OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?

Subject: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 04:33 AM

well, it's that time of the year again, time for my annual thread.

I booked my caravan last year (Easter is late this year but I'll be toasty warm!!), bought an Early Bird ticket month ago, got my train ticket last week (the bastards have cancelled early bird tickets so I didn't save any money there) & am asking around for some kind friend to take some of my luggage (80% down quilt & pillows etc) as I can't take it all on the train.

Check out the website for the program The National

Now all we need is to find a meeting time & place, or 2 or 3.

Great hymn singing session Sunday morning with Hrothgar?

Shiny Bum concerts with Canberra Chris?

Who'll be there, where will we meet?

sandra

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 04:59 AM

Songs of Cyril Tawney currently programmed for 12.00 noon Saturday, but that might change as there are a few clashes with other events invilving the same people.

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: GUEST,Tony in Darwin
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 05:09 AM

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: GUEST,Tony in Darwin
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 05:12 AM

Pete-From-the-Swamp & I will be there - I think we're helping out Jeff in Townsville & Co with a presentation. Hope all the FNQ folks escaped Cyclone Larry unscathed.

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 07:32 AM

what's the presention, Tony?

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: GUEST,Tony in Darwin
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 07:48 AM

Hi Sandra,

An email from Jeff mentioned "how FNQ environment (climate, geography, isolation etc) has shaped aspects of culture (lifestyle, attitudes, working life, sense of place etc)".

In other words, I'm not sure.

It'll be right on the night.

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: rich-joy
Date: 20 Mar 06 - 08:11 AM

we look forward to that one, Tone!

Paul and I are actually going to the National this year and will hopefully meet up with friends old - and new!


Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Mar 06 - 07:56 AM

ooh, new Mudcatters to meet - do you have Mudcat badges?

Now that Bob is back in Sydney after his tour of the Island state & has put "Mulga Wire" to bed he can get back do doing other things like making Mudcat badges for those who need them.

Then we just need to get together!

sandra

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: rich-joy
Date: 22 Mar 06 - 10:47 PM

um ... yeees ... I THINK I know where mine is (which Bob did a few years ago and passed on to "Tony in Darwin" to deliver to me in Qld!)

look forward to meeting you, Sandra!


Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 12:11 AM

G'day rich-joy, Sandra and Tony,

Cripes! I'll have to find / re-make my own badge, then ...

Regard(les)s,

Bob

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: JennieG
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 05:34 AM

I know where my badge is.....nyah nyah......

I will be there, I am going the weekend before (Sat 8th) as I am volunteering in the festival office.

The last couple of years we have had the session bar at 1pm (or perhaps it was 1.30) as an informal Mudcat meeting place.

Cheers
JennieG...thinking of sewing more beads on my ballgown......!

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 06:11 AM

Save me a dance, Jen.

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: JennyO
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 07:17 AM

I think from memory it was the session bar at 1pm on any day/s folks could make it. Works for me!

Jenny

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: SqueezeMe
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 07:18 AM

Not forgetting Emengency Field Repairs to Accordions!

A bit early for me, so we could end up instead with Emergency First Aid to Hung-Over Workshop Presenter
(Greasy fried breakfast, coffee + Nurofen?)

MC

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 07:24 AM

bit naughty of 'em programming you at that early hour, Malcolm

sandra

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: freda underhill
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 07:29 AM

Having been planning for months - now stunned by a sudden invitation to Austria (with a little side-tour to London built in!!)... will the pennies stretch to the national too? aaaaaaggghh!

fred

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: alison
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 07:33 AM

and for those not meeting at the National, or who want to meet up again

St Albans is on the following weekend . Friday 21st - Tuesday 25th.

I know a lovely little Hohner that would like a bit of an overhaul Squeezeme...... I know how much you love it......

