Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Two Bits Tour, Day 2

(Friday night, Glen Echo, photo by Doug Plummer?)

We slept in on Friday morning and after breakfast we unpacked instruments and proceeded to have one of our longest (and most fun) rehearsals in years. Tunes and more tunes until mid-afternoon. Patrice, Erik, Ted and I headed off to the Metro and down to the National Gallery of Art for a short visit, while Pat stayed behind to cook up a gourmet treat for us. Walking toward Union Station, near the Capitol, I was amazed to see of couple of tour buses belonging to Decorah's own Hawkeye Stages at a red light. It's a small world indeed.

After Pat's delicious cooking we left Hodapp Manor for Glen Echo Park and the Friday Night Dance. Ted always programs great music for us in the car and this time we listened to a live recording by the fabulous Horse Flies. Very inspiring stuff.

Before the dance started we were approached by friendly and polite photographer Doug Plummer who said he'd like to take some pictures. He's working on a book of contra dance photos, among other things, and we were pleased to find ourselves the subject of his Daily Photo for April 4. In another "small world" moment we discovered that he is also doing some photo work for Decorah's own Luther College, my employer in the real world.

The dance itself was great. Over 280 of the nicest dancers on the planet in one of the finest ballrooms anywhere. We always have a great time playing at Glen Echo. After returning to Ted's we were treated to a couple of episodes of Shaun the Sheep before calling it a night.

Here are the tunes we played on Friday, pretty much in order:

La Bastringue (circle mixer)
Loaves and Fishes/Too Many Goats/Fourth & Walnut
Ross' Reel/Cornutopia/Happy Ears
Palisades/Christmas Past/Fairbanks
Sandy River Belles/Liza Jane/Rockabye Baby
Sweetbriar/What You Got There/Scandy Twist
Hogwart's Express/Colored Aristocracy/Steady On
Fenstermann's Surprise/Stumpy/Bunch of Stuff
Ain't Broke/Two Days to Maine/Squirrel Hunters
All Fall Down/Flying Home to Shelley
Waitin' for Nancy (post-dance clogging tune)

Waltzes: French Creek Waltz & Last Call at Hawley Cooke

3 comments:

Nikki said...

Hi! Would you allow me to put that photo on my blog, linking to your blog?

Nikki L.,
President of your Swedish Fan Club
:)

John said...

Hi Nikki,

Yes, even though I'm not positive who took the photo (probably Doug Plummer) I am sure that it came from Pat's camera so I feel comfortable giving that permission. If Pat or Doug complain I'll let you know but that is very unlikely.

Nikki said...

Yes, of course. I'll remove it immediately if you say so.

Thanks!