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| Camani's Screaming Heads |
Last Saturday, my best friend Bob and his wife Laura drove all the way
up from Buffalo to visit us here in the near north. I was recently corrected when
I mistakenly referred to our locale as “the great white north.” This term
apparently refers to that vast area of the untamed wilderness hundreds of miles
to our north. And there is a LOT of Canada further to our north. Bob and Laura have not seen our house since they
visited well before its completion, around in 2009. Their first visit was when the
logs were stacked about halfway up the second floor, and the house had not yet
been stained. Their second visit occurred when the house was nearly complete. Quite
a lot of water has rushed under the old bridge since that last visit, and the
house feels decidedly more lived in now. That includes the flying squirrels, bats,
groundhogs, voles, and various other rodent and non-rodent creatures which call
Jasper Bark Lodge their home. Of course, and in keeping with the kind of summer
it has been up here, the weather was desperate, as the Irish might say, and it
poured cats and dogs for their entire visit. Not to be discouraged, Saturday we
seized one break in the deluge to take a quick boat ride to the far end of the
big lake. Sometimes one must simply ignore the horrible weather. That is what
foul weather gear is all about.
Sunday we had great plans to do some more foul weather boating before
our guests had to leave, but the rain came down too hard. So much rain fell
that it almost sank my little dinghy. Instead,
Shauna and I gave our friends a guided tour of Burk’s Falls and the surrounding
area. Everyone who travels to our community should see our new (and only) stoplight, and of
course, the recently constructed Tim Horton’s donut emporium. That Timmy’s really
put us on the map, and people should be made aware of the fact that Burk’s
Falls has now “arrived.” Next, we drove out Midloathian road to the site of
Peter Camani’s sprawling property and sculpture park, Screaming Heads. Carmani is or was an art teacher at one of the
local high schools, and is well known in the area for his giant, sometimes
spooky, concrete sculptures, spread out across his vast property. What has been
a work in progress for well over fifteen years now is a formidable art installation.
One can learn more about this unique phenomenon simply by googling “screaming
heads”. Frequently there are special events held on the property – I understand
he’s thrown a mean fall equinox party or two – and when we visited last Sunday,
there were a Frisbee golf tournament in progress. There were thirty
or more cars in the parking lot, and I felt awful for the attendees, mostly campers in
tents, because the weather was bordering on abominable. I suppose we must all
suck it up and quit complaining about the weather ... as if that will ever happen! I wish there was at
least some way of diverting a little of this precipitation to my cousins in the
Northwest, who are complaining of draught.
I’ve been working to improve my performing skills, and have been
practicing my songs at home in front of a mic and with an amplifier. Recordings
of my recent live performances have made it obvious to me that there is ample
room for improvement. As I seem to have more and more opportunities to play my
songs in public – I have been offered two more shows in the next week – I need to
work on presenting my songs better. About a month away from shoulder surgery, I
am eager to get as many live performances under my belt as I can before a
possibly long hiatus. Last week, I was fortunate to perform again at the third
Friday Burk’s Falls coffee house, the first in its new venue. These shows are
now being held at the Burk’s Falls Royal Canadian Legion, which provides a room
much better suited for live performances than the old venue. All of the artists
put on a great show last Friday night, and I think we were well received. I had
the pleasure of calling up my friend Barry Hayward to accompany me on the conga
drums for two of my songs. He really improved my performance, so thank you
Barry! I am delighted to be playing my music in front of an attentive audience,
and I hope I can continue to do this for a long time. Carpe Diem, weather be
damned.
- Written by Jamie
Oppenheimer c2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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