I spent the weekend at the Dublin Irish Festival. Sadly, it was Dublin, Ohio and not Ireland. But still: the nicest Irish fest I've been to yet. Big, clean, well run and plenty of good acts. I was here with RY and GH. RY was brought out from The Cities to run sound for an internationally touring Irish band, considered by many to be one of the best Irish bands the world in their genre of traditional session style Irish music. Being associated with the band by extension meant I got to spend time with, get to know and play music with musicians that are at such a high level of skill and musicianship that people would pay a great deal for the opportunity. I managed to get invites from these people to play, jamming until 4 am. A wonderful time.
This is a rare opportunity for the bands as well. They all tour most of the year, but don't have as many opportunities to be all in the same place together all weekend, so they swap songs and stories, bum cigarettes, talk nose to nose and buy each other drinks. It was a reminder to me of how hard the touring life can be. Not necessarily physically, though it can be that too, but emotionally. For most bands like this, the only people they can count on are the bandmates, everyone else they see and interact with changes from day to day. Having a relationship, a dog, or even an apartment is frequently impossible. This weekend was a chance for these musicians to see not just fellow countrymen and women and hear familiar voices and accents... but to see genuine old friends that have their own tour schedules year round so their paths rarely cross. It was lovely to watch and I'm happy for all of them to have these sorts of opportunities.
this week I'm packing to move, which will be be on Sunday the 15th. Chemo the following Tuesday, which will hopefully be the last round. I also need to work on switching my health Insurance this week, which will mean that I am have Dr. Hunter at Mayo do the followup and schedule the surgery. Hopefully this will all be done with by thanksgiving.
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3 comments:
Ahhhh, so that's why you went dark for a while. Good to hear about connecting with the other musicians.
I've got some decorations for your new place! Actually, they came from the process of getting stuff organized for our own move.
A jog down memory lane: Do you remember your idea (you were about 10 at the time) that the way to make a car would be to take a gigantic block of wood and carve away the outside to a car shape, and then hollow out the inside until you had the interior just right and -- voila! A car. I think I said something like: "Yeeeess, that COULD work, I think, but, see, usually they start with off-the-shelf parts, like sheets of metal, and stamp them." I did hate stepping on your idea, though.
Anyway, the furnishings we are bringing over reminded me of all that. Massive wood, and all that.
--D
Thanks for the update, Michael, since I check your blog at least once every day, it seemed like a long time since we had heard from you. It is wonderful to hear that the delay was due to having so much fun.
Re D's memory above: At age 10, you had a large collection of balsa wood and a set of carving knives. You were making carvings of cars, rockets, spaceships and other phallic objects, some of which I still have.
Uhhhh, Michael at age 10 with carving knives? Does that sound like a wise idea?
--D
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