| Atlantic Crossroads Festival continued |
| Mick was up next and I have some song titles written down! Lo and Behold! Again, though, I didn�t write down any descriptions because I was busy listening. There�s a good side and bad side to that. Good for me and bad for you who weren�t there to listen. My apologies! He opened with Birds and Bees and went into �a schizophrenic song,� in his words.
Then I�ve Got a Dollar was a wonderful song and I really enjoyed it. Mick seemed to be a little more comfortable speaking with the audience this evening. He seems very shy and a bit stage-frightened, but it works to his advantage. A woman came up to me this evening and asked, �Who was the singer that looked like he really needed a hug?� �That�d be Mick,� I replied, as she handed me her money and bought a CD. (______) Road was up next, with the comment that �a murder was committed and every house was sold on _____ Road. I�ll try to find the title of the song for you. And he closed again with In the Gutter. A perfect closer. Good choice of songs this evening. There was a bit of a lull here because of the schedule at Erin�s and to my dismay, almost everyone who had stayed for the performers, left. Of course, it WAS 1:30 AM on a miserable Sunday night. There were a couple young people there who bought Mick�s CD � they were quite impressed � and I was happy to hand over the money to him that evening. He was happy that people enjoyed his songs. Some phone calls were exchanged between the Ship and Erin�s and it was decided that Darrell would stay put down there and not come up to the Ship. I will say that I was disappointed, but understood the decision perfectly. So I packed up and went back down to Erin�s, where we had another late night and went home super tired. . Monday, June 27th Monday dawned sunny and warm, 180 degrees from yesterday. I woke at 10:30 AM. Poor Lillian had to go to work!! I was going to �work� later too, as Lillian had asked me to attend a meeting for her at the Fairmount Hotel. I had never been to the Fairmount, so it would be a first for me. It was a meeting of NATI, Newfoundland & Labrador Association of Technology Industries, trying to bring IT professionals up to date on what opportunities and services the new Government IT office would provide. But that wasn�t until 2 PM, so I wandered over to the Waterford Inn to meet Dottie, Vince�s neighbor from home. I had called her on Saturday and we had a chance to chat on the phone briefly about things to do here in St. John�s. I took a chance she�d be there today and I lucked out. They had just come back from somewhere and were getting ready to go downtown shopping. I had to mail some things and we said we�d look for each other on Water Street, but didn�t end up connecting again. I stopped on the way back home to take photos of the Waterford River. Jim has a haunting tune on his new CD entitled Flow On Waterford River and I put it on the CD player while standing there. Sure captured the scene for me! Then I went to pick up Ger at the hotel and bring him back to Jim�s for an interview with The Express, a weekly newspaper here in St. John�s and left for �my� meeting at the Fairmount. The room was full when I got there but I managed to find a seat in the middle of the room. A panel of people introduced themselves and explained how the Department had changed since its merger with other government offices. I felt pretty excited because I even had a nametag with MY name that said �Lillian Fidler Designs� underneath. I was official! I like being official � I had represented Lillian at the ECMAs earlier in the year at the Industry Awards Brunch in Sydney, Cape Breton and had my own nametag there, too. She didn�t win unfortunately, but it was a thrill, nonetheless. The meeting was a couple hours long and by the time I got out of there, it was almost quitting time for Lillian. I wandered around the hotel's ground floor, in and out of the shops and lounge and had an excellent view of the Narrows from the lounge. Talk about fancy! Whew! I probably can't afford a napkin in here! Then I headed out to Lillian's office but she had already left. As luck would have it, I met her on Water Street and she had a ride the rest of the way home. When we got back to the house, Jim and Ger were happy about their interview. Seems they chatted to the interviewer about 5 million topics, only one of which was music. I listened to an Emile Benoit tune on a low D whistle and Jim played Brian Boru�s March on the low D as Ger played on a nylon stringed guitar. In a conversation that followed, Ger mentioned that his ancestors were not