Cat Jahnke Mews

12/9/07 – Mocha Cabana, Lethbridge, AB

I love it when I see huge groups of friends in the crowd. Well, I love it, and I’m nearly blind with jealousy simultaneously. What lucky ducks these folks are who have more friends than Friends!

Tonight one of these troops became my Lethbridge posse but we’ve yet to develop a gang sign. Although I’ve played piano for most of my life, it seems I’m not that versed in urban hand manipulation. Please send suggestions! All I’ve come up with so far is an ‘L’ (for Lethbridge) with thumb and index finger, held proudly to one’s forehead, but I have a feeling that one’s already taken.

How’s this for hard-core?

My new friends called me “cutie” and “sweetie” and I felt like I was one of the crowd. After some Sherlocking (care of your favorite stalker zone and mine: Facebook) I find out that I am almost a decade older than them. I’m blessed with a baby face and an elf-body and am consistently in a state of disguised adulthood. I relate to that creepy little girl in Interview With The Vampire, but I’m pretty sure I drink less blood than she does.

Apparently she and I DO share a conviction of our immortal status. Click the image below to see me tempt fate (and squeal for two straight minutes).

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

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.

10/5/07 – Gitter’s Pub, High River

I’m not one to believe in hocus pocus. At least I don’t think so… I like to think that my faith in the humongous order is complemented by a mere tolerance for the strangely coincidental. For example, during my fifteen minute expedition into the wilds of the Sun Ridge mall today, I happened to run into my new friend from the Rocky View School Division. Weird? Yes. Fateful? Not yet.

So check this out: I didn’t sleep very well last night but I did remember my dream, which is pretty unusual to begin with. Then while I’m schmoozing with the crowd at Gitter’s Pub this evening, I realize that the woman I’m speaking with was in my dream. “But you had long blond hair”, I tell her. “I just got it cut and dyed”, she says. ???!

What does this mean? Does this mean anything? Should I be hiring existential investigators to help me find the meaning of life or to help me accept that there isn’t one? Was I simply projecting similarities post-emptively?

Then comes the greater question: why? What do I gain from manufacturing such a fluke? Why can’t I just tolerate this strange coincidence? Does hocus pocus have a hold on me?

Do you think we’d get a Chinook while in AB? Nope. We bring hail. It has actually been 15 degrees warmer back home in Winterpeg! (Peep the vantage point: I must have grown a full inch! I’m almost as tall as the patio furniture!) – click the image to watch the video.

9/30/07 – Day Off, Calgary

Would you rather have the big luck or the little luck? Big luck: Great job but you always drop things? Or little luck: Crappy relationship but you never miss a green light?

I’m pretty sure I’m blessed with the first. I love what I do. I love my friends. I have a great family. I feel supported and cared for and in the broad sense of it, my life is awesome. BUT, every once in a while I get struck by this strange luck.

Often it involves weather (blizzards coming out of nowhere on the day of an important show, rain following me around) but more recently it has involved the unexpected closure of each and every restaurant I appeal to for nourishment. We got a taste of this in Lloydminster but we chalked in up to a worker shortage. Surely it wasn’t my presence that caused Pizza-73’s number to ceaselessly ring, or the Cheers restaurant to have closed five minutes before we made our final menu decisions. Family Pizza, Boston Pizza, Panago, the list goes on…

We left those coincidences behind us and traveled on to Calgary to enjoy a much needed day off. Our fine hosts Adelee and Rod had prepared a scrumptious meal of stuffed green peppers before remembering that Darren is a picky brat and won’t eat them. No worries, there was a yummy veggie casserole for Plan B. Unfortunately it had mushrooms in it, another delicious food Darren refuses to consume… (Meanwhile Cat’s mouth is salivating profusely just thinking about it!)

So on to Plan C. Indian food from their favorite restaurant, part of their usual Sunday schedule. Ring! Ring! Ring! ad infinitum. Now this is really a waste because it takes me forever to decide what suits my palate at any given moment. After several more unsuccessful attempts, we decide to go with Plan D.

Their favorite Thai place is another restaurant that has served them well in the past. Before making our choices we discuss our previous luck in Lloydminster, joking that our fortune has the power to close down the entire food industry. On the phone again to the Thai place and this time our efforts are rewarded by a recorded message stating that the restaurant will be closed on Sundays until further notice.

???

I love food. I love eating. I love going out to eat amazing food. But I feel it is my duty to report my track record and let potential restaurants decide for themselves whether they would like me to be within 100 feet of their establishment.

We ate breakfast on the Hillcrest Hotel patio today. It was unbelievable. As a prairie girl, I am continuously amazed by local folk who go about their business with backs turned to the mountains. Honestly, I’m a little leery of the peaks and their daunting presence.

The Hillcrest Hotel Breakfast Special

It was hot in Revelstoke today; the beach beckoned. While I was only brave enough to wade in to my knees, I watched more hearty children dive right in. One exceptionally devil-may-care boy paddle by with a straw in his mouth, slurping up the sparkling lake water as he went along.

