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Feeling low after the high

Alice 22 Jun 00 - 11:29 AM
Gervase 22 Jun 00 - 11:36 AM
MMario 22 Jun 00 - 11:43 AM
Mbo 22 Jun 00 - 11:51 AM
RichM 22 Jun 00 - 11:53 AM
SINSULL 22 Jun 00 - 11:55 AM
catspaw49 22 Jun 00 - 11:57 AM
Alice 22 Jun 00 - 11:59 AM
Jon Freeman 22 Jun 00 - 12:02 PM
Jim the Bart 22 Jun 00 - 12:06 PM
Jon Freeman 22 Jun 00 - 12:16 PM
Alice 22 Jun 00 - 12:19 PM
Gervase 22 Jun 00 - 12:25 PM
Alice 22 Jun 00 - 12:35 PM
katlaughing 22 Jun 00 - 12:43 PM
Morticia 22 Jun 00 - 12:47 PM
Jon Freeman 22 Jun 00 - 12:54 PM
SINSULL 22 Jun 00 - 01:13 PM
catspaw49 22 Jun 00 - 01:17 PM
Alice 22 Jun 00 - 01:25 PM
dwditty 22 Jun 00 - 02:01 PM
Alice 22 Jun 00 - 02:07 PM
Big Mick 22 Jun 00 - 02:23 PM
catspaw49 22 Jun 00 - 02:24 PM
Naemanson 22 Jun 00 - 02:30 PM
Alice 22 Jun 00 - 02:33 PM
Alice 22 Jun 00 - 02:37 PM
Jon Freeman 22 Jun 00 - 02:50 PM
Alice 22 Jun 00 - 02:57 PM
Bert 22 Jun 00 - 03:03 PM
MMario 22 Jun 00 - 03:11 PM
Jon Freeman 22 Jun 00 - 03:19 PM
SINSULL 22 Jun 00 - 03:23 PM
Naemanson 22 Jun 00 - 03:39 PM
SINSULL 22 Jun 00 - 04:44 PM
GUEST 22 Jun 00 - 05:43 PM
Alice 22 Jun 00 - 07:05 PM
Sorcha 22 Jun 00 - 07:30 PM
Little Neophyte 22 Jun 00 - 08:34 PM
dwditty 22 Jun 00 - 08:47 PM
Alice 22 Jun 00 - 09:01 PM
bbc 22 Jun 00 - 09:09 PM
dwditty 22 Jun 00 - 09:11 PM
WyoWoman 22 Jun 00 - 09:15 PM
Alice 22 Jun 00 - 09:29 PM
Alice 22 Jun 00 - 09:35 PM
Mbo 22 Jun 00 - 10:01 PM
Alice 22 Jun 00 - 10:04 PM
GUEST,Grubby 22 Jun 00 - 10:18 PM
GUEST,Grubby 22 Jun 00 - 10:36 PM
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Subject: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 11:29 AM

I was feeling so high after Bill and Allan's visit, I floated for several days afterwards on a tide of good feeling and "connectedness" to the rest of Mudcat. I felt inspired to learn new songs, dust off some instruments, and now I am crashing with a feeling of isolation and "invisibility". Last night I listened to most of the radio show, and I just wanted to be in that room singing along with the rest of the group there. At the same time, I felt cut off, ... I don't really know how to explain it. I need to save my time and energy for marketing my illustration work right now. I have not had a paying client in a couple of months (false starts, but no solid commissions). So, maybe it's the financial pressure, but I'm feeling the "crash" coming down after that sweet, beautiful high of last week's Mudcat experience. If I lived closer to the folk music festivals and gatherings, I would be in my car and on the way to meet more of you. That isn't possible for me, so .... here I am, starting a thread that I hope doesn't drop off the page in a few hours, invisible, and unanswered!

Alice in Montana


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Gervase
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 11:36 AM

Don't worry Alice. Medics will tell you it's a chemical thing, but I've always had the post-festival blues; a sort of yearning. Just immerse yourself in music and start planning...


