Pandemic Times

Oh man, where do I start. There have always been times where I could not keep up with live and sometimes my blog is not updated for weeks. And then it gets better and I promise myself to be improving on that and start posting regularly like every two weeks or so. I got to the point where I managed that for a certain period but...we all know what happened next. Craziest and very unexpected pandemic throwing our everyday lifes all over the place. 

At the beginning of march I found myself at home mounting my benchvise to my desk to finish my latest build before I would take the train and drive to Giengen, Bavaria in order to attend the beautiful festival Jule Malischke organizes once a year. These pictures are actually the last work I did on a guitar since then. What was planed to be a improvised shortcut became much bigger and much more important for me and my business to survive the time ahead. 

I arrived in Freiburg on march the 5th 10 o´clock pm to visit my good friend and fellow luthier Wilm Stötzel. We planed to drive to Giengen together the next day. Which we did. On the Autobahn we phoned another friend and also luthier Max Spohn and arranged to meet him at his parents home. From there we would all three go to the festival. But that never happened. On march 6th about 6 pm we received a message from Jule saying that the festival cannot take place and has to be postponed due to an order from the provincial government. It was shocking news. And slowly the realization dropping in that this Covid-19 will have a larger effect on us than first expected. 

Still thanks to the overwhelming hospitality of Max´s parents we could meet with some of the artist that would have played at the festival and had a great time. I mean when do you have the chance to have Will McNicol, Antonio Forcione and Jule Malischke sitting on the couch playing your instruments?!?

But of course it was just making the best of a bad situation and for all the artists and especially for Jule who spend at least the hole year organising the festival it must have been a difficult and painful experience.  

The next I know is that I came back to Bremen and rather than taking my vise back to the shop I would be moving my shop equipement home. The months ahead will be exhausting, uncertain, filled with ups and downs and quite a lack of time and sleep. But I will try and get things updated here step by step. 

At least I can say I improved my latte art...