VARF!

Monday, 24 May 2010 12:34
maugorn: (Default)
Virginia Renfest is still a gig I don't want to miss.
One of the neatest things about it is that the venue, the gig, and I are all still growing.
To me that spells potential and opportunity as they and I find more ways to work with and for each other.

It seemed as if the weather made attendance a bit on the light side. So most of my "stage" performances were only mildly attended. But I made the best of that by playing some of my longer pieces. On both days, however, my best advantage was manifested in their new "dining tent" when some passing showers trapped some folks inside. Nothing like a captive audience, nya hah haaaah. But I did my job and entertained them. They weren't tipping me just because.

On both days, however, I shot myself in the foot real good by not taking the hints that my songpiles were sending me.
It wasn't bad, but I *KNOW* that I could have done better.
ExpandA little backstage glimpse into some of my ways )

some other highlights:
-I saw some old friends, of course, and had a nice time serenading them.

-I had a chance at the Pub Sing on Saturday to try out my re-take of "The Ballad Of William Kidd" on the VARF Pub audience, and, as I predicted, it went over VERY well. Alas tho, it's a little too like a signature piece of another VARF performer and so it might not come out very often there. Fortunately, my conscience can be assuaged in the sure knowledge that I'd planned on doing the song "Sam Hall" (from whence I got the melody I used for William Kidd) for some time. Applying SH's melody to William Kidd was my own independent cleverness on the morning of "Talk like a Pirate Day". and not a plagiarism of this other fellow's equally good idea.

-Another of my VARF treats that I look forward to is that my sets and those of harpist Kathy Hutchins for years now, have often been back to back on the same stage. This has repeatedly given us an opportunity to have our changeovers be a segue where we do a song or tune or two (or three) together. This year was no exception and given how good we sound for playing together only scarce hours every year, it's something we're both very proud of and look much forward to. And if you're not there for these moments, you've missed them!
Hopefully there will be more when I'm back there in two weeks.

-Had some nice time hanging out with a couple of vendor pals who fed me (score!) We then had some fun conversation which ended up with us taking advantage of someone's web- enabled computer and watching Primus's video of "Winona's Big Brown Beaver" on You Tube. My have times changed for the Rennies.

-Like a wimp, I ended up crashing by 9pm on Saturday. But it was GOOOOOOOOOOOD to sleep in like that. I felt much better on Sunday than I have in weeks!

-Finally, I managed to do a very successful bit of barter on Sunday before I left: I traded my whole catalog of CDs for a modest, but nice looking pocketwatch set into a disc of wood.
Those FOOLS at the academy laughed! They LAUGHED because my family could not afford to purchase me a pocket chronometer.
Even with modern tables, my wrist sundial still had me missing airships and critical lectures. But now, I finally have one, and I will SHOW those FOOLS! Oh, yes, I will SHOW THEM ALL! Ah hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"


-On my way home I gave some SERIOUS thought to stopping in at the Cock & Bowl for dinner, which I totally could have written off as a business expense. (hee hee) But the traffic was being uncharacteristically cooperative, and I opted to make it home quickly- which turned out to be the right choice because it allowed me to catch the entirety of the _Lost_ season finale, snuggled up with [livejournal.com profile] patches023 But on some future date....
maugorn: (Default)
1st- The setlist from Morningside last Friday
ExpandMorningside 6/12/09 )
ExpandWhoosh! On to the Guppy Gala! )

Then I got home and quickly printed up a little pile of covers and labels for Crazy Quilt. That was pretty much the ONLY part of my day so far that actually did go as smoothly as could be hoped.

Then on to VARF- Whoosh. I managed to arrive at about 2am, which isn't great, but actually gave me more sleep than I probably would have gotten had I left in the morning.

Again, I was delighted to have my working CD player. I didn't listen to much tho, besides The Decemberists' Castaways and Cutouts , the reason being that I'm currently in the process of learning "The Legionaire's Lament" and another song I'll be mentioning later. By the way, get this album, it's amazing!

Then I went to bed.

ExpandVARF )

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Maugorn

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