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: MMario
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 11:43 AM

Alice - I'm listening to the archive now. I can sympathize (I think) with some of what you feel, as I rarely get to hear any of the radio show "live" - and when I DO, I'm not in chat, so it feels a little like being the only person in the room who doesn't get a joke. two hours and 32 minutes left to listen to; if HearMe would get off their corperate butt and comply with their own promises of making it cross platform, that would probably help a lot.


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Mbo
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 11:51 AM

I know how you feel Alice...not because of Allan & Bill, because I only spent a half hour with them, but because I am so chained here, and cannot get out to meet the Mudcatters that I want. Heck I was so chained that I almost missed Allan & Bill's arrival...glad I didn't.

--Mbo


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: RichM
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 11:53 AM

Alice, maybe you do some or all of these suggestions, but are there any opportunities in your community to jam? or is there an open stage somewhere near?

Or, indeed are there compatible musicians nearby? Might be worthwhile to host a jam regularly or semi-regularly.

Just a thought.

And yes, I have had those post-session blues too :)

Rich


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 11:55 AM

Alice, Don't worry about it unless it lasts too long - your judgement.

I haven't been to Hearme in weeks - personal and mechanical difficulties - and I know the isolation feeling. I am new here but have made Mudcat a "second home". Keep it open at work all day long and play music all night to help "connect".

My words of wisdom to my son: "You can't appreciate the feasts without experiencing some famine. You can't exalt in the good times if haven't experienced bad."

So in some twisted way this "down" is a healthy sign reminding you of just how wonderful life can be. And will be again.

Now get back to work! SS


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 11:57 AM

Funny you should start this Alice. Your reasons are sound and the feeling a natural one, albeit not pleasant. Many of us have followed along closely with the adventures of Bill and Allan and even if we were not as fortunate as yourself, we have enjoyed each and every visit in some sense or another.

Last night at the end of the Radio show, I commented in chat that "this is going to be a long night." With that huge crew in the studio and so many in chat, others listening and calling in, it was a tremendous show as some of us sat here and harmonized along. As the adventure comes to its close, a certain sadness exists and at the end of the show, the sense of community could not have been greater. Sadly, it is a virtual community and when kat and Night Owl commented that they wished we "could all be together," Bert replied, "We are." And while that's true and a beautiful sentiment, it is still a virtual community, probably the best to be found on the net, but virtual nonetheless.

The many gatherings that are taking place and festivals and so on make it more than virtual at times and the "Great Mudcat Adventure" made it very real for a lot of 'Catters. The letdown is natural, but unpleasant. I dunno'.......Maybe if we all DID live in the same little village there would be mass slaughter, but I kinda' doubt it. Its a great place, the Mudcat. After the letdown passes a bit, it may be even greater.

Somehow, a verse of a little known Jim Croce song passes through my mind occasionally:

I'm a dreamer by nature and I've always been
Tryin' to dream myself out of this world that I'm in.
In my dreams I escape all the troubles around
And it ain't cost a penny for the pleasures I've found.

Spaw....feelin' a little low too


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 11:59 AM

Yes, m'am. I have some marketing work I need to get done... portfolio photos, mailers, etc.

RichM, I partake in a weekly session here and have for years, but it was different having bill and Allan here. Hard to explain.

Ok, this is probably just a money thing. I'm one week closer to the mortgage and bills being due and starting to panic... stress, stress, stress.

Alice


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 12:02 PM

Alice, I get it after a good festival. I tend to think of it as trying to get back to reality after being lost is a sort of super fantasy land for a few days and it typically takes me a week to get back to my own strange version of normal.

How ever you interperet it, I think that you will find that it is pretty common and is nothing to worry about. I wonder if we'd appreciate these things so much if they were just part of everyday life.

