Garrison KeillorPhoto Courtesy of Wolf Trap
If you are a fan of public radio's Prairie Home Companion and you live in Washington, D.C., Memorial Day Weekend means one thing: Garrison Keillor at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. I know people who are members of Wolftrap solely because you receive priority handling of pre-season orders and they want to make sure they get Prairie tickets, which often sell out very early, even the lawn.
Now there is nothing wrong with the lawn. I remember one memorable concert several years ago when my husband son and I and two other families settled on our blankets for picnic and The Baha Men . [Crickets chirping] C'mon, You remember, "Who Let the Dogs Out?" Ok, my son was five and that was his favorite song at the time so we sat on the lawn for a reggae festival with a bunch of other little kids who sang the song at the top of their lungs "Woof. Woof Woof, Woof" and ran around a lot. It was a fun evening. The Pavillion would have been out of the question for us, though I did see little kids running around in there, too.
The aerial photo below by Robert Llewellyn, Courtesy of Wolf Trap, below gives you an idea of what a full lawn at Wolf Trap looks like. The competition to unfurl a blanket and stake out your space when the gates open is fierce indeed.
One year I got tickets for Garrison (I say Garrison because I feel like he is a friend of MENC. He supports The National Anthem Project and at our biennial convention in Minneapolis in 2004, he appeared and praised the singing of the music teachers in attendance.)
However, they were lawn seats and I had to turn them down because the couple we were going with both have severe allergies. Every other year something else has come up so I have never seen Garrison in person. I would love to, since I listen to him nearly every weekend. When I don't listen live, I catch up online. If you didn't hear the Memorial Weekend Show click here and listen. It was a great show. As EWL pointed out to me, Garrison wrote new words to the song "Memphis Tennessee," replacing the words with lyrics about senators, etc. "Long Distance Information, Give Me Washington DC." Wolf Trap is in Vienna, VA., just west of the nation's capitol.
Anyway the reason, I didn't get to see Garrison this year was because my son Matt played in a Memorial weekend baseball tournament. They played on fields all over Northern Virginia and I am happy to say his team, the Renedages, won the 13-U consolation bracket for the tournament, with a 4-2 record. Most of our wins were by 11 or more runs.
One of their losses was to the team that won the championship bracket, so we are a pretty proud of them. Theirs is a new travel team and we play a lot of teams have been around for a time. Our overall record is 13-6. So they are doing pretty well and they are fun to watch. The weather was warm but not unbearable and it was fun hanging out with the kids and parents over the weekend.
I took this kind of hazy photo at the right as they waited on the field to receive their trophy on Tuesday night.
When I returned to the office this week, it was back to work on August Teaching Music. I have some great interviews scheduled over the next few days, including one that a teacher agreed to squeeze in with me on the phone while he drives to work next week. I know a lot of you are still finishing up school with concerts, etc. So, good luck with wrapping up the school year.
I also would like send good wishes to Keokuk, Iowa, where Keokuk II: The Centennial Symposium for MENC is being held today through Saturday. The symposium commemorates the founding of MENC there in 1907. Look for a story about the conference in August TM.
Enjoy the first unofficial days of summer and I will see you next Thursday.
RF
