THAT Guy

Every now and then someone asks me when I'm going to post a new blog entry. It's been exactly three months since my last post, and the "Where I Currently Live" map (at the bottom of this page) was showing me in Shakori Hills. The map is now current...except that sometimes it shows me in Hamburg, Germany. (sigh)

Two weeks ago Brenda and I spent the day at Disney World's Magic Kingdom with Mom, Rick & Pam, and my nephew Mike and his wife Veronica. The Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor was an attraction that I hadn't seen, and it's different from anything I've experienced. The entire show is animated video, but the video characters interact with the audience...with some audience members being briefly interviewed Jay Leno/David Letterman-style. It's hard to explain; you gotta see it...although Wikipedia has a pretty good description.

One audience member repeatedly becomes used in jokes during Mike Wazowski's monologue (as a video camera shows THAT guy on the big screen). Guess who was THAT guy when when we went?

Rick suggested that I blog it.

Mike posted a picture on Facebook.

High Lonesome Strings

A couple of months ago I saw The Snyder Family Band perform at MusicFest 'n Sugar Grove, and I was very impressed. During their performance Laine Snyder mentioned that 3-year-old Owen was starting banjo lessons, and I wished that I had one of my brother Tom's homemade banjos to show him.

Tom has been building prototypes for the past couple of months, and recently sent me one.

Last weekend I parked the house at Shakori Hills and helped prepare for the upcoming events there. I intended to be back at Shakori Hills later this week for the fiddler's convention. But, by Wednesday I wasn't feeling at all like moving again. The High Lonesome Strings Bluegrass Association had an event scheduled for this weekend where I was parked (Hagan-Stone Park), so I decided to just stay put.

This evening I didn't feel much like going out to listen to the music, but I did anyway, and discovered that The Snyder Family Band was performing...right here!

Owen and a few other banjo players got to try out Tom's banjo. (Owen didn't want to give it up!) Click here for some photos.

Shakori Hills

A few weeks ago my brother Tom sent me the URL to the Shakori Hills Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance, thinking that I might be interested in it. At first glance I knew that I would be. As I read the website I became even more enthused.

The music would be enough to draw me: Donna the Buffalo, Elikem African Dance, The Duhks, Bearfoot, The Belleville Outfit, Samba Mapangala, Mountain Heart...about 50 bands total. They also have tons of events and attractions for kids and families.

The Shakori Hills fall festival is just 4 weeks away: October 8 - 11.

Next Friday and Saturday (September 18 & 19) the Hoppin' John Old-Time Bluegrass & Fiddler's Convention is happening at Shakori Hills.

Catching Up...

A couple of weeks after FloydFest ended, I volunteered at FiddleFest in Roanoke, Virginia. One performer that I really enjoyed wasn't scheduled to play. Ariel Jade just showed up and played guitar and mandolin at one of the jams. Wow! Not only can she play...she has a stage presence that I haven't seen in a kid since Billy Gilman.

I stayed up until after midnight both nights of FiddleFest...and that's way past my bedtime. By the time I got back to North Carolina I was pretty burned out...and I'm still not quite up to speed.

In the meantime, I discovered Love Valley, an old-west town in North Carolina. (See pics.) I'd like to visit again on a Friday or Saturday when the town is filled with horses and riders...but that would probably be my only other trip there. It's pretty ghetto.

This Saturday the Carolina Chocolate Drops are performing in Greensboro.

After that, the only plans that I have made is for the Hoppin' John Old-Time & Bluegrass Fiddler's Convention.

FloydFest 2009 - Final Entry

Click here for Saturday pics.

Click here for Sunday pics.

In my Friday summary I forgot to mention a real highlight: The Steve Johnson Band's cover of The Times They Are a-Changin'. You can stream or download their Lucille Ball Memorial Park June 5th performance (the whole show, or just that song) at http://www.archive.org/details/sjb2009-06-05.flac16

Saturday I worked at the Blue Ridge & Beyond Dance Stage and practiced my newly-discovered dancing feet. The Belleville Outfit from Austin, Texas are awesome! Highlights: Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy; a Peggy Lee number; finally blowing everyone away with the Beatles' Get Back.