Jon


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 12:06 PM

I couldn't let you feel invisible and unanswered - it just wouldn't be right on such a beautiful day. It's always hard to bounce back after taking part in an event like that. For a short time you feel that you're plugged in to an energy flow that is so strong that it's absence can make normal life seem petty and, in a way, futile. But as Gervase so correctly pointed out, there is strong chemical component involved. Sometime you can "break your fall", though. That's why God invented chocolate.

I remember when I was a kid and I'd go on vacation with my family. My dad had twelve siblings, and they each had kids, and every other summer we'd get together at my Grandma's farm in Wisconsin. It was a great old place - trees for climbing, a "crick" for swimming, and in the area cousins on other farms to visit. My first strong musical memories are of the whole clan singing while my Gramndma played the piano and my Dad made homemade ice cream. For a week it would be non-stop and then it was over. I would get so-o-o-o down. If I was lucky, school would start up soon and my young attention would shift to matters at hand. And so it would go. I promised myself at one point that I would not put myself through that emotional roller coaster for my whole life, and I've been pretty successful since I exited my teen years. I can stay on a pretty even keel.

I was reminded of all this last Thanksgiving when I took my family to Iowa to see my wife's family. My three sons had a great time with their cousins. My brother-in-law brought a karaoke machine and everyone had a gas. Then it was over. On the way home in the car, my middle son, who was just eight then, asked if he could listen to the tapes of them singing that we made. We all laughed at how the singing that seemed so good at the moment actually sounded. But at some point I realized that Miles wasn't laughing. He looked like he was sleeping, but I could see he was sniffling, and I knew what was going on. I could feel the crash. And my heart was broken for him. But then school started and he got over it. He still has the tapes.

Geez, I was hoping to be cheerful. Just remember that even though you're there and everybody else seems someplace else, the connection remains. Listen to the tapes in your head from time to time. There's always next time...

Bart


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 12:16 PM


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 12:19 PM

Bart - Chocolate! why didn't I think of that?


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Gervase
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 12:25 PM

Bart's right - record things if you can.
I took a mini-disc gadget down to Sidmouth for the Middle Bar Singers' winter bash earlier this year, and the resulting recordings have brightened up many dull car journeys since (and I've got to learn some new material). It's not the same as the real thing, but that and some chocolate...


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 12:35 PM

Yes, I record everything, even my practices and voice classes. It's a habit with me. I have four cassettes sitting here of bill and Allan, and Les B sent me blank tapes to make copies for him.

alice


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 12:43 PM

Feeling the same thing here, Alice...it's partly the isolation of the wide open spaces, too, I think. Last night it was almost as though they were right back here in my living room. Rog and I both watched and listened, laughed, and I bawled my eyes out during and after...had a hard time sleeping with the roiling emotions going on. I've composed several letters in my head to Bill, Allan, Max, and Max's parents (to tell them what a remarkable son they have), and several others of this incredible community.

I was even going to start a thread this a.m. titled, "I have a dream" and talk about how Rog and I would really love to find a great big old place, somewhere, which could be a central place for Mudcatters....of course it is probably just a dream and not everyone would live close by, wherever it wound up being, but still something we are open to and watching for.

One thing that is helpful for me, this morning, is I just got Guy Wolff's cd's in the mail and am listening to them...wow, just superb and hard to be sad while listening to him.

Freelancing is so difficult...we are also considering getting back into that for Rog. I really admire you for what you do and the care you have for your son. Be proud of yourself and try not to let the stress get you down. Sorry, I know that may sound hollow and it is difficult to do sometimes.

Thanks for starting this thread,

luvyakat


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Morticia
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 12:47 PM

I can really sympathise with you Alice, I go through this post-adrenalin "ain't life crap" bit often, and go along with all the above suggestions...and if they fail, try gin.


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 12:54 PM

My "cure" is just to go out a little bit more for the week after, maybe have a couple of extra drinks and climb down slowly. I don't find recording things helps as playing them back at that time seems to have a negative effect but I do record for future reference.

