With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
July 27, 2004 - 7:37 p.m.
I have been remiss, I promised to update on Sunday night and here it is Tuesday afternoon. So that now FRFFis just a distant memory to me.
First the first time in years I drove up there without Lisa. I missed her company but on the bright side it cut two hours off my travel time. When I got there I was afraid that I’d be spending my festival in the parking lot. I was on the WFUV list and it hadn’t arrive and they had no idea when it would. They weren’t letting anyone in yet then which meant that I could go through the lot and see if I could find anyone I know. In no time I found Kat, Jill, and Julius. I haven’t seen Kat and Julius for a year and Jill for two, that was a happy reunion. There aren’t many people I’d rather wait in a parking lot with. I got lots of good hugs and love. When I told them my problem with the list Kat said that she’d come out all week and tell me what was going on inside the actual festival. They finally did let me in so I got to see everything myself.
I could write a really long detailed entry on what happened on the festival, well I couldn’t but someone less lazy than me could. I can hit the highlights.
Wednesday: The Festival begins in earnest on Thursday so the first day we had to entertain ourselves. In upper camping there was Lori, Steve, and myself. Am I missing anyone? I probably am. We were joined by Carey, Neal, Lawrence, and Keli, who weren’t camping and John and Jenna who were in lower camping. We sang, we talked, and had a relaxing day and evening. I even got my Festivus present from Carey and my birthday present from Lori. My Gollum/Smeagol talking action figure joined the Budgiedome community.
Thursday: I spent a large part of Thursday dancing with Lena. She can really dance and kindly put up with both of my left feet. I’m actually not that bad at the Contra dancing. They tell you what to do and none of it is that difficult. I’m actually more experienced than most of the people at the beginners dance so I feel confident there. You change partners every dance but I spent much of the time dancing with Lena and Kat.
Later on I did Western Swing dancing with Lena. I went because Mark Erelli and his band were providing the music. I’d have had a good time just sitting and listening but dancing is more fun. They didn’t give any lessons and since Lena and I didn’t know Western Swing we copied other people and made it up as we went along. That was good enough for us to have a lot of fun till they got to the Waltz. Lena did her best to teach me but it remains beyond my abilities.
That evening I spent at the Main Stage. My discovery of the festival was Aoife O’Donovan & Crooked Still. Any band with a cello and a banjo is intriguing. They had great blue grass instrumentals and Aoifa sings like an angel. I enjoyed David Bromberg live more than I do on CD.
Friday was the emerging artist showcase but will be remembered by everyone at Falcon Ridge for the Deluge. We had the worst storm in my experience at the festival. It rained very hard with high winds for a long time. At first we were safe and dry in the Budgiedome. As the wind picked up we started retreating towards the center of the dome, the rain was driven deep inside. When the wind changed direction the dome’s structural integrity was under attack. We raced to the southern end in an attempt to straighten up the arch facing the wind. Steve our engineer was gone and we had to maintain the dome shorthanded. When Steve returned and the wind died down a bit we added new supports. For now on the end arches will be held by three guy wires not one.
When we checked out our tents we found that most were drenched inside. Mine had almost collapsed. I was going to abandon it and crash with Lena when I figured out how a simple twist tie was enough to keep it standing straight.
After things settled down Lisa and Phyllis showed up. I also got to meet Emilie and Siobhan for the first time. They’ll be staying at my house this week.
That night I spend the early part of the evening at the Main Stage but skipped out before the Nields came on. The only band that was high on my list to see was disappear fear. I have seen SONiA fairly often but I haven’t seen her sister CiNDY appear with her for years. I spoke to them after their set and got some literature to hand out for next year’s SMAF.
I spent the latter part of the evening getting the dome ready for a show by the The Kennedys. They were not invited to FRFF this year and graciously accepted my offer to play for us. That evening in the dome was my favorite part of the festival. The Kennedys played off mic totally acoustic. Unlike many performers they know how to change the balance of their singing and playing to make that work. They did a set typical of what they had been doing at the Living Room. The difference was things were more spontaneous. They even altered the lyrics to “Life is Large.” Life is large/ bigger than the Budgiedome… I had asked them to do “Stand” because I knew the crowd would get into it. Instead of just me standing up, everyone did, joined arms, and swayed the way we would to the drinking song. I love that feeling of community.
