Summer Festivals

This weekend there were several local festivals to choose from - Who's on Third here in McMinnville (used to be 'Turkey Rama,' before the turkey industry faded), The Country Faire (Veneta/Eugene area), the Salem Art Fair, & the Lavender Festival (inc open houses at a number of lavender farms)

I played my harp Fri for a couple hours at 'Who's on Third' to the foot traffic on our main street - & was on the front page of our local paper (photo by Marcas Larson)!

Today I danced for a couple of hours to a favorite band, Boka Marimba. Toward the end, a group of 4-8 enthusiastic small kids joined us on the pavement shaking things up.

This evening, we finally watched the sweet movie 'August Rush,' with (fairly) local guitar player Doug Smith performing some of the music! From his website: "Doug's playing can be heard in "Dueling Guitars", which is a guitar duet between actors Freddie Highmore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers late in the movie (Doug's playing Freddie's part).
"Doug can also be heard playing guitar in the Rhapsody which climaxes the movie. Yes, those are Doug's hands you see on screen! (And if you look fast, you can see Doug sitting with the orchestra as actor Terrence Howard walks behind him.) This is an inspiring story of the power of music!"
Watching the movie, I kept saying "OH! I think that's Doug!" he has a unique finger-style sound. Love his music when he performs at one of the local Wine Bars. The movie is truely inspiring - & one that prompts a lot of 'talk back' during watching - 'DON'T go with him! Just don't!!' . . . .