Jon


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 01:13 PM

Kat,

I started fantasizing about your "Mudcat Retreat", a huge bed and breakfast in an old mansion with endless bedrooms, baths, music rooms, a bar, and of course a porch. Then a horrible picture crossed my mind of us 20 years from now all shuffling up and down the halls in Depends rattling banjos and dropping tambourines. While one half stumbles through "Kumbaya" arguing over lyrics and adjusting dentures, the other half, being half deaf, will be tuning guitars to distraction.

And in the distance, I see a middle aged Mbo carrying bedpans and mumbling "I owe them this at least."

Damn, depression sucks! Feel better Alice?


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 01:17 PM

Hey Sisnsull....You need to go back and read some of the old trreads about Mudcat retirement villages and Ol Folkies Homes that we ran.......Some funny stuff.

Spaw


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 01:25 PM

Mbo in middle age.... now, that's a picture.

spaw, I was remembering those discussions, too. Helen, I think, had quite the plan for Oz.


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: dwditty
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 02:01 PM

Alice,

I'm with you. For all the time I've spent on the Mudcat (almost 3 years), Tuesday night was my first physical contact with other mudders. And just like when I visit a great place on vacation, or spend the weekend on a deeply spiritual retreat, or host close friends/family for a visit, I want to hold on to that experience-to transport myself from my current life to the fantasy of the perfection that existed in those experiences. Intellectually I know that even if I could jump into that other world, it would soon lose the luster of newness and become my day-to-day existence. Then I would be left to dream of the perfect life somewhere else. The old grass is greener routine.

I have felt what you are feeling many times, including right now. Find whatever connects to your soul spiritually and focus on that for a few days. It's not always the same thing for me - sometimes it's music, sometimes it's writing, sometimes it's reading the Bible. Just trust that the feeling will pass.

You are so much a part of this community, and I'll go out on a limb a speak for others in saying that we appreciate you.

dw BTW, thanks for posting the CT photos for me.


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 02:07 PM

"You are so much a part of this community," WOW, dw, I must say that is exactly the validation I was needing. Thank you. Since I haven't posted as much as I used to, and in the midst of so many newbies who don't know me and my Mudcat history, I was feeling like a "nonperson", kind of that invisibility I was talking about.

You made my day.
Thanks again.

Alice Flynn in Montana


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Big Mick
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 02:23 PM

I understand this completely. Imagine being in a sing/playaround with 35 or so Muddies. That is what the FSGW Getaway was like last year. And after it was over, there was a letdown. For those able to get to it this year, do not miss the opportunity. I have been saying for several years that we are a community, a village, filled with some of the finest around. This tour proves it.

Dear Alice, one of the things I love about you is that you don't even realize how big a part of all this you are. It seems like the finest never realize that they are such. You have inspired many of us with your stories of raising that lucky (to have you for a Mom) young man and maintaining your independence. You have friends here, many of them. This thread will prove that before it runs dry.

All the very best,

Big Mick


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 02:24 PM

Aw ferchrissakes Alice........if that's all it was, why didn't you just ask for a tango or something? Whip out the long black gloves, grab a rose and we're off!

Seriously, fine post dw!! Excellent insight.

And Alice, you're right.......We do have a lot of new folks and no, they don't know all of us or our history here......But rest assured, many do and many are learning and perhaps in reading threads like these, they get to know some of that history.......and then create more. I don't think I'm the one to say it best, but you are and always will be a part of this community. Whether its a good song, a good discussion, or a good fight, I know that you, if you're around, will be in the fray. Your recent contributions alone should introduce you to a lot of folks who may just have come on board.....Thanks for all the work on the photos.

You sound much better after dw's post so cheer up, eat some chocolate, and let's tango!

Spaw


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Naemanson
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 02:30 PM

What the hell, I might as well say something. I've been lurking for months playing the voyeur but I guess I can add my two cents worth (if it has that much value).

Earlier this year my girlfriend left me. That was hard enough but we were running a coffeehouse together. I tried to work with her on it and made it through one evening. I was depressed for days afterwards. I tried again the following month and only made it half way through the evening. It was too hard to be in the same room with her.

