Liza Constable

It’s really more of an event that you can imagine. Singers, writers, activists, painters, artists: performers all of them. A week of heavenly art and creation on Swan’s Island, Maine. Three nights of sold out performances at the Odddfellow’s Hall, on a stage with painter Buckley Smith’s 14×40 mural being created behind us, in just the 4 days we were together. Two afternoons of shanty-ing around Burnt Coat Harbor for the traditional schooners and other lucky sailors. After hours parties filled with great music, bold singers and generous hosts.

It’s a week later, and I am still ringing, vibrating. Have you ever experienced festival love? So much talent, that passion for making music and that impulsive fun. I am so happy to have been included. Thanks to Dillon Bustin for inviting me, and a heartfelt thanks to Doug Day for being the brains and passion behind this very magical event…

This is a picture by the young and talented Dustin Angell, who was there snapping photos. There’s more of the Sweet Chariots Festival at his myspace page:

http://www.myspace.com/swinglowangell

though I think you have to request his “friendship” …

We sailed up to Swan’s Island from Camden, on Monday. Perfect weather, dodging around the buoys and islands. We unfortunately picked up a lobster pot, a surprisingly rare occurance, and I had to dive down to disentangle it from the prop. I broke the knife, but got out the buoy and rope. Not as cold as I expected. The girls thought I was a hero.

Put it in the story bin, like the time I was a little late getting a foothold, and fell off the fuel dock as the boat was pulling out. Will they curse me for such social abnormalties in the decades to come? A friend of mine has a brother like that, who wanted his parents to be normal. He chastised them for letting him grow his hair long, for not conforming or asking the kids to conform. Imagine.

It’s been a long summer filled with music, kids, weddings, funerals, and the vast Atlantic ocean. Went to some great festivals; down to Philly for the big folk fest, also went to the Lowell Festival, to Mystic for the Sea Song Festival, and then up to the Champlain Folk Fest where the BEST part was hanging out with octogenarian Willie Beaudoin, whose brother Louis was so influential on all these NE fiddlers. Willie and I just sit and play old jazz tunes (no one else likes that music) talk about Django and all the great players, and show each other a thing or two. He learned the guitar on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. He probably floated past my father who was somewhere out there too. Too late to ask Dad what the name of his vessel was. I suppose through the internet I could find all that out.

Our most elegant venue I played with Nat was in the beautiful Unitarian church in Nantucket. That morning we played for Nantucket TV, and that was fun, out on Straight Wharf with the wind whipping my hair every which way, the kids scarfing down the crew’s donuts and staying quiet.

Saw old friends- Bob Carlin who has a new album out with an African player, he is just as funny and the same snappy dresser- as always. A great jam with James Leva and Jane Rothfield at Philly. Got to play with Bob Naess at a wedding (an old hero of mine from the “Gypsy Gyppos”, which any old time fan should know about). Got to sit in with The Hot Club of Portland at the Portland Lobster Company (at low tide on Commercial St). Good beer, great summer spot. Their guitar player (Bryan Killough) has worked out the Django solos to a T. He is amazing. Plus- they trusted me, sight unseen, to hand them a chart and sing.

Glad to be home — not going anywhere far for a little while. Gotta make sure the kids have real shoes for school. Hide the flip-flops. Looking forward to getting back to teaching. Been working on learning some Joseph Spence tunes, they make me, my hands, happy.

Great books from the summer of 2007:
The End Of Faith, by Sam Harris
They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky, by Benjamin Ajak, Alephonsion Deng, Benson Deng, Judy A. Bernstein
Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
Flow, by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Ahab’s Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund

TTFN-

It was my birthday last week. I am 39 years old, according to realage.com. I’m going with that. I hate pictures of me, but in ten years I’ll think I looked pretty good….that’s what mom always said. Damn if it isn’t true.

Nat gave me a great book. “Two in a Boat”, the story of a couple that sold their house and went sailing. What happened to their relationship through the trials of sailing under stress. Do I know about that? Is he trying to scare me off sailing with him? Haven’t finished it. I have 4 books going now: Jimmy Carter’s Palestine Not Aparteid, 101 Days by Asne Seierstad (Bookseller of Kabul), and Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich. All great reads, and I feel so damn informed

…….But I have to tell how I fixed the iPod.

My 2 year old iPod has been acting up, freezing in the middle of songs, not starting up when cold, when hot, when ignored. This has been happening off and on for months. Nat always fixes it somehow, when I’m through with it forever this time, through hard reboots, reset, restore, etc. then hands it back with a smug little smile. Not so this time. We looked up all the pages on the web we could, then I found one. How To Fix an iPod that Won’t Boot

“These hard drives get warm as they spin, and the metal casings warp outwards. Some hard drives won’t work correctly when the casing isn’t secure. The solution is to put the pressure back on the disks.”

I read though many many thankyous, “OMG, this actually worked!” So I opened the Ipod up (with the edge of a knife and a guitar pick- it took about 10 minutes to figure out), put close to 1/8″ sticky notes on the back of the hard drive, and clicked the back into place again. OMG – it totally worked.