Seated: MurphyStout, KC Jiang, Nirman (my Turkish neighbor), Vaporlock
........Standing: Limuhead, Weekenders(x2), TonyHiggins, Steve, Switchfoot, DCrom, NorCal, John Palmer
The kind of gathering where your face gets tired from smiling so much.

Tunes recorded: a nice slow version of Lord Mayo.........Summertime by George Gershwin by Limuhead on Ralph Sweet whistle and KC Jiang on harmonica.....Morrison's Jig..........Turkish mandolin solos by my friend Nirman.......
a reel, Silver Spear- MurphyStout pulls us together with his flute after an ambivalent beginning............a Japanese folk song by Limuhead on whistle and KC Jiang on harmonica- they both happened to know it in harmonizing versions.....Ballydesmond polka/Battle of Aughrim........a Hawaiian hula song by Limuhead (his wife, Kay, danced the hula and explained the movements in words)........We Only Can Meet In Our Dreams, played by KC Jiang, who explains, "A Chinese solider from China moved to Taiwan during the Chinese Civil War and left his wife in China, he worte this song for his wife. Chinese Civil War separated families for about forty years. My father was in the Nationalist military, he went to Taiwan and left his two sons in China in 1949. My father passed away in 1976 and he never saw and commucated to his sons since 1949." The recordings are uncensored and relatively unedited to capture the spirit of the gathering. I thought I'd lost the recording of KC playing Green Island Serenade on a Burke Bb whistle. Just found it. This tune was composed by a political prisoner in Taiwan the day before he was executed at the Green Island prison.

 

Singing Down by the Sally Gardens

NorCal and Steve

 

 

DCrom and Switchfoot

 

Unauthorized blugrass jam: Nirman, John Palmer, Weekender

 

 

My mom, who hosted the madness, Mrs NorCal, who announced we were all getting really quiet whistles for Christmas,
Mrs Limuhead (hula dancer) grading her students papers.

 

John Palmer

 

Limuhead on his fishingline-strung Tahitian somethingorother and Weekender.

 

MurphyStout and TonyHiggins. I'm marveling at how high his fingers fly off the whistle. (That's a nametag on my whistle.)

 

Weekender (his saving grace)

 

The sheet music just happens to be in my line of sight. I'm not reading it...Limuhead, on the other hand, reads music at full speed.

 

Weekender, MurphyStout

 

TonyHiggins soaking up the vibes.

 

John Palmer, Vaporlock, Weekenders singing/playing Down by the Sally Gardens

 

At the end of the evening: Limuhead, NorCal, KC Jiang, Steve