The point I'm trying to make here, Alice, is I went through a crushing period of withdrawal and loss. I had lost not only my girlfriend but my coffeehouse. Friends rallied 'round me and kept me going. My house blossomed with music. I visited friends' homes to keep my spirits up, especially on coffeehouse night.

But I found the way to get over all of that. I'm starting my own coffeehouse in a neighboring town. I'm timing it to avoid conflicts with "hers" and she and I talk enough to make sure we don't step on each others toes. I haven't found a girlfriend yet but I am back in the swing of things.

So you keep going to those sessions, keep talking, singing, and playing with others (both in the real world and here) and continue to enjoy life. There is life after fesitvals. (Or should I say between festivals?)

Enjoy!


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 02:33 PM

por seguro, tango!! tango through my tears, thanks, guys, that was touching... on goes the high, low, high, low (good, bad, good, bad... Harry Nilsson)


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 02:37 PM

Hey, Naemanson, how about a latte, then a virtual tango with me? Broken hearts become the biggest kind.


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 02:50 PM

Life between the festivals I hope.

I have seen a lot mentioned here about Mudcatters, people who at least know one another in cyber land but it can happen in other ways. I'll giv the old Conwy Street Festival which lasted a week as an exapmle.

You'd go there, wander round a bit, meet somebody you hadn't seen since last years get hugs and kisses, gradually meet more old faces, and new faces and before you know it a "family" was formed on the quay, some would be people selling jewelry or other bits, some there for the fun, sometimes one of the paid acts would join us but most of our "family" could do something - juggle sing, play or whatever. Everybody trusted everybody, eg a trader would ask me to look after his stall for a while or I would leave my instruments with someone I'd not met before... I've been know to play out there until day break with a few still enjoying themselves...

Then the week after, it's all gone (though you might meet some of the faces elsewhere). Sadly, the Conwy Festival has now gone (funding problems) and in the last of these type gatherings I went to on Conwy Quay (North Wales Blue Grass Festivals not the street festival) thefts did occur but we had some great times prior to that. I wish I could bring those days back - it was well worth the depression afterwards.

Jon


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 02:57 PM

Jon, your story reminds me of how things change with friendships, sessions, and such. Since the old Baxter hotel, the home of our Sunday "Irish" session, was bought by new owners last fall, it has never been the same. They actually threw out the Tuesday night bluegrass/old time session, telling them they could no longer meet there. That session has just found a new home a few doors down at a coffee shop, but the space is not as ideal acoustically, etc. It will never be the same. Time marches on, the only thing we can count on is change.

... going with the flow

Alice


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Bert
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 03:03 PM

I know! let's tell Bill & Allan that they have got to do the trip all over again!

OK, you ready for it Guys? We'll chip in a buck or two for gas.

Cheer up Alice! We love you.

Bert.


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: MMario
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 03:11 PM

If we put a roadblock across their path after oldsongs, they'll have to retrace their entire route in reverse, right?


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 03:19 PM

Yes, Alice, I'm sure most of use have seen that sort of thing happen to festivals, sessions and folk clubs. I think it is nice though to remember being part of these things in the good times and sooner or later, something else good crops up.

I reckon you should think along a similar line with you current experiece, you had a great time, to come down afterwards is natuaral but you will have more encounters to look forward to in the future and I hope you enjoy every minute of them.

Jon


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 03:23 PM

And we can create an underground railroad shipping them from town to town. We'll feed them well, keep them clean and provide decent housing as long as they continue to sing and play. People will tie yellow ribbons around trees and demand their release but we'll hold off and let the glory of their rescue fall upon Catspaw the day after he is inaugerated.

I've seen this somewhere before...

Wish I could be at annap's, wet basement and all. Don't want to lock them in a wet basement though.

Sorry for the babble. SS


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Naemanson
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 03:39 PM

OK Alice, I'm "virtually" there! I'll fix the coffee, you start the music.


