Medium Dawn Felagund of the Fountain

Yes, I am reduced to interjections by the news that Scythian, my favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritest band in the world, released their new album today for download on Band Camp! Having listened to half of it during dinner (and knowing most of it from seeing them live three times in the past year) before Bobby nabbed the iPod to listen on the way to a beekeeper's association meeting, I wanted to pimp the album--and commemorate the occasion like any good fangirl--here on DeeDubya/ElJay.

Scythian calls themselves folk whiplash; their music ranges from Irish trad to Eastern European to New Orleans zydeco to Gypsy to bluegrass to ... They have an amazing knack for taking traditional music and reinventing it in fun and original ways. Their original songs are pretty durned good too. If ever you've wondered if techno could be done with an accordion, Scythian will gladly answer that question for you.

I became acquainted with Scythian at our first Celtic Fling four years ago. It normally takes me a while to warm up to a new musical act, but within ten minutes of the start of their first set, I was having such a good time that there was no looking back. Now, if they are within reasonable driving distance of the old homestead, we go, and I make a fool of myself dancing. (Their albums are great, but they are absolutely amazing live! They can make their audience do some stupid things. And they smile when they play. I've always had a thing for that! :)

So, yes, flist, those of you who like world and traditional music with a rock twist, go forth and download some Scythian! You won't regret it!

In other words, I will be leaving for Ocean City soon.

Yes, for any who have wondered, "Whence came Dawn's dancing beer!wine!beer! icon??" It is a sign on a liquor store in OC. I remember it from when I was a kid and always loved it and looked out for it. Photography and GIF animation by moi.

Tomorrow, Bobby and I are heading up to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire grounds for Celtic Fling. We will be seeing Scythian again. squeeeeeee! Then, Sunday morning, we are leaving for Ocean City. We will be back on Tuesday.

So I will be gone for a couple of days. I'm going to try to check in every day just to make sure my websites are doing okay and might post pictures and stuff if I'm so inspired but, more likely, probably won't be around--or at least visible--till next Wednesday.

Of course, I'm all behind in comments right now. Wednesday night, my brain decided to do one of it's wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-to-play things, so on Thursday, I was so exhausted that after I finished my six articles for the day (which barely happened), I wobbled down into the basement (because it was the only part of the house that felt decent, it having been insanely hot this week, even up here) and proceeded to fall asleep on the couch for two hours. Those two hours are my daily playtime, so now I'm all behind and stuff. Alas. Stoopid brain.

Today is exactly the one year anniversary of our trip to Ireland. Let's see ... this time a year ago, we were flying above the Atlantic and descending to land in Dublin. I didn't sleep but a half-hour that night because our flight route took us over the North Atlantic and, it being so soon after Solstice, the sun never fully set, and I was enthralled by that and kept checking every few minutes to "see what it looks like now!!1!" In just a few hours, Bobby and I would find ourselves on a nearly deserted O'Connell Street at about 7 AM with no clue where we were, fumbling with a map to find our B&B. Later, we'd walk down to the tourist center to meet hrymfaxe, who spent the first few days with us. We would go to the Beatty Museum and I would be so tired that I literally fell asleep on my feet while looking at illuminations. Bad apprentice. Shame. But it was so worth it.

I'm glad we're going away this weekend so that I don't spend the whole weekend going, "This time last year, we were ..."