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Monday, December 29, 2008

The Woodford Files 3

9pm, Sunday
I'm sitting close to the top of a huge natural ampitheatre FULL of people, waiting for Josh Pyke. The rain has moved on, the stars are out and the crowd is very happy. The trees that ring the amphi edge are lit from below, and while I know from daylight experience that they are gigantic, they seem dwarfed by the enormous teeming energy swarming below me in the lights of the stage.

While I'm waiting, let me tell you how much I liked Roger Loves Betty. Much. Especially the Betty bits, because Jodi Phillis can make *any* song gorgeous, but her own songs are especially good. And she captures women's emotions particularly well, especially that push-me-pull-you existance of being a creative woman that Wendy James also captures in The Steele Diaries. Jodi Phillis' album Red Whine and Blue got me through the years I was at art school with a young baby, and to my utter delight, she plays a small selection of those songs as part of the RLB act.

I sat at the front of the gig on my ownsome and scored a free cd for my pains.

Monday, 2.30pm
We've been really lucky with the weather. Sure, there's been a couple of rainstorms, but nothing major, and each day has been relatively cool and overcast. Today, however, the sky is blue and the sun is out in FULL FORCE. Hats are selling fast, and the kids are using their water sprayers on grateful passers-by.

Bumblebee and I and his new friend Sam have taken refuge in the shady but stuffy Empire venue for the Monday Mayhem Variety Hours. Armed with our water bottles and a paper fan each, we've been watching acts like the Ayres Rock Surf Lifesaving Club (excellent clowning), the Mad Hatter juggling act, Ross Vegas, and some puppeteers who are just about to come on.

Best Beloved is in the Village Green, a leafy spot near a bit of water, and is reading the paper. On days like this you can't wait for the sun to go down, and you lie low and wait for the fun that sunset brings. Then the street performers come out, the bars get busy and we all start strolling.

3.45pm
The sun hasn't gone down but the breeze is up. I'm waiting for The Ellis Collective at the Concert Tent. Should be good, I'm right at the edge where I can keep one eye on the band and the other on the crowd meandering past.

I can't get over how many people can't handle the basic premise of sticking to the left, and all the gravelly walkways are constantly jammed by gangles of teens trying to decide what to do next, just like those people who step off the top / bottom of a crowded escalator and then stop and look around, banking up everyone following.

Ok, music starting. I'll enjoy this one for you, Crit...






-- Post From My iPhone

2 comments:

Mummy/Crit said...

Yay! i know you're not reading comments, but thank you! I miss the festivals big time! Your doorbitch says coper and I suppose I must needs be one....

Aunty Doris said...

Hey duck

Saw this offer on Freecycle Canberra and thought of you.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freecyclecanberra/message/22558

It is for typeset pictures with a cowboy theme "These are the print making pieces that in the olden days you would
have set in between the words (when you manually put together the
words out of metal pieces to print whole sheets of newspaper) to give
newspaper pictures. they are photos which have been turned into
reverse images on a metal plate which has been mounted onto a piece of
wood. If you knew how to apply ink to them you could use them to print
cowboy themed pictures. There are 10 and the largest is about 15x12cm.
I was going to do...something...with them but don't think I will ever
find the time or expertise. I reckon they are from the 40's or 50's."

Click the link above for more info. I have told the offerer about you and hopefully she will save them for you.