Our Valentine's Day Tradition

Bears & Friends Gelatine-free Heart Mix

Herr J started a tradition last year of taking me to an unusual event for Valentine's weekend. So far, he's two for two in successful, unusual events.

Last year we went to the GOP. No, not a conservative convention....the GOP Varieté in Munich. It's a German variety show and dinner theatre, full of acrobatic, comedy, and other talent acts. Luckily, the man next to us was pulled up onto stage - I'm not sure how I would have done that without being able to communicate well! The acrobats on the long strips of cloth were my favorite, along with a very unique juggling act by the very talented Abddi the Master Juggler.

This year, Herr J arranged a full Valentine's weekend of new and different activities, including a mystery concert on Saturday night. He wouldn't tell me what it was, and said it was impossible to guess because it was so odd. He was correct, but it also was good.

We kicked off Valentine's weekend with a Cuban-Bavarian Folk fusion band. Really. It's shocking, but the two styles can blend well. The Cuban percussion and rhythms add somethign to the Bavarian style, and some of the yodeling type sounds work well in a Cuban style.  Their sax/clarinet player was really somethign special - he played both soprano and what we think was a bass saxaphone. Though I did have some moments of painful Kenny G flashbacks during a couple of his solos. Maybe it was the recent Superbowl commercial, maybe he was just that good. Though I wanted Cuban music, not muzak!

This band seems to have a pretty wide following here, as they sold out a suburban community center with over 500 seats (by our rough count). Die Cuba Boarischen ("Boarisch" is slang for Bavarian) travels to Cuba for a few weeks per year, exchanging culture and music, and gaining inspiration. They have a pretty extensive tour around Germany, too.

Here's one of their songs, blending two Cuban and Bavarian songs about the train, switching between styles and languages:

On Sunday we took a short train trip into the mountains for a completely different experience, followed up on Monday (actually Valentine's Day) with a fabulous dinner. More about those tomorrow!