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 04:44 PM

UUUUHHH Naemanson, Allen is supposd to make the coffee. Kat says it has something to do with his being sexy. Woder if he serves it on a bed tray?


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 05:43 PM

Sinsull! I don't know what you mean!

Alice, would you like the polished silver tray or the cherry and walnut tray?


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 07:05 PM

"like a tea tray in the sky?" curiouser.

I have to type this fast, lightening storm moving closer. As I was working this afternoon, I thought of this thread. I recall Allan and I having a talk about this subject the evening before they left. I have been to folk gatherings with friends from our session here, yearly campouts up in the mountains, and I had never felt emotional at the end of the. Allan shared with me how hard it was to leave a group of Mudcatters he had spent time playing music with to drive back home. Being stoical most of the time, I didn't get what he was talking about at first. I got it the next day, as I tried to hold back tears while they left my house to hit the road again.

Maybe there is a song challenge here... After the Gathering Breakdown, or the Folk Festival Fallout, or Post Gig Blues....

gotta go, need to unplug the computer.


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 07:30 PM

What everybody said, Alice. And Me Too, or Three, or Four.....Put up the roadblock NOW! Somebody should do this every summer. Who's next? And kat, for your Mudcat Place, I think we will have to be retired. Can't imagine needing PO-lice in a place like that. Guess I will just have to mind the garden and cook to earn my keep.


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 08:34 PM

Alice I can relate very much to what you are feeling.
What I do when I feel great loss is remind myself that I am like a mountain and feelings are like weather systems that come and go. I just hold on tight until the feelings pass knowing there will be sunshine and warmth when the winds change. But in the meantime it is a wonderful feeling to know this place does exists where you will find comfort and friendship from people who really do care about you.

Bonnie


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: dwditty
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 08:47 PM

Hi Alice,
You are probably signed off now waiting out the storm. As Banjo Bonnie just said, the front will clear the air and provide sun you need to lift your spirits. Once again, I think you have stirred an emotion that has hit many of us as "the boys" have continued on their way - we just didn't realize what that feeling was until you pointed it out. So, you see, you *are* important here. I will continue to wait for my "thunderstorm" to refresh me, too.

dw


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 09:01 PM

Lightening has passed and I can finish my thought.

I think the difference between leaving my local friends after a group music session and saying goodbye after the music with my first Mudcat visitors, Allan, Bill, and Les B, is that we have been in touch for a long time on almost a daily basis on the Mudcat. Bill said it last night on the Radio Show, Mudcat is what has made the difference. Even if we are not sending messages directly to each other, we are "plugged into" the discussion so we can relate to each other about topics and people. I recall when Spaw was in the hospital and how we who had never met except through the Mudcat felt really connected to him and what was happening to him and his family.

The Mudcat seemed to really take a turn toward community at that point. Until then we had the folk music connection, which was great, but life and death created a new perspective on how I and many others related to each other on the Mudcat. For several years now, I have checked into the Mudcat discussions on almost a daily basis. I have shared more here than I do with the other musicians in my town. I think the illusion of never meeting in person allowed more open communication in some ways, more hesitation because of the internet vulnerability in other ways. Typing into the forum at any time of the day or night allowed access to communication more readily than what I have had in person here with people whom I see a few times a month.

I am used to logging on every morning to check Mudcat, and rarely has a day gone by that I didn't at least read some threads. I realized when I first met Les B and then Bill and Allan that we could talk to each other in Mudcat "cult jargon" that related to the different personalities on the forum. Being a loner, not a joiner, I was very wary of the clique phenomenon, so I have consciously observed this clannishness. I have to say that now I see it as a very positive development. The interaction among Mudcat members is good. This connectedness has been a positive addition to my life, and I'm thankful that we have developed into this close knit community.

Thanks, everybody.

