2023 Annapolis Irish Festival • Gaelic Storm

To kick off my birthday week, and give myself a well-needed break, I took myself to the Annapolis Irish Festival.  Having the whole day to myself with no expectations or responsibilities to others hanging over me for the day was such a refreshing sensation I can’t remember the last time I felt, and filling it by being surrounded with my own Irish heritage with a backdrop of Celtic music, my soul felt overwhelmingly unhindered happiness and freedom.

I explored the vendors for some time, mainly in search of a Claddagh ring to hold me over until I settle on options for a bespoke piece; unfortunately, shopping for rings for myself is akin to shopping for pants, because I’m between sizes, and half sizes simply aren’t stocked at such a craft fair.  After browsing, and finally getting something to eat, I settled in to enjoy some of the music more purposefully.

Bastard Bearded Irishmen

Bastard Bearded Irishmen were in the later portions of their set once I finished eating, and I took some pictures of them playing a few of their last songs of the afternoon.

They finished their set with a cover of Sweet Child o’ Mine.

Gaelic Storm

The star act of the Festival was Gaelic Storm; a Celtic band headlined by Patrick Murphy on lead vocals, accordion, and spoons, and English guitarist Steve Twigger, the two remaining original members of the band that shot to fame after being featured performing in 1997’s Titanic.  They are joined by percussionist Ryan Lacey, Peter Purvis on bagpipes and flutes, and the group’s newest member, Natalya Kay, a talented fiddler who joined the ensemble last Summer.

I admit, I’d never heard of Gaelic Storm until a few months ago when a friend in another state saw them perform at an earlier stop on this same tour, and raved to me about them.  (I also have still somehow never seen Titanic in its entirety.)  Coincidentally, the Annapolis Irish Festival had already been on my radar for several months, so between the rave review by a friend, and a sense of reclaiming a tarnished St. Patrick’s Day, I was absolutely going to make sure to see Gaelic Storm play, whether at the Annapolis Irish Festival, or the night before at Leesburg’s Tally Ho.  In the end I’m glad my festival plan ultimately came to fruition.

Suffice to say, Gaelic Storm has a new “storm chaser” (what their fans are known as). I’m not new to Celtic music; I’m a lifelong fan of The Corrs, and was lucky enough to see The Chieftains perform a few years ago, but having already previewed and enjoyed some of Gaelic Storm’s music in the weeks before their concert, I was excited to finally see them live.  As the sun set, Gaelic Storm took to the stage, and I think the pictures will do the rest.

Video

I did take some video, but wasn’t intending on focusing on video, so the audio is trash using the internal mic.  This served me well, however, because it gave me a great set of files to learn on - I’ve been teaching myself Final Cut Pro, as Adobe Premiere Pro still doesn’t have a proper DolbyVision / HDR workflow (come on Adobe, get it together; it’s been 3 years, fix your Rec. 2100 support!).

A Day at the Museums

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Every year I try to visit the Smithsonian Folklife Festival; this year was no different.  As we always do, Adrianna and I arrived hungry and enjoyed several of the different cultural food vendors.  With this year's festival, however, that was about all we did, as we found the entire festival quite small underwhelming, particularly in comparison to previous years; it seems as though the festival has been shrinking over the last few years, much to our disappointment, as we both look forward to attending each year.  The nearby waste bins reminded me of some fine art photography series I've seen done on trash.

We perused the entire grounds of the festival, and barely anything was going on - we saw two discussion panels, which the speakers seemed to be attempting humor that was falling flat on the gathered audiences, and there were no demonstrations taking place even at the scheduled times posted.  Disappointed, we decided to hit a few of the less trafficked museums.

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

At the Hirshorn we saw parts of Yoko Ono's exhibits which were nearing their close, and Ai Weiwei's "Trace" exhibit of large LEGO portraits of political dissidents.  This of course was alongside some of Hirshorn's collection of rotating artifacts on display.

One piece that initially confused us was Reynier Leyva Novo's "5 Nights," which appear as different sized rectangles of black ink on the walls, each equal to the amount of ink used in writing five totalitarian leaders' manifestos; at the museum, we did not see a plaque explaining this, but we did notice the plaque underneath the largest rectangle labeled "Adolf Hitler: Mein Kampf" and we incorrectly surmised that these were placeholders for an upcoming exhibit, one of which would be a painting by Adolf Hitler sharing the title of his infamous autobiography.  It wasn't until later that evening on the Hirshorn website that all was made clear; the conclusion we'd drawn earlier just didn't feel as though it added up, and had been bugging me for clarification and correction all day.

The detail and depth in Weiwei's repeating patterns is breathtaking, and a designer's delight.  Overtones of surveillance, oppression, suppression.  The rise of Twitter, resistance, transparency through opposition.  It's bleak and hopeful and applicable to the political state in many governments the whole-World over.  It is a modern illustration of a timeless struggle.

Weiwei's LEGO art was expansive and reminiscent of 8-bit art, eliciting thoughts of the digital age in which many of his subjects relied upon in their tasks.

National Museum of the American Indian

Next we decided to visit the nearby National Museum of the American Indian.  Adrianna is part Native American, so she's visited many times and is well versed in the exhibits and history.  I, on the other hand, had never been before, and my entire knowledge of Native American history is limited one learns in 4th grade; that is, to say, I admittedly have no significant knowledge of Native American history.  Our visit was rushed because they would be closing in less than two hours, and frankly this is a museum to fully absorb a whole day would be required; I will need to return to devote an entire day to give it the attention this museum requires and deserves.

At closing time we split a pastry in the cafeteria head off back to Virginia for dinner.