrown in. They had a loyal band of fans, and we went to so many of their concerts; I remember a particularly riotous one where they did their own sound engineering after seriously overindulging in beer beforehand. The results were interesting :) Later they formed a brilliant multipiece band called La Varda which played a kind of Klezmerised Eastern European rock. Both bands fizzed with passion and energy, whereas this evening's concert (the duo's first in public) felt a bit flat to me.