I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

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.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

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 ...
-James Branch Cabell

September 11, 2012 - 10:17 a.m.

I Was Taken to the River

I'm behind on my blogging. It's Tuesday and I'm going to write about Sunday. I hope I can remember what I did. I did something right? I'm pretty sure I was out all day. Oh yeah I was. I went to the Take Me To the River Festival in Hastings. I did something I rarely do at a festival, I volunteered. I helped Carter with the Common Ground Community Concerts booth. Getting to the burbs is always something of a project without a car. I took the subway to Grand Central Station and Metro North up to Hastings where Carter picked me up and drove me to Draper Park where the festival was.

It was an odd festival for me. There were not a lot of musicians I knew let alone were fans of. Sunday was the Rain date. The two acts I wanted to see the most, Tony Trishka, and Spuyten Duyvil both couldn't make it. The ones I knew were The Grand Slambovians, Restless Eric & Amy Rigby, and the Woody Guthrie Tribute with Matt Turk and Steve Kirkman. I like but don't love the Slambovians. I'm a huge fan of Amy Rigby but not Eric and they usually do more of his material. Of course you can't go wrong with Woody Guthrie and I love Matt and Steve.

I mainly went to hang out with Carter and Barbara and whatever other friends of mine that showed up. Every other time I went to Take me to the River I knew most of the acts on the Main Stage and spent half my time hanging out with them back stage. This was the first time I knew none of them, well none of them knew me. Matt and Steve were over at the Solar Stage. I spent most of my time at the booth. It was near the stage and I could hear everything.

I usually hang out with Lori not LORi at the festival but she told me the night before that she couldn't go this year. Then guess what, a woman who looked just like her showed up. I knew it couldn't be her as only someone really mean would lie to me like that and even Lori isn't that mean. Funny thing is she kept hanging out with Lori's friends, Joe, Rona, and Bob. I guess they couldn't ditch her.

I did something else unusual for me. I didn't bring food. I ended up eating shish kabob which was not only very good but reasonably priced, $5 for three skewers. Everyone who saw it got jealous.

I brought my water bottle but finished it. I didn't remember if I could refill it there. It ended up I could because a fancy bottled water company was giving away their product for free and not in bottles. I could kind to the environment and fill up my reusable bottle. The fancy high ph water they made all these health claims for tasted almost as good as New York City tap water. I bet it was only slightly less safe too. Bottle water isn't tested as often as tap water.

The weather was beautiful all day then in the evening clouds started rolling in quickly. I suggested to Carter that we take down the booth since we didn't need it for shade anymore and I wanted to be able to make a quick getaway. It was good that we did as the wind picked up and the weather got threatening. We managed to get everything back in the packaging and take it back to Carter's car. There was one more band left but I asked Carter if he'd mind taking me to the train then. He didn't. I wanted to get home at a reasonable hour.

I didn't have a train schedule but was lucky because the train was scheduled for 18 minutes after I got there. Then just when it was supposed to arrive they made an announcement that it would be late. I had to wait another 15 minutes. That wasn't that bad and the rain held off. There were a few drops but it never actually rained.

When I got back to Brooklyn I wasn't as lucky. The rain had started. Good thing I had my emergency poncho on me.

Not much to talk about at school yesterday. Because I got home late the night before and was tired I never did my breakfast dishes. That led to my deciding to not have breakfast at home. I at the food cart near the school where I used to get my breakfast all the time. I missed the guy and he still makes a great sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich.

My classes grew from the first day. That happens every semester. One of them is too large now. I'd prefer it if no class had more than 20 students. I don't want people to get lost in the shuffle.

I had a burger for dinner last night but I put it on garlic cheese bread. That transforms it into a gourmet treat. If you haven't tried it you should. Make the garlic bread yourself, it's easy. One thing to do to make it even better is to mix olive oil with the butter.

Tonight I'm off to John Platt's On Your Radar. The musicians are Anna Dagmar, Adam Levy, and Driftwood. You want to be there too.


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 September 11, 2012
site search by freefind advanced


Follow on Feedly



about me - read my profile! read other DiaryLand diaries! recommend my diary to a friend! Get your own fun + free diary at DiaryLand.com!