JOHNNY CASH LIVES.....and he is singing in the Anchorage Folk Festival.
The traveler gang, minus Dave and Kathleen, met at the Village this am for breakfast (gotta try the San Antonio skillet-great, I just have them leave off the eggs and add sour cream, salsa and avacado). Afterward we went to the Junior Native Youth Olympics. We saw the stick tug....a game that historically helped strengthen youth to be able to pull seals and walrus out of the water. Two kids sit face to face with the bottom of their feet together and their legs at about 90 degrees bent. They grasp a stick which is centered over their feet. With the signal to pull they each pull (no jerking or twisting) until one is lifted up off the floor or breaks the grip-s/he is the loser. There were other events but it was a double elimination and there were TONS of little kids-my attention span didn't last long enough to see another event. By, the way one was the leg wrestling contest that I must have played a billion times with my sister (and lost every time).
One reason my attention was distracted was that we were just a block from the auditorium where the Folk Festival was being held! I finally left to go there...dragging Jane with me (Kathleen and Gary had a date with a dog groomer). The talent was not the same caliber of Friday night but there were two that really stand out.
One was a gospel trio featuring Johnny Cash (ok, not the real one). This older man played guitar and sang. Half way through the first song I whispered to Jane, "my gosh, he sounds just like Johnny Cash." I thought I would have to do CPR on her when he started singing the last song-yep, it was "Ring of Fire." She just kept looking at the expression on my face and trying not to laugh! I promise-this man was channeling Johnny Cash! Unfortunately, the woman on fiddle decided to sing one song and she was not June Carter Cash! Jane swears it actually hurt her ears to listen to this woman sing!!!! I wanted to send a note back stage to Johnny that he should go solo!!
The other group I really, really liked was a group that meets on Tuesday night at a local cafe to jam-anyone invited. There were a bunch of them-2 mandolins, two guitars, a banjo, and a wash tub (yes, the galvanized steel kind) bass. One of the guitar players sang and he was just great. This made me think of how folk music started in America. I could just see a bunch of neighbors or friends getting together to play and enjoy music. This group represented to me the roots of the music.
I would have loved to stay longer but I decided I better take care of life business-like buying groceries and doing laundry to start the new week.
The weather is mild-by Alaska standards. Things are mushy. Today was beautiful. We are having more light-it is 4:45 and it is light outside, the sun is just setting. I remember making a note that earlier that the sun was setting at 3:30. It is also getting light earlier but I haven't paid much attention to when the sun is coming up.
So, off to steam some red chard for my weeks breakfast-my new favorite breakfast is steamed chard with a boiled egg sliced on top and a slice of bacon crumbled over. Delicious! Of course, since I preparing them ahead of time (no time when you get up at 5 am to make it to 6 am water aerobic class!) the chard tend to dye the egg a rather unpleasant green-oh, well I used to dye BJ's eggs green to make green eggs and ham!
Have a good week and if you get a chance to see the movie, THE SECRET, watch it-wonderful, live affirming, life changing!!!!