[Harp-L] Garden State Harp Fest

[Michael Easton <diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm still feeling a little out of sorts (left work early today due to  
dizziness) but I'll post while the topic is still hot.

I grew up next to Hershey "Chocolatetown" USA which bills itself as  
the sweetest town on Earth.

AFA I'm concerned Val made Hasbrouck Heights the sweetest town on  
Earth last weekend.  She bent over backwards making sure all of us
latecomers were given the same attention as those that paid in  
advance.  Val. with the help of the banquet manager. helped to get us  
all a seat Sat. night.
Even Steve Guyger who showed up about a half hour before the banquet  
started was taken care of with the rest of us LOST cast members. :)

Next shout out goes to Warren and Buzz. They were always visible if  
there was a question about the scheduling. Like I said before Warren  
was a great PR man and
made sure everyone felt like they had a friend there.

I've been to maybe 5 festivals now. This is the first one that I know  
of that allowed an electric blues open mic and it was great.  No head  
cutting.  Just a bunch of players having fun
finally being able to show off their electric chops.  Sorry I missed  
most of it. I was playing phone tag with Guyger trying to give him  
directions so I had to do a lot of running to my room and the hotel  
computer to find directions that didn't involve the turnpike.  I'm  
still not use to using all the functions on my iPhone and had trouble  
retrieving phone messages.

I recognized quite a few of the harmonica band players and it was good  
to finally meet up with a few of the harpl'ers that I've gotten to  
know the past couple of years.

Hey Venky, we'll be getting together at some point before the next  
festival. Maybe check out Guyger or Nate.  It was good to finally see  
SmoJoe in person.  Joe, I kept confusing you the Seydel dealer on  
Saturday. Danny G. I believe?  I thought you kept switching your coat  
and tie Saturday night then I saw the both of you in the same room and  
realized my confusion.

There are more folks I'd like to mention but I'm feeling too out of it  
to write much more. I'll email you offlist.

Speaking of hating the bartender,  you might want to check your  
receipts for meals at the Holiday Inn. You can hate the servers as  
well.   The waiters weren't suppose to automatically add tips unless  
there was a party of six or more. Daine and I talked to the manager  
about it.   They added a tip whether there was 2,3 or 4 of us eating  
dinner.  I didn't realize  until my last meal that I double tipped all  
weekend.  I didn't have my other receipts on me when we confronted the  
manager or I would have had them take the extra tips off my credit  
card.   The only meal they didn't add the tip in advance was the  
breakfast buffet.  I could have bought another harp for what I paid  
out in tips.<sigh>

Aside from that the Garden State Harp Fest was a big success. Things  
to be learned from the growth spurt, Yes, but it's a welcome mat for  
us East Coast blues players that previously had to trek to Buckeye.


Michael Easton
www.harmonicarepair.com