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: freda underhill
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 07:34 AM

I'll be at Snalbans, alison! see you there

freda

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 07:44 AM

'cos you can get to the National, freda, you are a Canberra resident, you can save on the camping. And you are not a compulsive CD buyer, as I am. And you are not a Guinness drinker!

so it'll be a cheap holiday

sandra

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: SqueezeMe
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 07:48 AM

In answer to Alison, AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHH!
MC

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: SqueezeMe
Date: 23 Mar 06 - 07:49 AM

Only joking. I feel better now!
MC

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 04:22 AM

refresh! I can't let my annual fred drop off the screen

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: freda underhill
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 05:49 AM

true Sandra - but if I go I'll be camping, it's more fun!

freda

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: JennyO
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 09:30 AM

My camping promises to be maybe more fun than usual. I'll be camping with Black Joak Morris! I have been wondering how I will find them - their directions were a bit vague - but how hard can it be to find a bunch of Morris dancers?

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: alison
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 04:52 PM

beter to get it out of your system Squeezeme

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: GUEST,Pat Cooksey.
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 07:28 PM

I will be staying in Melbourne with my son in April and we will come
to the festival for a couple of days.
Maybe I get the chance to sing my better known songs personally. In any event we will enjoy it.

Pat.

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 07:56 PM

Pat, I'm looking forward to meeting you, keep an eye on this thread to see where we'll be -

Are you aiming for the blackboard concerts - if you haven't already done so, try Bill at The Merry Muse

The other big blackboard venue is the Troubadour, but I don't have a contact for that at the moment.

sandra

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: JennyO
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 09:30 PM

And then there are the singing sessions which I assume will be above the Session Bar in the Restaurant every night, not to mention impromptu singing on the stairwell, which is often the best of the lot!

Jenny (note to self - have a look at the program!)

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: JennieG
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 09:52 PM

Jenny, we were camped next to the aforementioned Morris lot last year, and it was a nice surprise to find that they are housetrained after all despite rumours to the contrary. They were staying at the Tarp Mahal.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: JennyO
Date: 24 Mar 06 - 10:12 PM

Hi Jennie. Maybe you can give me a better idea of where that was - assuming they will be in the same place this year?

I've camped in the performers area for the last few years, and the other camping area has become a bit of a mystery to me, especially since the festival keeps extending out and biting off bits of it at one end, and adding bits at the other. The map on the website isn't at all helpful, either.

And yes, I've heard about the Tarp Mahal. We'll be having one of those at Snalbans, along with Wayward and a few others - probably opposite the pub near where we were last year. But that's another festival and another thread.

Jenny

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: SqueezeMe
Date: 25 Mar 06 - 01:31 AM

It's OK now, Alison, I must remember my medication....

MC

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: GUEST,Tony in Darwin
Date: 25 Mar 06 - 04:30 AM

SqueezeMe, don't remember so many medications that you forget my Hohner!

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: SqueezeMe
Date: 25 Mar 06 - 08:35 AM

Thanks for the reminder, Guest Tony!

Now where did I put that pawn ticket???   :-)

MC

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: JennieG
Date: 25 Mar 06 - 11:47 PM

Camping is indeed moving further away from the main festival, and the festival itself is moving further away from the Flemington Road gates into Exhibition Park. It's a bit of a bummer really - if one wants to go back to one's campsite for some reason it's a much longer hike, which means time away from the festival!

One of the organisers told us (at volunteer orientation a couple of years ago) that they pray for good weather as the festival makes more money from the day trippers than from the season ticket holders/campers.    But if it becomes too inconvenient for campers they will stop coming.

And after all.....how big does it need to be?

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Mar 06 - 06:57 AM

refresh, only a few more sleeps to go!

