folk festival (belated! I just got back from bc)

Well, I honestly can't believe it's over.

And all that I'm left with is some American Apparel clothing and an autographed shirt that says "Cleveland, you've got to be tough" on it. I guess I have a ton of memories too.

The festival gave me a chance to appreciate music and musicians (some musicians, that is) a lot more. The workshops that I went to this year were fantastic, it's amazing what can happen when so much talent comes together, no matter how different or the same. The volunteer experience was great, I worked with some very cool people. I gained a lot of insight from the job I was doing and the people who surrounded me. It was a great learning experience. I definitely have some highlights to go through.

the silly things I liked

-I loved being so busy all the time, walking around, trying to help
-the parties at the end where excellent people-watching occurred
-people-watching throughout the day, although the neo-bohemians are less abundant than at winnipeg
-getting great seats for everybody and everything
-the oddly therapeutic process of pricing cd's
-everyone's lackadaisical attitude
-seeing the audience change in seconds from one workshop to another (old folkies, to hipsters in tight jeans)

-I thought the volunteer shirts were cool
-adrienne young (from adrienne young & little sadie, I didn't get a chance to listen to them) giving us her jackets and short merchandise. so now I have nice new green american apparel shorts and a new brown american apparel jacket.

the real highlights

-enjoying something you wouldn't expect to like in the real world
-rufus wainwright never ceasing to amaze me in his lederhosen. being able to witness his sound check with a couple other people. I was kinda getting tired of him, but after his energetic and refreshing performance thursday night, I was full of rufus-love. we had the best seats in the house, in the front of the dance floor.
-hearing nathan play at lunch, it's hard not to fall in love with them. they're a pretty perfect folk fest band. I loved the idea of their workshop with tuvan throat singers and chumbawumba.
-jon rae and the river were amazing, I have heard them before, but they're incredible live. it's like a phenomenon!
-I saw all four of final fantasy's sets. owen pallett never failed to impress. I have no doubt that his performances made the black glasses-wearing-cool t-shirted-tight jeaned-indie-kids wonder if he actually did poo clouds. anyways I sat pretty-mezmerized in the front for his sets. it was not unlike tuvan throat-singing in that I couldn't fully comprehend how cool it sounded.
-I really like eleni mandell and the cape may, two-artists that I have heard of before, but not totally gotten into.

lowlights

-don mclean singing the chorus of american pie 93 times.

back.

hello everyone!

I am back from my not-so-brief bit o' laziness there.
Well, I suppose it wasn't all lazy. I finished up my ridiculously easy provincial exams, (as well as school) and I went to my cottage. I did cottage-y things like swim in the lake, fish for walleye, canoe, draw, paint, read. I actually did a fair bit of reading, I read about 7 Kurt Vonnegut books, and about 10 other books. On the long and annoying trip home, I read A Fine Balance, about the lives and experiences of four people living in India in the 70's. Poverty, death, violence, the brutality and oppression of the caste system. It was probably not the best book to read in two days, although it was well-written I found it a bit overwhelming. I dunno why there was a little "Oprah's Book Club" stamp on it, I thought Oprah recommended fabricated memoirs and lame-self help books. Anyways, it was a nice cottage vacation. I also managed to catch a day of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, it was really a great experience.

Anyways, I'm back at home trying to get used to modern civilization and already very much used to long car trips. Tomorrow I'm heading to Nelson. So it goes.

And on Thursday the much anticipated event of the summer begins, the folk fest! I will try to give you updates on that.