They were followed by Forro in the Dark ("Party in the Dark") from Brazil. While Forro set up, Jorge Continentino and I talked sax. Just before they began playing, Davi Vieira asked if we had any "Reh-boo". While I asked Whitney, the stage manager, if we had something called "Reh-boo" another stage hand reached into the cooler and pulled out a "Red Bull". Whitney thinks I'm funny. :) About halfway through their set, Jorge looked back and signaled that he wanted another "Red Bull". I checked all three of our coolers, and we didn't have any. I ran to a few food vendors. Nobody had it. Someone at the volunteer office mentioned the Dreaming Creek Main Stage VIP area, to I sprinted down there, found Jamie, the backstage manager, and he loaded me up with a case of "Red Bull", and a case of "Red Bull Cola". (Thanks, Jamie!) Halfway back to the Dance Stage, someone gave me a ride.

When my shift ended at the Dance Stage, the volunteer department asked if I would consider pulling a shift backstage at Dreaming Creek Main Stage. Then I wouldn't have parking lot duty Sunday. Would I consider??? Woo-hoo! Jamie put me to work in VIP hospitality. When Blues Traveler finished (some time after 11:15pm), Jamie and I helped break down their huge set and load it into a semi-trailer. Then I enjoyed the best beer I've ever had. I don't know what it was, but it was dark, and from the VIP bartender's private stock.

Sunday, I danced!!! I spent most the day at Streamline Stage Hill Holler. Watched The Belleville Outfit again (they put their own lyrics to the tune of Puttin' on the Ritz), then walked to Dreaming Creek for about a half hour of a wicked-good Cajun band. Unfortunately, I don't recall the name of their band. They must have been filling in, because the name of another band is on the schedule.

On my way back to Streamline Stage I stopped at Pink Floyd Garden Stage (in the beer garden) and listened to Adrienne Young & the Old Faithful. (What a voice!)

FloydFest 2009 Revival officially ended with Railroad Earth at Streamline Stage. They've been to MerleFest a lot, but somehow I've always missed them. Shame on me! Andy Goessling played an alto sax and a tenor sax at the same time!!! (See pics!)

I was invited to the after-festival, backstage VIP party. I drank a beer while listening to the rock-steady reggae band Transmitters.

Can't wait til next July!

FloydFest - Friday Summary

Got to the festival at about 10am. Since I was scheduled for a double shift (3pm - 11:30pm) and I planned to help out where I could before my shift, and because I normally eat only once or twice a day, I had a couple of Due South Pit Cooked BBQ sandwiches (all 5 of their specialty sauces were awesome), followed by two pints of water.

I worked the VIP area backstage for a couple of hours or so, then meandered to the Beer & Wine Garden.

During my scheduled shift I drank another eight pints of water. (That's five quarts, if you're keeping track.) I must radiate water vapor (or separate the hydrogen from the oxygen and burn it), because I didn't use the "facilities" once until I got back to the RV (about midnight).

I got one solitary, fifteen-minute break at 5:45, so I headed for the Dreaming Creek Stage to watch The Duhks finish their set. And I started to learn to dance.

That was a long day. I'm sore, tired and a little sunburned. But...it was a hoot!

Click here to see my Friday photos of FloydFest.

FloydFest - First Glimpse

I took this picture this morning as the sun was coming up over FloydFest.

Before yesterday, I figured on comparing FloydFest to MerleFest. Within minutes of walking on the festival grounds I was thinking more like "Woodstock with a little restraint". But, really, other than the fact that they are all music festivals, comparisons between any two of the three wouldn't do either justice.

Imagine a bunch of old farts like me sitting in front of a stage enjoying music. Any music. (Okay...any music that geezers might enjoy). Now picture a rave: Dance music and a mosh pit of bodies (mostly -- but not all -- young and lithe) dancing with the same passion that creates winners on American Idol or Dancing With the Stars, the passion that painted the Sistine Chapel, or that designs and builds a Lamborghini. Think of a festival whose seeds were planted in the hippie culture circa 1968: "Streets" named Harmony Way, High Street, Happy Trails, Forest of Lights; areas like Healing Arts, Global Village, Children's Universe; field camping, woods camping, family camping.

Blend all of the above and put it out in the middle of nowhere alongside the Blue Ridge Parkway. (Floyd is about 10 twisty miles away...and Floyd has exactly one stoplight.)

That is a first glimpse FloydFest.

My first volunteer assignment isn't until this afternoon. (The Beer Garden.) Before entering the festival yesterday I stopped at volunteer check-in to see if they might have a need. I spent the first two hours guarding the entrance to the backstage at Dreaming Creek Stage (the main stage -- there are 7 total). The orange vest I was given to wear probably made me look like "the establishment"...but everybody was nice to me. :)

Stop, Drop & Roll ("traditional bluegrass, rock, classical, funk, reggae and elements from the jamband genre [combine] together to create a unique sound and energetic musical experience...") were finishing up their set. What I heard sounded a lot like Cajun...and it was good!

