[Harp-L] Garden State Harmonica Festival - a brief redux
jeff silverman
settings (conventions, conclaves, seminars and the like) within and
outside of the music industry, I have to to take my hat off to Val for
how her work and obviously tireless efforts paid off...in a remarkably
wonderful way! BIG standing ovation!!
For me, as I was sadly only able to attend on Saturday (business had me
on a week-long jaunt elsewhere)...the wonderful moments started as I
pulled up, bumping into Rob Paparozzi and Steve Guyger outside
schmoozing. How wonderfully gracious and warm Mr. Paparozzi was in
person, a real delight. Steve as well, I had the great pleasure of
sharing the table with him during the banquet. His open conversation
with me about all things harp was refereshing and funny as hell. And
George W. Miklas...I wish I had more time to hang out with you all that
night: I had to hit the road around 11:00 p.m. Another time and place
George...drinks for the band are on me.
Speaking of the table were I sat (Kudos to Val for accomodating late
comer's like me, she had the hotel staff stand to and get another table
ready for us "johnny come lately's"), I had the pleasure of meeting Seth
Feldman, the only surviving original member of the Harmonica Rascals.
Holy cow what stories he had to share! So many stories from so many
people. I am again convinced that if Chicago is considered the spiritual
home to the diatonic blues harp player, the NYC area must be considered
the (or at least one of the) spiritual homes to the chromatic jazz
player. So much talent on display in one place. I was enraptured and
humbled.
Often times the truth of how people feel can be determined while
overhearing their conversations. I heard not a nary of negativity while
at the banquet. and I made it a point to stand everywhere I could to
take pics. Quite the contrary, people where effusive in the positive
things they had to say about how well it was run, how much there was
happening and how wonderfully it all turned out.
Excellent Job Val, wonderful job! Thank you for inviting me and thank
you for introducing me to so many in our fabulous harp family!
Jeff Silverman, Publisher
Email: je...@harmonica411.com
Webpage: http://www.harmonica411.com
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So the truth was revealed, we were trolled. Good to know. Regarding
SPAH and the lack of post event buzz, I think a lot of that has to do
with the relationships. If you've gone before you'll have friends. A
lot of what you do at the convention is talk with your friends. In a
word, gossip. Nobody with any kind of a brain in their heads is going
to post that stuff to a publicly archived list. I know I don't. A lot
of what happens for me in these conversations is processing of the
event. It happens in real time. It's not like I have a lot left after
the convention that I need to or want to share. If the focus of SPAH
was really the performances and workshops I would expect that you'd see
more post event reporting. It really is a case of you had to be there.
What was interesting was that much of the post convention analysis was
about how things might be improved. That's a lot more concrete and more
easily publicly discussed.
I tried Warren. I did my bit. I posted positively about the 2009 SPAH
event in Sacramento. I will admit to having sent several thousand more
words off to my close personal friends, all of it offlist and privately.
It's the nature of the beast. fjm