Mountain Clams

Keep it to a dull simmer, would you?

The day is Sunday, August 26, 2007 -- the day after Price of Victory (which was pretty much physically exhausting in a lot of ways). The weekend before, we were in Manitou Springs and talked to the guys at the Dulcimer (dull-simmer? Get it?) shop. They told us about a music festival that was happening this weekend, and we decided to skip NPC'ing for Price of Victory on Sunday and go to the music festival instead.

When we arrived, there was almost literally no parking at all throughout the entire town. We parked on the far side of town right on the road and walked back to where the stage was. We happened to see Bing Futch up on the stage getting stuff ready for later in the day. He told us that we had until about 3:00 before he and the other dulcimer players would take the stage. So we wandered around the town, looking at the various shops.

There was an herb shop that seemed pretty well stocked with stuff (though no rose oil) that we browsed around in for a while. They had some neat jewelry, too. We had seen this shop the last time we were in town, but it was closed. Looking in the window, we could see a cat lounging in the middle of the floor. "Cool," we thought, possibly even in unison.
There were other, mostly unremarkable shops that we looked around in. There was a candy store (no RC Cola to go with the nostalgic candy) where we bought a single dark-chocolate-on-dark-chocolate truffle, the museum replica place with the $7,500 T-Rex skull casting, the pet-centric store that had just about every breed of dog in several different souveniers, etc., etc. One place that we enjoyed was Black Cat Books, a book store with an interesting basement. There was a loveseat, a couple chairs, and lots of pillows in the window area to just sit and read should you so desire. There was also a logrus painted on the floor in one area, or at least what I imagined the logrus to look like (see the Amber series by Zelasny). I couldn't walk it because it went under walls and such. Besides, I'm not sure I want to leave this dimension just yet. That might be awkward.

At shortly before 3:00, we headed back to the stage area to see the dulcimers play. As we sat and waited for Dakota Blond to get finished talking about the mouse that someone wanted dead and someone wanted alive, and waving her gloved hands around with her fans, we noticed that the crew getting ready to go on stage looked remarkably NOT like dulcimer players. None of them was Bing, either. Alright, so maybe we have some time to get food? Maybe. There was a moment where we thought we would have to give up our front-row seat, but looking at the guys on stage, we knew we had little to worry about. We wandered to the back of the seating area and found the festival food guy. Nothing was cooking, and the prices were kindof steep, so we figured we would have enough time to go sit somewhere and eat, then come back. They were useful for one thing, though - they had the schedule of events on their table, which showed the dulcimers going on at 4:00, not 3.

We ended up at Marilyn's Pizza. It's easy to remember because they have nothing but pictures of Marilyn Monroe on the wall. Good pizza! Good beer, too! The cook really listened when asked to put extra cheese on the pizza, and even came out to see if we liked it. "That was the heaviest pie I ever took out of the oven," he told us. As we ate, we got to hear the vocal talents of the group on stage - it was just on the other side of the creek from us. "Talents" is a loosely-used word here, since they really weren't good. Not good at all. After we ate, we went to the counter and got a knife, splitting the truffle into several pieces. We shared it with the cook, the waitress, and each other, then headed back to the park.

We sat in the front row to watch the talented bunch exit. We weren't surprised when they told us the only reason they were on stage is because they knew someone, not because they auditioned. Then Bing and Robert and the rest of the crew began setting up their set. Yay! They opened with Sloop John B from the Beach Boys, then hit a few other songs on the way to a really funky yet well-done finale. The music was great. Robert and Bing are awesome showmen. At one point, Bing came down off the stage and performed right in front of the audience, whirling around with his dulcimer strapped around him. It looked like he was really enjoying himself and, after having talked with him a bit before and after the show, he probably was. I shot about 40 minutes of video on my phone, which totally killed the battery. I'm hoping it turns out, but I'm guessing there will be a lot of noise and little actual music picked up by the phone's microphone.

We picked up a CD of Bing's music and talked with him for a little while before heading out again. He said that we "looked so cute!" We've been hearing that from lots of different people, but to hear it from him was kindof unique.

We drove down through Colorado City with a quick stop to peer in the windows at Magic Town (closed at 5:30). After that, we went to the movies to see the Last Legion. It was alright, but really predictable. Then a drive home up I-25 again.

Labels: travel

posted by Brett @ 10:35 PM