Monthly Archive for September, 2005

I woke up at 9:00. Boy, I was tired. we headed down to breakfast and there was a delicious egg/bacon keesh (I know it’s not spelled that way but I’m taking a bit of artistic liscence there), peach cobbler, a tomato with a dab of mozzerella and delicious orange juice. After a filling bunch o’ that, we went back to the fairgrounds to pack up. Since Luke was the organizer (and liked to be in charge) we had to find him. I looked all over and there wasn’t a trace of him. I finally decided that I should go to the bathroom (you kinda have to do that before sitting in a car for 3 hours), about 5 paces from the door, somebody signaled me from a van and I went to it. By the time I saw who was inside, I saw people. There was people I don’t know playing and Luke was playing. So I told him to go to the car after the song was done and he did. After saying our goodbyes, we left.

We kinda got confused at a few points but we stayed pretty much on track. I wasn’t tired but when I closed my eyes, I suddenly became 3/4 asleep and when I opened my eyes, I was wide awake. An interesting feeling.

At Tracy, we stopped by Peter’s house (he’s ran for council or mayor so when he runs again, be sure to give him lots of votes). He was doing a non-speaking role in a play . . . except he had to sing two songs and dance. He was playing a ghost. He showed us the song he was practicing and Luke noticed that the song he was playing (on the ‘puter) and the song he was singing (from the sheet music) were two different songs. That helped a lot. But anyway, he did really good I thought. It ain’t simple like Bluegrass.

About two hours later, we headed home. The trip back was uneventful and was good. When we got home, Luke crashed on the couch and went to sleep. He stayed up ’till 4:00am so he was a little exhausted. When we get ready for a festival, he always asks me if I am gonna stay up. Apperantely I get bragging rights if I stay up all night but I got bragging rights if I don’t! I got my sanity rights! I mean sure if I stay up all night, I get to see the sun rise and play a lot (which isn’t all that appealing – though I would enjoy seeing the sun rise) but if I go to sleep when I’m tired, I’m not a semi-living zombie for days after the festival.

So, the two main highlights of the festival is, #1, I didn’t eat a single sandwich I brought! (quite a record) #2, we didn’t use the potato guns a single time (I knew bringing them was a mistake)

We left for Plymouth at around 10:00, Papa stayed home ’cause he was festivaled out. Since the trip was supposed to take 2-3 hours, I decided to bring a good book so I brought God Emperor of Dune (not the best of the bunch but I haven’t read it in a while and it was a lot better than Dune: Chapterhouse) We brought some potato guns to use in the horse stables. We got directions from MapQuest but it turned out to be a Quest to use the Map. We got los. . . confused at a few places and we did some U-turns.

About half way there, we were hungry. We brought salami sandwiches but they weren’t put together (since we put on the veggies, mustard ‘n all on the spot) and since we didn’t want to get out all the stuff, we stopped at Subway to get lunch. Luke said we should get foot long subs. I thought that was for us to split but I guess not. So after ordering two feet of sandwich (which was a mistake and I knew it!), we munched down. I ordered a BMT (which stirred some interesting thoughts) sandwich. Luke saved half of his for after the workshop but I ate all of mine just in case ants got it at camp or it got crushed or whatever. I sure was full. About 3/4 way there, we were driving and we suddenly saw this sheet of metal fly up in the air! Then we saw the dust devil. It wasn’t the standard run of the mill 2-3 foot tall dust devil, this was a tornado! it was about 15 feet wide and a couple hundred feet tall! It’s hard to see in the picture ’cause we were far away but if you look closely, you can see the dust from it.

5 hours later, we arrived at the fairgrounds. There was some confusion ’cause Luke didn’t tell them that Papa didn’t come and Mama and I came. Everything got sorted out and they conviniently led us to Lloyd’s camp!

We talked and played a bit. He did his Sitting On Top of The World song for the 837th time. That song is rreeaalllllyyy getting old. It was almost time for the Workshop so we decided to check in at the Bed ‘n Breakfast (I’ll just call it a hotel ’cause it’s faster to type). Luke was gonna camp and since Mama has a hard time sleeping when a banjo is practicing Rocky Top over and over again, she booked a room at the hotel. I wanted to stay at the hotel ’cause I heard that there was a continental breakfast. It sure was an . . . interesting place. Our name and room was on a board outside. We walked in and there was a lot of antique looking furniture and crap (not bad crap but the good fancy kind. Decorative stuff). Our room was Toys In the Attic. When we opened the door, there was a lot of dolls, a toy chest and stuff of that sort. We heard that there a wedding was gonna happen so we thought it might be very loud at night but the hotel hostess (if you know what I mean) said that people are supposed to be quiet at 9:00pm so that would be good. After we checked in, we went back to the fairgrounds.

Before the workshop began, Lloyd was gonna go get some freshly dipped/fried onion rings and zucchini at the vendors and wanted me to come along. Since it’s not very often that I have freshly dipped and fried onion rings, I came along. Boy, they were frying HUGE onions! Giant rings! The vendor really stacked it up high! The zucchini was really hot but the onion rings were great! That guy probably makes some good money on it considering the cheap cost of oil (cooking oil) and onions from costco.

After a few onion rings and a zucchini stick (which was all I needed to fill up), it was time to for the workshop. We had a nice area with a shade screen with a lot of benches and the works. It went rather well. People seemed to have gotten the jist of it. The fiddle player from Nothing Fancy came at the end and watched a bit.

Afterwards, Jim wanted me to see the Bluegrass Boys play. We got front row seats (’cause he put out his lawn chairs in the front. Keep in mind, this was outside) in front of the speakers. After some near-bluegrass finally stopped playing, the Bluegrass Boys came on. Their size matched their vocals let me tell you. They belted ‘em out. They did some real Bluegrass. Unfortunately, a little goes a long way and halfway through the set, my ears had enough. That would’ve been true with any hard drivin’ bluegrass band.

I went to Lloyd’s and played ’till 10:00pm. Since I had a foot long sandwich and some heavy onion rings, I didn’t have dinner. Since Mama was exhausted from the drive over here and I was rather tired from staying up late watching Sienfeld last night, we went to the hotel early. It was very quiet at the hotel which was nice. I fell asleep rather easily (after checking the tube to see if Sienfeld was on [just out of curiosity!])

So, I went to the Shamisen teacher at the More Music store (where he teaches). Before I left, Luke gave me a two way radio so I could talk to him. We “chatted” (if you can call it that) till I got to the building then I hung up.

I was a bit early so I fooled around with the banjos and guitars ‘n all. while I was in double C banjo tuning, Kevin came (the shamisen player). When we when we went into the lesson room of the store, I saw how small the rooms were and I knew how loud the Shamisen was and I thought of my ears. After we tuned up, he demonstrated some things and sure enough with the door closed and with extra thick walls, my ears were screaming for a bit but they adjusted. He said that since we were the only people in the lesson room section of the building, we didn’t have to worry about loudness but if there’s somebody teaching in another room, we’d have to be a bit softer.

Since he knew I played music, he skipped over the “what is a note” part an then he showed me the basic technique and then we got cookin’ on a basic song. a half hour passed quickly but it was great. I tried playing some of the stuff on my Shamisen but it didn’t have as much *umph* and it was hard to bring the notes out (since on his Shamisen, the notes almost melted out of the bachi [if you know what I mean] when it hit the strings) so I might get a Tsugaru Shamisen somwhere.

After that, we had some light conversation and left. I turned on my cell phone style walkie talkie and hit the ringer and Mama came on. She said she was going to the Farmer’s Market so I went there to get some strawberries.