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In Summary....
Wow - where to begin.....
Got up irritatingly early for a Saturday and headed down to the location for the Chicago Maritime Festival. A new location means new logistical issues, and no one seemed to know where things were supposed to go. Eventually everybody just grabbed a box and started in. I got my schedule and went to go help Mary Lou set up the Hostpitality suite. If you ever want to get on the good side of a bunch of musicians, be the one that gets the coffeepot working.
Headed down to the street for the All Hands Welcome, where all the singers "sing in" the festival. Wow. 35 or so people in multipart harmony singing their hearts out on the sidewalk. Makes my nipples hard just thinking about it! We all trooped in to "Sam's Gone Away". I know a lot of maritime musicians, but all of our chanty groups always seem to be skewed to the female side, or at the most equal parts. There is just a lot more "oomph" to a chanty sing by a group that is 3/4 men.
Took a little break and went on with the Old Town School folks. Not bad, considering that I missed the rehearsal, and that I've not seen some of these people since last year, never mind sing with them. "Farewell to Tarwathie" went well with Polly's backup.
It felt very strange to keep walking past the members of Bounding Main and NOT being in ren-garb. Given the setting, I had decided on a Red Witch T-shirt with a Hawaiian shirt over top (to cover the hip-flask).
I worked the rooms with seminars I wasn't interested in - model boat building, tugboat-wreck-diving, sailing classes... So I mostly sat and watched, or read a book, and watched the clock to keep them running on time. Missed most of the afternoon music as a result, but they needed the help. At one point, while restocking the chips, I unearthed the box of T-shirts that had accidentally made it's way upstairs. The merchandise salespeople were very pleased with me.
Being able to hang out in the Hospitality Suite with the other acts was nifty enough. I had a blast hanging out with De Boekaniers - I never did get any of their names. It was "the whistle guy", "the skinny one who keeps hugging everyone", "the tall blond", "the one who looks kind of like Ankie"...Apparently, many of them had never seen peanut butter before. They didn't seem too impressed with it.. I cracked up to see a few of them flipping through the free Singles magazine from the streetcorner box and muttering to each other in HollandDeutsch. I'm not sure I want to know what they were saying.
All-Hands Sing-out was almost as much of a music-gasm as the opening. Salty Walt finally turned up, after having spent the night in the Cincinnatti airport due to a canceled flight. (Yeah - I think he's hot - so sue me) Then we packed out, and headed off in small clumps for dinner. I ended up at the Thai place across the street with Kyla, Janet, Jim, Katherine, and Lois. Then I helped Mary Lou haul back some more bottled water backstage for the performers for the conecert that night. Killed some time with some of the Boekaniers at the park across the street (The only convenient place for them to smoke). We talked about how and what kinds of humor translate across languages, some of the differences between America and Holland, and living on landfill. We were standing on lakefill, and their whistle player was telling me about "close to where I live, I am driving where 30 years ago I am fishing'.
Back inside for the concert. It was awesome. I sat in the 3rd row but over on the side, so as to leave the prime seats for the paying guests, and also to be able to get up on stage for the finale. Good thing too, since Tom backed into his guitar stand at one point and knocked it over. The stagehand tried to set it back up, but didn't really know how it was supposed to work. He just leaned the guitar up against it. I ran up on stage and hung it properly, then scurried back to my seat. Tom never even knew I was there. Of course, he was sick as a dog all weekend. I hope someone Lysolled that mic when he was done. Singing backup for the finale was awesome. My favorite part was doing "Hand over Hand" with Ankie and Tom trading verses in Fresian and English.
I got a Chicago Maritime Society T-shirt in the silent auction - for $1 less than it would have cost me across the room, so I think I did pretty well. But by that point I was sweat-soaked and exhausted and had been on my feet for more than 12 hours, and while I would have loved to help load out and go back to the Helix to hang out and drink, I decided that cowardice was the better part of valor and stumbled home to bed.
Today I eventually managed to meet up with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
darkwing830, bigblued, unclevlad and rennie_frog at Transworld. I only had about 90 minutes to rush through - I covered the Haunt room and about 1/2 of the show floor, collecting catalogs mostly. One thing I was very glad to see in the Haunt room were several insurance companies specializing in the needs of haunt sand other dark-house attractions. The small-time haunter has been hit very hard in this area since that Rhose Island Club fire, and it's good to see that there are now some options available for them.
