30 Days of Sharing - Twelve
I went to the Sens game tonight! Mom and I went early and had dinner at one of the restaurants there. It was my first game of the year, and it was actually an extremely belated birthday present from my parents. I had told them at the time that all I wanted this year was tickets to a game, and gave them a list of the ones I was most interested in seeing - and this game was top of the list!
It was against Minnesota, who I kind of like, but I wasn't too worried about the price or about there being copious amounts of Minnesota fans in the crowd to annoy me. But the real reason I wanted to see this game is because Martin Havlat plays for the Wild now, and he was always one of my favourites when he played for us. So the fact that we won, but he got the Wild's only goal, made this just about the perfect night!
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
The concert that I was at last night was one of the best I've ever seen, right up there with both Great Big Sea concerts I've been to.
We sang at the NAC Family Christmas concert last night, which we've done before, but I don't really feel like I can put this in the same category as the other times we've done it. We were only onstage for two songs, and one of them just involved us leading the audience in a bunch of Christmas carols. So it didn't really feel like much of a concert on our part. Basically for the rest of the evening, we were treated to a free performance by the Leahy family.
Have you guys heard of them? Even though this concert has been on our schedule since September, I didn't know who they were, and didn't bother looking them up until a week ago, once the whole Torch Relay stuff was done. But OMG! In that week since then, I have been watching their videos on YouTube and listening to their music on their website nonstop! Absolutely amazing. More than 24 hours later, I still can't get this music out of my head.
They come from a family of eleven siblings from Lakefield, Ontario, eight of whom are usually a part of the band (Donnell, Agnes, Frank, Doug, Angus, Maria, Siobheann, Erin). Last night they were actually joined by a ninth (Denise), as well as several nieces and nephews. They all sing, dance, play several instruments. AMAZING. And there is such a family resemblance between them all, it's not even funny. They had been on tour since the end of November, and this was their final show before Christmas.
Before the concert, we were all kind of badgering Tobi, wondering why we couldn't just sit onstage for most of the show, like we have often done in the past. For whatever reason, that wasn't possible, and at first we thought we were all going to have to go back to the rehearsal hall until we had go to back out, therefore missing the entire show. Luckily, after we came offstage the first time, she decided that it would be okay if we just sat backstage and watched from there. A whole bunch of their kids were sitting back there too!
At first I found a spot to sit along the wall, but then Tobi said she had a better place for me, so I watched the remainder of the concert between two of the "tormentors". It wasn't the greatest view ever, but it was decent, and certainly better than where I had been at first. I could see the fiddlers pretty well when they didn't move too much, and the couch they were sitting on when they weren't performing. If I twisted one way I could see a few people in the orchestra, and if I twisted the other way and squinted I could see the dancers.
From the first note, these guys are just phenomenal. I just can't figure out how their fingers and arms and legs can possibly be moving so fast! One of their teenagers came out and did a solo at one point (I think it was Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas?), and from my vantage point it was really neat to see her mother (who did most of the singing) watching her from backstage, mouthing the words along with her - it's totally something my own mother would do! And then at one point they brought out several of the little kids to play and dance, and that was just the most adorable thing in the world. The audience especially loved the youngest girl, who couldn't have been more than about four, but was more than able to keep up with her siblings/cousins.
Once I was in my spot, I didn't take my eyes off these guys, except for when we had to go onstage again after intermission. Basically, I spent the entire evening as I have this whole week - wondering why on earth I am not a part of this family, and exactly what I could do to remedy this situation. I'm still working on that...
