One Duck Among People: Folk Festival Day Two

Did anyone besides me notice this duck? 

I mean, I don't know, it could have been a dozen different ducks, but to my mind, they all became one, partially because I like the idea, partially because I have no eye for duck individuation, but also because there seemed to be, several times during the day, a bird matching this description, exhibiting identical behaviour: a single brown Jericho Beach duck who has figured out that it can mooch food from people if it socializes, who has wandered away from the pond and its fellows and now can be seen walking basically anywhere on the festival grounds with an eye towards a handout. 

I do not think of this as normal duck behaviour. Normal pigeon behaviour, sure, but ducks, like geese, tend to sort of keep to their own, close to the water, close to each other. ONE DUCK AMONG PEOPLE, far from water, is just slightly odd, wouldn't you say? Could this be the next step in duck evolution, like soon we will have ducks in every city doorway..?

That's probably just a fantasy. But I saw it by the food trucks, I saw it by the clothing vendors, I saw it basically everywhere I went: ONE DUCK. I was already thinking of it as "the" duck by the time I sat down on a bench behind the merch tent to take a break and this possibly-different-but-MAYBE-THE-SAME brown duck came over in case I wanted to throw it food. 

I had nothing to share, but it still let me take its picture. 

Mostly I photographed humans, like Meredith Moon: 

Or Sue Foley: 

Or Elisapie, seen here with Emily Wurramara:

But active as I was while I was present, I did not last very long yesterday. I don't think I have the knack. I think the people who make it are the ones who bring a book, who take naps, who are accustomed to spending time outside anyhow (I'm a bit of an indoor cat): the people who know to place no pressure on themselves, who just relax into it, who wheel in a wagon of creature comforts and supplies and so forth and basically just camp out. 

By contrast, people like me -- are there actually others? -- who run around taking notes, trying to see a bit of everything, who come with an agenda beyond their own pleasure, be it "acquire signed records" or "do interviews" or "document the experience" or a combination thereof -- will inevitably burn themselves out. I was already overheated from Friday and had some sort of gut unrest (maybe from my breakfast of potato chips and chocolate, as I urgently plowed through my Day One coverage; my "healthy" -- somewhat joyless -- Dragon Bowl lunch did not help). I got there gamely just after 10am, and was fried before things even started on the main stage...

But boy did I shoot a bunch of videos: Sue Foley, here and here; Elisapie at a workshop here; Meredith Moon, here; Krystle Dos Santos, here; and Rich Hope, here. I only did one interview, a quick three minutes with Elisapie that I'm going to place somewhere else, which touches not so much on Inuktitut, her newest album, but her previous, Ballad of the Runaway Girl. and also Native North America. (I will try to remember to link that feature here when it comes out but I'm thinking to give it to the Straight; friends of Sipreano will want to read it). I also saw a bit of Cris Derksen, and a tiny chunk of the Bab L'Bluz soundcheck, but by about 4pm, I knew I was cooked, exhausted, and I wasn't about to take another trip to the port-o-potty (I'd been walking around in fear of farting for a couple of hours, not because I wanted to be considerate but because I didn't trust it would emerge in gaseous form, if you see what I mean). I wanted nothing more than to get home and join my wife on the couch for Dept. Q on Netflix (after spending half an hour in a REAL WASHROOM), then have an early night... 

...So I could be ready for today -- because I still have three records I hope to get signed: Sam Parton, Meredith Moon, and Ruthie Foster. Not quite sure how I'm going to do that, since Sam is playing one stage (East, 10am) and Moon and Foster another (South gospel, with Rich Hope and Julian Taylor; the Sunday morning gospel, at the shadiest of locations, is invariably a festival high point). Besides that, I'll be seeing the Gord Grdina workshop (Oasis of Song, 12:30 East Stage) and Derek Gripper, and beyond that, playing things, uh, by ear... though I do think there's an imperative to see Les Mamans du Congo x Rrobin... bandcamp here... background on the troubles in the Congo here... 

The trick today, the thing that might help me make it a bit further into the fest, is that I have a punk show I want to be at tonight. Rong (see subsequent post) are headlining a secret-location-type gig for Trooper Fest -- a benefit for a local punk rock cat, with no connection to the band Trooper at all, which I wrote about here. It makes sense to at least see a bit of Ruthie Foster's set... I kind want to see Meredith Moon's tweener, too... I only caught a few songs of hers yesterday but I liked them a lot!

That Rong show, meantime, is taking place at the Grey Lab... it may be my last chance to see Rong before Dead Bob heads to Europe... it's the Byron/ Emilor incarnation of Rong... it's pretty damn hard to resist, and it might just help me hang in there until it's time for the main stage...