Sappyfest 2012: Waiting for the grease

Sackville, New Brunswick.  August 3, 2012

This chip truck was a permanent fixture for the entire weekend during Sappyfest .

All hail grease!  I love the neon and the metal work on this chip truck.

The Boys

Tapper's Cove wharf -- Torbay, Newfoundland.  Aug. 12, 2012.

August 12th was the last day of Newfoundland's recreational food fishery, so it was quite a busy day at the wharf with everyone and their dog trying to get their boat in/out of the water.  

Lots of fishers and non-fisher onlookers were hanging about, waiting to see who would bring in the biggest cod of the day.  Mine weighed a mere 6 pounds, though I did hear (but did not see) of 20 pound specimens...

Somewhere between Glasgow & Edinburgh

I wish I knew exactly where this farm was located...best guess it is closer to Glasgow than it is to Edinburgh.

I shot this through the window of our train as we hurtled down the tracks toward Edinburgh.  As you can see, this day was a wee bit 'o' all right.

Glasgow Train Station

Back to Glasgow!

While waiting for our train to Edinburgh, I snapped this shot at the Glasgow train station.  That was wayyyy back in June!  

The Big Ex: Demolition Derby

After a year of regretting that I missed last year's demo derby, I finally got a chance to check out the spectacle that is The Big Ex demolition derby.  

What___a__shit__show.

I'm sure somewhere, J.G. Ballard was smiling down on Bridgewater that drizzly Sunday.  

This was the scene that greeted upon arrival.  Sweaty men with beer guts, sparks, big pieces of metal, grease, etc..  All signs pointed to awesomeness.  This crew was.....welding something to.....something.  

The stands were packed full of excited derby watchers like myself.  We were not disappointed!  Round after round of gasoline charged mayhem ensued all afternoon.  Stay tuned for more pics in the days and weeks to come.

If you are kicking yourself for missing out on all the shenanigans, fear not faithful readers.  The Coldbrook Lions have an event at the end of August which looks even MOAR ridiculous!

Billed as the 'Bash for Cash', it will feature 80-100 cars registered to get destroyed.  Heck, there's even a mini van class, what's not to love?!?  

August 26th.  In a gravel pit.  Be there.  I know I will.

The Sappyfest Chronicles

Oh Sappyfest...you came and went like a pleasant daydream.  Wait, was it a dream?  No, it was real...I have the blisters on my feet to prove it.

Sappyfest is the only music festival on my radar these days.  It's within a 4 hour drive from my house, the crowd is there (mostly) to listen to music and I only recognize 3 or 4 of the bands in the lineup.

Sappyfest:  your port-a-potties were air freshened with well cured sinsemilla smoke rather than ammonia pucks.  Your festival guide told me to accept lineup changes:  "things change, get over it".  I did.

The drive to Sackville was hopeful, filled with anticipation.  This was my second foray into the fest' that is sappy so I had a vague idea of what, when and where to expect it.  

The air on the highway was hot and the windows were down.  I'm sure I wasn't the only driver who had a Don Quixote moment when passing the large wind power array at the NS/NB border.  

Once I crossed the Tantramar marshes (it was just like the Sappy Times handout said....utter those words like a mystical incantation:  tantramar marshes, tantramar marshes, tantramar marshes), it was as if I had entered Mordor.  Epic cumulus clouds and sunny skies were replaced with a thick blanket of grey fog that enshrouded my home away from home.  At the time, I thought I wanted more sun.  As it turns out, I didn't know what I wanted.

Skip ahead to the last day of the festival.  I sat in a shady corner of a parking lot, enjoying the support of the soft driver's seat in my car.  I felt like I was drowning.  It's not the heat, it's the humidity.  Actually, it was everything.  A weekend of sensory overload.  I was suffering from hipster fatigue.

I bolted.  

Staying in Sackville for another 4 hours quickly started to feel like getting up for work after a heavenly and relaxing long weekend.  I started assessing my festival experience the way day traders perform a price/earnings ratio analysis of stocks and bonds.  I realized how Sappy happy I felt.  I stopped thinking about getting my money's worth from my ticket the way ravenous diners approach a cheap buffet.

I couldn't stay any longer, so I didn't.  I escaped.

I fueled up my body and my car and hit the road.  I gave my new Eternal Summers cd a test run as I had another Don Quixote moment.  I was awake, alert and happy to be driving.  Maybe I was just happy to be in a comfortable, air conditioned seat.  

I ran.  I ran back to my cosy Lunenburg county home.  I ran back to the chilly embrace of my familiar Atlantic ocean.

I was happy to see a thick bank of fog greeting me as I crossed the county line.  I rolled down the windows.  I inhaled and exhaled.  I cooled down.

Thank you, Sappyfest.  See you next year.

(more pics and stories to follow)

We're not in Kansas anymore: pt. 2

I got some strange looks from our hosts when I snapped this shot.  They couldn't understand why I would want to photograph a random car on a random street.  I had to explain that we don't have 'letting agencies' in Canada.  Also, it's not common for corner shops to advertise 'nougats, oysters, wafers' for sale.  Apparently 'oysters' are a sweet, which makes more sense than selling shellfish in a corner shop.


I'm glad I took the time to take shots like this.  Of course, photographer's remorse, I wish I had taken many more....