Cat Jahnke Mews

10/15/07 – Voodoo’s, Penticton

While I could never call myself a morning person, there are a few things that wake me up more efficiently than an alarm clock. I thought that a good meal of toast and eggs would top the list, but I have a new favorite: sunrise bowling. Perhaps my fondness extends so far because my confidence is lazy and will take any fluke and turn it into a triumph.

Ten-Pin in the AM
(click the image to watch the video)

I honestly used to have a recurring dream about a shelf you could climb and the strange world beyond. It did not look unlike this! Beyond THIS porthole is Lorne’s forest helipad, which is deliciously strange. Thanks for making my dreams come true Lorne!

It has become an obsession with me to make sure I’m getting enough fruits and vegetables while on the road. I was enjoying these luscious (and EXPENSIVE!) red raspberries until I spied this SNAIL curled up cozily in the corner…

To round out this surreal day I played at Voodoo’s tonight. Below the sign advertising “Addictions” and “Majik Potions”, I practiced saying “I have to pee” in German, I ate vegetables in the dark, and I signed a poster to a young woman’s fickle love interest: “To a heartbreaker – I write songs about people like you…”

(The title for this blog is from the film Beetlejuice, of course. This LINK is one of my favorite scenes from the movie and if Catherine O’Hara didn’t deserve an Oscar for this performance than I don’t know who else could qualify…)

10/14/07 – Lorenzo’s Café, Enderby

We left Fernie right on schedule today. We headed out on the Crowsnest Highway and had no idea that anything was amiss until we saw the sign that said: You are now entering Alberta. It was at that point that we realized we had been traveling in the wrong direction…

Several hours later we arrived at our intended destination and played to a great audience at Lorenzo’s Café. My favorite part of the evening was when our host’s dog Leo started rolling about on the dance floor during one of my slow numbers.

These signs were EVERYWHERE throughout BC, for hundreds of kilometers.
If you’ll notice, no information is given regarding WHERE to find the “Candy Smoked Salmon”…

You don’t want to get up on the wrong side of this bed.

10/13/07 – Brickhouse, Fernie

Breakfast at the Cycle Inn. Most likely the best fruit salad I’ve ever enjoyed. Golden Raspberries?!

The best view from the slowest fast food joint.

I was finally warm today! Anyone who’s met me along the way so far knows that I just can’t seem to get my core body temperature up. I kept thinking that a chill was a curse, but I know now that it is quite the opposite. Those who have traveled light may be able to relate. Shivering doesn’t necessitate another trip to the laundromat, sweating does. And when one’s wardrobe comes out of a backpack day in and day out, the discomfort of being chilly may be a small price to pay for the comfort of not smelling gross.

Tonight I was told that I spoke well. This is something that I really needed to hear because I recently discovered that no matter how much I protest, I do totally tend to say “really” and “totally” way too often. Isn’t there some strategy to purge such repetition? I think it’s used more commonly to treat a potty mouth. You choose an unusual word to say instead. Any suggestions for something to replace my verbal vices?

Cat @ The Brickhouse – If you squint, it kind of looks like my guitar is floating.
Or that my left hand is REALLY strong…

Our new friends Dave and Paula generously allowed us to squat in their place while we were in Fernie. It was so nice to have a homey place to crash, but I found myself reliving the days in our 400 square foot apartment on River Ave in Winnipeg. We couldn’t go back! How many times per week would it happen that we’d arrive home at 3 in the morning with so much to talk about, but have to shush each other to keep the neighbours happy?

Apartment living is not for the nocturnal!

10/12/07 – Langham, Kaslo

It was a race against the clock to get to the ferry. We won and we lost. We arrived just in time to be the third vehicle in line NOT to get on.

12:37 pm (BC time) and we’ve gone 18.3 km

12:48 pm and we’ve gone 37.3 km

We arrive at the dock at 12:52 pm, a full 8 minutes before the next scheduled departure.

This is the ferry pulling away. There were only two vehicles ahead of us!

At least I got to capture this photo of a cute squirrel while we waited – Completely worth it!!

The greenroom at the Langham!

Stay posted to YouTube for my first live video contribution. I was so stoked that the folks in Kaslo did not disappoint my expectations of a choir. They eagerly supplied some backing vocals and nearly brought tears to my eyes while I sang about unworthy melons and beef stew…

10/11/07 – Hillcrest Hotel, Revelstoke

The title of my blog yesterday was taken from an old Saturday Night Live sketch. Thank goodness for YouTube!

I was asked today whether I owned my own plane, and I’m starting to think that maybe my graphic designer is getting too good…

From Golden to Revelstoke to Kaslo – I saw these little “fairy” bugs everywhere. I was so devastated when I jabbed a finger in my eye to attempt an extraction of some sudden debris and retracted my digit to find upon it the crushed corpse of one of these tiny angels. Seriously though, what the heck are these things?

Shimmery wings and a little blue tutu…

I forgot to mention that I met some Freakes yesterday. How could I neglect such a noteworthy piece of trivia? Have you ever heard of a cooler last name? And it was interesting to hear the fellow discuss the torment he endured as a child in contrast to the congratulations his own children receive for the very same reason.

10/10/07 – Hillcrest Hotel, Revelstoke

I’ve come to discover that habits define relationships more often than one would like to believe. Think of an aunt or a cousin who has known you your whole life. How well do they really know you? Do they know how you’d react in a stressful situation? (Do they know that you sometimes say naughty words?)