Alice


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: bbc
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 09:09 PM

Yes, Alice, all of us who've met in person have noticed that it is just like a continued conversation. And, generally, we've found that we liked each other in person even better than online. Hope you & I will one day have the chance to meet & hug!

love,

bbc


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: dwditty
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 09:11 PM

Bill Sables & I were talking just the other night about how the Mudcat as we know started when Big Mick posted of Spaw's illness. I will never forget what happened inside of me during that time. I am sure that the same thing happened to many others - simultaneously - and it was that that changed the Mudcat forever - from a community of people interested in music to a group of music people interested in community.

dw


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: WyoWoman
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 09:15 PM

Hey there, Alice -- I've finally gotten my computer plugged in after moving lock, stock and barrel to southern Colorado. I'm sitting here in this new town where I don't know a soul, waiting for checks to arrive that haven't, trying to keep my faith in myself and the decision I made, not knowing how it's all going to turn out, and very much mindful of the friends I made music with back in Wyoming and the absolutely perfect night we had while Bill and Allan were in Colorado.

My tactic to fight the blues is to start planning the Mudcat World Domination Tour, Part Deux, in which a band of us North American types meet up and invade the U.K. next summer, forcing Bill Sables to make good on his promise to take us around to the music folks HE knows. If we can get enough of us enrolled in the idea, we can charter an airplane, then charter buses and stumble through the U.K. in our flowerdy blouses, shorts and sandals-with-dress-socks, taking snapshots of completely unimportant landmarks and causing Mr. Sables to rip out that fine head of hair of his when he finally tires of trying to shepherd such an impossible gathering.

Any volunteers for tour-bus drivers?

Chin up, Ms. Alice. Cheery-oh.

WW


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 09:29 PM

KC-WW, you mean like Pinky And The Brain (What we do every night, Pinky, TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!) love it - a.


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 09:35 PM

{{{hug to bbc}}}

dwditty, I was just thinking about the intro song I sent to Max way back when M-Radio started, "Come All You Loyal Mudcats". It was about Spaw being in the hospital and how we were pulling together for him. It was a bit of a dirge sounding slow pace (sorry, Catspaw) but it was a sad and scary time that we were in the midst of when it was written. By the way, Catspaw, Allan has a special surprise for you from something that exists in Bozeman.... you'll never guess.

alice


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Mbo
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 10:01 PM

Hmmm...Bozeman is where Star Trek writer Brannon Braga is from...he named the starship stuck in the temporal loop in "Cause & Effect" Bozeman as homage to his home town!

--Mbo


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: Alice
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 10:04 PM

SINSULL, is that anything like Charlie on the MTA? Bill and Allan on the Mudcat road trip... it just keeps going around, and around (sorry, Lorna). The Minstrel, the peddler of songs and that guy sharing a grape soda in North Dakota.... well, you know who you are.

Naemanson, I'm sending you a personal Mudcat message. Watch for it (it's about coffee). Thanks for coming out of the lurking mode.

Alice


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: GUEST,Grubby
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 10:18 PM


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Subject: RE: Feeling low after the high
From: GUEST,Grubby
Date: 22 Jun 00 - 10:36 PM

Hang in there Alice. It's a shocker of a feeling that post festival blues. It's a mind thing isn't it.We have a great four or five days of music and fun all our on going daily problems go out the door for that brief period, we even become a bit radical for a few days. When it's over we have to leave the music and the friends we have met behind and head back to real life once again. It doesn't go away does it real life I mean and it's a natural process that we go through wishing the good times could last a bit longer. Eighteen months ago I toured UK Ireland and Canada for six months, boy! has that made me restless, only now am I starting accept that I am where I am and get on with it. I use it as a positive now and plan my next trip which gives me a lift. But Iv'e got to say the memories are strong and the bug has bit, don't know how long I can hold out before I take off. As the old song goes "I've laid around and stayed around this old town to long"

Alice my final comment is this, it's a bit like a bad gig, most of us have been through them, all you can say to yourself "This too will pass"

Regards Grubby (as a guest today from another site)


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