How did YOU spend St. Patrick's Day?

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:34 pm

This is the first time that I haven't played at parades and/or green-beer establishments for St. Paddy's in 6 or 7 years. I decided to stay away from all things green beer this year, and went to a strip club instead

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 8:55 pm

Wanderer wrote:This is the first time that I haven't played at parades and/or green-beer establishments for St. Paddy's in 6 or 7 years. I decided to stay away from all things green beer this year, and went to a strip club instead

Oh now you're

really movin' up in the world....

fel bautista · Post by **fel bautista** » Sun Mar 18, 2007 9:40 pm

Went for a bike ride at 7:30 am wearing my Sean Kelly Tour Jersey. Played my pipes and fiddle at my local bike shop (as opposed to the local pub); went to the Claremont Folk Music Center, bought some whistles and wound up playing them on the street. Went to our local parish for Saturday Mass; played fiddle in the alcove out side the vestabule- the best accoustics ever.

Went home and consumed braised corned beef with saurekraut. Practiced some tunes and went to bed around 10:30.

Azalin · Post by **Azalin** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 6:06 am

It was a busy week-end. On friday night we played tunes at a bar downtown and did not know what to expect since it's not an irish bar at all and the owners just wanted something different that night. They initially asked us to stop at 23h00. On top of some money we had 50% off on all drinks ordered that night. The crowd was so responsive that the owners almost begged us to keep on going after 23h00, we had so much fun that we did but I had to stop earlier than my friends because I was getting really, really drunk. It was raining gin tonics, bloody caesars, whiskys, etc.

On sunday I froze my arse off at the parade, playing whistle, but it was fun nonetheless. I'm just glad to be back to normal life now, I'm getting too old for this

gonzo914 · Post by **gonzo914** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 6:22 am

The tradition at Chez Gonzo is to let the kids go door to door for candy early in the evening on St. Patrick's Day Eve, then we sing traditional Irish songs written by Burton Lane in 1947 all evening, and finally, at midnight, when the clock chimes 12:00, the little gonzos all open their presents.

The next morning, we all have a light breakfast -- usually just a slice of that cranberry sauce that slides out of the can -- and a bit later we go to the buffet at the Holidome for traditional turkey and dressing and pumpkin pie.

Then we plant a tree and go to the cemetery.

No, wait . . . . that's what we do for Martin Luther King Day.

Never mind.

straycat82 · Post by **straycat82** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 10:04 am

Unlike many of you, it was a HOT St. Patrick's here in Phoenix. We were at about 100 degrees when we took stage at the festival in the afternoon. It was indeed a fun day but Sunday was not long enough to recover from it before getting back to the grindstone Monday morning.
I went to sleep around two AM on Friday night after band rehearsal and then woke up at five AM to head down to the cultural center. We had a spot on the morning show for one of the local TV stations and were supposed to be on the air at seven but they kept having "technical difficulties" and pushing our segment back because they couldn't get a strong enough signal to do the live broadcast. So, after only three hours of sleep I woke up, drove downtown and stood around for almost two hours... and my coffee only lasted me the first fifteen minutes. They got a signal long enough for the three of us to say "Good Morning Arizona" (which is the name of their show) and then we lost the feed again. Finally, they got the signal but due to all of the delays we only had enough time to do one tune. We played and it was off to our fiddler's house to pick up the sound equipment. We loaded up all of the equipment into the VW bus and thanked god that it made it down to the pub (or, for that matter, that it actually started).
We got to the pub and began setting up all of the sound equipment (we provided our own), got everything in place, checked sound and began our set five minutes later than planned. For the record, our band has five members. The guitar player and upright bass player each had two instruments to check and then I had mics for the whistles, accordion and bodhran so that's why the setup took so long. We played at one of my favorite pubs here, O'Connor's. It's one of the older ones in Phoenix and it's got a lot of heart. Not a bunch of fancy stuff on the walls, not the usual cliches and gimmicks of American Irish pubs (no green beer), but instead there are mismatched chairs and tables and folks who love the music. This humble little pub is also run by the most wonderful people. Nobody in this state has done more to keep the Irish community thriving than Jimmy O'Connor. Whenever the cultural center is in trouble he'd cut a check and there's rarely a cultural event that he's not attending or has his hands in some way or another... I digress. Anyways, we played our sets, the crowd loved it and, according to the pub staff, the place had never been that full that early in the day, even on prior St. Pat's days. When we finished our set, there was a significant part of the crowd that emptied out with us so that made us look pretty good. Our group was followed by another wonderful group who brought in their own crowd (I didn't get to stay and listen but I've heard them before and can vouch for the music).
We packed up our gear and went straight over to the festival, I accompanied some fiddle students on my bodhran for their Academy recital and then the band set up our gear on the outdoor stage for our set (again, temps of 100 degrees... in the shade!). We played, gulping down water in between tunes/songs, and the crowd seemed very pleased.
Now, reading this it doesn't seem like much time has lapsed but it's about five PM now and I haven't had the time to stop and eat since I started at five AM so the only thing I've had all day was my coffee and some guinness that was generously given to me while on stage at the pub. I've got a blister on the heel of my palm from playing a very warm bodhran outdoors, hunger pains in my stomach and a headache from not eating all day. I'm exhausted but high on the music. All the chaos was well worth the total of 4 hours that we were able to play for the people. Our group has only been together for about five months but it's my favorite that I've played with yet. I'm thankful that my band mates are all great people, I've never met another group of individuals with such a great attitude, sense of humor, and passion for music. There's a well of wisdom and experience there that I'm blessed to be a part of. I'm the baby of the group by about seven years and if I had to guess (because I'm not accustomed to asking peoples' age) we span at least a couple generations.
I think I hit the sack around 8:30 that night! Slept like a baby and woke up to play the drums at church the next morning.
I'm sure there were many of your weekends that were more packed than mine but thats my story and I hope next year will be just as hectic

