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Chicago feis
It's pronounced "fesh", in case you've been wondering. The word "feile", should you ever encounter it, is pronounced "fay-leh." Means almost the same thing as "feis" but has religious overtones, like "feast day" vs. "party."
The Chicago feis we attended last weekend was one we'll not be attending again. It's mostly outdoors, part of a big Irish festival with carnival rides and fried food trucks, like a county fair but with more shamrocks. Asking dancers to compete in the heat and humidity where there's little crowd control - folks just walking between the stage and the judge like they're not even there, taking pictures of the dancers (a no-no in competition) - is just stupid.
At the end of the feis day, Michelle and I were sitting in the lobby, she Facebooking while I noodled on the guitar. We were there kinda late, and were sitting there as the bands started coming in from their days and heading (naturally) to the bar. After a while, taking a break with the guitar laying on the case, a small man in a hat came walking up and complimented me on my instrument. Pretty soon, he asked permission to play it, and we sat for the next two hours trading songs. He'd take it, tune it in standard, do a song...I'd take it back, tune it to DADGAD, do a song...back and forth for two hours. He suggested to me that the Taylor was probably worth ten or twelve thousand dollars, no matter what I paid for it (which wasn't as much as that). Michelle said later she heard his lady-friend/companion say, quietly, "I wonder how much he'd take for it?" It was a lot of fun.
It was Michelle clued me in who it was: Brent Hoad of the Elders.
The Chicago feis we attended last weekend was one we'll not be attending again. It's mostly outdoors, part of a big Irish festival with carnival rides and fried food trucks, like a county fair but with more shamrocks. Asking dancers to compete in the heat and humidity where there's little crowd control - folks just walking between the stage and the judge like they're not even there, taking pictures of the dancers (a no-no in competition) - is just stupid.
At the end of the feis day, Michelle and I were sitting in the lobby, she Facebooking while I noodled on the guitar. We were there kinda late, and were sitting there as the bands started coming in from their days and heading (naturally) to the bar. After a while, taking a break with the guitar laying on the case, a small man in a hat came walking up and complimented me on my instrument. Pretty soon, he asked permission to play it, and we sat for the next two hours trading songs. He'd take it, tune it in standard, do a song...I'd take it back, tune it to DADGAD, do a song...back and forth for two hours. He suggested to me that the Taylor was probably worth ten or twelve thousand dollars, no matter what I paid for it (which wasn't as much as that). Michelle said later she heard his lady-friend/companion say, quietly, "I wonder how much he'd take for it?" It was a lot of fun.It was Michelle clued me in who it was: Brent Hoad of the Elders.