Ibiza settles into winter
Just back from a little 5-day break in Barcelona and the Pyrennes...got my tenor sax fixed(for 30 Euros), by a 64 year old archtipical craftsman named Tudó, who has a workshop the size of a closet in a loft on the Calle de la Univesidad in Barcelona, and fixes saxophones from all over the world.
The last couple of days on Ibiza have been rainy...which is welcome, but inconvenient for things like walking the dog...or trying to get home with a pizza before it gets soggy.
The more welcome signs of winter are emerging......reservations in hotels fall off to a trickle, which is great, because it gives me a chance, (and the energy) to practice my saxophone without too much interruption and to attend the different little winter jam sessions around Santa Eulalia.
I was really inspired by the Mark Vinci concert in Can Ventosa on Nov. 28th, and I am not the only one...
the guy is such an awesome master of the sax...the concert went an hour overtime....he had the public in his pocket, and he knew it...there was a lot of love in that auditorium, and I am sure that every sax player on the island that attended his jazz workshop and the concert was just hang-jawed...and it was a joy and a priviledge to play with him....so I have been busting my chops on iim, V7, I chord progressions and my favorite jazz standards.
Meanwhile, Ibiza has been 'Americanizing' its preparations for Christmas.
26 years ago, when I first came here permanently, you didn't hear or see a lot of hoopla about
Santa Claus and the reindeer (beginning the end of OCTOBER). Christmas was, as it should be;
for kids.
That meant that the celebration was not in December, but January, and had to do with the
'Three Kings' and their gifts for the newborn in Jerusalem. So the celebration was really an excuse to give presents to kids.
Hell, you even had to look hard to find a turkey or a Christmas tree in December....its' all different now....
everybody feels compelled to 'cash in', and Barcelona as well as Ibiza are, as of this writing, over run with local shoppers frantically searching for a lot of crap they do not need to give to
a lot of other people who also do not need it.
What would happen if there was a law that 25% of what everybody spends on Christmas had to go to 'Medicos Sin Fronteras' or 'Save the Children'?....I think it would be a good start, so that is what Doris and I have decided to do.....and I am sure we are going to sleep a lot easier,
when we pause to think about our excesses over this Christmas season.
Anyway, for now, the stress of 2 million tourists has evaporated, and the natives and residents settle into a familiar routine of quiet dinner parties, musical evenings, chess, comraderie (and saxophone practice).
Bob
The last couple of days on Ibiza have been rainy...which is welcome, but inconvenient for things like walking the dog...or trying to get home with a pizza before it gets soggy.
The more welcome signs of winter are emerging......reservations in hotels fall off to a trickle, which is great, because it gives me a chance, (and the energy) to practice my saxophone without too much interruption and to attend the different little winter jam sessions around Santa Eulalia.
I was really inspired by the Mark Vinci concert in Can Ventosa on Nov. 28th, and I am not the only one...
the guy is such an awesome master of the sax...the concert went an hour overtime....he had the public in his pocket, and he knew it...there was a lot of love in that auditorium, and I am sure that every sax player on the island that attended his jazz workshop and the concert was just hang-jawed...and it was a joy and a priviledge to play with him....so I have been busting my chops on iim, V7, I chord progressions and my favorite jazz standards.Meanwhile, Ibiza has been 'Americanizing' its preparations for Christmas.
26 years ago, when I first came here permanently, you didn't hear or see a lot of hoopla about
Santa Claus and the reindeer (beginning the end of OCTOBER). Christmas was, as it should be;
for kids.
That meant that the celebration was not in December, but January, and had to do with the
'Three Kings' and their gifts for the newborn in Jerusalem. So the celebration was really an excuse to give presents to kids.
Hell, you even had to look hard to find a turkey or a Christmas tree in December....its' all different now....
everybody feels compelled to 'cash in', and Barcelona as well as Ibiza are, as of this writing, over run with local shoppers frantically searching for a lot of crap they do not need to give to
a lot of other people who also do not need it.
What would happen if there was a law that 25% of what everybody spends on Christmas had to go to 'Medicos Sin Fronteras' or 'Save the Children'?....I think it would be a good start, so that is what Doris and I have decided to do.....and I am sure we are going to sleep a lot easier,
when we pause to think about our excesses over this Christmas season.
Anyway, for now, the stress of 2 million tourists has evaporated, and the natives and residents settle into a familiar routine of quiet dinner parties, musical evenings, chess, comraderie (and saxophone practice).
Bob
Labels: Ibiza