When my "shift" ended, Emmitt-Nershi Band (banjo, mandolin, flat-top guitar, and bass) was in the middle of a funky interlude that had started off as Bob Dylan's The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo). I walked around to the front and saw that the first fifty feet in front of the stage was occupied by dancers: Children, grown-ups, fossils...bodies twisting and shimmering, hands waving in the air. I waded in to the very front of the stage so that I could watch the band. (Quinn the Eskimo went on for at least another 5 minutes.) But I enjoyed the dancing all around me at least as much as I enjoyed the music.

An hour later, as dusk fell on the mountaintop, I returned to the center of the dance area as Panjea took the stage. Soon I was surrounded by "hip-hop and dancehall beats with traditional African rhythms" (I would have added the word "reggae"), swaying and springing bodies, and a light show in the trees behind the stage, with the occasional glow stick dropping near me. (Would my daughters be shocked? Amused? Or would they think maybe I was just a little "cool"?) As is my custom, I had one foot keeping time to the music. But, after a while I was keeping time with both feet, swaying to the music. (Dancing??? Nah. But now, I'm thinking, my girls might be mortified.)

Later, as I walked across the festival grounds toward the shuttle that would take me back to the RV, I first noticed the searchlights plying the sky from the entrance. Between the powerful beams were more stars than I have seen in quite a while. I've been a mile high in the mountains for a month, but at Boone I was generally in the woods, so I never noticed the night sky much. Now I saw it...and it was awesome.

Okay, I'm hooked. Can't wait to get back over there this morning, and I'm already looking forward to next year. (The backstage volunteer coordinator has already requested that I work for him next year.)

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance

I hope you dance

(Written by Tia Sillers, recorded by Lee Ann Womack)

FloydFest

Today I'm pulling the house to Floyd, Virginia, right along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I'll be dry camping (no hookups) in the Château Morrisette Winery parking lot, volunteering at FloydFest. I'll finally get to really test the solar/battery system that I installed on the house last year.

I'm enjoying volunteering so much. I get to do the things that I enjoy most (and at which I am very, very good): helping people and problem-solving.

Come Monday, I'm not sure where I'll go. There are lots of music festivals all through the summer and fall in the North Carolina mountains and foothills, and I'd like to volunteer at as many as I reasonably can:

• High Country Bluegrass Festival in Boone -- this Saturday (July 25)...so I'll be missing this one. :(
• Doc Watson and Friends in Todd, NC -- Saturday, August 22. I doubt that volunteers are needed at this little venue. I need to find that out, because tickets will surely be sold out soon.
• The Carolina Chocolate Drops at Festival Park in Greensboro -- Saturday, August 29. I think this is a freebie. I just spent 15 minutes googling for the time of their performance, and I can't find it...but I think I saw 5:30 pm the last time I tried. I've been promoting this to my family and several friends in the Greensboro area. You've just got to see The Carolina Chocolate Drops! Justin Robinson's solo (vocal and autoharp) of Sea of Love two weekends ago at Sugar Grove inspired me to concentrate on learning to play my autoharp well.
• Music on the Mountaintop in Boone -- also Saturday, August 29. Ouch. Should I try to get some of this and catch the Chocolate Drops in Greensboro, 120 miles away? (I'm thinking about it...)
• Daniel Boone Days in Boone -- September 4 - 6. Upright & Breathin' (and at least 5 other bands) will be playing. I heard Upright & Breathin' at Sugar Grove. They don't have a CD, yet. Banjo player Brian Kreher told me, "It's really close. We need a few more tracks, and some more editing on the tracks that we have." I told him to get it close and release it! There are lots of good bands around here, but these guys are unique!
• Mountain Song Festival in Brevard -- September 11 & 12. Look at the web site!!! David Grisman Quintet; Steve Martin (no kidding!); Steep Canyon Rangers (these guys ROCK!!!); and more. I don't know if they use/need volunteers; I don't know how much tickets cost. I hope I don't miss this one!
• Carolina in the Fall in North Wilkesboro -- September 25 - 27. As I understand it, the Kruger Brothers host this festival. I've already emailed the volunteer coordinator, but I haven't heard back. Volunteer or not, I'd really like to be at this one. The Kruger Brothers are another must-see! These guys, from Switzerland, grew up listening to Doc and Merle Watson. Their roots are in bluegrass, but they do awesome classical!