Irish, but from a part of France/Germany called Alsace-Lorraine. Jim�s ears perked up at that since that�s where HIS ancestors are from. An interesting discussion of languages and cultures ensued. The two of them were like little boys who had discovered something neat with their chemistry sets. Yes, there�s definitely some chemistry here. They are two peas in a pod, these b�ys. Then we all went out to the Big R, where Jim swore to me I�d love the fish and chips with dressing and gravy and fried onions. I had tried the same meal at Leo�s and Ches�s and was not impressed. But Jim swore that I�d love the Big R�s version and he was right. It was absolutely delicious! It was also a heart attack on a plate, I think. We traded stories about plays on words and Ger explained how some English words were so similar to Irish Irish ones. �And Scots is enough like Irish so that you know a good few words!.� We learned a bit about inflection and verb tenses in Irish as well as conjunctions. I tell you, talking with Ger every time is an education, but he�s such a natural teacher, you don�t even feel like a student! This interview thing will go on tomorrow also. Jim and Ger have an early morning interview on CBC at 8:30 AM. Hope I�m awake to hear it! Jim hadn't scheduled himself to sing for Monday or Tuesday because of all the loose ends to tie up for the Gala on Thursday. I just cannot believe how much work is going on and how much still has to be done. Jim gave me some info earlier today and asked me to write up a little blurb for the Gala program because he likes the way I write. I was happy to help. I feel like I am earning my keep. I also wrote up a Press Release to be sent out tomorrow, in emails. Little did I ever think I'd be doing any of this stuff when I learned about Newfoundland music 8 short years ago. Trust me, I'm not complaining. I am, for the most part, enjoying the ride that is my life. Before we went out to enjoy the singers this evening, we went to McDonald's and celebrated Jim and Lillian's ninth wedding anniversary with ice cream. These two really belong together. Happy Anniversary, Jim and Lillian! What a wonderful night it turned out to be! I was able to relax a bit, not being scheduled to volunteer anywhere. I enjoyed watching and listening to the performers and took my first GOOD photos of Ger and Darrell. I hadn�t been to the Celtic Hearth yet and that was our first stop. I thoroughly enjoyed giving all my attention to the performers. Jim brought his podcasting equipment and recorded some of the musicians. While he was recording Ger, he leaned over to me and asked when Mick was on because he realized that Mick wanted to use his guitar this evening. The schedule said Mick was on in 8 minutes, so I hightailed it back to the house and grabbed Jim�s guitar. When I got back to the bar, it was a bit past the time Mick was supposed to start. I saw Val coming down the steps and asked her to take the guitar up to Mick, who was upstairs at Bridie�s. I was thankful she said yes and I settled down to watch Darrell�s set. Your Song, We Know What We�re Fighting For and a bluesy song I didn�t know the title of, were my faves this evening. He shared something interesting about We Know What We�re Fighting For. He said that it had a lot of references to Newfoundland in it originally, but he removed them so it would be applicable to any nation. Nice idea and it works. But I'd still like to hear the all-Newfoundland one. I wonder which version we heard in Cork. I can't remember. I tell you, he is looking good still. Being home with the kids hasn�t put any weight or flab on him. Clare came on right after Darrell and he stuck around to join her for I Can�t and another one where he played his body for percussion. Everyone there at the Celtic Hearth marveled over her voice. She�s bound for fame with talent like that. Jim and Lillian were in podcast mode and were recording the musicians upstairs at Bridie�s now. I very briefly saw Mick performing upstairs at Bridie�s but made sure to snap a photo. After a bit, we left for Erin�s where Jim wanted to record Martin and Colleen for the podcast. Martin was singing a Beatles� song when we got there and seemed to have the audience in the palm of his hand. He sang a funny song with a ton of clich�s in it. Said he had sent it away to an American record company and the label had sent it back to him with the complaint that it had every clich� in the book. Duh! That was the whole point! �They just didn�t get it,� he said as he shook his head in disbelief. I got some photos of Martin and that made everyone who had been photographed now. |