winnipeg folk festival

Another hot and sunny day yesterday at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. The extra day of good weather has helped dry up some of the mud left over from Thursday night's downpour, and definitely makes concert-going a more pleasant experience. :-)

More comments about the WFF. This is my first folk festival, and I wasn't sure exactly what to expect. The grounds are far bigger than I anticipated, with 4-5 concert/workshop venues in use during the daytime. Choosing from among them is often difficult...too many interesting things going on at once! There is no official seating...you bring your own chair, which has to be the type with very short legs (regular lawn chairs are only allowed at the periphery) so that you don't obstruct the view of the people behind you. Sunscreen, insect repellent, and water is essential.

Many have been attending the WFF for years. A subgroup organized by Dave Clement and Co. have named themselves "Baggiecon"...the "Baggie" part resulting from the highly useful large plastic bags that this group uses as a tarp in front of the main stage area. Baggies have an advantage over regular tarps in that you can put things inside (like people) as well as sit on top of them...highly useful during a downpour. At night, we all wear halos made of pink glowsticks...makes it easier to find each other at night. I'm amazed at how well this mini-con has been organized. :-)

So far, we (Baggiecon-types) all generally tend to scatter during the day, attending workshops and concerts that interest us. In the evening we congregate on the baggies, either the "front baggie" or "back baggie". The front baggie is for people who are more serious about listening to the music; the back baggie leans more towards socializing (i.e. conversation, playing cards, etc.). I've stuck to the back baggie so far. :-) Yesterday I played two Magic games with Paul, got penny whistle tips from Allan Thompson, watched Allison get a glowstick braided into her hair.

Last night we went to the campground and made music until four in the morning. Baggiecon newbies like me underwent the "mugging" ritual (the details of which I must keep secret, but I have to confess I was relieved to find out it didn't involve physical pain :)).

post-winnipeg

Back in Toronto, a bit brain-dead but happy. :-)

My visit in Winnipeg went by far too quickly. For me, one of the highlights was the last night of the Festival. More great music, of course, but one of the main stage acts was Sam Baardman! Lots of whistles and cheering from our section of the audience, of course. :-) He performed "The Amazon Is Burning" and "Solar Flare" as well as leading a song in the finale. The finale consisted of a number of singalongs. There's nothing quite like belting out "The Mary Ellen Carter" with a crowd of thousands as an amazing display of Northern Lights flickers in the night sky above. Afterwards we all filed back to the campground (our group was still singing, with others around us joining in :)) for more music until the wee hours. Allison debuted her new song about Baggiecon (I played penny whistle!). Allison and I missed Jodi. :( Lots of different instruments in the circle...Dave Clement and Mark Wise on drums, Kylea and I on flute and penny whistle, Beckett on harmonica, Bill Rintz on fiddle, and of course lots of guitars :-). I had a seat beside Nate Buckland and had a chance to observe his guitarwork close-up...wow. From time to time a stranger would come by from another campsite and join the circle around the campfire, either to listen or to play, or both. We finally headed back to the house at around 5 pm (many many thanks to Paul for being our patient chauffeur during the weekend!) in spite of being nearly devoured by a swarm of hungry mosquitoes who tried following us into the van.

Tom visited in the morning, drove Paul and Beckett to the airport. Then Tom, Allison and I went out for a late breakfast before going to the airport ourselves with Tom, Dave, and Erin. More good-byes. :(

More details likely coming later in the week by Allison; hopefully I'll soon be posting photos here as well.

Some photos and reports from the Festival can be found at the Winnipeg Folk Festival site.

Officemusic: Dee Carstensen, THE MAP (got this at WFF).

more winnipeg highlights

Going on a canoe trip in Algonquin Park tomorrow with our friends Alison George and Jeff Latto. Yes, I've been going on a lot of trips lately...I'm realizing now I was over-ambitious and am suffering the consequences (work overload!).

Other highlights of Winnipeg visit for me:

• Seeing Dave Clement at the steering wheel of a paddleboat on my first night (we went on a riverboat cruise).
• Gord and Graham Leathers performing Media del Arte at the Fringe Festival (they got a rave review in one of the local papers).
• Ruth juggling her crystal sticks.
• Dave Clement's chili.
• Northern Lights on the last night of the Festival.
• Seeing Beckett play harmonica in the darkness of the campground across the music circle...the only thing clearly visible was her glowing Baggiecon halo, which was bobbing up and down in time to the music. :-)
• Whale tails.
• Flute workshop - first time I've ever seen a shakuhachi flute being played.
• Seeing Paul and Karen beam each other info on their Pilots in the middle of the provincial park campground. :-) (I had left mine back at the Bhigg House)
• Flatpicking workshop. (I felt like burning my guitar afterwards :))
• Hearing Anne (don't know her last name) from Minneapolis, an amaaaazing fiddle player and improvises like magic.
• Seeing Sam Baardman on the main stage on the last night of the Festival.
• Vance Gilbert, Four Bitchin' Babes, Thieves of Sleep, Dee Carstensen, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings.
• Doing Rattlin' Bog with Ruth back at the campground.
• Campground music.
• River Boat cruise on my first night (thanks, Tom!)
• Glowing blue and pink Baggiecon halos!
• Nate's bad puns (ok, so I admit I enjoyed them tremendously :-) )

