The Oppenheimer Report 5/21/18

"Broke Toe"

Last Saturday, to usher in the May 2-4 weekend, and to sound the starting gun for the beginning of summer festivities, Huntsville BIA and Hunters Bay Radio hosted the annual Craft Beer Festival in River Mill Park. This event has been getting progressively more popular each year, and on top of the many craft breweries offering lots of different kinds of beer to sample, there were two sound stages and about ten local musical acts represented. I came for the music.

Unfortunately, the weather was less than spectacular, and it rained on and off throughout the day. That probably kept some people away, but the turnout was pretty good, and I had a ball regardless of the weather. I enjoy watching all the local artists, especially to see how their acts  are developing, but I really wanted to see one musician in particular. Scott Gilson, a good friend of mine, who recently got married and moved to Parry Sound, had not performed in public for years. Like too many musicians I know, he’d burned out on the “business” end of music and had all but given up playing or writing songs. I think Scott’s a talented songwriter, with a great voice and a strong, passionate delivery. I’ve missed hearing him play. He was the second to last act to perform, and just about the time he came on, the heavens let loose. I was taking a video with my phone of him performing a new song, and I had to take my hat off to protect my phone from the downpour. If you go to my Facebook page, you will see the clip I recorded and, if you look closely, you can tell the rain is coming down pretty hard. I’m sure everyone in the audience, under cover, was laughing at the fool standing in the rain. I’ve never had a problem acting like a fool.

River Mill Park is a lovely venue for live entertainment, and I’d like to see a festival, dedicated to local artists every year. Last Friday night I attended the monthly coffee house show in Burk’s Falls, and there were two new songwriters on the bill that impressed me. I now know of 20 or 30 local musicians who could hold their own in the national market, and it would be fun to see them all collaborate onstage in an outdoor venue. Of course, weather is always the wild card. I distinctly remember what a disaster the Muskoka Sound Festival turned out to be four or five years ago. It was the first big festival I attended in Huntsville, perhaps the first of its kind, and the rain really killed it. I remember watching people walk by and get stuck in the mud. Nature can be a mother.   

Final note on the subject of all things natural. Shauna and I share a love and appreciation of birds, probably enhanced by our many visits to  the Canadian Rockies. Out there, we befriended a Clark’s Nutcracker we named “Broke Toe”, who came to visit us every year when we’d stay in Banff. As spring erupts up here, we’ve been spending a little “us” time out on the second floor porch off our bedroom. It’s a little like sitting in a tree house, and the bird watching is spectacular. This afternoon I watched a hummingbird feeding four feet away from me, and there were Red Winged Blackbirds, Blue Jays, Chickadees, Nuthatches, Woodpeckers, Loons, Crows, Grackles, Grosbeaks, and someone says there are a few Eagles living down the lake. Strangely, five pigeons have moved into the neighborhood, thus vastly increasing the overall volume of guano on the property.  The yin and the yang of Mother Nature.

  - Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2018 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED