Oh, I meant to update my bloggity blog as soon as I wrapped up the tour but suddenly I was at a wine and cheese party and then it was time to go to PEI for the 2nd annual Mittentime Revue. What a blast! Last year I pulled a bunch of my talented musical friends from PEI together to mark the solstice with a riotous cabaret at The Guild in Charlottetown. Well, we did it again this year, with a few extra touches, like mini christmas trees complete with presents underneath (isabel didn't even notice they were missing from her tree at home!) and costume changes. My talented PEI friends who sang and made people laugh at the sold out Mittentime Revue this year: Catherine MacLellan , Jenn Grant , Rose Cousins , Daniel ledwell , and Patrick Ledwell . Also, the magnificent Kinley Dowling, violin and viola player extraordinaire, graced us all with her strings. I was very lucky to perform alongside all of these people.
Then there was a snowstorm! We had oysters on rice crackers at the Best Western and some mini chocolate bars.
To backtrack a touch, the tour finished up well and I left Toronto right at rush hour on a thursday afternoon. Perfect. I decided to drive until I was tired. I pulled up with some big trucks at a Quebec rest stop (thank you Quebec), covered my windows with blankets and jackets and crawled in my sleeping bag to nap. It was cold. And the cold allowed me to nap lightly and then feel invigorated enough to drive again, sleepiness cured!
End of tour highlights:
Sudden snowstorm in Toronto that made me do a banana peel-esque slip on the steps of Not my Dog, so dramatic sounding that everybody in the bar was silent when I got off my bum and came in. "Yes, I am ok, though I appreciate the whole room's concern" (and I really did, nice to feel cared for..).
Cute show there at Not my Dog with an appreciative crowd and Evalyn parry with a full and awesome band.
Breakfast in Toronto the day of leaving with my old friend Krisztina and the comforting knowledge that we have both come into similiar interests over the last year, although independently. it is a neat mark of long friendship when you don't keep in touch much between meetings but still have similar things to discuss over the once-a-year breakfast.
In January I will be in Halifax preparing for the 2009 In the Dead of Winter Festival. The lineup is great. Check it out online and get yourself some tickets. Everybody needs music in the dead of winter.
Happy Holiday Season
td