Taking Note: Celtica in pictures and captions.

This post has been about two months in the making...for multiple reasons. The two main reasons are:

1) This fall's heavy touring schedule is preventing me from having ample time to catch up.

2) I don't know how to best write this particular post.

Regarding that second reason, I've never had more difficulty trying to craft some sort of coherent entry about an experience on road. Pardon the triteness, but there just aren't words to describe how I feel about this year's trip to Italy (you can reference last year's here).

At the same time, I find myself as a blogger challenged by a favorite line of mine from a song by The Format: "Pictures only prove you can't convince."

If that indeed is the case, then I'm guilty.

I hope that the pictures I've selected for this post can adequately convey to you, the blog reader, at least a small bit of the wonderfulness that was our experience at Celtica.

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Celtica 2009

Enjoying a private meal in the woods with the Clan on our first night.

I loved the olive oil, so I asked the cook where I could buy some. She gave me a bottle of theirs -- for free. Nicest people in the world.

The first performance was in a giant tent right next to ruins of Teatro Romano.

From another angle.

Here are the French Alps near the stage/festival location in the woods.

Vendors and tents in the woods.

Sarah helps to demonstrate just how tall the French Alps are.

The story of "marching through the woods, carrying torches to light a bonfire" was one of my favorite stories from my first year in Barrage. Here's this year's bonfire.

One of my best friends who I've known since 3rd grade, Jennifer, just happened to be doing an internship in Switzerland about 2-3 hours away.

I'm so glad she got to experience Celtica with me. (If anything, just so she can corroborate the ridiculous stories to my friends back home!)

Celtica main stage.

You may notice the gloves I'm wearing. As we got on stage around midnight, it was about 2 Celsius...

With my friends Claudio and Iain after the show.

With Jennifer and her boyfriend JP outside the hotel the next morning.

Our final gig with Celtica was at the Bard Castle, about 1 hour south in the Aosta Valley. We performed inside of a tent in a quad-like portion of Bard. It was an awesome venue, but what made it even more fun was getting one final night to hang out with the Clan.

Bard Castle.

After some discussion at dinner, I decided I would let Iain paint my face for the final show.

I got the Scottish flag over my eye. Matt, alternatively, got a giant handprint on his face.

Then I decided I wanted to try paiting faces.Here I am painting 3 diagonal lines across Iain's face.

Master and apprentice.

Claudio was my next victim. I decided to amp up my design, so I did the giant Celtic trinity symbol on Claudio's face. Due to the numerous curves, it proved to be exceedingly difficult.