Monday, July 30, 2007

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.




4 comments:

Becky said...

I couldn't stop laughing at Wainwright's yodelling pants... he's too cool!
And yes, I love American Pie, but McLean did draw it out a bit. And I saw my mother dance in this really cute-but-creepy-way which kind of haunts my dreams :P

hilary m. said...

I know!!
I thought he was hilariously campy. It was pretty fantastic.

Yeah, I know all the words and stuff. But he kinda ruined it for me. AH!! Me too, my mum was like singing and dancing to it..

Barbara Bruederlin said...

hahahaha I'm probably the same age as your moms, but the last thing I wanted to do was dance to American Pie. I have heard it 9 million times too many during my lifetime already. Actually we didn't even stay for Don McLean's set.

But are you saying you got some Adrienne Young short shorts? Now how cool is that? I have to admit I've never seen short shorts sold at the merch table before. The only thing that would have been better would have been some Rufus Lederhosen for sale.

Did you notice that O Palz is going to be playing an all-ages show at the Warehouse on Oct 18?

I sure would go see J-R&tR again!

hilary m. said...

Yeah, I wasn't really into it. We were originally working, but we left because nobody seemed to need us closing up.

Yeah, it was pretty cool. Adrienne Young seemed to have quite the variety of merch. But Lederhosen, I'd totally be into that.

Sure did!! I'm 98% going, and 100% glad it's all ages. But, my heart breaks to miss the Weakerthans at Mac Hall. But it was either the Weakerthans or San Francisco. I'm still bummed out. =(