Unexpectedly, I have spent much of the weekend curled up on the couch feeling wretched. Starting Thursday my ulcer acted up big time...the worst it's been in ages. I was so disappointed beside feeling lousy. I'd been experimenting with going off the low fodmap diet (hence tacos the night before) and I guess this answered my question of whether I could go off it. Very disappointing but obviously not the worst thing in the world. It just kinda sucks for someone who adores to cook with tons of onion and garlic. Ah well. I'll just have to get more creative with flavors. I comforted myself with binge watching Poldark and obsessively tracking historical inaccuracies with their wineglasses. (Also...white wedding dresses in the 18th century? Referring to a honeymoon in the 1790s? All those women wearing their hair down? Hmph). Look at this picture below for Christ's sake. I ask you, does that look like a 1790's wineglass? NO, it does not. It's huge and it's fucking pressed glass. GEEZ.
Despite that, I enjoyed it. I did throw myself off when I was watching episode 7 of the first season and couldn't figure out how I had missed some major plot twists. I went back and read a synopsis o earlier episodes...still couldn't figure it out....until I realized I was watching episode 7 of season 3. Whoops.
In other news, (there's not much since I've been holed up), last night our beloved Eric Brace did a Facebook live stream of his record release show for his new album Cartes Postale: OH MY LORD! Of course I always love anything Eric puts out but this really blew us away. It's a collection of French songs from the 20's up to the turn of the century and he sings it in French. Side note...one of the last times they were here my friend Karen brought a group of teachers visiting from France and Eric started chatting away in French to them. Heather looked at me, rolled her eyes, and said, "Of COURSE Eric speaks French." Heh. Anyway...evidently his father was French, hence his comfort with the language. And you HAVE to love a man who wears a sparkly jacket for the occasion and googled videos of Sammy Davis, Jr for tips on how to rock singing on a stool. I love that man. We sat in the kitchen and watched it while I hopped over to the stove to cook dinner periodically. It was heavenly.
Ignore my rambling, just go buy the album. The songs and the playing are phenomenal and it just sweeps you away. Eric's got a group of amazing musicians together but the guy that knocked us over last night was Rory Hoffman on guitar, accordion, banjo, saxophone, clarinet, harmonica...yes, wow....and he was a hell of a whistler to boot. We just laughed in delight while listening last night. Not that we were in bad moods when it started but we felt lifted up by it just the same. Highly, highly recommended!
From the Red Beet website:
It is Eric's tribute to his late father, Paul Brace, born in Paris in 1923, and who came to the U.S. after WWII, carrying hardly anything but his harmonica.
Cartes Postales is a sublime collection of eleven French songs from the 1920s through the 2000s that were originally recorded by Django Reinhardt, Charles Trenet, Lucienne Boyer, Henri Salvador, Georges Ulmer, and more.
Eric called on one of the most extraordinary musical talents of our time, Rory Hoffman, to create Cartes Postales. Rory is a blind multi-instrumentalist whose facility with nearly any instrument you can name -- and with nearly any musical style you can name -- made him the obvious choice for the album. Layering track upon track of gypsy guitar, clarinet, accordion, piano, saxophone, banjo, harmonica, and more, Rory created an spectacular musical landscape, alongside bassist Mark Fain and drummer Lynn Williams.
Here's a brief clip from the Facebook Live stream last night. Thanks and love to you Eric!