Aug 14

Ely Folk Festival 2008 - Video

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This is the result of all the video footage I shot over the weekend of the Ely Folk Festival - there was quite a lot of it, so I’ve had to shave it all down a bit!  I bought some new SD cards for my camera in Ely (2 x 2GB for £18.50 - bargain!), but ended up running short of battery life instead, so Sunday night is missing.

I initially thought that I wouldn’t be that keen on a whole weekend of “folky” music, but was proven wrong in that not all the music was what I had perceived as traditional folk music.  The sound quality isn’t great on some of the clips, for one of them I was almost sitting directly under the speaker and it seems to have come out the quietest of the lot - so apologies for that.

On the whole the quality of the music was excellent, and the variety of bands was good - a couple that didn’t appear in the video were an African dance band, and a young welsh guy with amazing guitar skills and a sense of humour to match - its not always just about the music.  The last act of the weekend were also excellent musicians but again it was their dry sense of humour that made it enjoyable for me, and also being the last night people were going a bit mad in the marquee and we did end up dancing manically in the side aisles!  Because there was music in three marquees, plus a couple of pubs in the city, there was a lot I missed, and trying to squeeze all I did video into 10 mins for you tube purposes was a nightmare!

One last note - a tip for anyone learning Poi………practice with soft poi first, as those big balls with led lights in don’t half hurt when they smack you in the side of the head, and it stops being funny after a while…..(that clip didn’t make it into the finished video either!)

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_IndVPe_Vg]

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Jul 25

Party weekend, and reading matter

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Its Thursday and I’m only just recovering from the weekend that was the King’s Lynn Plus Mid-summer party weekend.  A weekend of chilling, eating, drinking (too much probably), dancing, more poi (and more bruises), rain, sun and rounders (not necessarily in that order).

Things I learnt from the weekend….

  • ….that corrugated cardboard letters curl up in the damp
  • ….that the goth/rock chick look is good for me
  • ….that I really should eat at the BBQ before drinking most of a bottle of Cava
  • ….that I don’t make too bad a back-stop in rounders although I should have made more effort to find my sports bra before playing
  • ….that I need more practice with the poi

Due to not having the energy to unload the car before needing transport to get to work on Monday, and taking Stephen’s car, I found myself without a book (I keep one in the car at all times!) to kill time between work and Plus in the evening.  Resorting to Tescos, and browsing the book collection there, nothing really jumped out at me until I picked up a Terry Pratchett book.  I’ve never read Terry Pratchett before, although I remember years ago I did glance at one, thinking he’s not my cup of tea, but I think I may have just been converted.  Watching the Hogfather and the Colour of Money on TV probably helped me get my head round the writing style, character types and background of Discworld.  118 pages later and 20 mins late for Plus, I finally put the book down.  Think I’m now a fan, although it probably would have been better to start at the beginning and read the books in some sort of order - this definitely won’t be my last Discworld book, thats for sure!

 

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