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 10:21 am

Flyingcursor wrote:
Lambchop wrote:I studied. Had oatmeal for dinner.
Was it green? That would have been OK if it were green.

Sorry....that just struck me as very funny

Let me see...we had the day off from Lent (yay for that!), had a couple of beers (didn't give that up for Lent though

), had dinner. Nothing really big. Oh, and I forced everyone to listen to decent Irish tunes ALL day long. HA!

OH! And almost forgot. Watched the snow come down and accumulate to about a foot of snow. SIGH!

jsluder · Post by **jsluder** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 10:25 am

izzarina wrote:Oh, and I forced everyone to listen to decent Irish tunes ALL day long. HA!

So, you put down yer whistle and played CDs instead?

izzarina · Post by **izzarina** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 10:27 am

jsluder wrote:
izzarina wrote:Oh, and I forced everyone to listen to decent Irish tunes ALL day long. HA!
So, you put down yer whistle and played CDs instead?

I see you noticed the word decent in my post

A-Musing · Post by **A-Musing** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:59 pm

St Patrick's Day?
I stayed in my room and played a tremendously long and alchohol-free-yet-still-overly-ornamented, and sappy-to-the-max-yet-surprisingly-engaging ultra-freeform rendition of Danny Boy........then cried m'self to sleep. what a day! can't wait till next year!

Post by **Nanohedron** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 1:59 pm

A brief vignette of my day as told in the pipers' forum, ninth post down from the top.

jkwest · Post by **jkwest** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:00 pm

Geez, we went to some friends house for a party. We had a Black and Tan pouring contest. I ended up playing Pictionary shirtless somehow...and between the four couples there, we put down 'bout 20 or so Harp's and a good bakers dozen Guinness..

Sunday, we just sat around....

FractalSquirrel · Post by **FractalSquirrel** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:04 pm

Having gotten a bad case of athlete's paw from marching in the rain earlier, I'm on medication where any alcohol consumption would cause my skin to form blisters everywhere. That's ok, most of the bars around here that listed any type of St. Patrick's event were just playing top 40, or college rock, and serving crappy dyed-green beer.

The one Irish pub that had good live music required VIP status (Being a pub owner or good friends with one) to get in.

I wandered around, playing whistle, getting random people dancing during the day, that was fun.

Was going to go to a parade, but couldn't take more rain soaked hindpaws, and all my friends changed plans as well.

Yesterday, the day after St Patrick's however, I went to my first session, and it was beautiful, and wonderful to be a part of the music. Had lots of fun.

anniemcu · Post by **anniemcu** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:12 pm

jkwest wrote:Geez, we went to some friends house for a party. We had a Black and Tan pouring contest. I ended up playing Pictionary shirtless somehow...and between the four couples there, we put down 'bout 20 or so Harp's and a good bakers dozen Guinness..

Sunday, we just sat around....

Yeah... close to the loo, I'd wager.

fyffer · Post by **fyffer** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:26 pm

We, the Kentish Guards Militia and Fife and Drum Corps, spent 3 days and nights in lovely Savannah, Georgia, for the second largest St. Patrick's day celebration in the country (second only to New York City). Pre-parade estimates were upwards of 500,000 screaming non-Irish, non-Georgian 20-somethings drinking green beer and wearing marijuana-leaf beads, stumbling all over themselves for hours on end.

We had a great time. :lol:

I will now share part of our "Top Ten List" from our trip to Savannah (the parts that can be public, and won't get anyone arrested or divorced):

The Top Ten Reasons why Savannah 2007 was the Best KG Trip Ever:

10) <censored>
9) <censored>
8) <censored>
7) <censored>
6) Our Drum Sergeant was promoted to "Sgt. Major Shameless McShamrock".
5) Overheard: "Your tonsils taste like beer..."
4) Lindsay <sigh>
3) Southwest Airlines requires their emergency exit helpers to use
their laser vision to open the window (ask me about that one)
2) Three words say it all: "To Go Cup"

And the number one reason why the Savannah 2007 trip was the best ever:

1) What happens in Savannah STAYS in Savannah!