Celebration and Concert Stage

a performer so tiny she barely could be seen
over the music stand

Whenever I am having an amazing amount of fun I think there should be some guilt attached – kids left hungry at home, or someone else should be sitting in my seat, or I have work to do that trumps having this fun.

... plenty of older performers ...

But none of this is true this week. Alex and Duncan are at school. The housework is being done by someone else. There are plenty of seats in the beachers here.

There is nothing else for me to do but attend the Congress of the Humanities and Social Scienes 2013 (formerly known as The Learneds).

"If you like me, wait until you hear
Daniel rock this place in the next set."

I am a regular at both sets of musical events at the Celebration and Concert Stage.

I was wondering today if Lurene had studied trombone under Ian MacDougall while she was here, but I did the math and he retired 10 years ago.

 But he did a fabulous set with a drummer, a guitarist and a bass at lunch hour.

 And he followed Maureen Washington whom I had heard at the President’s Reception – another of those events not to be missed.

She eclipsed the food which as Pacific fare – the sushi, the tuna, the mussels, jumbo shrimp, all prepared so that they could fit on a napkin – if you could find a napkin large enough.

.. life on the stage and out of the sun ...

... a  test ... name that artist ...

I have listened to Mae Moore, Danielle Lapp (of Caravan) – so many genres, folk, Scottish, blue-grass, straight blues, big band – I need to take pictures to prove this is really happening to me.

As you can see – this is part of the fun I am having.

I cover my skin up from the sun and get close to the stage so I can see the performers.

When it gets to hot I retire to the shade of trees bigger than I have ever sat under.

I took to brushing off the caterpillars that fell from them, down my neck or on the table in front of me.

... getting to where there are coals for the salmon ...

I had watched the fire pit being dug for the First Nation’s Salmon BBQ.

 ...wish this had been a video, not a still ...

The tickets were $20. The meal would be ready when it was ready and from the looks of it, well worth the time and the money spent.

“When am I going to have another chance to eat something like this,” Rahmen said to me.

I had known him in Calgary when he worked at the university library.

 ... Jersey Boys style ...

I saw Donna Coates at one of the theatre sessions, and nodded to a woman with whom I would chat on the way to work in the mornings.

I signed up to Congress thinking I would know no one – and then, of the 7,000 registered I began to find old friends.

Arta