Thanks to my rather more cautious drinking at the Saturday night concert, I was reasonably capable of functioning on the Sunday morning. Ed Emery read Nikos Politis' paper, entitled "The Zeibekiko and Hasapiko dances in the Rebetika songs genre". It was unfortunate that Nikos was unable to attend the conference, and I wish him a speedy recovery.
Ed's reading of the paper was followed by a discussion session centred on Zeibekiko and the island of Lesbos. A few other matters were discussed, including a suggested format for song sheets to be used at the London jam sessions, and the possibility of setting up a web site with photographs of Hydra. The dates of the next conference and its subject matter were announced, and suddenly it was all over, apart from the possibility of jam sessions round the harbour.
So I went and found a restaurant I had not tried before, and had some sardines, a salad and a nice ouzo.
Suitably fortified against the stiff breeze that had sprung up, I went in search of music, and found it happening at the Pirate Bar. I made quite a few recordings here, although wind noise on the microphones was a problem. I noticed that the light on the mainland mountains was unusually beautiful, and tried to get a satisfactory photograph of it, see for yourself whether I managed it.
I spent a pleasant afternoon at the Pirate Bar, chatting with friends and aquaintances while continuing to record the music, before eventually wandering off to my hotel for some much needed sleep.
The next day, as the saying goes, I went home.
The next conference will take place on Hydra from 18th October 2007 to 21 October 2007. The conference title is "Rebetiko - The Instruments". The instruments on the agenda are the accordion, santouri and baglama, so I will be bringing my baglama with me, as well as (for the first time) my family.