Live

We still manaqe to host live shows here despite it all. The Conseil Départemental (equivalent of a county council) set up an emergency fund in June to help out live performers during the Covid blight. They created a catalogue of groups and invited every commune of less than 3,000 inhabitants to bid for one, with a generous 80% grant to finance it; the aim was to put on 100 shows over the summer. 

Sadly, it turns out that most villages are too timid to take the leap, so there will be considerably less than that. I guess we are lucky here, in that we always have a season of live shows in summer, so the organisational skills are there, and we have a purpose-built outdoor space that people love to perform in.

Tonight was Le Madrigal de la Cité, a group based in Carcassonne and directed by none other than our choir director Florence. Five excellent professional singers and a conteur who read texts and poetry. We almost never have classical concerts here, and I felt Florence could have introduced the pieces and given a bit of context. I knew some of them from having sung them, but most people didn't. However the singing was really excellent, and there was a balance of serious pieces and a bit of humour. A hearty round of applause at the end. A few more photos right from here.

In other news: in a fit of extravagance, instead of just buying a case for my new iPad, I ordered an Apple smart keyboard, which is both a case and an actual keyboard, and it arrived today. I've had cause in the past few years to be pretty disgruntled with Apple and its products, but sometimes they just get it spot on. I'm enjoying using the iPad, which was not ruinously expensive, and the keyboard is a great example of an Apple product that "just works". No faffing with Bluetooth or anything like that. Slot the iPad into the case, and it's ready to go with the screen neatly propped up. If you don't need the keyboard, just flip it back out of the way like an ordinary case.