Art and music and friends, oh my!

[shadesofmauve]

westrider came down yesterday, and he brought me the bestest present ever, a light-box! I was rendered non-verbal and did a little glee-dance. It made me want to comic, but it's been so long I decided to re-do an old Second Thoughts rather than start something new, just to work on rusty skills.

This evening, Otter's Holt played the last of our two charity gigs for the SPSCC foundation. I was a tad concerned, since we haven't practiced recently, but we did a great job -- some mistakes from both Gerald and I (mostly me), but nothing we couldn't play right past with no one the wiser. Towards the end I did my little educational thing, which is a brief run-down of all the tune styles we play, with examples. The last SPSCC auction dinner was the first time we'd done it, which makes this the third or fourth, and I'm getting clearer and more organized. I also picked tunes that were representative of their styles in advance, which helps. I hope it interested people -- it seemed to, and I really enjoy doing it.

The coolest part of the educational-bit was when I went into Reel Saint Antoine. I started with the podorhythmie, that is, playing the feet, and then started fiddling in time. Hooray for totally unpracticed firsts in front of an audience! Usually I have enough trouble starting my feet second. Perhaps the constant refilling of my wine glass had something to do with it. I've only been able to play and do Quebecois footwork at the same time for a few months now, and it still comes and goes, but I LOVE it, because it's something I never thought I'd get.

The capping oddity on a fun evening was that two of the guests were the parents of a high school friend. We hadn't been close and I'd had no idea what they looked like, but high schools came up in conversation and they asked if I knew her.

"Anna? Yeah, she was a friend! I last saw her at Kat(e)'s wedding! Um...I think I've been to your house!"