Dead Certain (continuation)

I sobbed -- out loud -- when I got to middle of page 147. As far as I can recall, those were the first real tears I have shed over 9/11. In the next few pages, I broke down two more times.

Right now I am only three pages into chapter 8: Drumbeats.

I'm about as "anti-war" as an apolitical person can possibly be. I have always wondered how the most technologically advanced nation in the world could possibly attack and kill many, many thousands of people (mostly innocent civilians) based on faulty intelligence.

I'm beginning to understand. How. If not why.

I don't think Robert Draper wrote Dead Certain to justify what George W. Bush did. I believe the book was written simply to explain how it happened. (If I am wrong, then I have been sucked in...hook, line, and sinker.)

I detest so many things done during/by the (second) Bush administration, just as I see wrongs committed by virtually any government or institution. But...I have come to love George W. Bush the man.

Dead Certain

I am apolitical. Always have been, and always plan to be.

When I was in my early twenties, the image I had of President Jimmy Carter was that of a "good-hearted hayseed" who just didn't seem to be able to do much. But, after Carter was out of office, I saw a very intelligent man intent on doing everything that he knew to do to help fellow humans (all over the world).

Ronald Reagan seemed to be a really nice guy (before, during, and after his presidency), and I truly believe that he was. He sometimes didn't appear to be very competent...but I think he proved himself extremely well.

While in office, George H. W. Bush appeared to me to be a cold, aloof bumbler. A few years after his term ended, I attended an event where he spoke. He was very engaging and -- at times -- quite funny! Everything I have learned about the first President Bush since he has left office has impressed me.

During Bill Clinton's two terms I started thinking, "Is it possible that -- once he is out of office -- even this goofball hillbilly will begin to look like an intelligent, caring man?" The answer, it turns out, is a resounding "YES!"

So...during the presidency of George W. Bush, I speculated to a few friends that maybe even Dubya was, in fact, a very intelligent, capable man, but that the stratospheric vacuum that a sitting U.S. president must occupy made him appear out of touch and -- quite frankly -- dumb. (I'm sure the press bears a lot of responsibility, as well. After all, virtually everything I know about a sitting president comes from the press.)

Right now I'm about 1/3 of the way through Dead Certain by Robert Draper. (I am paused in the late morning of September 11, 2001.)

IMHO, this book is a must read!

Dead Certain is fast-moving and chock-full of interesting tidbits. Many times I have laughed out loud. ("Somewhere, the late Lee Atwater was grinning like a jackass eating bees.") Draper not only attempts to cover the facts, he is full of essential insight. ("Mehlman's gift was the ability to divine macro and micro simultaneously. He could structure an avalanche.")

I don't believe the book to have an extreme bias. To me it appears to be a factual -- and very entertaining -- account of the presidency of George W. Bush. Without a doubt, the most recent ex-president is brilliant and engaging. He is someone you would love to have as your neighbor or friend.

I Have an Idea

This is me:

I'm trying to change.

Furthermore...

I just now walked out to the truck for a moment and met a man (walking his two dogs) who has two kids in grade school. He has lived in Greensboro all his life. He tells me, "We come here (Honey Bear Campground) every year, and we take the kids to Tweetsie Railroad every year. But we have to make them go to Tweetsie Railroad. They want to stay here in the park!"

• Family camping rocks
• Honey Bear Campground RULES!!!

Update on "Counterculture?"

Cadee and her husband, Tim, have been home-schooling ("un-schooling" is the term some FOTRs prefer) their 16-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son. The family is thinking about living on the road, but Cadee has some concerns: "I think I worry too much about hurting my daughter who wants to go to college. So I try to keep her more structured to make sure she stays were she is supposed to be for her age."

Joann writes: "Cadee, our oldest three dd's are in college. All homeschooled (one from 9th grade on; the others from grammar school age). Two are at traditional schools and one is *attending* college while we're traveling. Oldest dd is engaged, although she didn't meet her fiance until she was 18 (she's 22). Second dd is in a courtship relationship. Third one is waiting to meet Mr. Nebraska-Cowboy-Right. LOL Girls will meet guys. That's not really an issue. None of my four girls who have *missed out* on proms, dating, mean-girl-back-stabbing-cattiness complain about it. (Although we have a friend whose daughter really struggles with this and they are making different arrangements.)"

I've been following the discussions on FOTR for a couple of years. My conclusion: If Cadee and Tim take "the leap", they'll never look back.

