Seeing Famous People

It has been an exciting week for me, too exciting to blog things properly.

Zoom

On Tuesday at the Bluesfest, Janet introduced me to Zoom who was sitting (on the ground) with her. As you'd expect, Zoom was delightful and charming. She is prettier than that tightly cropped photo in her profile, but she's not as tall as I thought she'd be. (I think it's because I assume people with big dogs are also big themselves.)

I didn't stay long enough to draw a picture of her for you, and given her pseudonym and all, I think she values her anonymity.

The Tree Reading

At the Tree Reading, the famous John W MacDonald sat down beside me and introduced himself.

John was also delightful and charming (in an entirely masculine way of course). He's got big news that I don't think he's blogged about: in one month he'll have a son. [for a photo that actually looks like John click here.]

I was disappointed that I didn't get to hear him read during the open set but delighted that the guy who reads emails he writes to his sister in which he recounts details of his interactions with "lespians" ^[note1] at the Lookout is still doing his thing.

I am also delighted because John took photos of the Ottawa Voices poets. This means that you can rely on his photo of Robyn rather than my sketch.

Robyn is a hottie and she writes poems that mention things like bras and nipples. But really you should go to her next reading because her poetry is excellent.

I have to say I enjoyed Gwendolyn Guth's and Jesse Ferguson's work also, particularly because they mentioned Cornwall, Ontario in their poems. Gwendolyn explicitly mentioned the town, and Jesse wrote about speeding on Sydney Street.

Nicholas Lea was really soft-spoken and I was having too much of an ADD night to tune in.

A Bluesfest Moment with the Hackensaw Boys

On Wednesday night, before Dave T came up with the couch plan, while we were sitting in the festival chairs, the Hackensaw Boys walked out onto the MBNA stage. "I hope we're not gonna be hearin' any hillbilly music," said Dave.

This is the kind of thing that Dave says that always makes me laugh and makes Kathy A get irritated with us. ^[note2]

Then he goes, "check out the guy on the end. It's the Keith Richards of the Mandolin." I had to agree. Young, but definitely headed towards looking like Keith Richards.