18 June, 2012

From hello to heaven

And now I know what a "House Concert" is.  In a nutshell, there are people who host performers in their homes and invite a select group of people to attend this concert for a nominal fee.  The performer gets all of the money and free room and board.  For obvious reasons, these homes are usually quite large and well appointed, and the affair itself is quite intimate because there are maybe 40 people attending.  I can see where this could be very cool if the performer happened to be someone you wanted to see.  Unfortunately this was NOT the case Friday night, at least for me.  The man playing, Eric, obviously had a very loyal following and he is quite well thought of in his particular circle.  But that circle doesn't include me.  His performing style is like a storyteller who happens to sing.  Long, long convoluted introductions to his every song, spoken in a manner that suggested the character Forest Gump.  A very strange affectation, wouldn't you say?  Seriously.  And every single story had to include at least one celebrity or the president.  He name dropped in each and every song introduction.  The songs themselves were well written and even beautiful, except for the subject matter.  The theme was loss - loss of life and loss of love and loss of faith.  Good heavens!  Not one single uplifting song in the entire looooong evening.  I was in agony, so I took myself off on a little trip through memory lane.  I was reminded by a picture on the wall of Lake Louise - the colors maybe.  So I just remembered everything I possibly could about a wonderfully decadent visit I had there once upon a time.  And then my mind went back to a visit I had in Paris and the phrase "from hello to heaven" popped into my head!  I nearly laughed out loud, which would have been SO wrong.   It was stifled, but still I was sitting in the back, the sole person in the room smiling.

My favorite part of the evening was the last song.  His only cover song, and it was by Bob Dylan.  In this introduction he told us that we might be tempted to sing along, but resist the temptation.  As if!  He sang the song - "I shall be released" - another uplifting ballad.  And at the end in that tiny moment before people start applauding he said, "Bob".  Just "Bob".  Really?  Like we don't know who wrote that song?  See what I mean?  Just an icky guy all around.  I couldn't wait to get out of there.  It was an interesting evening and I am glad I went.  I just with the performer had been more fun. 

I couldn't get to sleep though.  Mike left around 12:30 and I stayed up until after 2. Saturday morning Tink was bugging me to get up at 7:30!  I didn't, of course.  I managed to stay in bed for another hour.  The weather was nice so we walked up to the lake.  Unfortunately Tink found something very nasty to roll in on the way up there, so I had to give her another bath as soon as we got home.  I can't get mad at her because it's just instinct for her type of dog.  I do try to be extra careful but sometimes she finds it anyway.

I worked a good bit on the Aristida both Saturday and Sunday and I have only 2 rows left on my last, fourth, repeat of the body.  Then it's 21 rows of the edging chart and I'm done.  It's going fast.  Unfortunately I think I might be having an allergic reaction to the yarn.  Both of my forearms are irritated and itchy.  I will do a search on it.  It's pretty annoying and VERY itchy.

The train is my choice for the meeting this weekend so I've got to make my reservations today.  I will have to leave a little early on Tuesday and miss the closing talk, but that's how it's got to be.  Otherwise I won't get home until after 9 and that won't do.  I've got to work Wednesday and get packed that night because I'm leaving for California and Arizona from work on that Thursday.

The rain woke me up last night and it's still going at it this morning, albeit not as hard.  Hopefully we'll get the noon break.  If not -- oh well.

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