Broken Record

Wow, this is terrible. I was just about to start this post by lamenting the fact that I'm still behind on posts, when I realized that I've basically done the same thing at the beginning of each of my last three posts. 

So...yeah...

We're back on the road through mid-December, so I'm in it for the long haul right now. Today is a day off, which has been much needed! It's definitely nice to be back in the routine, though.

One thing in which I have been extremely belated is thanking and acknowledging awesome friends who made long drives this summer to come see shows!

First, in July, my friends Jere and Lies'l drove out to Redlands, CA, from AZ (6 hours each way!) to see our performance at the Redlands Bowl. Not only did they make t-shirts and a poster for the concert, but they even stayed in the same hotel just to hang out for the night! It was an awesome way to start tour, having my friends in the same hotel just a handful of rooms away.

With Jere & Lies'l the following morning in the hotel.

For those of you who have followed my blog for a while, they were the ones responsible for this hilarious photo from our show in Gilbert in 2009.

We grabbed some food after the show and nearly stepped on this little guy as he crossed the sidewalk.

Then in Napa Valley, just two days later, Ben, with whom I was a groomsman in a wedding earlier this year, came to the show with his wife, Sam, and her brother who was in town visiting! 

L to R: Sharon, Sam, Ben, and me.

Even though this tour was only one week long with two shows, I made a pretty terrible mistake in my opening speech and said, "We're so excited to be here in Redlands!" Not until I heard the audible groaning from the audience did I realize that Redlands was two nights prior and we were actually in Napa Valley. Whoops. Funnily enough, Ben and Sam both thought I had misspoke on purpose...I must have covered better than I thought!

Last month in Rochester Hills, MI, my friend David brought his girlfriend Julia to the show. David and Julia, both of whom are PhD candidates at MSU in Zoology, had just spent the summer researching hyenas in Kenya. You read that correctly: they're hyena researchers. They're hyena researchers in the David-has-been-chased-by-a-lion-and-is-conversationally-fluent-in-Swahili kind of way. Ridiculous.

The MSU Hyena Research Lab keeps a blog, to which both David and Julia have contributed. To check it out, you can go here. [Warning: some of the photos on the blog are slightly more graphic than Disney's depiction of the circle of life.]

Thank you Jere & Lies'l, Ben & Sam, Sharon, and David & Julia for making trips to come see the show! I feel incredibly lucky to have such supportive friends.

Coincidentally enough, I'm heading out in just a little bit to go see The Lion King 3D (...for a second time) with some of the Barrage people!

Celtica 2011 & Some Thoughts on Normality

As I sit down to write this post, I'm struck by a few random things:

1) I'm really having difficulty catching up on my blog, even while home. Fortunately, I can guarantee that this is not a result of laziness, but rather not having time.

2) Last week a friend took me to hear Joy Kills Sorrow, an acoustic/bluegrass/folk band. They're absolutely brilliant. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to their (newest) CD since I bought it last week. I'm actually listening to it right now. (I think this is my favorite song.)

3) Tonight at an alumni event for an organization in which I was involved at ASU, someone asked me which is more normal: being on the road or being at home. I've known that being on the road feels more normal for sometime, but I don't think I've ever been asked that question directly. It felt weird to confirm, definitively, that being on the road feels more normal.

3a) This has actually been driven home by various incidents during the past week in which I've done things that are quite normal in Barrage, but just plain weird outside of it. For example, we spend a lot of time talking in accents and odd voices related to our inside jokes. When you do that in front of non-Barrage people, it usually elicits awkward pauses and strange glances. It's like when you use your family's word for "grandma" in front of your friends (my family says "nana"). It's just weird.

3b) I miss our absurd behavior when I'm home. A lot.

3c) At the same time, I do really enjoy the ridiculous things I do with my friends at home. Nothing is quite as fulfilling as seeing old friends. 

4) That is all.

Back to catching up on events from the summer!

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Our visit to Celtica in June, my favorite event with Barrage, was quite different this year. 

When we performed at Celtica in 2008 and 2009, we were so busy that we hardly got to experience the festival. This year, however, our schedule was structured in such a way that we had Friday night and Sunday afternoon off, allowing us to actually attend the festival in the way so many audience members do.

[Note: I went back to look at those old posts and the formatting is incredibly messed up, especially in the one from 2008. They shouldn't look like that, but editing was hopelessly futile. (I tried.) Sorry about that.]

I've not been to many festivals, but I'm convinced that Celtica is among the coolest in the world. It just has to be!

Now that I think back, I was so wrapped up in experiencing everything Celtica has to offer, that taking photos was the last thing on my mind (as I suppose maybe it sometimes should be?). And, as I browse through the random pictures I do have, there's not really any coherent way to explain or organize them.

So, I present to you in no particular order (well, I guess these are loosely chronological?), my few photos from this year's trip to Celtica!

The panoramic view of Courmayeur, Italy, from my hotel room. [Click to see it larger.]

Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps.

Some stairs into the neighborhood behind our hotel.

Why, hello there, cats.

...people live on this street!

And just when it felt like we were so far away from home, Charlie and I went for a walk up the mountain and saw the Google Maps car.

A shot of the main stage in the woods, with the Alps in the background.

The dining tent.

Riccardo, one of the heads of the festival, giving a closing speech to the people who stuck through till the very end.

A look into the Aosta Valley from Bard Fortress.

Iain and Federico, my two best friends from Celtica, performing as their awesome duo, The Sidh.

With Federico and Iain after one of their performances at Bard.

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5) Along with missing Barrage, I also miss my friends from the road. 

And I know for a fact that missing people is definitely normal.