Didn't buy much at the Festival itself, but came away with some special souvenirs that will always mean a lot to me: C penny whistle from Kylea, Prairie Celidh t-shirt from Tom, Winnipeg Folk Festival mug from Nate, cartoon from Al, new percussion thingy from Paul (I had forgotten all my percussion at home! Paul bought me a cool ridged wooden rhythm instrument which I used throughout the weekend), and my Baggiecon mug.

hanging out with alisa

'Twas fun with Alisa yesterday. We just all hung out in various locales and TALKED over endless cups of coffee and hot apple cider and hot chocolate all day and through the evening. The time went by way too fast. And yes, I actually cooked! :-) And made a loaf of braided challah bread from scratch, something I haven't done in years. I actually had intended to use my bread machine but something was wrong with the turn-paddly-thingy so I ended up going the traditional method.

Making bread is wonderfully therapeutic (all that kneading, you know) but it's sure a pain to clean up afterwards! Jeff's fixed the bread machine, though, so I'll try that out this week.

More later...(I'm writing this at 4 a.m., insomnia-stricken, so am probably not too coherent)

p.s. Hey, Inklings has over 45,000 subscribers now, woohoo!

canoe trip report

Thanks to Steve Brinich for the penguin mural picture in today's Blatherings.

Steve writes: "Dunno if any of the DC crowd ever mentioned it, but there's the mural of a large number of penguins as commuters at the Silver Spring Metro station (in both senses of the phrase -- the mural is *at* the Silver Spring station and it *depicts* a large number of penguins commuting via the station. I took some pictures Friday night on the way to my local gaming group -- unfortunately, the conditions were poor and the film got a bit munged when I hit the camera-open control before the film-rewind control."

Really, really enjoyed our canoe trip in Algonquin Park with Alison George and Jeff Latto. We took off early Friday morning for Rock Lake and paddled to Lake Louisa the first day (about a 5k paddle). Took the longest portage the first day. 3k may not be long for a regular hike, but it sure seems a heckuva lot longer when you're carrying a big barrel full of supplies on your back. Two of others were carrying canoes as well as packs. On the portage, we passed a troupe of young campers, and one of the stragglers (accompanied by an encouraging counsellor) was crying as he staggered along with his pack, a little hiccuping sob that made it clear he wasn't fully enjoying his wilderness experience. :-( We camped on Lake Louisa the first night, and feasted on barbecued pork tenderloin...Alison had the great idea of freezing it the night before. By the time we arrived at our campsite, it was just thawed, ready for cooking! Yum....

Second day had lots of portages. Although these were much shorter than the Rock Lake portage, the repeated effort was a bit wearying. By the last portage, however, I was fully into the swing of things and could make the transitions more quickly: (1) pull the canoe out of the water, (2) get my blue barrel, (3) tie my fanny pack onto the barrel (I liked to have the fanny pack handy in the canoe since it contained my sunblock, insect repellent, other essentials), (4) have Jeff help me get the barrel on my back (I wasn't strong enough to easily hoist it onto my back myself, at least not without seriously injuring myself! :-)), (5) take the portage, (6) reverse the whole process and then keep paddling.

Lots of lakes the second day: Rod'n'Gun (don't ask me, I have no idea), Lawrence, Kirkwood, Phipps, Bonnechere. I was very glad to finally get to Big Porcupine Lake. Lots of swimming on this trip! Made it easier to cope with the heat. Picnic lunches along the way...my favourite was on the last (third) day, eating pita pockets filled with peanut butter, jam, and nuts while perched on sunny rocks in the middle of a creek. My favourite dinner was Alison's shrimp jambalaya on the last night (a gorgeous rainbow stretched across the late afternoon sky...we watched the rainbow and the sunset from a rock by the lake). Next day, wen we finally got back to the cottage and dumped our stuff on the dock, the four of us jumped in the lake with all our clothes on in celebration. :-)

Saw lots of wildlife along the way, including a swimming chipmunk (!), herons, loons, merganzer families (one family had 19 little ducklings), lots of bugs, fortunately no bears. :-)

Looking forward to our two-week canoe trip on the Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories next month.

Today's Site is courtesy Katy: Virtual Bubblewrap

Today's Recipe is courtesy Reid Ellis: Jellied Moose Nose.