Mid-week I realized that we had tickets for the Vancouver Folk Festival on Saturday. We were also entertaining another couple for dinner on Sunday night. So much for my "do-nothing" weekend.
Last weekend C and I had a good chat about why we do the things we do, that the races are getting kind of exhausting and he pointed out that his father said that in a way we are creating memories and building images that we can look back on fondly, and I agree with that. Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed with everything on my plate, but when all is said and done I enjoy the things on my plate and I come away from everything - races, volunteering, dinners, coffees, concerts - feeling happier about myself and more connected to the people that I was involved with over that span of time.
Woke up with a mild hangover on Saturday and it was pissing rain. Not a good start to the VFF. We fundamentally wanted to see the Jayhawks who were playing at 10pm that night, but we weren't sure we wanted to do it in the mud and torrential rain. Went for a run and, magically (horseshoe) things started to clear up.
We went to Jericho beach and caught Tim Robbins (like, the Tim Robbins) and his band and it was so cool. I've always loved him as an actor and the movies he's been in: "The Hudsucker Proxy"? "The Player"? So awesome. He seemed to be having a good time and his band sounded great.
I really wanted to catch Rich Terfry who performs as Buck 65. He is also a radio announcer on CBC Radio 2 and I listen to him weekly. He put on an absolutely terrific show: engaging the audience; regaling us with a hilarious story about playing the wrong venue in some tiny town in Sweden ("I could tell I was winning them over...."). He is incredibly talented and has a great sense of humour and he put on a really tight, fun show. Here is one of his videos that first got me hooked:
Caught some of Rosanne Cash's act but I'm not much of a country music fan and, between sets, I could hear a lot of raucous noise coming from Stage 3 behind the main stage and decided to wander over there to see what was going on. Elliott Brood was playing and I'm not very familiar with them but it was very high energy and everyone was dancing and it was pretty contagious. I started to head back to the main stage when they started playing "The Valley Town" and so I headed back because who doesn't want to sing along for the final lyrics?
Headed back to the main stage and noticed there was a bit of room much closer to the stage and so Michael and I relocated ourselves (our BMO marathon heat blankets came in very useful all evening, as they kept us warm and dry) and were very nicely situated to see the Jayhawks whom we both love.
They came on and it was weird, because they've been off the circuit for so long and we didn't really even know what they looked like and they put on an amazing performance. They sounded absolutely phenomenal. They looked great. They seemed to be having a great time, looking out at the riveted audience and the parade of volunteers dangling lanterns to lead us out of the park. We kept moving up, further and further and had an amazing view of the stage and the band and listened to their new music and some of their older stuff and Michael really wanted to hear "Blue" and so, naturally, they played it. It was just absolutely perfect. They hit the high notes, they were seamless, it was excellent.
If you've never heard of the Jayhawks, I highly encourage you to check them out. Jon Stewart was onto them in 1995 (further proof that he is totally awesome and should run for president):
And, because I have a perfect life the skies cleared during the concert and we were trying to find our way out of the park and so we saw the dragon lantern in the distance and so we started bee-lining for it and I said "Would you say that we are... chasing the dragon?" and then we got out of the gates and the moon was emerging from behind a buffer of clouds and we could see the lights and skyline of downtown and the sparkling mountains of North Vancouver and we were both in awe and a little stupefied with the experience and the fortuitous nature of it all.
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