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: JennyO
Date: 30 Mar 06 - 09:01 AM

Fewer sleeps for some, Sandra. I can't go till mid to late Thursday :-(

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Apr 06 - 11:15 PM

well, last night 6 Mudcatters & a few others got together at JennyO's place night & sang a few songs & chatted a bit over a drink & a good time was had by all

Tomorrow we meet El Greko & Cloudstreet in concert & sing along with them & then on Monday Bob heads to Canberra, Wednesday Al & Barbara drive down, & I catch the 7am train (too bloody early) & the crowd starts gathering!

when I get there I have to find my caravan - as of Friday the company had not been told where they are supposed to park all the vans! Most are for performers & volunteers & a few are for lucky folks like me who book 'em every year! At least I'll have no problem finding my quilt & pillow & warm woolly dressing gown - Bob's camp is easy to find.

Then we all have to meet up.

Meeting places so far -
Session bar every lunchtime (last year we were near the central doors)
Hrothgar's hymn singing
Hrothgar's Songs of Cyril Tawney
cloudstreet & El Greko concerts
The Far North Qld extravaganza
Shiny Bum Concerts
Late night Singing session every night in the Restaurant, or else the stairwell (better acoustics there, but me back & me feet kill me when I'm crammed into the crowd in that small concrete space)
Anywhere Pat Cooksey is singing (keep an eye on Muse & Troubadour Blackboards & any others that were programmed & I forgot)
Malcolm's Emergency First Aid to Hung-Over Workshop Presenter
various Shanty & sea song presentations

Another event - JennyO is part of John & Dale Dengate's Queensland story which is supposed to be in one venue according to the provisional program & another according to what the Dengates have been told!

sandra

I wonder why Goooooooooooooooooooogle placed the ad for ZEGO-Block Insulated Concrete Forms Made in Australia!! I wonder if the ZEGO company will get money from their placement. At least the other ad is that tired old Free Folk Music 12 billion Songs (are there 12 billion folks songs in MP3 - this mind boggles!!)

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: JennyO
Date: 08 Apr 06 - 12:36 AM

Great night last night at our place! As well as me and John, Sandra, Bob Bolton and Al and Barbara - the 6 mudcatters, there were a few others including Ricarda and Nick from Wayward, who came along armed with bagpipes and hurdy gurdy and were in full swing around midnight with "Horses Bransle" - we obviously have very easy-going neighbours! They probably decided long ago that we are all peculiar and just turn over in bed and let us get on with it :-)

There was some great song-swapping between Al and Barbara, and John. He sang them some of his songs and they sang a few shanties we didn't know - all good ones with choruses. In fact the singing was so good we had to tear ourselves away to get on with the food part of the evening! The weather was perfect too - a fine, only slightly cool evening. The tarp only flapped gently in the breeze from time to time - no heaving and hauling necessary.

Now for the National. The workshop I'm involved in with the Dengates is called "Folklore of Pioneers and Politics of Queensland" and according to the program grid on the website, is on Saturday at 11am in the Palladium. However, we had been sent a letter a couple of days before that, which said we were on Saturday at 2pm at the Village Stage, straight after Colleen Burke's workshop. In the program grid, there doesn't appear to be anything on there at that time, so we don't really know which information is more up to date. I must say the Palladium seems a little big for our workshop - I've always thought of it as a large concert venue. At least it looks like being Saturday, no matter which one you believe. I'll see if I can find out in the next couple of days.

I'll be camping with Black Joak Morris who will have a big tarp somewhere in the region of Building K and the Mallee. My tent and freda's are going down tomorrow and will mark a space for us when we get there on Thursday.

I'm getting all excited now, but I can't really focus on it until after tomorrow night. We still have the wonderful El Greko / Cloudstreet concert tomorrow to look forward to first! However I am starting to sort through the camping gear, which hasn't been used in months.

Jenny

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Apr 06 - 08:46 AM

last night's minumum temperature in Canberra was 1.2 C.

bring your woolies

sandra

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: JennyO
Date: 08 Apr 06 - 09:13 AM

last night's minumum temperature in Canberra was 1.2 C.

That I can quite believe. It's just dropped down into single figures here in Sydney now, and Canberra gets much colder. I got the heater out of the garage today!

