1. Happy 2017! Here’s what Emilyn Stam (fb) and I got up to as the year changed:

    https://youtu.be/IgD1Juw6Yk0

    Emilyn Stam (5 string fiddle) and Barnaby Walters (hurdy gurdy) playing some tunes in the basement at Folk Marathon 2016 Tübingen. 2016 changed into 2017 half way through the third tune (in our timezone, at least).

    High Park Schottisch (John David Williams)
    Squat Waltz (Barnaby Walters)
    Kathryn’s Yellow Schottisch (Emilyn Stam)

  2. Buying viola strings at justmusic.de in Berlin is a weird process. You choose the strings at the desk on the top floor, who give you a piece of paper and tell you to go to the ground floor. By the time you’ve got there, the strings have arrived in a little vacuum tube thing, and you pay for them.

    I’m not entirely sure how this works for the pianos and do not intend on buying one to find out, unless they have a vacuum-tube to Iceland as well.

  3. Today the office dog insists on playing catch with a tiny piece of paper, which goes something like this:

    HEY HEY HEY HERE IS A SMALL SCRAP OF PAPER MAYBE YOU WOULD LIKE TO THROW IT FOR ME HMM YES PAPER

    AH HA YES THANK YOU FOR THROWING THE PAPER I WILL NOW EXCITEDLY FETCH IT AS IF IT WAS THE FINEST OF TREASURE

    EXCELLENT I HAVE DISCOVERED THE PAPER AND WILL NOW BRING IT BACK FOR THE HUMAN TO THROW AGAIN

    HUMAN HERE IS THE

    OH APPARENTLY I ATE IT SORRY I WILL FIND ANOTHER