The Elysian Fields

I had an excellent lunch today...

First off, a very satisfying Ripper Burger cooked medium, with bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onions and topped with some A-1; fries with Guldon's Spicy Brown Mustard to dip into; a pickle on the side *and* a diet Coke - all for about half of what Monday's meal was, even though I left a 30% tip today. Of course, this was also including waitress service, air conditioning, with entertainment provided by the local classic rock station and CNN - so not quite so Musikfest-y.

But, see, here is the brilliant part of the plan: I went to lunch early. And we're taking two hour lunches this week, with one and a quarter hours counted as team meetings. Much more productive than usual.

So I walked over to the fish and chips-less Leiderplatz to watch and listen to Vance Gilbert.

Michael Hedges came to mind, sort of. Better vocals actually, although I've never heard anyone come close to Michael on the guitar. Vance was excellent - without a doubt the best guitar player I've seen at Musikfest over the past decade or so.

His cover of Castles Made of Sand was better, IMO, than Jimi's original - and that's one of my favorite Hendrix tunes. The music was mixed in with a bit of fun at the expense of Godfrey Daniels and WDIY (the folks who paid him,) folk music, politics, the lady in the bus who idled behind the stage for a while so he couldn't hear anything, and a number of other things. I had tears in my eyes through most of it, and I can definitely see him doing well opening for George Carlin. Which, coincidentally, is what he's doing.

He ended with a song performed "Acapulco" - which means he dropped his guitar on the stage, made a comment about getting plenty of free Martin Guitars because they're nearby, and walked out into the audience. He stood in front, pointing out several friends after pointing out how embarrassed they'd get if he did that, and proceeded to sing, without a mic, a song to them for putting him up when he's in town.

Now, I'm as much a fan of George Carlin as anyone, particularly all those e-mail circulated quotes that aren't actually his, the edgy stuff he's done in his role as the "Conductor" in the Thomas the Tank Engine program, and even the one book of his that I read, but, after seeing this performance, I'd be more inclined to shell out the big bucks to see Vance than George. (In all seriousness, he actually was the best Conductor, and if I have to be subjected to those videos/episodes/etcetera, all I can do is hope they're ones he was on... =)

Oh, and we'll find out at the end of the day, or maybe tomorrow, if I own a custom Martin with a Godfrey Daniels inlay on the fretboard. I only entered once, but one can hope...

It was confirmed: Granny McCarthy's is not setting up a stand at Musikfest. Apparently, they lost too much money, in addition to spending the ten days overheating last year.

So, instead of paying about the same for a fish & chips and ice tea as I would eating it at the restaurant (when it's only available Friday night, or, for this week, Thursday through Saturday) I wound up paying $16 for a lemonade, small sausage sandwich, and fries. Oy.

Unfortunately, most of the places I might usually go - such as the Plaza Deli or Ripper's Pub - have a limited menu during Musikfest, so they tend to be off the list as well. Driving anywhere is also out, as there is a good chance of not being able to get back into the parking lot. I think I'll be heading to Subway or some other place within walking distance for much of the rest of the week - no point spending more for less. At least with the fish & chips it was of a good quality and large quantity. I could rationalize the $11.50 a day. I'm sure there are good vendors down at the fest, but $16 dollars and a half hour later I'm hungry, and I'm not sure I'm willing to experiment with places further away.

Open Road was the name of the band playing at lunch - old time bluegrass stuff, pretty decent. A good sized crowd, but I'm surprised it wasn't larger.

Yesterday's Lunch: Red Robin - didn't fest, because I joined the bimonthly team lunch to Red Robin. Unfortunate timing placing expensive fish n' chips and live music against free Banzai Burger and Bottomless Fries, but free food won out.

Last night: Scraped, raked, spread out the last of the lawn seed on bare patches, and covered with straw. First time I tried using straw - will see what it does for germination.

This morning: Division meeting - free bagels & cream cheese! Free food again!

Power blinked while we were down in the Ed Center, came back up and the circuit for one cluster of cubes was gone. My lap top was still on, but had gone into a sleep from which I could not awaken it. By the time I brought it down and back up again so I could actually see the screen, the breaker was reset and I had to restart again to get access to the resolution on the large monitor - if the laptop display is or was open, it locks it to the display panels 1024x768 maximum no matter what the monitor is capabale of.