A lot of choristers had to leave before the show was over, because they had told their parents to be there not too long after we were finished singing, but a few of us stayed right until the end. The final piece of their program was A Call to Dance, which was probably the video I had watched the most frequently over the last several days. I actually knew it was coming, even though we didn't have programs, because I had heard them rehearsing it when I arrived that afternoon, so I had been looking forward to it for the entire concert. Nothing I can say about this will do it justice, so you'll have to watch it for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqg0l43dbv4
Even when this song was over, judging by the enormous applause they were getting you knew there was going to be an encore. Which was equally amazing - it basically involved them passing one fiddle around to most of the siblings (most of whom had primarily been playing other instruments all evening) and giving each of them a turn to play. I was especially excited at the end when it came to Erin, because I knew what was coming:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKGRjE6bxh4
Trick fiddling. She played with the fiddle upside down, and then she and three of her brothers played and danced at the same time. It was especially hilarious to watch because not all of the audience caught on right away to what she was doing - I even had to point it out to one of the girls who was backstage with me! We looked over at the orchestra then, to see what they made of all of this, and the first violinist had just realized what was happening, and he flipped his own violin over and was trying to figure out how she was doing it! It was hysterical.
After that the show really was over, so we went back to the rehearsal hall to get our things. I was in a hurry to get up to the lobby because, like the King's Singers did last year, Leahy was supposed to be talking to fans and signing autographs there after the show. I was having trouble figuring out how I was going to get up there, but it was going to involve going back the way we had just come, so we started heading in that direction. As we were walking back down the hall, we realized that most of them still standing around talking outside their dressing rooms.
I approached one of the brothers for his autograph, and before I knew it, I had met just about all of them! I have honestly never met such nice people in my life - I told several of them that I wanted to be adopted into their family! At one point one of the women looked at my program for me to figure out which people's signatures I was still missing! One of the brothers was still at the end of the hall, and he was going to be kind of hard to get to with so many people around, so she sent one of her sisters off with my program to get him to sign it. The one unfortunate thing was that Erin, the one sibling I had known by name before last night, had already disappeared, so she's (I think) the only one I didn't get!
I just cannot get over how amazing that evening was - much to my family's dismay I have been able to talk about little else since then. I cannot wait until they come here again - and this time, I'm going to get a proper seat!
The others:
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy
It was against Minnesota, who I kind of like, but I wasn't too worried about the price or about there being copious amounts of Minnesota fans in the crowd to annoy me. But the real reason I wanted to see this game is because Martin Havlat plays for the Wild now, and he was always one of my favourites when he played for us. So the fact that we won, but he got the Wild's only goal, made this just about the perfect night!
Day 12 → Whatever tickles your fancy
The concert that I was at last night was one of the best I've ever seen, right up there with both Great Big Sea concerts I've been to.
We sang at the NAC Family Christmas concert last night, which we've done before, but I don't really feel like I can put this in the same category as the other times we've done it. We were only onstage for two songs, and one of them just involved us leading the audience in a bunch of Christmas carols. So it didn't really feel like much of a concert on our part. Basically for the rest of the evening, we were treated to a free performance by the Leahy family.
Have you guys heard of them? Even though this concert has been on our schedule since September, I didn't know who they were, and didn't bother looking them up until a week ago, once the whole Torch Relay stuff was done. But OMG! In that week since then, I have been watching their videos on YouTube and listening to their music on their website nonstop! Absolutely amazing. More than 24 hours later, I still can't get this music out of my head.
They come from a family of eleven siblings from Lakefield, Ontario, eight of whom are usually a part of the band (Donnell, Agnes, Frank, Doug, Angus, Maria, Siobheann, Erin). Last night they were actually joined by a ninth (Denise), as well as several nieces and nephews. They all sing, dance, play several instruments. AMAZING. And there is such a family resemblance between them all, it's not even funny. They had been on tour since the end of November, and this was their final show before Christmas.
Before the concert, we were all kind of badgering Tobi, wondering why we couldn't just sit onstage for most of the show, like we have often done in the past. For whatever reason, that wasn't possible, and at first we thought we were all going to have to go back to the rehearsal hall until we had go to back out, therefore missing the entire show. Luckily, after we came offstage the first time, she decided that it would be okay if we just sat backstage and watched from there. A whole bunch of their kids were sitting back there too!
