[dar-list] FRFF 2007 (Fantastic Planet of Love - Marshall Crenshaw)

[OzWoman321 at aol.com]

Hello, All - 

I'm still a bit discombobulated (in a good way, Martha!) and felt my story 
best told in stream-of-consciousness snippets - thanks to all who once again 
lifted my spirit and carried my heart... up the hills, through the rain and under 
the blazing sun...  <3


Tuesday, 7/24 - Ft. Lauderdale to Boston... Logan Airport... Stephen/Mosh!... 
my tent and sleeping bag (which I'd purposely left behind) in the trunk... 
excitement he had already packed them turned to hilarity they were *still* there 
from last year... Logan the cat... seafood bisque... air mattress on the 
floor...

Wednesday, 7/25 - Target run for last-minute essentials... Panera foccacia... 
our first JT ritual (Jethro Tell's Aqualung)... Mass Pike... Revere Lynn... 
Tanglewood... Stockbridge... the Great Barrington K-Mart and Amy!... 
Hillsdale... Dodds Farm... Peace Branch Horse and Bible Camp... Chris Chin!... 
Reinhard!... it takes a village to set up a tent... Jim G!... Jen T.!... dinner at the 
diner... what, no tomatoes?!?... Candy and Joanne!... Happy Ice... Sharon G. 
and Jessie!... Camp Dar song circle... The Carpenters... Santa Dave (Sam and 
Dave?)... Cami!... Carrot Juice is Murder... Tangled Up in Blue... butt-sucking 
the moisture from our chairs... Girlock Gone Wild...

Thursday, 7/26 - iced hazelnut... finding Laurie and Dana's RV... chai 
freeze... monster veggie skinny pancake... if it's Thursday it must be Colorado 
wrap... Kahlua chunk ice cream... the Lovell Sisters (and middle child 
syndrome)... Marshall Crenshaw's hipster vibe... the Budgiedome with David Massengill, 
Jack Hardy, Iain Campbell Smith and our very own Nick and Elizabeth...

Friday, 7/27 - iced hazelnut... Annie Wenz!... Emerging Artist Showcase 
(wow!)... sharong!, with pink donuts and Buzz Cola and Krusty-O's (oh my!) for 
Mosh... if it's Friday it must be tempeh reuben... Gene and Isabel!... Twisting 
and Shouting at the Beatles Forever workshop... Tina!... Jitterz ice cream... 
Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers (a.k.a. mainstage gymnastics event) who discover 
that, at FRFF, the accordion is not a novelty instrument... songswap delayed 
by heavy rain and intermittent lightning... when Mary Gauthier, graduate from 
the School of Hard Knocks, looks worried, we should be too!... three new 
Richard songs, including a ten-years-after follow-up to She's Leaving Home, 
performed at the Beatles tribute... early bedtime due to canopy collapse...

Saturday, 7/28 - tarp meander... back in the tent just in time to fall asleep 
to more rain... iced hazelnut... early downpour at the Musica Internationale 
workshop (hooray for sharong's WFUV ponchos)... Candy's birthday Pop-Tart 
ritual... Tracy Grammer and Jim Henry's great set, with a second annual DTS (Dare 
to Suck) selection, this year George Michael's Faith... Like a Rolling 
Stone... neon green polka band covering Over the Rainbow... watching Dar watch (and 
enjoy) Ellis during the songwriting process (Alleluia meets How Would It Be)... 
Gimme Some Truth (and three chords?)... exchanging birthday cards, presents 
and tears with Megan!... Gandalf Murphy's Circus calls Dar (their 
four-doors-down neighbor) to assist with song by Muslim songwriter (a.k.a. Peace Train)... 
Dar asking our help in making magic for her three-year-old Stephen (the lights 
of Iowa)... EFO's carp in the bathtub... ice cream tent closed so apple and 
cheese crepe instead... Love is Strange(ling)... the road less traveled 
(euphemism for early bedtime) but lived vicariously through others' adventures...

Sunday, 7/29 - parodies of Naked Folk (Fans) Calendar... "Our Shoots are 
Rowing" workshop with the Dust Poets... Gospel Wake-Up Call... tent village 
breakdown at noon... Meg and Kate (with Devin) modeling their galoshes... many group 
photos around the banner... We Are the Others... Abbie's "I smell like a 
hippie" quip... Good Year for the Roses (harmonies abounding)... falafel for 
lunch... Richard and Lucy swapping songs on mainstage... ice cream choices dropping 
like flies as we stand in line (my Moose Trails is poop-deprived)... Arlo 
doing Woody's small peace song... Never Turning Back... table for 20 at Four 
Brothers Pizza... my usual gyro with fries... flush toilet!... running water!... 
mirror (yikes!)... the traditional, yet never taken for granted, birthday 
pie... blessings to you all as I turn 53 (but feel 19 in spirit)... the other JT 
ritual (James Taylor, "the turnpike from Stockbridge to Boston")... playing new 
CDs during the two-hour drive back to Framingham... Logan greets us with as 
much enthusiasm as a cat allows... one more night on an air mattress...

Monday, 7/30 - leftover Starbucks bottled mocha... birthday card, present and 
tears with Stephen... shower!!!... lunch with Herb and Gert... sweet potato 
chips, dark-chocolate-covered edamame and Falcon Ridge wine at Trader Joe's 
(supposedly opening a store in Florida in two or three years!)... back to Logan 
(the airport, not the cat)... more tears (equal amounts of residual joy and 
goodbye sadness)... writing notes on the plane... back to my own house (and 
husband and children and dog and jacuzzi and bed!)... typing and posting the next 
day...

Love to all - see you next year for my tenth... and the festival's twentieth 
(zippity...  :-)


Susan
www.labyrinthcafe.com 

"Carry with you maps and string, 
Flashlights, friends who make you sing
And stars to help you find your place, 
Music, hope and amazing grace..."  
~ Mary Chapin Carpenter





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