Cat Jahnke Mews

I absolutely adore being part of the Signature Craft Sales. While the days can be long and grueling, there are many rewards.  It’s an amazing way to not only meet great folks who are coming to the show to pick up handmade products, but it’s an amazing way to meet (and be inspired by) all the artisans who are making these works of art!

Sometimes I even get to meet a real life blast from the past:

Recently, at the craft show in Regina I was approached by a crew from CBC Television.  The host looked ridiculously familiar and I was sure that I had at some point gone to school with her or seen her around my hometown of Saskatoon.  After comparing backgrounds she finally said, “Oh and I used to be on the TV show Street Cents…”

!!!

That was one of my absolute favorite shows when I was a teenager.  If you guys haven’t seen any episodes, I’m sure you can find some on You Tube.  “Fit for the pit!”  “What’s your beef?”  Loved it…

In any case, I was lucky enough to be invited to take part in one of their segments.  It aired this Thursday and they’ve posted the segments online.  It’s a brief appearance, and my hair looks wonky(!) but I thought I’d share it nonetheless.

Skip ahead to 17:50 and 21:30.  And seriously, if you know a hair stylist that wants to hit the road, that pines for long days in a car, that can handle the challenge of wicked bedhead, please send me their resume…

XOXO

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).

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12/7/07 – Full Of Beans, Irricana, AB

I always expect a ruckus when I hit Full Of Beans in Irricana. There’s something about the intimacy of a small town that dissolves the inhibitions of the inhabitants. But when you’re told that a seasonal sing-along is more rowdy than “Stripper Night”, it’s time to re-evaluate who is the sheep and who is the shepherd.

Granted they weren’t standing on their chairs, craning their necks to see me pick up various objects with various body parts, but I’ve never heard Christmas carols sound more like drinking songs. They were pounding the table in solidarity with the little drummer boy (pa rum pum pum pum – “rum” being the operative syllable), they were criticizing the opposite side of the room for not singing “Silent Night” with as much gusto, they were bringing out their washtub basses (complete with hockey stick neck) to accompany me.

Click the image above to witness my own attempts at wielding the tub to the tune
of my previously a capella arrangement of “Hush, My Dear, Lie Still And Slumber”.

Click the image above to hear un-spoiled
samples of the Christmas album.

10/20/07 – Old Fire Hall, RosslandWhat’s better – to throw a banana peel in a garbage can or to throw a banana peel on the side of the road? I really want to know. It seems to me that putting it in a bin just means it will end up in a plastic bag at the landfill. At least on the shoulder of a highway it can find some peace under the stars and live out it’s browning existence in nature. Where’s the harm in that?

The show at the Old Fire Hall today was exactly what my soul needed. Not only were the acoustics in the revamped station conducive to a great sound, but the audience that attended were all people I’d love to know better. It was a late night and my eyeballs are paying for it today, but it was nice to stay and chat and be educated about jazz and raw food and sign language and a host of other things.

An Old Fire Hall Tradition
Click on the image to watch the video

There are two things in this picture that I’m not excited about:
1) End of passing lane sign
2) My first snowfall of the season

A Life Lesson Brought To You By Cat Jahnke

10/16/07 – Talkin Donkey, Vernon

I forgot to mention that I met a Fricke last night. So, a couple Freakes and a Fricke… My audiences rule!

This morning I awoke to the sound of a kitty. I don’t know what it is but I just can’t resist a meowing cat, despite the sneezes and watery eyes that accompany my affection. In my experience, it has been the black and white felines that are the most vocal. Is that a common conclusion?

The cat was actually sleeping like this!

Tonight we returned to the Talkin Donkey and the best iced cappucinos on the planet. I’d been pretty ragged these past few days but was rejuvenated by the presence of some old/new friends (Hi Rennae and Ryan) and by the dancing styles of a two-and-a-half-year-old little girl.

Click on the image to watch the video

There were some strategically placed spotters around the room, protecting this little one from potentially damaging table corners and hearth stones. But even with all her spinning, she kept a solid footing and even managed to successfully chase after an audience member who tried to leave. She was very polite, clapping exuberantly and saying “more please” after each song.

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…)

10/5/07 – 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.

Breakfast in Golden was quite a contrast from the eggs and toast we savored at the Hillcrest Hotel in Revelstoke. Somehow the view from the back of the gas station couldn’t quite compare with the panorama we took in the other day. Plus, we had to PAY dearly for this one:

And you thought gas was expensive…

As I mentioned in previous tour blogs, I’m always struck by the juxtaposition of virgin landscapes and human progress throughout BC. 3 Valley Gap is a good example of what I mean. It’s one of the most beautiful and LOUDEST places on earth. Surrounded by the Monashee Mountains, it’s a unique vista, but the well-traveled #1 highway hugging the coast of the Lake of the Three Valleys contributes a soundtrack that is harsh and distracting.

Gorgeous view at 3 Valley Gap

Boisterous highway at 3 Valley Gap

At first I thought, YAY, they built their building AROUND this treasure of a tree. Then Darren reminded me that there was most likely more just like this, and only one was spared as a gimmick…

1126 A.D. – Western Red Cedar trees are the oldest living things in 3-Valley-Gap. Borings by a Forestry Technician indicate that this tree sprouted in 1126 A.D., sixty years after the Normans invaded England, and ninety years before King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta.

Players Lounge in Kamloops is an immense and classy venue. In only one way it reminds me of Oscar’s garbage can, and that is that it is deceptively large inside. Check out my trek from the summit to the foundation.

The Players Lounge Labyrinth
(click picture to watch the video)

I had a great time playing on the rooftop while the sun set and the wind threatened to blow me over the side. At one point some pens flew off my piano stand, nearly impaling me in the middle of a somber song. How fitting: a true testament to a dedication to my art!

Today I got to converse with the crowd in my native tongue and, for the most part, I think I was understod. Lori and Karen bolstered my confidence by clapping for my soundcheck. Tanya and Steve shared many useful travel tips collected over years of living in various parts of BC. I found a real kindred spirit in Tanya who validated my fear of getting people’s names wrong and my hotel heeby-jeebies…

We arrived in Kamloops without accommodations. Unfortuately for us, this city is BUSTLING! The participants of soccer tournaments, pow wows, and an assortment of other local events claimed the majority of hotel/motel/inn rooms. I should have been suspicious when one of the places I called declared their vacancy. It’s hard to appreciate a comfy mattress when you’re contemplating who, or what, was between the sheets before you. (Thank you Tanya for lending substantiation to my paranoia!)