I have yet to hear about a family who went "on the road" then regretted it. I'm sure negative examples exist. (Maybe they just don't write about it.) All the evidence tells me that families who do it thrive, and are better for it.

The Emperor's New Clothes

August 16, 1977. The day Elvis died. I was as shocked as anybody, but I was less sad than most.

I grew up in the midst of a lot of anti-Elvis sentiment. At times I was vocal about being repulsed by his lifestyle. (On at least one occasion I said so on the the air; I was a radio disk jockey.) That's how I was supposed to be. Inside, though, I envied part of Elvis' life. I would/could never tell anyone that, but there was a lot to envy. Even so, there was a lot to be repulsed about.

If I ever heard an Elvis song that I really didn't like, I don't recall it. But...I wasn't a fan. I didn't "listen" to his music, the same way I didn't listen to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Jackson Five. Which is to say, I did listen to all of them -- and enjoyed every minute of it -- but I couldn't let my parents (or a lot of friends) know about it.

I cut my teeth on country music. If the radio was on, that's usually what I heard. We had lots of records: 78s, 45s, and 33 1/3 LPs. Most were country. Some were easy listening and mood music. A lot of the earlier stuff was big band. (I loved Jimmy Durante's music long before I started school.) One of my favorite LPs was The Hits of the 1930s.

I vividly remember a dance hall Mom and Dad took us to. A live band played and couples danced. At least once, I was out on the floor in a line of kids doing the "bunny hop". This was before I started kindergarten. When I got older, Mom and Dad took us with them when they square danced.

Our family watched Midwestern Hayride every Saturday night. After Ricky Nelson performed one of his songs at the end of an episode of Ozzie and Harriet, Dad announced that Ricky would be way bigger than Elvis', because Ricky was a nice kid from a nice family, and Elvis was just an arrogant rebel.

If you ever want to be a geek -- I mean a dyed-in-the-wool, way-out-in-left-field oddball who never fits in with his peers -- go back to 1968 as a 13-year-old and tell your classmates (and everybody else) that rock and roll is evil; that you listen to country music.

For weeks after Elvis died, the media bombarded us with every tiny facet of Elvis minutiae that they could possibly turn into any kind of marketable "story". I didn't like the endless saturation. (Still don't.) But, I listened to some of it. And, before long, I started to like Elvis. And his music. After he was dead. I started to feel sorry for him for creating his repulsive lifestyle. (Was I manipulated by the media? Or, did I finally let myself "listen"?) I was on the air (WAPR, Avon Park, Florida) when Paul Harvey (on his News, Views, and Comments) admitted that he had been wrong in underestimating Elvis' greatness.

Today, I view Elvis as one of the history's finest singers (and performers). I liked his music when I wasn't supposed to; I'm blown away by his voice today.

One week ago, Brian Williams (NBC Nightly News) had just started telling us that Farrah Fawcett had died, when he was interrupted with news about Michael Jackson. With apologies to MJ fans, my first thought was, "Wow. Bad news scooped by not-so-bad news."

Within the next 24 hours I read somebody's Facebook lament that 'now we have to endure two weeks of nothing but Michael Jackson on the airwaves.' I thought, "No way. Michael Jackson is big -- and he used to be really big -- but he's not that big...not today."

OH...MY...GAWD! Am I that old? Or, just that out of touch with reality?

Ever since MJ left the human race (in my estimation, that happened around 1982), I've felt sorry for him. Sorry for the weird choices that he has made; sorry that he entered a universe where (I felt) he totally lost touch with reality. But, most of all, I have been disgusted by him.

He's been dead a week now, and...guess what? For the first time ever, I'm starting to view Michael Jackson the same way I've viewed Elvis for the past thirty-some years. (During which time, Elvis has been drug-free!) I'm still repulsed by much of Michael's weirdness. But then, (my apologies in advance to those of you who do not already know this) MJ's external, public weirdness is no worse than the weirdness that has been going on inside me -- hidden under a veneer or 'normalcy' -- all my life.

I hope to never find myself defending unacceptable behavior engaged in by Michael Jackson, by Elvis, or by my own self. But, I'm starting -- again -- to understand.

"But he has nothing on!"

Beating the Heat

The air conditioner has been running for most of the last few weeks while the house was parked in Wilkesboro, Salisbury, and Greensboro. In the meantime, daytime highs in Boone (in the mountains) have been around 80 -- even during the heat wave. That was starting to sound pretty good.