After some confusion in location, I made it to my Healing Touch session. Not sure how effective some of her work was, but there were some definite improvements. I was also able to offer her some feedback that will help her once she gets her certification - she was wearing a sweater that brushed my arm as she was reaching across my body. When you are lying there with your eyes closed and very aware of your body, that can be very distracting to the patient, especially if they are ticklish. So I suggested that she have either closer-fitting or tucked-in clothing. It hadn't even occurred to her. So I feel I was able to help her as she helped me.
I had just enough time to get to the Secret Underground Chanty Sing on Lower Columbus Drive. I knew where it was, but it was not as easy to get there. Most of the ways I know to get down there involve cutting through Illinois Center or one of the hotels, and all the access doors are apparently locked on weekends. I actually had to walk down the traffic ramps, and past quite a few...er..."Men who have chosen an outdoor lifestyle". Just when I had decided I was lost and was going to walk another half-block away from the people before pulling out my cellphone I found the place.
What more can I say - food was good, beer was better, music was the best! Informal random singing with some really awesome musicians. I did "Twiddles" and "Marchign Inland", and backed John on "Tommy Gibb" and "Ten Days Out". John also did his Shackleton song, and I noticed that he made the one correction I suggested (You "take" a sextant reading, not "make" one). I did some whistle-geeking and tipper-comparisons with the respective Boekaniers. It was non-stop music and laughter. We didn't always quite understand each other, but we knew a lot of the same songs, and some things are universal. The laughing men with the naughty twinkle in his eye and the "good men to go heaven, bad men sing with the Boekaniers" T-shirt, lovely Nanne with the lovely voice wailing away on "The Separation Blues, Ankie with his lead-in to a song "and he is from Singapore, which in our language we call 'Singapore'", Salty Walt on the Ratcliffe Highway, and Katherine and Tom introducing the Dutchmen to "The Lincoln Park Pirates".
It was so hard to say goodbye. I collected lots of smoky whiskey-laced hugs and kisses from De Boekaniers. We did CDtrades with De Boekaniers, Nanne & Ankie, and David HB Drake. I made sure to tell Tom & Chris aboutbotanicavix's post of last night, and they blushed and laughed. Then home in the rain. On the one hand, I feel a bit like an over-stimulated toddler and it's nice and quiet now. On the other, it's so quiet....
.
Got up irritatingly early for a Saturday and headed down to the location for the Chicago Maritime Festival. A new location means new logistical issues, and no one seemed to know where things were supposed to go. Eventually everybody just grabbed a box and started in. I got my schedule and went to go help Mary Lou set up the Hostpitality suite. If you ever want to get on the good side of a bunch of musicians, be the one that gets the coffeepot working.
Headed down to the street for the All Hands Welcome, where all the singers "sing in" the festival. Wow. 35 or so people in multipart harmony singing their hearts out on the sidewalk. Makes my nipples hard just thinking about it! We all trooped in to "Sam's Gone Away". I know a lot of maritime musicians, but all of our chanty groups always seem to be skewed to the female side, or at the most equal parts. There is just a lot more "oomph" to a chanty sing by a group that is 3/4 men.
Took a little break and went on with the Old Town School folks. Not bad, considering that I missed the rehearsal, and that I've not seen some of these people since last year, never mind sing with them. "Farewell to Tarwathie" went well with Polly's backup.
It felt very strange to keep walking past the members of Bounding Main and NOT being in ren-garb. Given the setting, I had decided on a Red Witch T-shirt with a Hawaiian shirt over top (to cover the hip-flask).
I worked the rooms with seminars I wasn't interested in - model boat building, tugboat-wreck-diving, sailing classes... So I mostly sat and watched, or read a book, and watched the clock to keep them running on time. Missed most of the afternoon music as a result, but they needed the help. At one point, while restocking the chips, I unearthed the box of T-shirts that had accidentally made it's way upstairs. The merchandise salespeople were very pleased with me.
Being able to hang out in the Hospitality Suite with the other acts was nifty enough. I had a blast hanging out with De Boekaniers - I never did get any of their names. It was "the whistle guy", "the skinny one who keeps hugging everyone", "the tall blond", "the one who looks kind of like Ankie"...Apparently, many of them had never seen peanut butter before. They didn't seem too impressed with it.. I cracked up to see a few of them flipping through the free Singles magazine from the streetcorner box and muttering to each other in HollandDeutsch. I'm not sure I want to know what they were saying.
