The reason behind this blog.

Yesterday was the "forum des associations" in this small town in Seine et Marnes. As the music director of the Town Band, I had to spend most of the day manning our stand in order to recruit new members and communicate to people about exactly what it is that we do. The event takes place in a gymnasium which is almost always a furnace by the end of the day. As there weren't that many people there to begin with, I began to occupy myself by reading various things that people had left on our table.

I noticed a stack of brochures for something called "ArtBorescence" and realized that I knew most of the people listed. As a matter of fact, the majority were my neighbors here at La Marchoise...none of whom I saw during the course of the day. The other name was that of a former mayor of Lagny...who I did see. As a matter of fact, I saw pretty much everyone that I know here in Lagny at one point or another...but not one of the people who live in this reconverted factory which specialized in processing fur and hides. I certainly had heard nothing of this exposition, although I had a stack of these brochures next to my own material about the Band.

I found this to be rather ironic, since La Marchoise and the Town Band is rather entwined, and on several different levels. Many of the people who play in the band used to work here when it was in operation. This direct connection with the life of the town and the Marcheoise is one of the reasons why I accepted the position of Town Band Director when it was offered to me over ten years ago.

Back then, in the dark ages before Twitter and other online services started occupying most of of our attention, not many people were online...At least not in the way that they are online today. So, my online life was very separate from my IRL existence. In the course of five or so years, this has changed radically and it seems that I find out more about my neighbors from the Facebook page that some of them have set up than from any spoken discussions or other direct interactions.

It seemed to make more and more sense to communicate using this medium, to convey ideas about what this place is, what this place could be and why I think that this process should take place. Whether or not this will be useful is another question...