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Yrs. t. at Le Depanneur Cafe a few months ago... didn't get photos from last night... [Photo: Adrien Chevrot]

Just getting over two weeks and a half where work quite took over. This week I got called in for a full slate of supply teaching plus my 9 hour regular shift in the evenings. Last week, even more work. Made plenty of $$$ (for me at least) but already I feel significantly out of touch with Brian the poet. I'm looking forward to contacting him again.

Tonight though was truly refreshing: I performed some of my songs & read from my translation of Santos at Volver Cafe, sharing the stage with another singer-songwriter named Normand Raymond and an excellent Django Reinhardt-inspired jazz quartet lead by guitarist Philippe Albert. I'm happy to report that the cafe was packed. (40 people? 50?) And show went très bien. The audience was really warm and responsive, a happy surprise considering that there was no smoke in the air nor alcoholic drinks at the tables: just a lot of Latin Americans and French Quebecoises, whose hot blood more than made up for the cold air outside.

When a singer sings out, he or she breathes in as much as ten times as much air as someone sitting in the audience. So I must admit, nice it is to sing in a smoke-free environment: no bronchitis-like symptoms afterwards, no stinging eyes. Some day, perhaps, we'll look back on ashtrays in bars as we look on spittoons today: once a standard saloon feature, now those dinky brass chamber pots look just plain weird.