NYC for conference

Well. To date, the St. Paddy's Day '07 NY trip story has been the best.
Some of you may agree that this is right up there with that fiasco!

I went to NY this time with some coaxing form Allison because the APAP conference was that weekend and TONS of amazing musicians were expected to be in town. And that was basically an understatement.

Friday I arrived and went right to Caitlin's gig at The Parlour where Dennis, Rob and Kyle played some awesome bluegrass to start. Uh it was great! Caitlin joined in then for some amazin', as always, Irish. What a blast. We then went over to Dennehy's and in I walked and I hear... "hi Jess" and it was Damien and Liam from the summer... we hung out a bit on the island during Craiceann. From Beoga... so awesome to see them. You'll see some pictures of Damien playing here with Tony DiMarco, Donal O'Connor (Gerry O'Connor's son), Peter Browne, Anna Colliton, Jon Hicks, Sean Tierney, Dan Lowery and more! Beautiful night of tunes and awesome catchin' up with old friends.

So, we left Dennehy's and headed over to a place called Puck Fair... I had never been. We had a tiny moment of drama, but soon we were in and it was a cute and cozy place that sort of felt dungeon like. Again, awesome time. And now the story begins...

Just before I left I realized my camera wasn't working properly. As I put it away, I knocked over a pint glass behind me which shattered by my birkenstock and sent glass under my foot. I didn't realize it was in there until I had already stepped down. We left the pub around 7:30. Not a one of us could find the car. After about... oh 45 minutes... we finally found it. Hadn't drank for most of the night so we took the car back to Allison's. On the way, Allison was navigating, but we were both payin' attention to signs... so we thought. I made a left and there was a cop standing right in the middle of the street just waiting for me. He waved me over. Did I just get pulled over? Yes. He was really nice as he tried to explain that I missed a sign the size of a pinhead telling me only commercial vehicles could make a left turn. He obviously knew it was not marked enough or he wouldn't have been waiting for me! He was very nice to tell me to plead not guilty (haaa) and he would "remember me". We had a little bit of a chat actually! Funny. Ok... so we head home and park the car in a "lucky" spot in front of Allison's apartment. After heading to bed around 9:30am we wake up that afternoon. Oh, I left a part out. Before going into Allison's house, I grabbed ONE of my hiking boots so she could try it on because they are the best things in the world. So, we wake up, hungry and not feelin' so hot and decide to go get food and hit the market (a visiting ritual for me). I wanted to wear my hikin' boots so I stuck the one on and a plastic bag over my other foot and hobble with Allison out to the car. Next thing I know, we are spinning and lookin' in the street. Yes, the car was towed. UGH! We find out where the car was and decide to work on the glass in my foot first. I couldn't reach it so Allison had to play doctor and get the glass out. Whew! She was a pro! I could have never done that.

Ok... so then we make our way to the car... I called this the pound because I thought when a car was "impounded" it went to the "pound". Right? We got there and at this point, we were so silly we managed to probably piss off EVERy person in that place who was angry enough their cars were taken from them! We had to wait in this line and that line and deal with this cranky person and this one until finally... I was loaded into a police (with a giant NYPD on the side) van (while allison was laughing super hard) and taken to my car. AND... we drove outta there and managed to make it to Connelly's EARLY for the Lúnasa and Dervish gigs!!!!

The gigs were amazing. I had never seen Dervish before and I was so excited and happy to see them play life. Lúnasa opened with mine and Elaine's favorite Morning Nightcap set and they played the Kalyana set that Terry, Rose and I have learned! (see video for clip of that). It was so much fun. Taking pictures (with Jimmy of course) was awesome.

Oh, forgot to mention... Dan participated in a public prank. 300+ people borded the NYC Subway and pulled their pants down... continued to change stops in large groups and even rode in a taxi. So many photographers documented it. I was not there, but there is a picture of Dan in this blog! Also, see here for some awesome shots.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sgoralnick/sets/72157603702637589/

Ok... so Saturday, after the gigs, we went to O'Neill's for tunes and then maybe another place or two? Another late night!

Sunday was awesome... we went to the Hilton and watched the showcases (20 minute, mini shows) of every genre of music you can imagine. We were able to see Lúnasa and Dervish again as well as some cool other bands from all over. I loved it. The usual Sunday night at O'Neill's and then 11th street was the best ever. Uh the music. All these amazing musicians slopped together created magic. Some more (in addition to the earlier list) are Fionn Ó Lochlainn, Oisin McAuley and Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh (Danú), Tony Byrne and gosh I don't even know who else, but I think you get the point. They are just amazing musicians and the greatest people to have come across.

There are some funny videos and enjoy the pictures.

Thanks to all of you for the amazing time.

Hear Recordings!

See Video Here!

****There are 5 pages of pictures!*****

Smiles, Jess

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