At first I found a spot to sit along the wall, but then Tobi said she had a better place for me, so I watched the remainder of the concert between two of the "tormentors". It wasn't the greatest view ever, but it was decent, and certainly better than where I had been at first. I could see the fiddlers pretty well when they didn't move too much, and the couch they were sitting on when they weren't performing. If I twisted one way I could see a few people in the orchestra, and if I twisted the other way and squinted I could see the dancers.
From the first note, these guys are just phenomenal. I just can't figure out how their fingers and arms and legs can possibly be moving so fast! One of their teenagers came out and did a solo at one point (I think it was Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas?), and from my vantage point it was really neat to see her mother (who did most of the singing) watching her from backstage, mouthing the words along with her - it's totally something my own mother would do! And then at one point they brought out several of the little kids to play and dance, and that was just the most adorable thing in the world. The audience especially loved the youngest girl, who couldn't have been more than about four, but was more than able to keep up with her siblings/cousins.
Once I was in my spot, I didn't take my eyes off these guys, except for when we had to go onstage again after intermission. Basically, I spent the entire evening as I have this whole week - wondering why on earth I am not a part of this family, and exactly what I could do to remedy this situation. I'm still working on that...
A lot of choristers had to leave before the show was over, because they had told their parents to be there not too long after we were finished singing, but a few of us stayed right until the end. The final piece of their program was A Call to Dance, which was probably the video I had watched the most frequently over the last several days. I actually knew it was coming, even though we didn't have programs, because I had heard them rehearsing it when I arrived that afternoon, so I had been looking forward to it for the entire concert. Nothing I can say about this will do it justice, so you'll have to watch it for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqg0l43dbv4
Even when this song was over, judging by the enormous applause they were getting you knew there was going to be an encore. Which was equally amazing - it basically involved them passing one fiddle around to most of the siblings (most of whom had primarily been playing other instruments all evening) and giving each of them a turn to play. I was especially excited at the end when it came to Erin, because I knew what was coming:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKGRjE6bxh4
Trick fiddling. She played with the fiddle upside down, and then she and three of her brothers played and danced at the same time. It was especially hilarious to watch because not all of the audience caught on right away to what she was doing - I even had to point it out to one of the girls who was backstage with me! We looked over at the orchestra then, to see what they made of all of this, and the first violinist had just realized what was happening, and he flipped his own violin over and was trying to figure out how she was doing it! It was hysterical.
After that the show really was over, so we went back to the rehearsal hall to get our things. I was in a hurry to get up to the lobby because, like the King's Singers did last year, Leahy was supposed to be talking to fans and signing autographs there after the show. I was having trouble figuring out how I was going to get up there, but it was going to involve going back the way we had just come, so we started heading in that direction. As we were walking back down the hall, we realized that most of them still standing around talking outside their dressing rooms.
I approached one of the brothers for his autograph, and before I knew it, I had met just about all of them! I have honestly never met such nice people in my life - I told several of them that I wanted to be adopted into their family! At one point one of the women looked at my program for me to figure out which people's signatures I was still missing! One of the brothers was still at the end of the hall, and he was going to be kind of hard to get to with so many people around, so she sent one of her sisters off with my program to get him to sign it. The one unfortunate thing was that Erin, the one sibling I had known by name before last night, had already disappeared, so she's (I think) the only one I didn't get!
I just cannot get over how amazing that evening was - much to my family's dismay I have been able to talk about little else since then. I cannot wait until they come here again - and this time, I'm going to get a proper seat!
The others:
Day 13 → A fictional book
Day 14 → A non-fictional book
Day 15 → A fanfic
Day 16 → A song that makes you cry (or nearly)
Day 17 → An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)
Day 18 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 19 → A talent of yours
Day 20 → A hobby of yours
Day 21 → A recipe
Day 22 → A website
Day 23 → A YouTube video
Day 24 → Whatever tickles your fancy
Day 25 → Your day, in great detail
Day 26 → Your week, in great detail
Day 27 → This month, in great detail
Day 28 → This year, in great detail
Day 29 → Hopes, dreams and plans for the next 365 days
Day 30 → Whatever tickles your fancy