So, today I pulled the house up to Honey Bear Campground in Boone. It was hot when I left Greensboro, so I had the truck's air conditioner running the whole trip. But, when I arrived at the campground (mid-afternoon) and opened the door to get out, it was cooler outside than it was in the cab of the truck!

Tonight at 10:30 the outside temperature was 63 degrees. So, for the first time in weeks, I opened a window by the bed and turned the whole-house exhaust fan on low. Then, I put the fan remote control on the nightstand in case it gets too chilly.

On the first day of July!

Wow. I may be here a while. :-)

Why Southwest Airlines Rocks

Counterculture?

From the time I started planning to move into an RV, I have been amazed at the number of people who have lived in RVs for years. Over a million Americans lived in RVs 70 years ago! It is an entire segment of the U.S. population that virtually no one knows about.

A Yahoo discussion group -- Families On the Road -- exists to allow families who live in RVs to share information peculiar to the lifestyle. These families seem to be some of the happiest, best-adjusted on the planet. Snippets of posts from just the past 24 hours:

• We [use Verizon MiFi] cuz we have college age kids taking on line classes and a band to promote. We need more than one computer able to go on line at a time.


• We fulltime with 8! My kids are 21,19,16,14,12 and7. We have a family folk/bluegrass Gospel band. We bought a large class C. We can put 2 in the cabover bed, it has 2 bunks on the side for the 2 oldest and then the 2 littlest on the couch. We liked the class C option cuz it gave us the cabover area for another bed.


• My husband and I full-timed about 6 years ago for a year and will be returning to fulltiming this fall/winter. We have 4 kids: Hannah 9, Ethan 7, Libby 5, and Eli 1. We are excited to hit the road again. This time we will be traveling and working on permaculture sites and working on initiatives for community gardens and edible school yards. We are very excited. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to meet some of you in our travels.


• We have been RVing with Ross since he was 2yo (now 8 1/2 yo).


• You can learn more about us and our 5-year adventure traveling at http://www.roadschool.com. We pulled the boys out of public school the second week of 2nd and 4th grade. We did our own thing, never testing or following package curriculums, but selected our own text. Traditional learning was sporadic, but learning as a way of life was constant. At the age of 16 our younger son started collage after attending high school for 6 months with a 4.3 GPA and by passing the California High School Proficiency Exam. It's a test that is more rigorous than a GED or high school exit exam. Our older son is focusing his energy on home remodeling and master craftsman skills. The younger is heavy into programming. He has left me in the dust.

Terrence Howard on Jehovah's Witnesses

This NPR story and audio clip are two years old, but I hadn't read and heard them until now. Very interesting and encouraging.

Mostly Disconnected for a Week

Yesterday we picked up two of the grandkids, Brianna and Mackenzie, and pulled the house to Dan Nicholas Park. (The picture is from our visit here last summer; I may update it after I take pictures this visit.)

Brianna and I used to watch the animals (from home) via the park's live webcams. I just tried to look at one, and IE is telling me that AXIS Media Control can't be registered on my computer. (???) Anyway, if you can view the cams, you might catch a glimpse of us.

There is no cellular service (or wi-fi) in the campground, although we can hit a cell tower near the entrance to the park. For that reason, it will be pretty difficult to reach us while we are here. I'll probably take the laptop to the entrance to check email and voicemail each day.

Tickled Pink!!

We had a very cool 1965 Shasta parked next to us for a couple of days. More pics here.

Some Days are Diamonds

Sometimes things just fall into place. And some days seem to be more prone to that than others. Like Dick Feller wrote, "some days are diamonds, some days are stone".

Today a decision about my home movies started to gel. My 8mm films have to be sent out to be digitized. (I no longer own a film projector.) The video tapes (VHS and Video8) were getting to be a problem, though...and not just because I no longer own a VCR.

Twenty-seven years ago when I was paying $15 for blank VHS tapes (more than it cost to fill my Lincoln Continental with gas), I didn't buy separate tapes for home movies and recorded TV. So...I have several tapes that are full of TV programs and movies, with home movie snippets sandwiched in between. I also have several unlabeled tapes (glue got old and label fell off?), and I have no idea what is on them. How do I decide what to send out? And, how many tapes will I pay to have digitized that only yield a couple of minutes of home video?

I came to the conclusion to buy a VCR/DVD recorder combination. The local Walmart has one for $158 (much less than Home Movie Depot would charge me to digitize my VHS tapes). I'll try it out this evening, and if it doesn't do a great job, I will return it tomorrow morning.

Once I made that decision, I went through my DVD spindles to find out how many blanks I have. I found a spindle that contains DVD-Rs of the Video8 tapes! I had forgotten that I already digitized them a few years ago.

