ByGD
Armchair travel is the only kind of travel these days. But even when times are normal, most of us can’t hop on a plane every time we feel like it. That’s why there’s travel TV. I recently wrote about my love for inflight movies, and mentioned that on my last trip, I watched a Chinese travel show. It was a surprisingly educational experience.
ByGD
Over the summer, Seattle Opera did a lot of interesting online programming, but I was stupid and missed most of it because I didn’t realize the videos were only posted for a limited time. So when they posted their fall programming, I was determined not to miss out, and did something I haven’t done since I aged out of the Bravo Club – I bought season tickets. Even though the season only runs through the end of the year, it contains more opera than a regular full season. Only it’s all online.
ByGD
For a few years, I was pretty obsessive about keeping a record of every band I saw perform. I tried to get at least a couple decent shots of every set at every show and festival I attended, and saved details in the metadata of my photos.
I started doing that partly to become a better writer and blogger, and partly because I was old enough to realize that I could no longer remember all the great music I saw when I was young. You know, “What was the name of that band we saw at that club that doesn’t exist anymore the time when X happened?”
But I guess I forgot the second reason and at some point decided that the documentarian approach was keeping me from fully experiencing the moment. So when I went to Eistnaflug in 2016, I didn’t take as many pictures and I didn’t take notes at all. When I got home, I didn’t spend weeks cataloging images. I just used my new energy to hop right back on the pitching treadmill.
Now I have dozens of photos of bands I can’t identify because I only saw them once at festival four years ago, half a world away when I’d probably been awake for 18 hours and seen 12 other bands that day and had beer instead of meals.
ByGD
These days, armchair travel is the only kind of travel, so it makes sense to write about movies. I watch a ton of movies, but ever since my first international flight, (LA to Copenhagen 1989) the movies I watch on an airplane have had a special sort of magic for me. The last time I got to travel, I was headed to Hong Kong. Here are the movies I watched on the plane.
ByGD
My family has been incredibly fortunate during the pandemic. Unlike so many other people, we haven’t suffered any significant material losses. All we can complain about is missed traditions, like my daughter’s final Village Day at her elementary school. But complaining about those seems wrong in the midst of everything that’s going on.
This photo shows my youngest daughter’s ear protection and wristband from Doe Bay Fest 9. We’ve gone to almost every Doe Bay Festival since we discovered it in year 6. This year would have been lucky 13. How ironic.
The wristband says
Ok village, raise me
It’s a reflection of the DBF spirit of community that makes parents feel safe letting their kids run around the festival unsupervised. They can’t get lost because on that weekend the whole resort is packed with hundreds of people. And at Doe Bay, you know that those people are all keeping an eye on whatever kids are within visual range. If a kids falls off a rock or out of a tree or gets a bee sting – someone will notice and they won’t hesitate to help.
I’m not a particularly social person, so for the most part the whole quarantine experience has relieved more stress than it has caused me. But I’m sad there is no DBF this year and really hope it’s back on next summer. Because at least once a year, almost as much as the music, I miss the village.