Maugorn

Man, Spoutwood ( Mayday Fairie Festivalt at Spoutwood Farm) took *all* of my hitpoints this year. I spent yesterday, kind of hovering around zero.
I'm better today.
I definitely need to get back into a little bit better shape.

I lent out more than the usual amount of soundgear this time, which caused considerable extra work on arrival and on Friday night.

Played alot, but not nearly enough.

Did some re-connecting and made some new connections too, which is always a good sign.

Had a worrisome Sunday morning. I've noticed that the Lady Caffeina and I are not the best chums we used to be, especially in environments that are very high stress and high activity. My sleep apnea, combined with the accompanied increased heart rate has me waking up more often, and sometimes with my pulse all a-rhythmic. The Dr says not to panic in such situations, that as long as it resets itself after awhile, that I'll be okay. But to avoid the triggers, like caffeine in high stress high activity scenarios.
But I was so wiped every night that I'd barely have any energy for after hours socialising.

So I had a not very happy Sunday morning. My pulse was not right and my energy was way low. As luck would have it, my Spoutwood Family again, had my back. I got a ride down the hill, and was able to get myself set up to play without any further exasperation of the problem. And then I made a great discovery that I will definitely be using further if I catch more incidents like this:
SINGING (with some mild guitar) helps reset my heart rate to regular again. Most of the morning puttering about, I was miserable. But a half hour into playing and I was right as rain. (well, as right as one could be without enough sleep or food playing in the heat). The hospitality area was my friend as well, having a decent amount of cold water, and little snacks, especially watermelon!

Ultimately tho, this crap has got to stop. Yes, I'll be chasing down a sleep study soon and figuring out how to improve things.
(Exercise will be one of them). If I can ease the apnea enough that I get more good nights of sleep, my afternoons can BE more productive, and that can include more activity.

Sunday packing up and packing out was definitely the low point. I was SO hungry and SO beat. Fortunately, the folks who borrowed stuff from me all put in an outstanding effort to make sure it all came back and to also make sure that it was where I could find it (which included, in one case, simply leaving it where I had left it). MAN, my crap is heavy! But I was fed dinner and I felt much better to drive home afterwards. I still had to drag myself away with my "Inner 4 Year Old" throwing a temper tantrum and screaming "NO!!!! I WANT TO STAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" I see that all afternoon on the path out of the farm, and I honestly can't blame them.

But now for the good news:
Once again, I took some opportunities to make some "field recordings" and while there is alot of chaff and noisy takes, there are (I'm fairly certain), some very juicy KEEPERS in there. Look for some of these to show up on my website real soon.
(or on albums later)
One in particular will be a side of me you've never heard before!
I may be able to get to some of it today.

So, once again, the Fairies have thoroughly had their way with me, and I'm left totally trashed, and with a sad, silly grin.
This is still my favourite gig, my chance to play in Pepperland, and chase off the Blue Meanies with love, joy, and song.

Speaking of Blue Meanies,
The festival once again attracted those ridiculous protesters who want us to believe that Fairyland is congruent somehow with Christian Hell. I had an interesting thought about them. Whenever you engage in the very hard work that it takes to change the World and recruit others to join you, you inevitably have problems with burnout if you push people or let them push themselves too hard. No one has a monopoly on this fact.
But these protesters are setting themselves up for a very strange bit of psychological baggage as they essentially make a calling for themselves, spending huge amounts of time, energy, and probably money, visiting places they hate to harass people they *don't* like. Imagine what it does long-term to someone's head, to constantly be called to go to places that you don't approve of, that you don't like, where you're NOT HAPPY, and expressing nothing but displeasure at the people there.
And the issue of these places growing, and prospering DESPITE your efforts has got to make an additional impression.
Add the side issue, that the people you're targeting are essentially, all having fun, laughing, smiling, being happy, while you don't get to. Some of the protestors are probably fine people who are just a bit misled (well, alot), but imagine how broken your soul must be to fell ANGER that people are having a good time and being happy. Not everyone will give up this activity, but among the ones that do, I will make a prediction-
When these people burn out of protesting (and some of them will, because this sort of thing happens to EVERY GROUP), look for them to be saying things like:
"I JUST want to do something FUN for a change."
or
"I JUST want to be somewhere where I can be HAPPY!"
For some of those folks, finding happiness could be as easy as crossing the street. THAT'S gonna be interesting if/when it happens. For others, they're just gonna go away and leave us be. That's fine too.

And here's the thing. I remain optimistic that most people in this country ARE content to let people be happy, even if it means that they spend some of their free time prancing about in strange clothes with fake wings attached. I see the loudness and shrillness of these protesters (and others) as a sign of desperation that they *are* in fact, losing power.
Unfortunately, they haven't all given up or lost their cause just yet. But if we want them to continue to NOT WIN,
It's up to us to maintain our own missions and keep strong in the fact of their harassment, not necessarily by opposing them with similar loudness or shrillness (tho a good, stylish counter-protest is certainly called for here and there), but with laughter.
Set an example for them by showing how easy it is to BE happy in this world, and how possible it is to have fun and to celebrate. THAT message, I believe, will get thru in the end.
And for championing that message, I have one of a zillion reasons to LOVE SPOUTWOOD FARM!