All-Hands Sing-out was almost as much of a music-gasm as the opening. Salty Walt finally turned up, after having spent the night in the Cincinnatti airport due to a canceled flight. (Yeah - I think he's hot - so sue me) Then we packed out, and headed off in small clumps for dinner. I ended up at the Thai place across the street with Kyla, Janet, Jim, Katherine, and Lois. Then I helped Mary Lou haul back some more bottled water backstage for the performers for the conecert that night. Killed some time with some of the Boekaniers at the park across the street (The only convenient place for them to smoke). We talked about how and what kinds of humor translate across languages, some of the differences between America and Holland, and living on landfill. We were standing on lakefill, and their whistle player was telling me about "close to where I live, I am driving where 30 years ago I am fishing'.
Back inside for the concert. It was awesome. I sat in the 3rd row but over on the side, so as to leave the prime seats for the paying guests, and also to be able to get up on stage for the finale. Good thing too, since Tom backed into his guitar stand at one point and knocked it over. The stagehand tried to set it back up, but didn't really know how it was supposed to work. He just leaned the guitar up against it. I ran up on stage and hung it properly, then scurried back to my seat. Tom never even knew I was there. Of course, he was sick as a dog all weekend. I hope someone Lysolled that mic when he was done. Singing backup for the finale was awesome. My favorite part was doing "Hand over Hand" with Ankie and Tom trading verses in Fresian and English.
I got a Chicago Maritime Society T-shirt in the silent auction - for $1 less than it would have cost me across the room, so I think I did pretty well. But by that point I was sweat-soaked and exhausted and had been on my feet for more than 12 hours, and while I would have loved to help load out and go back to the Helix to hang out and drink, I decided that cowardice was the better part of valor and stumbled home to bed.
Today I eventually managed to meet up with
darkwing830, bigblued, unclevlad and rennie_frog at Transworld. I only had about 90 minutes to rush through - I covered the Haunt room and about 1/2 of the show floor, collecting catalogs mostly. One thing I was very glad to see in the Haunt room were several insurance companies specializing in the needs of haunt sand other dark-house attractions. The small-time haunter has been hit very hard in this area since that Rhose Island Club fire, and it's good to see that there are now some options available for them.After some confusion in location, I made it to my Healing Touch session. Not sure how effective some of her work was, but there were some definite improvements. I was also able to offer her some feedback that will help her once she gets her certification - she was wearing a sweater that brushed my arm as she was reaching across my body. When you are lying there with your eyes closed and very aware of your body, that can be very distracting to the patient, especially if they are ticklish. So I suggested that she have either closer-fitting or tucked-in clothing. It hadn't even occurred to her. So I feel I was able to help her as she helped me.
I had just enough time to get to the Secret Underground Chanty Sing on Lower Columbus Drive. I knew where it was, but it was not as easy to get there. Most of the ways I know to get down there involve cutting through Illinois Center or one of the hotels, and all the access doors are apparently locked on weekends. I actually had to walk down the traffic ramps, and past quite a few...er..."Men who have chosen an outdoor lifestyle". Just when I had decided I was lost and was going to walk another half-block away from the people before pulling out my cellphone I found the place.
What more can I say - food was good, beer was better, music was the best! Informal random singing with some really awesome musicians. I did "Twiddles" and "Marchign Inland", and backed John on "Tommy Gibb" and "Ten Days Out". John also did his Shackleton song, and I noticed that he made the one correction I suggested (You "take" a sextant reading, not "make" one). I did some whistle-geeking and tipper-comparisons with the respective Boekaniers. It was non-stop music and laughter. We didn't always quite understand each other, but we knew a lot of the same songs, and some things are universal. The laughing men with the naughty twinkle in his eye and the "good men to go heaven, bad men sing with the Boekaniers" T-shirt, lovely Nanne with the lovely voice wailing away on "The Separation Blues, Ankie with his lead-in to a song "and he is from Singapore, which in our language we call 'Singapore'", Salty Walt on the Ratcliffe Highway, and Katherine and Tom introducing the Dutchmen to "The Lincoln Park Pirates".
It was so hard to say goodbye. I collected lots of smoky whiskey-laced hugs and kisses from De Boekaniers. We did CDtrades with De Boekaniers, Nanne & Ankie, and David HB Drake. I made sure to tell Tom & Chris about
botanicavix's post of last night, and they blushed and laughed. Then home in the rain. On the one hand, I feel a bit like an over-stimulated toddler and it's nice and quiet now. On the other, it's so quiet.....
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And you know how special you are, that's why we follow you--snicker.
Don't mind me I just drove through snow clogged roads.
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