Across The Disreali Freeway
04/06/09
I am posting from a secret location (Fyxx St. Vital) so as not to reveal where you can get free WIFI and thus crowd the joint! Anyway, let me tell you about the gig at Sam’s Place (159 Henderson Highway) last Tuesday evening. Sam’s is a bookstore and cafe run by a small staff and volunteers, and sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee. The ambience is friendly, and the food is real good, so I’m told. Sam’s is very small, narrow, and has a stage in the middle. The Meadowlark Orchestra (me and whomever I can corral) was to be second (and last) on the bill. The opening act was Dave. Dave is a retired gentlemen who helps Sam’s on this and that. I had been called by Sara of Sam’s a few days before. She told me, “Dave has a story to tell. Can he go on first? It will take about 15 minutes.” “Mais oui” I replied.
When we arrived a half hour before the scheduled 7:00PM start, we noted the props on the stage:
A 20 horse Evenrude outboard motor
A gas can
A toolbox
A life jacket
An easel
After a friendly reminder the show began promptly at 7:17PM. Dave entertained us with detailed account of his boating accident of thirty years ago, complete with demonstrations of the too sharp turning capabilities of the outboard (the cause of the spill), and with diagrams (sketched live for us) of his post-dumping-from-the-boat position in the lake, and the circles (of ever increasing diameter) that the Dave-less boat notionally inscribed on the lake. Ever wider circles, the last of which saw the boat inevitably strike the shore - you can’t fool geometry! We in the audience expressed our relief that there were no injuries, save for Dave’s pride. But he (and we) can laugh at it now.
We pitched in to help Dave clear the stage, did a perfunctory sound check, then gave the crowd our little 3 readings/3 songs piece, the Meadowark Orchestra being reduced on this occasion to a singer, an acoustic guitar, and a scaled back electric guitar. It worked, or at least the audience (being my EK/Elmwood peeps plus Dave’s homies!) seemed to like it.
After the readings/songs I stayed to chat with a few interested souls. Sam’s Place took a few books to sell, so you Hendersonians can get one at Sam’s - open from 10:00AM to 10:00PM except for Sunday. We came. We saw. We survivied.
When we arrived a half hour before the scheduled 7:00PM start, we noted the props on the stage:
A 20 horse Evenrude outboard motor
A gas can
A toolbox
A life jacket
An easel
After a friendly reminder the show began promptly at 7:17PM. Dave entertained us with detailed account of his boating accident of thirty years ago, complete with demonstrations of the too sharp turning capabilities of the outboard (the cause of the spill), and with diagrams (sketched live for us) of his post-dumping-from-the-boat position in the lake, and the circles (of ever increasing diameter) that the Dave-less boat notionally inscribed on the lake. Ever wider circles, the last of which saw the boat inevitably strike the shore - you can’t fool geometry! We in the audience expressed our relief that there were no injuries, save for Dave’s pride. But he (and we) can laugh at it now.
We pitched in to help Dave clear the stage, did a perfunctory sound check, then gave the crowd our little 3 readings/3 songs piece, the Meadowark Orchestra being reduced on this occasion to a singer, an acoustic guitar, and a scaled back electric guitar. It worked, or at least the audience (being my EK/Elmwood peeps plus Dave’s homies!) seemed to like it.
After the readings/songs I stayed to chat with a few interested souls. Sam’s Place took a few books to sell, so you Hendersonians can get one at Sam’s - open from 10:00AM to 10:00PM except for Sunday. We came. We saw. We survivied.
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