One group I remembered from a previous trip, as they’re one of the few groups in La Habana to play a real old-style son with a marimbula and a botija instead of a double bass! The group is called Típico de Sones, and I’ve included here a clip of us jamming together on Compay Segundo’s Chan chan.

We’ve been asked to do the gig in the past, but the dates never worked out for all of the musicians involved. Finally, this year, everyone was in town and free and willing to help out this great organization. The result was a super street party featuring Barrio del Este as the “headlining” act.

Our friend and de facto fan club president Noriko Nookoo was there to document the event, and came away with several great photos and some fine video clips, including the one you see here (click on the image in the top left of the article to play the video). Noriko has been nice enough to set up and run our Barrio del Este Facebook Page, open to anyone (no need to be on Facebook already), where you can find many recent photos and videos like this one – go check it out!

The photos are all taken with the iPhone – I must say, I am fairly impressed with the quality of the iPhone pics. Of course, it’s no replacement for a real camera, but I love having it handy all the time. Every time I go on a trip I either forget my camera or forget to take it out when exciting things are happening. So having a phone that also takes decent pictures is just what I need.

I shouldn’t forget to mention that another big part of our trip (as it usually tends to be, with Cécile and I) was the FOOD.

Two words :

YUMMY

Although we did visit the Basilica and see the Sistine Chapel (breathtaking, of course), my real ecstatic experience took place at Giolitti’s gelateria, where I had the most amazing pistacchiogelato of all time. I also highly recommend a little place just next to Piazza di Pietra, Antonio al Pantheon, where I devoured a scrumptious maltagliatti al tartufo nero. Delicioso!

I whipped up a swell invite in photoshop, which you can see by clicking on the image here. Lots of fun 80s icons. As they say in show business: Good times, great oldies.

Ask me for more info…

In Bonifacio, on the southern tip of the island, we took a trip on a boat to see the cliffs and some small islands only accessible by sea. On the way back, we had a great time perched on the very front of the boat (the prow, I think?), as the increasingly big waves got us wet and bounced us around. We gasped together as a particularly huge wave, The Big Kahuna, approached the boat. As we hit the wave, we were thrown from our seats and promptly crashed back down onto the deck. When I heard the way that Cécile was screaming her head off, I knew she must be feeling the same excruciating pain that I was, starting at the base of the spine and spreading basically everywhere.

We crawled and slid back onto the main deck (back injury or no, we couldn’t stay out on the prow the way waves were bouncing people around up there), gritted our teeth for the remaining minutes of our sea excursion, and were rushed to the hospital, where we found out that we had matching fractured vertebrae. Nothing serious, as far as back injuries go. Just a week in the hospital, and six weeks wearing a plastic corset to hold the bones in place. Oh yeah, and no “strenuous activity” for 3 months.

Full Size

Together à l'hôpital

So we were airlifted back to Paris (sounds fancy, but actually they just strap you into a stretcher and slide you in between the backs of the seats and the overhead compartments of a regular commercial airplane), where we’ve been convalescing under the watchful eye of Cécile’s parents. Nothing like fine french food and wine to mend broken bones, eh? Still, our internet access has been limited, and they things that we can actually do on our own are still pretty limited too, so things have been feeling very slow lately. Can’t wait to get “back” into the swing of things…

The thing that tipped the scales in favor of inviting absolutely everyone was the extremely generous offer by Cécile’s parents to pay for our reception at Chateau du Bois La Croix, out in Pontault-Combault. Since we got married on a Friday (thank you, City Hall), the place was still available at the last minute, and we got a good deal. So I rounded up all my musician friends to keep the dancefloor hot – thanks to Eddy, Nils, Maklouf, Leon, and François for making it a happening scene.

Friends from the states: don’t despair! We’re in the planning stages now for La Version Americaine, to take place in my home state of New Hampshire, sometime in the summer of 2009. Plenty of time for everyone to reserve plane tickets and hotel rooms well in advance! We’ll keep you posted on what’s happening!

Update : The wedding in the states is right around the corner – at time of writing, just under a month and a half away! To those that are coming, see you in Conway, and to those friends (too many!) who can’t make it, we’ll be thinking of you!