Whine, Romance and Song

[wendyzski]

Saturday's crowds were weird. Despite wonderfully cool weather there was just no energy to them. The fact that it was apparently "Sit in the middle of the pub with your back to the band and yell to your friends" day didn't help matters. When a group of 6-9 people settles into the middle of the pub like that, not only are THEY not listening but NO ONE ELSE CAN! I was polite, and then I guilted them into tipping, but since the bartenders told me that they remembered them doing the same thing last year I think next time I'm just going to go up and say "Look, I know you want to chat with your friends, but we're doing a show here and it's hard for the other people to hear us. Can I help you move these benches over there so you can hang with your friends over there and we can do our show over here?".

It didn't help that I was a couple of quarts low after the 3-day last weekend and the move. Then I went to get a nice hot soup breadbowl for lunch, and after the lid and a couple of spoonfuls noticed a distinctly sour taste which hadn'e been there in previous weeks. I took it back to the booth and told the counter guy, who asked what he was supposed to do about it. Well how about
1) giving me a bowl of some other kind of soup that hasn't gone off
2) calling your area manager and informing them of the issue and
3) not selling any more of that soup to any customers!!!!
I don't know if he manged #3 but I told pretty much everyone I met not to go there today. I didn't actually get sick, but I'm told I was rather pale and sweaty for much of the afternoon, and I did NOT feel up to my usual game. Combined that with the utter lack of response from the audiences and it was one of those days that makes you wonder why on earth you put yourself through all this.

After an early bedtime and a decent night's sleep I was feeling a little better. That was before we looked out the window. Cold and raining. Bleh. The Weather Channel said it was supposed to clear by noon so we packed our shawls and crossed our fingers. Morning meeting was pretty miserable and we huddled in our usual Pub until just before gate to try to keep things dry. I left my bodhran under cover, but the skies began to clear just before cannon and we were actually seeing patches of sunlight by 10:30. We still had drippy trees and stray showers for a while but it ended up turning into a rather nice day all around. A big help was that a bunch of our "regulars" turned up and stayed to watch the shows, buy CDs or a round or two, and stay to chat afterwards. It really helped counteract some of the negative energy from the previous day.

I got involved in a long-running bit of street business for a while that was rather fun - especially when the Town criers started explaining the convoluted solution and I resorted to drawing the connections out on the ground with a stick in order to keep them all straight. I'm pretty sure we ended up with The Sherrif in the Conservatory with a Candlestick, though I'm not entirely sure how...

Thanks to redkendrad I have a new chalkboard with which to do passive lazzi and generally annoy/amuse the parade. She also got me colored chalks, so the "I75 - Construction Next 12 Miles" sign I drew up was in the correct colors!

See, this all started when I found a piece of cardboard and wrote "Next Rest Area 37 miles" on it and held it up so the marchers could see it as they passed.. Many weary laughs and groans later, I decided I had something there, and began planning further mischief. Our show starts shortly after the parade passes, and we're right at the halfway turnaround for those poor sods who have to march it, so I figure this is my civic contribution.

The next time I held up my skirts to show a bit of thigh and held out my thumb as they passed. About 10 feet further down the road was woody_whistler, holding up his trews to show a bit of thigh as well. I think he got more offers than I did!

On Saturday I "fell asleep" on a bench and waved while snoring. Her Majesty called out about the lovely cushion there was on the bench and how someone should sit on it. This prompted several lewd and appreciative comments about my "pillows".

I can't decide whether next week is going to involve little orange cones in the streets or Burma Shave signs....

Pub Sing is rockin the house now that Equinox is back. Not only are they kick-ass performers and wonderfully adaptive musicians, but like us they like to stay and play along with the other acts. I enjoy performing, but I no longer feel like we're holding up half of the show while being the only ones without amplification. So now we end up with one bagpiper and about 8 people on various percissions (complete with More Cowbell), then parading out into the audience and back. We dance and throw things, set each other up, the Queen borrows my bodhran or dances with Liz - it's all a grand old time for everyone, performers AND audience as well.

But I NEED to take tonight off from anything useful and go to bed early. I might assemble a bookcase or two, but no more. I can also sleep in a little tomorrow as I have a pulmo appointment at 10.