It gets better.

On that same spindle was a DVD-R that contains files of three movies, one TV show, six Gloria Estefan videos, and 4 short (under a minute) miscellaneous video clips. One of those clips I had totally forgotten about. Another I thought was lost forever when the external hard drive lost my home movie folder. (Yes...that is Brenda and me on national TV.)

I love it when a plan comes together!

Leopold Engleitner Is Back!

Three years ago you may have seen TV coverage of Leopold Engleitner, one of Jehovah's Witnesses, who is the world's oldest male Holocaust survivor. (He'll be 104 next month.) He is on a speaking tour that has taken him 64,000 miles in 10 years. Here's a great TV news report of his visit to Los Angeles just last month:

http://www.cbs2.com/video/?id=102822@kcbs.dayport.com

My Nephew Mike

Thanks, Mike, for the email compliment on my blog. Sorry to disconcert you by not mentioning you. ;-)

To make it up to you, I present to you Mike Harleman: This Is Your Prepubescent Life from home movies that I have digital copies of. You are in every clip. (Near the end, when your dad is swinging Anne in the hammock, you are not visible in the video, but your monkey sounds can be heard plainly.)

Click on the picture and enjoy!

Home Movie Example

Here's an example of the kind of stuff that I can glean from my hours and hours of home movies. (This clip is from one of the videos that I successfully digitized myself a few years ago.)

Unclear on the Concept

I just received an email from someone who sends a monthly newsletter. It says (I am not making this up):

"Several of you have told me that you have been receiving the same email multiple times. If this is the case, please forward the extra emails."

Digitized Home Movie Archive Update

Great news! Brenda read my blog! Woo-hoo! My blog rocks!!!

Even better news: She told me where my external hard drive is! (I've been sitting on it all afternoon.)

Bad news: The movies of our wedding are not on it. (They evidently weren't among the recoverable files.)

Good news: I found a VCD copy of our wedding movies that I made years ago, and I was able to cut the clip of Angie out of one of the VCD .dat files. (Am I a geek, or what?)

Potentially great news: While searching for the external hard drive I hit the motherlode...about 3,200 feet of 8mm film. The three 50-foot reels from our wedding appear to be there.

An interesting twist: Several years ago I had Home Movie Depot digitize a few of my 8mm films. They did a great job! I just checked their website and found that they are running a special until midnight CST Thursday: For $199 they will digitize whatever you can fit into a UPS / FedEx / USPS Express box (up to 18x13x3), limit of 20 video tapes, limit of 500 images (photos, negatives, slides), no limit on movie film.

They digitize video (tapes and film) into DVDs. I'd rather have digital files that I can work with (mpg, wmv). I need to find out what other options they will provide.

I'm going to try to get an idea how many express boxes it would take to send them all the VHS tapes, pictures, and 8mm movie film that I want digitized. If what I have would fill many boxes (and I'm afraid it will), I plan to ask them if I can get a real volume discount. I'd like to do that tomorrow (Wednesday).

Does anyone else want in?

I Hadn't Thought of That

Over a year ago I was telling Dave Reedy how I wanted to get all my old photos, 8mm movie films, and VHS tapes digitized. The conversation went something like this:

Dave: Why do you feel that it's so important to digitize everything?

Scott: Because each picture, and each frame of each movie, represents a preserved moment in time. When a photo or movie gets lost or destroyed, that moment is gone forever. It cannot be re-captured.

Dave: Well, then...based on that reasoning, you should always carry a camera with you and take pictures of everything.

Gee. I guess so. I hadn't thought of that.

(I have obsessive compulsive personality disorder. It took me a few minutes to decide not to start carrying a camera everywhere.)

Most of the photos, movie reels, and tapes are still deteriorating in boxes. And here I am today...just like Calvin in the last frame of the comic.

How do you eat a digital elephant? One byte at a time!
I did start organizing things about a year ago. I bought a half-terabyte external hard drive and had everything from every old hard drive that I owned copied to it. When I got the external hard drive back, I noticed that virtually none of my 2,000+ mp3 files were there. (Where did they go??? I know they were on at least one of the old drives!) Well...at least I had the few VHS home movies I had managed to digitize. (Most of my mp3 files could be replaced. The digitized home movies could never be replaced at the same level of quality; magnetic tape deteriorates over time.)