Think, even, of a friend that you meet for coffee on a regular basis. Do they know what qualities you’d ultimately seek in a mate or does their knowledge of your personal preferences extend no further than “double cream, no sugar”? In my experience, it frequently takes a near catastrophe to break that surface.

Tonight I played a show at the Hillcrest Hotel in their gorgeous lounge. There was a full table of jubilant and feisty adults sitting close to my post. I sensed a playfulness that I could use to my advantage and told the story of the “free hugs” to warm up the crowd (and to warm me up too – it was COLD in there!). When I invited members of the audience to pass around some hugs, I was met with an immediate wall. It turns out that this was a group of co-workers with a routine of jollity that did not stretch beyond a two foot space bubble.

I’d been thinking about this post for a while now, and this situation happened to bring it home for me. There are the people who just seem to “get” you from day one. Then there are the people who remember your birthday but not your middle name. Then there are the people who will love you unreservedly despite a critical void in the questionnaire.

But how do you start filling in those gaps? Must there be an upset? Is there a secret formula for getting down to the nitty-gritty? Couldn’t it all start with a hug?

10/9/07 – Mad Trappers, Golden

I wish one could barf out bad feelings as easily as one could barf out bad Chinese food. I also wish I didn’t have a lifelong phobia of barfing. That would make everything a whole lot easier.

But it’s never so simple. There’s no off-switch for hurt feelings or frustration or rage or guilt. There’s no sugar to help that medicine go down except carefully chosen words and the passage of sand through the hourglass. And sometimes even those can’t fix the problem.

I guess only time will tell…
___________________

I passed a pensive day driving my favorite drive. The No. 1 highway between Calgary and Golden is one of the most beautiful stretches I’ve ever seen: the mountains, the wildlife, the streams that look so inviting but which I know from experience are bone-numbingly frigid. It always seems to pass too quickly.

At Mad Trappers tonight there were so many familiar faces in the crowd, there were people standing on chairs to express their fondness for a song, there was a creepy dog in the car next to us, staring at me while I blogged and Darren unpacked the gear. Who could ask for anything more?

10/8/07 – Day Off, Calgary

Well, this was the busiest day off in Cat Jahnke “Day Off” history. I burned more calories in ten hours than I’d burned in the last month. I did my best to be calm, cool and collected while I got my photo taken, and I think I succeeded by complaining about other things as a distraction (being cold, bummy knee, stupid hair). There was really no need for concern however because I was in very good hands.

Rod Hiebert of Memory Makers Photography out here in Calgary worked his magic with what God gave me, and I’m eager to see the results. We’ve got actions shots, we’ve got experimental lighting, we’ve got casual Cat. It was a real treat to work with a photographer who had ideas and gave instructions and wasn’t put off by my timidity around cameras. (I have no qualms about making faces while singing in front of a thousand people, but ask me to do the same thing in front of a lens and I’m shy. What?)

They each had a solid argument…

10/7/07 – Day Off, Calgary

My life is like the earth shrunk down to the size of a ping pong ball: smooth. There could be huge mountains and valleys of inconvenience, turmoil and even downright misery, but, in the grand scheme of things, there’s very little I could honestly complain about.

Then I hear about the Canadian Food Grains Bank and wonder how personally we should take Thanksgiving. There is so much in my little bubble of a life to be grateful for and I feel ironically guilty for having the opportunity to be so grateful! When even the farmers, ESPECIALLY the farmers, are starving in other countries, or are being taken advantage of right here in Canada, I feel like there’s no amount of gratitude that could pay for my standard of living.

And so my appreciation seems petty. I don’t even have to be concerned with injustices that would touch my life today. I can worry about wildlife habitats being underfunded, I can worry about the sale of resources that should be available to everyone for free, I can worry about the environment, the potential for war, the family unit. All of this worry is made possible because I have so much leisure time that isn’t spent worrying about getting fed, being sheltered, staying alive.

Thank you for a delicious brunch buffet brought to us by some generous parents, thank you for an outlaw exploration of the airplane hangar where all rockstar dreams come true, thank you for an amazing family Thanksgiving dinner in the middle of our tour away from home, and most of all thanks for an educational evening learning about the Canadian Food Grains Bank and how much I have to be thankful for.

Bon Voyage!

It’s even louder when you turn it on…

Hangar Rage

Before the Bounty

10/6/07 – Quincy Marie’s, Airdrie

Tonight was my last show in the Calgary area during this tour. It feels inaccurate to define this past week as part of my “tour”. It’s more like I’ve temporarily moved to Alberta and I’m just gigging. And I even get Thanksgiving Sunday and Monday off! That’s not nearly uncomfortable enough to validate my “Road Warrior” badge.

This cushy situation is coming to an end on Tuesday, when the real character-building mountain-driving begins.

All week I’ve been meaning to get a picture of this field of Wal-Mart cargo trucks; it is seriously acres and acres of 24-hour/day movement. This was my last chance and it proves that we need a new camera. How could I have let this photo opportunity pass me by? And not only should it depict the grotesquely large fleet of consumption transporters, but I actually had a clear shot of Big Foot. Well, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. It MIGHT have been just a plain old werewolf… Either being equally as frightening as my intended subject matter.

The best (and loudest!) midnight snack