Halloween was a funfest of dancing for Colleen and me while Jakobi dressed up as the Onceler from the Lorax movie and spent the eve out with her friends a trick or treating while Colleen and I went to the Zenbarn to rock the f&%k out to Steely Dead who played Grateful Dead and Steely Dan songs in a Grateful Dead jammout style. They were epic, guitar and keyboard solos going way off on musical journeys. I just love so much dancing to these flights of musical improvisation. Dancing is where I feel I can most express all the verisimilitudes of being a corporeal being in space/time. I become pure feeling in motion riding the musical vibrations bridging the gap between music musician and movement dissolving the illusion of separation striving for the fundamental unity of the universe-in-being. The keyboardist in the band was into it, he would make eye contact with us as we danced and it felt like he was playing us as we jammed out to the music he was making so that the two were one and the same. That is the magic of music, that it can unite us in a fellow feeling, get past the separate forms to the unity underlying it all, that at the most basic level we are all one.
Ambiana & Wiki got into the Halloween Spirit in Greece dressing up as TALL TRAVIS!
Our dance fest actually started on Friday Oct 27th when Colleen and I went with Corrina, Mark, Autumn and Chris to the Flynn to see the Wood Brothers. They drew a Brooklyn-Hipster-in-VT crowd with their Americana folk sound. Leaving the Flynn we walked out into a Burlington populated with thousands of UVM students in costume as it was Halloween weekend, lots of fairy wings and glitter. Trick or treating with you and Jakobi the past 15 years I had forgotten was a fun holiday Halloween is for the college crowd and the next night at Bent Nails for their Halloween Costume Party with an 80’s band I was reminded of how much fun a Halloween theme show with a band in a bar full of costumed people can be. It was packed and everyone was rocking out and singing along loud to familiar songs. Colleen was super squidy, a squ-alien and we had a blast dancing in such a small crowded place with our friends Tara & Mark
U32: Peter & the Starcatcher
Jakobi killed it as Smee in Peter and the Last Starcatcher. It was a really busy fast moving production and I’m glad WE got to see it twice to understand most of what was going on what with all the British accents and the fast pace of the production it was at times hard to keep up. It was definitely better than the Shakespeare thing U32 did last year. Jakobi was amazing, cold not withstanding, which lent a rasp to her voice that suited the character. She was funny and ruled the stage every time she was on it. The whole cast was good as well especially Evelyn as Peter, Aliza as Molly and Aiden Wiseman stepped into the role of Slank with script in hand and nailed it. I can’t wait to see Jakobi again on that stage.
Cowboy Junkies
On Saturday I went with my friend Mark to the Barre Opera House to see Cowboy Junkies. They are a Canadian Band who had a few big hits in 1988 from their 2nd Album “The Trinity Sessions” Their cover of “Sweet Jane”, a song from the 70’s by Lou Reed was their biggest hit and I remember it well for I was then a ski bum out in Breckenridge Colorado and skiing everyday and dancing every night was my way of life and that song was big. I bought the cassette and listened to that album a lot. Well that was the last big hit Cowboy Junkies had but they developed a loyal fan base and have consistently released albums for the last 35 years. I didn’t exactly keep up with them but over the years I had an album or tow of theirs and in the last 5 years I have been consistent in keeping up with their new releases. They are an interesting band because 3/5ths of the band are siblings. The lead guitarist Michael writes the words and music, his sister Margo sings them in a husky hushed voice and their younger brother Peter plays the drum. The also have bassist and a multi instrumentalist genius not unlike the drummer/keyboardist in the Wood Brothers. The reason I like them is the guitarist, he is amazing; weaving awesome tapestries of sound and going off on incredible musical flights of fancy that lend themselves well to super fun dancing.
Mark and I were excited, neither of us had seen anything in the Opera House other than the Nutcracker and your performance of the Little Mermaid. We had seats in the balcony but the Opera House was letting people dance in the orchestra pit in front of the stage. We confirmed this once inside asking an Opera House official if it was true if we would be able to dance up front. She assured us we could, she said she asked the band if they minded if people danced and they replied. “We draw an older crowd and they don’t dance.” Mark laughed at this and said they didn’t know Vermonters.
Mark wanted to wait to dance to see if it was danceable but I knew the set list and was familiar with the new album and definitely knew it was danceable. The only question was if anyone else would dance. Finally the lights went down and the Executive Director of the Opera House came out and spoke thanking sponsors and advertising upcoming shows and letting the crowd know that they could now buy a beer in the lobby and bring it into the Opera House. He talked for a long time then introduced the band and….there was a slight delay but then Cowboy Junkies came out, said hello and launched into the first song on “Such Ferocious Beauty”.
I couldn’t sit in my seat, dancing was permitted up front so that is where I headed making my way down from the balcony and up the aisle in the orchestra to the pit in front of the stage where I felt really conspicuous but the music was moving me. I didn’t dance right in the middle but a bit off to to stage left right in front of my guitar hero. It was awesome. The band played “Sweet Jane” second (got their biggest hit out of the way early) and Mark joined me on the dance floor. Over the next couple of songs several other people joined us but they didn’t dance, they just stood there and between songs a guy in the front row got up and told us to move and a lady in her seat chimed in telling us to sit down. Now the website selling tickets clearly stated that people may dance in the orchestra pit and that the view in the front row may be obstructed but these people either didn’t notice that or didn’t care.
