June found me still reeling from a fantastic trip last month, where dawn to dusk was crammed with so much that it felt longer than it was, emotionally exhilarating and exhausting. Despite being a busy summer month with plenty of social play dates, I've returned to what can best be described as 'normalcy'. Work in the garden, chores around town, and visit friends when I can for a nice time.
We arranged a sailing trip to Gibsons
that I've wrote about previously here, to coincide with their jazz festival. We had a beautiful sail over and a sunny day worthy of ice cream, and a sunset with a rainbow telling of impending rain - here's a photo, but of course it was better in person. The rain started sometime in the night, alternating between hard rain and huge downpour showers. Note that here on the Wet Coast we have many names to denote the degree of rain. Fortunately seasoned sailors are equipped with foulies and a Tilley hat that kept us dry enough for both geocaching and the jazz festival. The first act we caught fully was some peculiar fusion of the usual jazz guitar+bass fronted by some Japanese stringed instrument that sounded very eclectic. Honestly I'm pretty hit-or-miss with jazz, and later acts I favoured more; the closing band Sweetpea Swing Band I thoroughly enjoyed. Old ladies in brightly colored leggings danced despite the rain.
Here in Vancouver we have the old Yale, advertising in classic neon lights the live blues nightly. They were closed and renovated with mixed speculation on what would reopen, and is now the Yale Saloon with all the western charm befitting a 'saloon', made contemporary and with clean restrooms. They feature more country music on the weekends but cater to blues still on Tues and Wed nights. I visited last night to be quite impressed by Brandon Isaak (excellent showmanship as he chatted the audience during the intermission), and a impromptu song or two from Wes Mackey. Unbeknownst to us as we'd already had dinner, they now serve food and featured a barbecue on that night. I had a tasty Lynchberg Lemonade and a very nice evening. Some young lady started dancing like a limp marionette - is this how one dances to blues? - one friendly fella among a pack of Asian students started dancing around her and then another fella ran interference to tell him to mind his distance from the oblivious woman. Such drama! We get dinner and a show!