Then one evening last summer as I was copying VHS movie files to my PC and working on them, the external drive stopped working. No warning...just stopped. I turned it back on, and the entire VHS movie file folder was missing! I spent the next 24 hours downloading recovery software, finding the files, and "restoring" them. Except...the audio and video aren't in synch on any of the "restored" files. Oh well...at least I still have the VHS tapes. They are all now 15 to 27 years old, but I have them.

Where do you hide a digital elephant?
Here is what made me think about my half-terabyte external drive: As I was typing the beginning of this blog, I thought of a nice "moment in time" that would illustrate why I want to digitize everything. It is a short 8mm film clip of Brenda (on our wedding day) holding my baby niece, Angie. (The same niece who kindly encouraged me to start blogging.) Great idea! I'll include that video clip in this blog!

About twenty years ago I put most of my 8mm movie films onto VHS tape by projecting the movies onto a screen and videotaping them. (There are much better ways of doing it today.) About five years ago I digitized the VHS copy. The digital version of the 8mm films is on that external drive. (The "synch" problem isn't an issue with the digital versions of my 8mm films, since they don't have sound.)

Brenda -- who is in a constant state of lovingly organizing my things so that I'll always be able to find them if I ask her -- told me just the other day where that external drive presently resides. However, I don't waste precious brain resources trying to retain information that is subject to change every few days. And Brenda is at Julie's house (90 miles away) for the next day or so.

I looked for the drive, but I cannot find it. I know...that seems ludicrous, since we live in an 8-foot by 29-foot RV. Brenda is that good at what she does.

Music Festivals

We have attended MerleFest every year since 2002. We've never attended any other music festivals, but here are some we are interested in:

Beaufort County Traditional Music Association - Through October 2009
http://www.myspace.com/bctma
The Beaufort County Traditional Music Association had their annual festival April 4, 2009, so we've already missed it. But, through October they host a 10:00 am Saturday Morning Jam on the Washington Waterfront. We met guitarist Sid during our stay at Honey Bear Campground.

Eagle Creek Folk Festival - June 20, 2009
http://www.indianafolkmusic.org/
My brother, Tom, will be performing (at 4:15 pm) and conducting a workshop (at 6:00 pm). I don't plan to be in Indiana in the next week-and-a-half...but ya never know!

An Appalachian Summer Festival - June 27 through July 25, 2009
http://www.appsummer.org/
Melissa Manchester, Sophie B. Hawkins, Buckwheat Zydeco, Mike Cross, Joan Baez, and Kenny Loggins will be performing...and I'm sure I'd enjoy every one of them. But the show I'd really love to see is Leahy. This past winter, while we were wintered in southeast Florida, we pulled the house all the way across the state to Tampa for our 4th Leahy concert. Hearing their music is great, but seeing them perform is awesome! Unfortunately for us, they're scheduled at An Appalachian Summer Festival during our district convention.

MusicFest 'n Sugar Grove - July 10-11, 2009
http://www.musicfestnsugargrove.org/
http://www.myspace.com/musicfestnsugargrove
http://www.covecreek.net/sgmfest.htm
In particular, we'd like to see Doc Watson (we've seen him at every MerleFest) and the Carolina Chocolate Drops (we've seen them 3 times).

FloydFest - July 23-26, 2009
http://www.atwproductions.com/index.php?pr=ffhome
http://www.myspace.com/floydfest
We've talked about running up to Floyd, Virginia for this world music festival for years, but we've never been. Maybe we'll make it this year.

Old Fiddler's Convention - August 3-8, 2009
http://www.oldfiddlersconvention.com/
I've heard about this festival for over 30 years (I think the Bannister Twins used to go there), and we've lived within a two-hour drive for the past 15 years.

First Blog

Until now, I haven't been interested in blogs. However, a niece recently sent me URLs to blogs by her, her sister, and her dad. From those blogs I learned a lot about each of them. (And I was quite impressed!)

In the past, when I wanted to share an email, comic, joke, or random thought, I created a new email and bcc'd everyone that I thought might be interested. It has finally dawned on me that a blog is much simpler. (It also prevents me from annoying people with emails that they don't want, and from omitting people who might have been interested.)

Thank you, Angie (directly) and Stef and Steve (indirectly). I hope my blog helps me to stay better-connected with family and friends.

Yesterday I created a Picasa Web Album, and uploaded snapshots of the places we have lived since moving into our RV. (I even mapped each album and many of the photos!) In order for my web album to be interesting to visitors, I need to eliminate many/most of the snapshots. But, I'd also like for my album to eventually serve as a backup of all my digital photos. Any suggestions?