| Cape Breton 2003 |
| Wednesday August 13th A day of highs and lows. Today bodhran class became even more fun, if that’s possible! We were learning upstrokes and Michelle said we needed to do them with ATTITUDE. Alisdair Gillies popped his head in to ask if Michelle would accompany his bagpipes in the Instructor's Ceilidh tonight. Michelle replied that she’d play along with whatever he wanted to play. He made the comment (tongue-in-cheek) that “That’s just what a woman is supposed to do - be subservient to the man.” Well, THAT was a mistake to say in front of 7 women! Elaine stated, when we went back to practicing the upstroke again, “Yeah - here’s you attitude – UP YOURS!” After much laughing, we decided that the UP stroke was the female stroke (complicated and with attitude). And the down stroke was the male - easy and powerful. And the tipper was considered to “go both ways.” LOL! What a time we had today in bodhran class! The jokes would last all week. Kimberly’s session this morning brought me more music. Oy Vey. I thought I already had more than enough for the week. We played a march. And we found out we are supposed to play in the student ceilidh tomorrow. I spent the hour before lunch (forget about Allie’s class) practicing all my music. I stopped when my fingers hurt. Just as well because I wasn’t doing very well. Interesting lunch conversation with the resident vegans and Buddhists all at the same table. Among other things, we discussed herbal remedies for mental illness. Go fig. Sandy’s class after lunch was both a hoot and a frustration. I guess he was trying to lighten up the stress of playing/learning all that new music. He was trying to see if we could name the tunes he was playing and play along without music. But as with the past few days, my fingers wouldn’t go right. They just won’t. I can’t seem to get past this. We are supposed to play in the ceilidh, but I am not ready for prime time in this class. I marked up Elaine’s music for her and now even she can play better and faster than I can. I refuse to mark up my music with the fingerings. I am beyond that, I keep telling myself. I need to get away from the music a little and LISTEN more. I will be able to do it then. Maybe I am concentrating too much on reading the music to the exclusion of my strength – learning by ear. Can I ever learn to combine both with success? I was happy to go with Andi to Sydney to shop for a new shoulder rest. We ended up in a bargain store and bought big towels. The ones at the Gaelic College are too small. On the way back from Sydney we stopped at Baddeck and ate at the Yellow Cello. Garlic Fingers again and live entertainment. After dinner, I wanted to get back to practice for tomorrow but Andi wanted to go to Mabou so she dropped me off. I practiced for an hour or more alternating between tears and playing. What in the world is keeping me from playing well? Even my favorite tune, Auntie Mary, sounded horrible. I was feeling quite sorry for myself. I couldn’t call Vic – no access from St. Pierre on the cell phone, and I don’t know what is wrong with my car. I love that car. Ira has given me almost 10 years of service and over 200,000 miles. As I was finally putting my fiddle away, I remembered about the instructor’s ceilidh and went over to watch. I managed to be there for the Alisdair/Michelle duet. There were a lot of people there – maybe 200 or so. |
| Andi arrived at the end of the ceilidh, announcing that she never did make it to Mabou. Guess where she ended up? You guessed it! The Newfoundland Ferry Terminal - and I wasn't even with her this time. There was an impromptu birthday party for D in the cafeteria, so I attended that for a bit. Helped clean up the kitchen and then went back to the dorm. I sat in the common area with the others and listened to Jane and Jonathan Hively tell stories about performing at Scottish/Irish Festivals and weddings. She plays Celtic Harp and mandolin I think and he plays bagpipes. They were once the opening act for Natalie MacMaster at the Maine Scottish Festival – a real nightmare of a show for them. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, including not having time to do a soundcheck and having wires all over the stage and tripping on them constantly. They said they should have known it was not going to be their day when they arrived at the venue. It was supposed to be at a ski resort, but it was this dinky campground with a crayon sign. The tent had the word “Revival” written on the top and sides because the operators took too long to rent a tent and that’s all that was available. They were tripping over the wires on the stage as they changed instruments. And the harp was out of tune and they started some of the tunes in the wrong key. The people in the audience thought they were a comedy act. They ended the evening with Jonathan playing Petula Clark’s “Downtown” on the bagpipes! That turned out to be the hit of the evening. |
