...

Yep, yours truly got picked to work the weeklong Appalachian String Band Festival. I'm taking off Monday and I'll be back sometime Sunday night.

The frestival itself starts on Wed morning. It runs through Sunday. Monday, we've got load in, and set up our quarters. Tuesday, we spend all day building two stages for the performers.

The festival is a rather large competition. Banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar...there are awards for each. Hundreds of competitors, some fantastic bands, and a helluva lot of music. We're expecting over 3,000 people camping on-site, and an additional several thousand attendees.

We, the lucky crew, get the only air-conditioned quarters on the site at Camp Washington Carver in Clifftop WV. Free room and board, and I was told today "Uhmm...don't really worry about alcohol. That's pretty much going to be provided"

It's going to be an awful lot of fun. Where else can you get paid to run a festival with fantastic music, in the wonderful outdoors of WV and have the moonshine provided to you?

I'll see you all next week, I don't think I'll have a chance to post before I take off.

Be well, folks!

...it's been forever since I posted.

Anyway, I've run across one of my favorite bands of all time's website.

You have to check these guys out:

www.clannandrumma.com

They're wild Scots drummers. Very tribal, very primal. They're absolutely fantastic. They've done music for a few films, too. Last of the Mohicans, We Were Soldiers just to name two.

I've a thing for Scots and Irish folk music. Very much back in the day, I played the bodhran (a Celt-type drum) in an Irish folk music group called the Wild Colonial Boys. We played for beer, mostly. Had a wonderful time singing and playing the "auld tunes".

And now, I'm going to list out the lyrics to one of my favorite songs/poems. It's by the Scots national poet, Robbie Burns:

Is there, for honest poverty,
That hangs his head, and a' that?
The coward-slave, we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, and a' that,
Our toils obscure, and a' that;
The rank is but the guinea-stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that!

What tho' on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin grey, and a' that;
Gi'e fools their silks, and knaves their wine
A man's a man for a' that!
For a' that, and a' that,
Their tinsel show, and a' that;
The honest man, though e'er sae poor,
Is king o' men for a' that!

Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,
Wha struts, and stares, and a' that;
Though hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that;
For a' that, and a' that,
His riband, star, and a' that,
The man of independent mind
He looks and laughs at a' that!

A prince can mak' a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, and a' that,
But an honest man's aboon his might,
Guid faith he mauna fa' that!
For a' that, and a' that,
Their dignities, and a' that,
The pith o' sense, and pride o' worth,
Are higher ranks than a' that.

Then let us pray that come it may---
As come it will for a' that---
That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth,
May bear the gree, and a' that;
For a' that, and a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man to man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that!

Slainte.

...it's Thursday. You know what that means?

Pretty much nothing, really...I just figured I'd try to create an aura of suspense.

I'd mentioned in my 100 Things that I quote movies alot.

Here's some quotes I usually use on a weekly basis:

"That's not a moon...that's a space station" -Star Wars

"Charlie Bronson's always got a bit of rope. Always ends up using it too" -Boondock Saints

"I'm parked over by the commisary" -Blazing Saddles

"Brothers don't shake hands, brothers gotta hug!" -Tommy Boy

"I'm going to pistolwhip the next motherfucker that says 'shennanigans'" -SuperTroopers

"You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means" - Princess Bride

"Gopher, Everett?"- Oh Brother, Where Art Thou

See, these are all probably only amusing to my circle of friends. We're all nearly or over 30, gigantic movie geeks and live every weekend at some live music venue or antother.

Trust me, at 2am, after several brews and loud music, "But this one goes to eleven" is freakin' hysterical.

******************

Wow...that was a pretty pointless post. Huh.

Remeber, folks. Friday is Poker Night....who's going to be there?!

...well, not really.

I'm sitting here pondering what humor and laughter mean to me in my life.

I've come to realize that I have deep, abiding, and nearly spiritual beliefs about laughter. To make another laugh may be the closest we ever come to the divine. To bestow upon another a moment of joy so intense that you must laugh out loud....that's pretty incredible.

I love to laugh. I love that specific moment when the punchline comes. When all the world's catastrophe's, both private and public are, for an instant blown away by human's most basic of emotions.

Love fades, as I'm sure we're all aware of. Hatred can be brough to bear. Friendships can dry up and be blown to the winds.

But...laughter. True laughter. This can cross all boundries.

I sincerely hope, that whatever divine being is watching over me has a sense of humor. To think that God, or Goddess, or whatever you may believe laughs...it's a very comforting thought, no?

Hmmm.

....I've completed 50 of the "100 Things About Me" thingy.

Let me know what you think!