IAW 2004 Continued

Monday
Tony DeMarco - Intermediate Fiddle - morning
Peter Fitzgerald - Beginner Banjo/Mandolin - afternoon

Stopped by Suzanne and Colleen's room to ask about their fiddle classes and the level of play. I learn the New Road from Suzanne's class. We begin hanging out and Scott and I have dinner with them at the Pizzeria.

Tuesday
Scott's in the morning Advanced Concertina class with Michael Rooney. I decided to go to Suzanne's fiddle class, and we get all the bowing for the New Road. I talk to Colleen (who is in Tony DeMarco's afternoon class and decide to go back. They are learning Monihan's Jig, A Bunch of Keys, and a few other things.) Scott and I hit the diner next to his concertina class for lunch and for dinner so that he can conquer one of those IQ puzzles where you jump pegs over other pegs until you only have a few left. He finally figured out how to beat it. I would not recommend the diner for its food. Suzanne and Colleen are having dinner with Arbo at the summer house of one of the members of They Might Be Giants. We meet up later at the concert, and Suzanne tells me it was the house of John Linnell, and says that Arbo wants to have dinner in again tomorrow. I tell her I'll cook. [Back in the day, Andrew was a big TMBG fan. His freshman year, we stayed out all night camping in line for Rent in Chicago with Willard. Then, we went to the show in the afternoon and then hit the concert that evening. That was a pretty exhausting day, I tell you. It is not easy to sleep in the freezing cold on a major Chicago street. That was before Andrew and I knew each other really well, and he didn't share his sleeping bag with me.]

Wednesday
Went back to Tony's morning class. I learned an aire. We did indeed have dinner at John Linnell's House. We made guacamole using what we remembered of Rich's family recipie, and vegetarian burritos with beans and rice. It was some good eating. Much better food that what we could have bought in town. Instead of going to the concert, we went directly to the session afterwards. This is an effective strategy to get a good seat. We hit Erin's Melody for the intermediate session and then went off to Darby's later to catch the session/CD release party. This was the night that Scott first got hit on by Alice, a drunken flute player. He escaped by ignoring her advances of grabbing his concertina laden hands and instead turned to a somewhat pudgy soprano saxaphone (defensive he was) player that he'd seen in the bathroom.

Thursday
That night, it was back to the pizzeria for dinner. We opted for sandwiches this time. We got there at a somewhat later hour and discovered that the service is much worse when you get there with a much fuller house. They forgot that we were in the back room, and then it took forever for our sandwiches. We all saved half for later. We headed to the Shamrock House to catch the ceili (dance) session, where I expounded on the wonders of Northwestern University for Dan, the 17 year old accordian player who's already cut his first CD. Colleen and I did some dancing/hopping around for fun. From there, we went to Gavin's for the Listening Room to catch Michael Rooney (concertina and harp) and Dana Lyn. And then, we hit Darby's again. This time, there was a group of Dempsey's regulars playing outside who we joined for a little bit before the bugs drove us inside.

Friday
This was the best night by far. We stop by the grease shack for fried popcorn shrimp/fish and chips. After our classes, I headed to the special 10 year anniversary Fiddle master class taught by Brian Conley. Then, we had an impromptu learning session for the Hare's Paw at the Weldon House. Scott dragged me away to go to dinner at Darby's to meet Scott and Clarissa who were coming down from Albany to visit us. Afterwards, we snuck Scott and Clarissa into the concert, where we meet up with Suzanne and Colleen who'd been taping that evenings concert for us. Scott, Scott, Clarissa and I took off early after catching a glimpse of the boy band to head to Stack's to get good seats for everyone for the intermediate session.

After getting their fill of Irish music, Scott and Clarissa took their leave of us, and Scott and I headed to Furlong's where Scott was supposed to meet up with other Chiff and Fipple (Internet) people. They were not there, unfortunately. Suzanne and Colleen did catch up with us, and we drove back home, where we left the car for a big party at Erin's Melody that we'd gotten wind off.

Erin's Melody was awesome. It was a big party with dancing and tons of performing. Real performing instead of people stuffed into a session. This night alone made the whole week worth it. We'd also noticed that they'd increased the prices for all the drinks... I did some fast waltzing with Scott and some hanging out with the "Next Generation" aka boy band members. They told us that they were heading to McKenna's afterwards. So, when Erin's Melody closed at 3 am, we headed there, where all the people in the know had been gathering late at night. We hung out there for a while, played some tunes, but mostly chatted with people. At 6 am, we drove back to the Weldon House, where we got some great pictures at sunrize at the top of the hill we were on.

Saturday
Scott and I pack up to leave. We decide to leave on Saturday instead of staying until Sunday because I need to drive back to Princeton after driving back to Binghamton. We loaded up the car and then Suzanne made us peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch. At the concert is a Tribute to Andy McGann who'd passed away this past week. Scott also finished Suzanne and Colleen's name drawings and asked for the URL for Suzanne's webcam. (Just kidding!) Colleen got two hugs and Suzanne got one (from Scott). After the rain, Scott and I took off to drive back to Binghamton. We stopped by the Wegman's in town and made some pasta for our late night dinner. What a week.

Photos are here!