| Thursday August 14th Today was spent frantically getting ready for the student ceilidh. We have a whole symphony set up with the bodhran class, showing off all our beats. Sheet music for the bodhran – who’d a thunk? Michelle is trying to make a bodhran video and include some “sheet music.” We spent the week trying things out for her and discussing whether she should use it or not. At supper, the director of the program came out and shushed everyone. And then announced all about the blackout in the Northeast, Midwest and Ontario. We were very concerned because we didn’t know if it was a terrorist act or what. I was having trouble getting in touch with Karen at home and called Vic to ask him to try and get in touch with the girls. He finally did – they were fine and the blackout didn’t affect our section of Pennsylvania. Karen has had more than her share of crises this week, she certainly didn’t need another one. She took the Driver’s Test today and failed. She drove heather’s car in the test after having practiced with Ira for the past 6 months. She really CAN parallel park but she couldn’t in Heather’s car. Oh well, she’ll get another shot as soon as she wants. Poor girl – it’s a wonder she doesn’t collapse from frustration this week! Kimberly couldn’t be there at the Student Ceilidh with us so Dara, the beginning fiddle class teacher, accompanied us. She started a little fast and repeated a part we didn’t usually repeat but we ended up okay. Us farm animals in Sandy’s class chickened out and we didn’t play. |
| They also recanted the story of the wedding from hell, where it rained the whole time and there wasn’t room for guests and musicians at the service. There was a revolving door of soloists running in and out of the tent. Jane and Jonathan are amazing. They have recorded 15 CDs. They live in the mountains and have no kids. As Jane says, “What else is there to do but make music?” They’ve been recording since 1985. They are disgustingly young-looking too. They asked what to do on the island and I gave them a whole bunch of suggestions as to what were “must-sees” in Cape Breton, including going to Glencoe, Louisbourg, Cabot Trail, Cheticamp, Rita's Tea House. Jane thought I was Canadian I knew so much! I finally got ahold of Vic – he is keeping European hours on St. Pierre. Sean didn’t end up going with them, but he is having a great time with Jim and Lillian and Thierry and his family and friends. |
| After the Student Ceilidh we drove 20 km on that wonderfully winding dirt road to Glencoe. It was nice to be over with the ceilidh and go to Glencoe to see Buddy MacMaster play for the dance. That man is amazing. He played till they told him he HAD to take a break. Then a 14-year-old took over and wowed everyone with his playing. Whoa! The talent on this Island is so good it’s scary. I had a great time watching, but wishing I knew the steps. The car needs a new radiator and other nifty things. It’s a good thing I didn’t bring it. I got to talk to Vic again. The girls were faring fine. Heather felt sorry for Karen and treated her to dinner and a movie and that’s why I couldn’t get ahold of them. He told Jim about Andi's aversion to Newfoundland. Jim is really upset about it. We'll see if he can get her back to Newfoundland. Lord knows I am trying. But I don't think she will change her mind. |
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| Friday August 15th The 15th of August was always the day for my mother-in-law to go down to the New Jersey Shore and take a dip. I won’t be taking any dips in the water here - way too cold. Although that doesn't bother Andi. She's been swimming in this water! Everyone was very laid back today – very different from the atmosphere of yesterday, trying to get ready for the student ceilidh. I brought Jim Fidler’s “Gypsy” CD with me to bodhran class to let them hear “The Rhythm of the Goat.” They loved it. Meanwhile, Andi is in the Weaving class and this lady mentions she saw this guy on Friday in Newfoundland and he was fantastic but she doesn’t know his name – oh BTW, he’s blind. Can only be one person and that is Jim Fidler. Andi was nice enough to fill her in on his music and she went online and ordered CDs! Believe it or not, we learned 2 new tunes today! And I am just getting up to speed on the old ones! I’m glad Andi arranged for me to stay an extra week. I need that second week to improve. Bodhran class had us stompin’ and beatin’ and laughin’ with the “Psycho Woman.” That’s the name the bagpipers in Scotland gave to Michelle. She’s a drummer for the pipe band. |
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| It’s down-time for us tonight. No tunes to practice, no drum beats to learn. We went into Baddeck and did some laundry. I worked on my Nova Scotia cross stitch (a map of NS done in the tartan) while cleaning the clothes and we went on a little shopping spree at the Blue Heron Gift Shop. Little? HA!!! Let me make a correction. Lots of CDs we can’t get at home went into gift bags tonight. Andi wanted to work on her special project in the Weavers' Shed so I spent the evening with her listening to CDs, working on word puzzles, writing postcards and reading Ashley MacIssac's autobiography, Fiddling With Disaster. This weaving stuff is a lot more complicated than I had thought! Andi just takes it in stride, though. Andi has so much patience for this stuff that I don't have. We are anxious to have tomorrow dawn because it is Cape Breton Fiddlers Weekend. We had wanted to attend last year but had to leave. Now that we are staying at the College for two weeks, we get to attend! |