I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
November 16, 2010 - 1:13 a.m.
Not much happened today, that's good, it means I can write about NERFA.
This is going to be the non-music entry on NERFA. I'm not going to discuss the music I heard but everything else about the weekend.
My plan was to get an early start in Thursday and get there enough before the conference that I'd get to take a swim first. If you think that happened you don't know me very well. I hadn't packed and it had to go back for things five times and I spent a ton of times trying to do my schedule without success so I ended up leaving quite a bit later than I wanted. I ended up arriving at 5 and as I had to check into the hotel, register with the conference, and get my stuff into the room before the newcomers workshop at 5:45 the timing was tight.
Oh yes, I ran into a zillion people I knew in the lobby while I was getting this stuff done. NERFA is my natural habitat. At some point I might go through the registration list and see how people I actually knew there. I'm sure it was more than 100. Now I have to do it. I have so little confidence in what I just said I was sure of. It's a good test of how close my intuitive sense of number is to the truth.
I started meeting people on the registration line. The first person I met was Catherine. Yes I remember her name. I have a new trick for remembering Catherines, I asked her if she spelled her name with a C or an S. Of course once we registered everyone had name tags so I didn't have to ask that anymore. I still made a point of noting it. You'll see that it helped.
Some of the first friends I ran into were Carolann, Meg, and Sharon. One of them called me over to say hi to "My girls." That was what NERFA was like, a non-stop ego boost. Carolann was one of the panelists on the Newcomers workshop along with Cheryl and Mary Granata. I sat with Meg and Sharon. At the orientation they said to not sit with people you know at meals and that's what I did at dinner. Instead of staying in my large comfort zone I went in search of new people. Anna Dagmar asked me to join her and I did. Now technically I knew Anna but I only met her at a few shows and never talked much to her so socially we were strangers. She didn't remember me at all. She is one of the Chicks with Dips, the songwriters group that includes "My girls." We were joined by Kath, see I remember her name too. She's a singer/songwriter from Australia. No she does not know Iain Campell Smith and yes I actually asked her as if all Aussie singer/songwriters would know each other. After dinner I went with Kath to the Folk DJ showcase. We found a place to sit off to the side near DJ and friend Ron Olesko. All the seats behind us ended up being taken by friends of mine. When Kath left to make a call I moved over to sit with Carolann, Meg, and Sharon. I loved watching the show with musicians. Part of the fun of NERFA is everyone discusses what they think of the performers and why.
After the DJ Showcase the real raison d'�tre of the conference starts, the guerilla showcases. That's performances in people's hotel rooms. It's where I discovered the most musicians. Of course I said that I wasn't going to talk about the music this entry. That's good, it means I don't have to figure out who I saw.
I got back to my room around 3 AM. I was able to sleep to 9 so I got six hours of sleep. I was actually disappointed. Everyone told me I'd get no sleep. It made me feel like a slacker.
After that my memory starts to get a bit confused. I know one day I broke my eating with strangers rule and had breakfast with Mark and Carolann. I accidentally took vegan sausages. Mark's a vegan so he was happy they had them. I wasn't but I did try one. Don't let anyone tell you they taste the same. Oh that was Saturday. I Friday I had real sausages. For the life of me I can't remember who I sat with. As I met great people every meal I'm slighting people I became friends with. I went to the On The Griddle Workshop in the afternoon. They play a minute of one song and a panel of DJs and venue people critique it. John Platt was on the panel. I understand the point but judging songs by one minute is not fair. Many a bad song starts strong and many a great song needs time to build.
At dinner Friday I sat at the Canadian table. I had no idea of that when I sat down. After I sat I saw Lisa MacIsaac and Brenley MacEachern aka Madison Violet. After I sat down Lynn Miles sat down next to me. Red Molly fans should know her as the writer of Black Flowers. I was extra amused as we were all given drink tickets when we registered and mine had her name on it. It was crossed out and mine written in by hand. Oh that reminds me there was a cocktail party. Or was that on Saturday. Like I said it's a blur. Imagine what it would be like if I drank and actually used the drink ticket.
After dinner Jory Nash came over to talk to his fellow Canadians. He did what I did and sat with strangers. He spotted my name tag and walked over to me and called me cousin. I was told by my friend Shawna to make sure and catch him so I was happy to make contact before he played. I was surprised to discover that like me he's Jewish. I don't expect Nashes that aren't my relative to be. It isn't exactly a Jewish name. He knows what his family name was. My family doesn't. His family was from the same area as mine. Maybe we are related. Maybe his family name is really mine.
I've written over a thousand words and I'm only up to Friday and haven't started the music but it's after 1 AM so I'm going to call it quits for the night I'll continue the saga tomorrow.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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Horvendile November 16, 2010
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