Pure Revelstoke Sparkling Water

After spending a leisurely afternoon, we made our way to Golden only to realize minutes after our arrival that we were an hour late. Those damn time changes!! While Golden is in BC, it’s in the same zone as Alberta. This is something I know, but had forgotten… Luckily LouAnn and Les and Karen at the Mad Trapper were very understanding and the evening was a success.

My favorite part of the evening was going over to a table of folks to say hello, launching into a spiel about how happy I was to be able to play in such a gorgeous location (on a patio beside a river) only to be met by blank stares. They were tourists from Germany and didn’t speak a word of English. I said the only thing I knew how to say in their language, “My brother has no head”, and made a less-than-graceful adieu.

I decided to try my hand at the next group over. I sat down, said hello, thanks for coming, and was once again met by a row of confused faces. “Mein Bruder hat keinen Kopf. Auf Wiedersehen.”

Turns out 75% of the audience couldn’t understand 75% of what I was saying. But music can be enjoyed despite a language barrier and I felt very supported by them. And of course, being in Golden, the show was a great reunion with the regular crew that makes their way out to the shows to hoot and holler and stand on their chairs.

Thanks to Trevor and LouAnn for their hospitality and thanks again to Will for the gift of the mix tape – my favorite kind of gift to receive!

Someone slipped me some “laundered” money…

Last night we stayed at my grandfather’s farm which is just East of Swift Current, SK on the #1. It had been years since I’d seen the place and it was so strange to return. Imagine re-visiting your elementary school after 20 years of absence. It’s like exploring the set of a movie you’ve watched over and over: it’s hard to believe you were ever there despite the familiarity you feel.

In an attempt to showcase the magic of my youth, we ate Plume Mouse (Eeek – I don’t know how to spell that!) and some of grandpa’s amazing apricot jam. We walked through the junk yard. We fed the horse while two imposing bulls looked on (turns out one of them was lame though so I really didn’t have much to fear… <- sarcastic!). But it wasn’t a complete recap of my childhood: I managed to make it back to the farmhouse without ripping my jeans!

After a great stopover we made our way to Medicine Hat, the new home of Darren’s favorite Donairs. And he should be considered an esteemed judge of such things. Please see the photographic evidence I collected. Obviously a man of impeccable taste… (Samirs Donair on Carry Drive SE)

Doesn’t that look good?

Tonight I played a show at The Doghouse. They had good water and the chef made a mean bruschetta. Yup.

The most exclusive public washroom in Medicine Hat…

I remembered the toothpaste. I forgot the toothbrush. Someone please tell me the proper technique for applying a minty colloid with an index finger. I know what you’re saying: go buy one, even a struggling musician can spare two bucks for oral hygiene. Alas, it is 3 AM and I am furry now…

Also, can someone please confirm that it is nearly June? I understand that I live in the Canadian prairies and have been raised to deal with extreme weather, but must I really contend with a full-on blizzard AFTER Victoria Day? I took pictures in case you didn’t believe me: leafy green trees toppled over from the weight of the snow! Of course photos snapped during a whiteout make poor witnesses.

I filled up my tiny car with gasoline at a Canadian Tire gas bar. It drank $57 worth: not a cheap date! Still, you gotta spend money to make money, right, and my goal this tour is to collect as many CT bucks as possible. Another goal I have is to play really good shows for people and have fun doing it. But the Canadian Tire currency comes first!

Thanks so much to Kit and Al Loewen for hosting a house concert for me tonight. Oh, and for allowing their living room to be temporarily converted into a time capsule. There were so many wonderfully familiar faces in the crowd. During “intermission” we all piled into the basement to view a screening of Ctrl Z, the short film I scored this past January (For home viewing purposes only!), and to eat samosas and artichokes.

A well-rounded evening in my books… (But three minutes in the bathroom with a toothbrush would have perfected it!)

Canadian Tire Money Tally: $3.55

How often do you hear the same topic discussed on various media and get freaked out by the coincidence… A while ago my recurring themes were squid, Waco and being deaf. What does it all mean?

Can someone complete the puzzle for me? What is the connection between squid/calamari/cuttlefish, the unfortunate series of events at Waco in 1993 and hearing impairment/the Deaf community/sign language? My brain is getting worn out trying to piece together any reason why these ideas should be pushed to the forefront simultaneously and repeatedly.

When I first saw the film “I (heart) Huckabees” I was confused by the main character’s curiosity regarding his frequent chance meetings with one particular stranger. I couldn’t understand why he found it troubling instead of amusing. But now I see the light!

It feels strange to be inundated by the same three random things – things that wouldn’t normally enter in to my daily spectrum of standard thought. But perhaps that is exactly why they were noticed: because they stuck out. Or perhaps I was just paying close attention for those few days and was blessed by a short-lived heightened awareness.

I don’t think this phenomenon would be so disturbing if it only occurred every now and then. A brief intermission between barrages would allow normalcy to return and my repertoire of reflections to center itself around the familiar once more. But then last week it happened to me again!

I kept hearing about bunnies and eggs. It was really weird.

Well, happy easter everyone!