Long day’s journey into the Beatles

Dave and I spent the day with Nat, Anna, and Ruby at the Celtic Festival.  We listened to wonderful music, ate, walked around, talked, bought small mementos, and overall had our first truly pleasant day together since Owen died.   Maybe it was the outing itself, or the music, or the rain, or the lack of familiarity – we weren’t at each others’ houses, or other places where we remember times spent with Owen.  We did, however, keep finding reminders of him, the main one being that this was the 13th Annual Sebastopol Celtic Music Festival.  As I’ve mentioned plenty of times, 13 was Owen’s favorite number, so we felt we had to be there.  There were other reminders, and we acknowledged them, and moved on to the next venue to listen to different bands.

Owen was supposed to go with us to this festival this year, but he died before the event.  Last year, when Dave and I asked him to come with us to the 12th annual event, he was working at the 3rd Street Cinema in Santa Rosa, and being new to the job, didn’t want to ask for time off.  We were looking forward to him coming with us this year, since he loved Irish music, and had often listened to the CDs we bought there last year.  He even saved favorites from Lunasa to his playlists, along with other Irish CDs he bought himself over the years.

Tonight, when we got home, I searched through YouTube for some of his favorite Irish songs on video.  Unfortunately, most of the Irish groups he liked, only had amateur videos posted, poor sound quality, and mostly recorded in small bars and pubs, where the background noise interfered to the point that the videos are not worth watching.  (Are we surprised about the pubs?  Not really.  Many of these bands are so attached to their hometowns, they still play locally, even though they are on the worldwide circuit.)  I couldn’t find anything that would do honor to these musicians’ abilities, nor our admiration for their music. 

As I looked through Owen’s playlists, to find something to commemorate this day, I remembered (and saw) how much he liked the Beatles.  Again, an odd choice for a kid born in 1986, but he listened to them frequently during most of his life (family influence, and still some of the most often heard music, wherever music is played) and he often bought their CDs when we made our frequent trips to Best Buy.  I always thought it was cool, that Owen kept finding musicians from my youth, that he admired. 

In nothing more than an effort to share Owen’s love of music of so many types, sounds, and eras, tonight’s song is one by the Beatles.  Not Irish, but close enough, in proximity, anyway.  This is a very old song, but, for some reason, it resonated with Owen, and still does with the rest of the family.

Song for the night:  And I Love Her, Beatles

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x8fNDfdjXd8&mode=related&search=

~ by Linda on September 23, 2007.