I held my ground and kept dancing where I was. The singer told the crowd they would be laying 2 sets, the first from their new album then take a break and come back for the hits and more familiar tunes and I danced through the remainder of the 1st set. When the band took a break and the house lights came on I turned and had a talk with the two people who had told us to sit down. I apologized for blocking their view but told them that I am moved by the music and that dancing is my natural response. They told me to go dance in the corner and I replied that I don’t feel I should be shoved in a corner, that where I was dancing was where I wanted to be because the guitar player is a god and that dancing was permitted and that my dancing shouldn’t have to take a back seat to their site line but out of respect to them I would not dance the 2nd set or if I did I would go block someone else view. This seemed to appease one of the guys but the other had gotten up and walked off while I was talking when a young lady filing out to the lobby thanked me for dancing.
I met up with Mark in the lobby where we discussed how awesome the band was and that we could dance but that the house seemed to be against us. I noticed the Executive Director near by and approached him and thanked him for allowing dancing. Mark mentioned the people telling us to sit down and how the policy was clearly stated on the ticketing website and the ED said that some people just don’t accept that and that it was a tricky business trying to please everybody and that the band had thought he talked way to long when introducing them. An older guy then approached Mark and said that even though he was in the 6th row and his view was not blocked couldn’t we dance in the back, that he found us distracting and that launched Mark into a monologue of how dancing in front was permitted and that if allowed to dance up front that was so much more a better experience than being shunted to the back and just because the majority want to sit doesn’t mean those who really want to dance have to sit too and that people are free to join us.
I told the ED that I had spoken with the people in the front row who were perturbed and had promised them I would not dance the second set or if I did would block someone else view. He then went on a long preamble of him about being a sponsor of the arts and not wanting to squash anybody’s creativity but if I was up there dancing alone could I be a little less………(dramatic pause)……..flamboyant. Mark found that a bit offensive. I was like whatever. So Mark and I returned to our seats in the balcony for the 2nd set. Throughout the 1st set I kept catching the singer looking at us but I never caught her eye and I had hoped she would thank the dancers or something to legitimize us but she didn’t and I half wondered if she was annoyed by us too. I said to Mark, “All we need now is for the singer, when they come back on. to say ‘good the dancers are gone’.”
The house lights dimmed, Cowboy Junkies returned to the stage and without a word launched into the 1st song of the 2nd set. And lo and behold; a woman got up and entered the orchestra pit and began dancing right where I had been dancing during the first set. I got up and rocked out to the first two songs in the space behind our seats but when the lady held her position on the dance floor I said ‘fuck it’ and headed back down to the dance pit only this time I took up a position stage right where the sight lines weren’t so blocked by my dancing but I did not do anything to dampen down my “flamboyance.”
I mean how could I? It is the music that moves me and Michael the guitar player is a wizard and that multi-instrumentalist is a minor deity himself and the music was just transporting me to a higher plane. Soon Mark was down in the pit with us and then their were two other couples on the dance floor and an older couple were there too waltz-dancing. Mark was beaming; he felt vindicated, that the house had tipped in favor of dancing. No one else told us to sit down or move into a corner and for several songs it was just music and dance making ecstasy.
Cowboy Junkies then played a 3 song acoustic set which drained the dance floor of dancers except for me and the lady who sat on the lip of the pit for these songs and then got back up for the final three electrified numbers. Mark came back and the lady joined me in duet-flamboyance and then it was over and the singer was thanking us, saying good night and the band left the stage. Mark left to get our hoodies and the lady and I beamed at each and exclaimed how much fun that was and weren’t they great and I confided that I wished we’d gotten a shout out from the band and then the Cowboy Junkies were back on stage and they played a beautiful encore of “Walking After Midnight” from the Trinity Session album and we had one last dance. When the song ended the singer came to the front of the stage and thanked the crowd yet again this time turning and facing each part of the house and looking up at the balcony in turn. She then walked over to where the three of us were standing in the pit near the piano and looked each of us in the eye and with a big smile on her face thanked us for dancing. Beaming we thanked her and then she was gone and the house lights came up and the house began to empty.
We stood there for awhile basking in the afterglow of a rapturous experience and most of the glances we received from the people filing out were pleasant but the one guy I thought I had made peace with in the front row called out to Mark. “I hope you had a good time. I paid to see the Cowboy Junkies not a freak show.” A roadie on stage then called us over and handed us copies of the set list which was sweet so now I can make a playlist of the show. Some people filing out were interested in the set list too and asked to take pictures of them on their phones and we chatted about what a great show it was and one guy complimented us on our moves and said he was usually ‘that guy’ and the woman with him concurred and they told us about the time they saw the Cowboy Junkies 20 years ago at Higher Ground. And then we were outside and back in the truck and a on our way home after a very satisfying and interesting night of rockin the f$%k out.
Fire in Montpelier
RK Miles burned down last Wednesday in Montpelier. When building the house I visited them every week. Hug loss to the community.
Meanwhile in Austria….
