ottawa folk

We've arrived in Ottawa and so far we like it. We arranged tickets to go see Greg Brown at the Ottawa Folk Fest as a reward for sitting in the car for 36 hours. There was a great feel to this festival, almost as small-town and folksy as the South Country Fair. It was almost better than the South Country Fair because there weren't any drums beside my head concocting polyrhythms while I was trying to sleep.

A few highlights for you:

1. There was an open stage sponsored by the Ottawa Folkore Centre. A real treat was Rosemary who had just graduated high school and played three classical pieces on her flute. She played Canon in D, by Pachebel, out of a book called "Classical Wedding Songs" To introduce her second song... "The next song I'm going to play is called Minuet by Bach. It's my very favouritest, favourite song. Bach is my favourite composer. I played this at my grade 12 recital" We later saw her performing her songs at the beer tent for those that were working there. While she was setting up her Mom told a joke to help pass the time. It was priceless! It goes like this "What did Buddha say when he ordered his pizza? ......Make me one with everything"

2. Rain gear. Chris and I didn't really bring appropriate rain gear with us on our trip so we had to improvise a little. Chris' Mom got me a roadside surivival kit that we keep in the back of the car so we thought we'd poke around in there to see if there was anything that might help out with the rain. Lo and behold there was an emergency poncho and an emergency blanket. Let me tell you that emergency blanket was quite the head turner. I used it like a cape and wrapped it around myself, then when we were seated we used it to cover our legs.





Now you may wonder why I'm choosing to post this seemingly terrible picture, but I have two good reasons. The first is to demonstrate the use of the emergency blanket. The second is to show you that we were right in front of the gate at the mainstage. We walked up to the front and there was a spot...right in the front and centre of the mainstage. It was like a little gift from Ottawa to us welcoming us to the fair city.



3. The funkiest dancer we ever did see dancing to the Mighty Popo. I was trying to decide how to describe this guy's dancing. Chris suggested that I do an interactive instructional sequence. Here goes! First, stand up out of your chair. Next stick out your right hand and your right foot to the side. Then balancing on your left foot jut your right hand and foot out while turning in a circle. Try to jut your left hand out at the same time, still moving in a circle.

If my directions aren't good enough to recreate the dance, try viewing this video of Chris demonstrating the funkiest dance ever.