After their set we rearranged the seating for our song circle. I was disappointed most of the lower campers didn’t show up but we still had a great time. To my surprise the Kennedys stayed for a while even though they had to get up early the next morning. They were rewarded by hearing Melissa’s monologue, my bad magician bit stolen from Art Metrono, The song that got me to ask Lee Connnah to come to FRFF to play for us, Lena’s Bella dance to Pete’s guitar accompaniment, and of course Carey’s immortal classic, Perky and Boatboy. The next day Pete and Maura told me that was the best time they ever had at their ten years at FRFF, it was “the essence of Falcon Ridge.” The Kennedys left after one round but we went on by ourselves for another couple of hours.
Saturday: I spent Saturday doing the normal Falcon Ridge bouncing between the Main and Workshop stages. I spent most of the day with Lena but made sure to get together for a while with Lisa. She told me that she wanted to sell her guitar and wanted my help. We arranged for me to go back to her tent so I could see it and get the details . When I got there she sat down and played me some songs. She had been taking lessons in secret for a year and wanted to surprise me for her birthday. She had no thoughts of selling her guitar. I think she was disappointed that I wasn’t more surprised. She thought it amazing that she could play, I knew she could if she set her mind to it. She also gave me the other half of my birthday present, a copy of Wig in a Box the Hedwig tribute album.
That evening I stayed at the Mainstage through EFO then Lena and I went to the Dance Stage to join Carey and Neal for the Cajun dance. Once again neither of us knew what we were doing. When we found Carey and Neal, we switched partners and they showed us what to do. Carey did her best but once again I proved hopeless. Not that I minded that much though. It was just nice to dance with Carey again. We switched back partners and we danced till we had to go back to set up the Budgiedome for a performance by We’re About 9
We set the stage up and I gave Carey a pep talk. She was the opening act. She was nervous but I knew she’d be great. Guess who was right? Carey brought the house down. When she got off the stage we had the best hug.
Carey did three songs then I did a short talk on the virtues of going to SMAF next year. I’ll be giving a series of those here too. Lori and I have taken it upon ourselves to promote the festival.
Before the show I discussed with Katie, Brian, and Pat about how long their set should be. I thought 50 minutes, about what the Kennedys did. They thought it should be slower. They were afraid they’d lose their audience if they went longer without mics and the only amplification being for Katie’s bass. Once again I was right and they ended up playing for closer to an hour. Everyone loved the intimate performance. After their performance they sold their new live CD.
After them came a string of other performances. I don’t have the list in front of me but what I remember was Russell Wolffe, Dave Space, Spook Handy, Lee Connah, and Theresa Storch. Theresa had performed last year and I must have missed her. She was great and there is no way I’d forget her. I told her to come back next year and I’d make sure to get her on earlier.
Earlier is a key point. The music didn’t end till sunrise. By that time only Paul, Steve, Gella, and myself were left. The few, the proud, the insane.
Sunday:I somehow got up before any of the music. I decided to stay up on the hill though and break down my tent, pack my car, and help clear out the Budgiedome. My plans hit a kink during the Gospel Workshop. I heard the Kennedys doing stand and had to run down to join the crowd standing. I stayed down for the next round but had to go back up because of the heat. I was still in the sweats I slept in instead of my shorts and I was melting.
I spent most of the rest of the day up on the hill using the festival as Lori and Trace would put it as the radio, background to whatever we were doing. When I finally got everything in my car I drove down to the day lot to allow for a quick getaway.
I wanted to spend the rest of the festival with people I hadn’t spent much time with. I watched Eliza Gilkyson with Lauren then found Shelly and Kat and watched Ellis Paul and Tracy Grammer with them. We were joined by Lori who I had spent time with but I’ll never complain about having Lori time. Who else will sit with me and make jewelry out of grass and consider a leaf a suitable gift?
When things were over I said my goodbyes to everyone and left the festival. I had arranged with Paul to join me for dinner at the Chief Martindale dinner, right at the Taconic Parkway. I go there every year for a cheap hot meal and nice clean bathrooms with running water, something always appreciated after FRFF.
I know I’ve left out so much. The Budgiedome motto for 2004, Less Groping and more spreadage. Gella’s utilikilt. My adventures with Trace in the bondage chair. She has been promoted to being my fiancé from my ho for that. My engagement to Emilie. Yes I have more than one fiancé. Flying kites with Keli and Neal. Maura’s shock at Gella’s making fun of me and Gella’s explaining it is her way of showing that she loves me. There is a future entry based on that. If there is anything else I’ve forgotten forgive me. It doesn’t mean I didn’t think it was important but sleep deprivation makes the mind a bit less efficient.
Musically this was probably the worst FRFF I’ve been to. I didn’t spend the time I’d have liked to with some people. Yet all in all it was still a wonderful festival and the highlight of my summer. Like Brigadoon Falcon Ridge goes on free from the ravages of time.
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Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile July 27, 2004
