Monday, August 20, 2007

it's good to be clean again!


It's great to be showered & fresh-smelling again after 2 nights of primitive camping at its finest in Salmon Arm. JT & I were at the Roots & Blues festival for the first time- man, what a weekend! Even a raging head cold couldn't stop me from having a blast. Highlights:
  • seeing/hearing Mexican punk/ska group Los De Abajos & the fantastic Michael Franti (see above pictures) on the mainstage Friday night. Even though I was feeling sick & exhausted I couldn't stop dancing.
  • the wonderful 'workshop' performances we saw on the smaller stages Saturday & Sunday: Los de Abajos jamming with 2 Irish groups; heavenly Sunday morning gospel in the pouring rain with Jim Byrnes, Marie Knight, the powerful Ruthie Foster and others; 3 very different East Indian bands trading crazy tabla solos and making everyone dance even though it was so cold & wet on Sunday.
  • running into Cathy, Doug & the kids from Enderby- so great to see people there that we knew!
Lowlights included our 'campsite', which was a cordoned-off plot in a farmer's field with hundreds of others, including our neighbours with a crying baby. No showers. Dreadlocked festival-hopping hippies inhaling spliffs first thing in the morning. Tents with a blast radius of crushed beer cans all around. Fun for a couple of nights, but no more. Luckily J & I sprung for a new tent and inflatable air mattress (thank you, Superstore of Kamloops!) so we could actually move around inside and sleep in comfort. (J's old tent is very good quality, but tiny.)

Anyway, it was fun, but it's great to be home, especially as the rain she is still gushing down & I have had some kind of yuck reaction to the Neo Citran I took last night & it kept me up 'til after 4am. Has anyone else ever had this twitchy, irritable, prickly, restless feeling after drinking that stuff? Usually it dopes me right up but last night and even now I feel gross. Only good thing I can say is that I ended up writing 2 songs at 3 in the morning, after I gave up on ever getting to sleep. When I did sleep, for a short time this morning, I had a strangely unsettling dream about meeting my violin-playing friend Amelia in a Home Depot with her sister. I was thrilled to see her after so long, but she wouldn't look me in the eye and I could tell she was mad at me for some reason. I finally shouted "What is it? Is it just that you never really enjoyed playing music with me & you didn't think we sounded good together?" and she said "Yeah, that's it," and I hissed "I don't believe you. What's really wrong?" and as she came towards me, crying, I ran like hell out of the room we were in, snaking through the aisles of the Home Depot so she couldn't find me and dashing out the door. I woke up feeling awful. And I still do. Damn you, decongestants!
Also just saw photos of the Flying Folk Army in all their glory posted on Megan's Flickr site. We look so young and so happy playing our scruffy, anarchic folk that I want to howl. Jon looks so handsome in some of the shots that I realize how much more grey is in his hair now and how much weight he's gained. Not that I love him any the less for it, but I worry about his health so much. Megan & I on the other hand, look healthier (and thinner) now than we did back then, although we also look older.
It's just going to be one of those miserable days. I promise I'll get my sense of hope and perspective back soon, once the drugs have cleared my system. Bear with me, OK?



No comments: