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 19, 2010 - 7:54 a.m.
So here's the dilemma. I'm going to write a NERFA which means I'll have an audience that isn't quite used to Wise Madness and my idiosyncrasies but I really want to write one of my intros. Well new readers, what I want wins here so you're getting one of my intros.
That's one of my intros.
So is that one line paragraph.
But none of those is the intro I want to write. This is. I was planning on going out tonight for the NERFA decompression party starring Friction Farm. I was about to leave and stopped in the bathroom. While there my Crohn's disease convinced me to stay home. I won't TMI but it involved pain and blood and fatigue. I still feel guilty. I don't usually let that stop me. I'll blame the sleep deprivation for depleting my emergency energy supply.
I'd normally write this in my office during my break on Friday but I have an appointment with a student then so I'm writing my second entry of the day.
Not bad the intro is under 200 words. Now on to NERFA.
What haven't I talked about? I learned on Thursday that when there is a central event going on like the DJ or Formal Showcases that everyone is at I want to sit with friends. I can meet new people all the time but there you can't keep moving to meet people and you want to be with people you can communicate with in shorthand so you can discuss the performers without being intrusive. I watched the Formal Showcases with my New York Metropolitan Area crew, John Platt, Barbara P, Maggi, Barbara M, and on Saturday we were joined by Carter. Except for Barbara who runs concert series in Ridgefield CT there are all people I see often and know well. I just started singing The First Nowell. That worked out great.
After the Formals come the Tri-centrics. That is three simultaneous showcases with almost no time to get from one to the other. In other words it�s a madhouse. We told each other which ones we planned on going with and a couple of times John saved a seat for me but basically it was catch as catch can. I usually found friends to sit with. Meg, Carolann, Shannon, and Mark or Richard and Viki or somebody. I certainly knew enough people there. On Friday I feverishly made up my Guerilla Workshop Schedule at the Formal. On Saturday I decided to prepare earlier. That was easier as I decided to skip the workshops. Those are for professionals and I'm not a professional. I schmoozed with people in the lobby and made my schedule there. That was after breakfast of course. Or was that after lunch? I just checked, it was brunch. I know I ate breakfast food. I broke my rule about only eating with strangers and sat with Mark and Carolann. It was my first chance to get a real conversation with Mark.
After brunch but before schmoozing I went to the spa. As I expected it was almost empty. First I did laps in the pool then went into the whirlpool. It was exactly what I needed and is going to be a NERFA tradition for me. I was rewarded with some fun schmoozing. When I got out of the post whirlpool shower I went the locker room and found a guy in a Monkees bath robe! Carey I saw your ears perk up. I of course started a conversation. Oh and Carey he says you have good taste for liking Peter Tork best. We also talked a lot of baseball. I bet people out of the folk world don't realize that folkies are as big as sports fans as real people. I had actually met him the day before but didn't recognize him because when he was at the open mic it was as his professional alter-ego Bruce Frankenstein. Yes he was in costume as Frankenstein's monster. His actual name is Dennis McDonough. After that it was on to lobby schmoozing that included talking to Pete Fornatele from WFUV. I wish I could remember who else sat with us. I should have taken a picture. I managed to complete my guerilla workshop schedule.
At dinner I went back to sitting with strangers. I sat at a table in the back that looked like a family. The night before I sat with some of my favorite Canadian musicians, this time I was going to sit with a family. Of course they turned out to be some of my favorite musicians though I didn't know it at the time. They are Burning Bridget Cleary and were the last showcase I had on my schedule. They were there because they were doing it with RUNA, one of my favorite bands.
That is so much what NERFA is about. You sit there and talk to people and they end up being the people you want to talk to. You don't have to go looking for them. Often you don't know who it is that you want to talk to till after you talked to them.
The workshops were over at 3:30. Did I go to bed? No, I went to the party in Gene Shay's room. That's a NERFA tradition. It looks something like this.
I started the party hanging outside the door waiting for the room to clear enough so I'd have room to enter. That was fine as I hung out with Burning Bridget Clearly.
When I finally got in I hung out mainly with Lisa, Red Molly's radio promoter and Carla Ulbrich. When the crowd thinned out more I went into the back room where I talked to Mark from Spuyten Duyvil and then my new best friend Brian Ashley-Jones. We had a pretty deep discussion on the Civil War that started well after 5 AM. I love that. Then as I was finally leaving I saw Robin Batteau. I know his musical partner David Buskin pretty well. We've talked dozens of time. I have never talked to Robin before. I decided to introduce myself to him and he's my new best friend too. We talked about calculus, Greek mathematics and music. That conversation didn't end till 6 AM. Did I mention that I'm a geek?
I then strayed a bit in the lobby talking before I finally stumbled into my room after sunrise. People told me I wouldn't get sleep. I was still up at 9 AM.
On Sunday I once again eschewed the workshops. I packed and went to brunch. I sat with a series of different people. Everyone was on a different schedule so people I talked to when I got there left and were replaced by others. I know I talked to one woman from Chicago. While we were talking another woman sat at our table all alone and was talking to no one. I of course started to talking to her. It was Sarah Calvert aka Que Sarah. She's a musician from Toronto. I of course asked her if she knew people I knew including David Hein. Worlds collided. She was the music director of My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding. David had told her to look out for me and she found me at the very end of the conference. How is that for serendipity? Did I mention how great NERFA is?
I forgot the Sunday continental breakfast. That was in the lobby. That's where I finally had time to talk to Brian. That was also where I was surprised by the appearance of Pete Kennedy. He just came up to schmooze himself. He carried a sign that said, "Book The Kennedys. I of course couldn�t resist spending some time talking to him. I also of course couldn't make an early exit. I was one of the last people to leave. I just kept running into people I knew and even met new people right up to my walking out the door. Out in the parking lot I was interviewed by Nels, Melissa, and AJ, for Cursing Kerouac. We'll see if I made the cut. I froze.
OK that's my NERFA. Next time I'm going to tell you about my musical discoveries.
I�m going to be clever and try and wait to post this till tomorrow. I hope I remember.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
creative commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Horvendile November 19, 2010
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