Jenny

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: GUEST,SqueezeMe
Date: 08 Apr 06 - 09:59 AM

New workshop: Malcolm's Emergency First Aid for *FROZEN* Hung-Over Workshop Presenters (more coffee, preferably laced with rum).

Might even cover accordions topics, such as the use of anti-freeze (if rum not available), how to prevent fingers becoming frozen to accordion buttons (playing with toes), vibrato caused by shivering (make your accordion sound like Peter Bellamy's vocals), and finishing with a mass accordion rendition of The Frost is All Over.

Other suggestions welcome....(No comments about burning accordions to keep warm, please!)

MC

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Hrothgar
Date: 09 Apr 06 - 05:17 AM

Been watching the weather. Generally, Canberra's maximum temperatures have been Brisbane's minimum temperatures.

Do not like.

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: JennyO
Date: 09 Apr 06 - 11:27 AM

Apparently the workshop I am in with John and Dale Dengate is in the Palladium on Saturday, and looking at the grid closely, it seems to be actually 11.30am, not 11am.

Still coming down from the high of the El Greko / Cloudstreet concert today. They were fantastic. George's songs are so moving! And there'll be more of them at the National.

This is shaping up to be a great festival this year!

But first, it's breakfast at Badde Manors tomorrow morning with Al and Barbara. It's all good!

Jenny

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: rich-joy
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 04:56 AM

Our a cappella harmony group (Work in Progress), has a spot at The Troubadour on festival opening night - Thursday at 9pm (as far as we know!)- just in case not all 'Catters are at the Big Name concerts :~)))
And being rather more "Tropical-type" persons, we're a bit concerned about this cold, cold, dry night air in Canberra this time of the year - and what it might mean for singing voices in an (almost) outdoor venue!!!!

ah well ... what will be, will be (eh!)


see y'all soon!
Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: JennyO
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 07:08 AM

Even just coming from Sydney, my voice doesn't like the cold dry air much, and that, in combination with all the singing, usually results in a good case of "festival throat" by the end of the festival. Last year I spent a lot of time bellowing out sea shanties with Fritz and friends in the session bar, so I had a good dose of it!

It's probably just as well that our workshop is on Saturday. I might still have a voice at that stage.

I have thought that maybe this time I should try and keep a bit in reserve for Snalbans the following week. That's the plan, anyway ;-)

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 11:03 AM

from Canberra Chris -
...................................
It is indeed cold here, or has been. Actually warming up again now, but we had snow on the Brindies a couple of mornings ago, and I was cycling in winter gear one day and shorts the next!
.................................

I've dug out my thick jacket from the back of the wardrobe.

The Shiny Bum Singers are launching their first CD 1.30pm Friday @ The Muse, see ya there.

sandra

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: GUEST,Tony in Darwin
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 09:25 PM

Hey Hrothgar,
National Gallery on Thursday as usual - this year it's Constable.

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 06:50 PM

Have fun guys - I will be taking my new sound level meter to the AGMF FundyFest in Toowoomba to find out just what sound pressure at half a kilometre from the PA source will rattle objects from shelves inside a shut up house! :-)

Robin

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: JennyO
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 10:23 PM

One more sleep to go here! Some of them are already there. Still got a few things to sort out and still madly rushing, but I've found my Mudcat badge, my camera batteries are all charged up, the gas bottles are filled, and most of the camping gear is piled up in the area that was the scene of a BBQ last Friday - and the weather is just gorgeous!

Jenny - off to do some more packing.

Subject: RE: OzCatters meet at National, Easter 2006?
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 13 Apr 06 - 02:12 AM

Weather forecast for Canberra.

Friday: Late shower. High 24, low 9 (that's Celsius, folks). Probability of rain, 40%.

Saturday: Clearing shower. 16, 7, 40%.

Sunday: Mostly sunny. 18, 5, 5%.