Cantiga: Michelle's Blog

See You Later, Alligator!

I’m off the road right now to spend more time with my family, but my adventures are far from over. A couple weeks ago I thought maybe, just maybe, I might settle down, get a full-time job… and then the more time I spent looking for jobs, the more I realized that there was absolutely no way in heck I’m going to design detergent bottles when my mind is swimming with music and puppets and rainbows. (Oh my!) ...Sorry Mom and Dad!

So I’m gigging with the Toe Jam Puppet Band again, one of my absolute favorite (and goofiest) groups to play with, while also developing my own puppet show and illustrating a book. I also decided to join “Vermont Puppetree” for the month of October to learn traditional shadow puppetry. I'll still be playing with Istanpitta every now and then, too.

While it’s exciting to be doing new things, the transition from being in the Rennie community to living alone indoors is undoubtedly the hardest thing I ever had to do. It’s nice to have running water and a kitchen and a bathroom, yes… but I miss how the birds and butterflies used to fly through my room, and how wonderful it smelled when it rained. I miss the rumbling creek running below my tree-house at Scarborough Faire and the ambient sounds of frogs, crickets, and owls at night... the lightning storms, the fireflies, the music... being free and safe to walk alone at night...looking up at the stars listening to stories about aliens...how easily sleep came, and how easy it was to wake up in the morning. While it helps to listen to a CD of night sounds, somehow it’s just not the same.

And nothing can replace the Rennie community… it totally breaks my heart to be away, but I’m so grateful to them that I am welcome back anytime… I think about that possibility everyday. I want to thank them for making my experience nothing short of magical.

In fact, there are lots of people I wanted to thank before I left.. . Most of all, I’m sorry I didn’t have a chance to thank Cantiga’s undisputable “biggest fan” properly—if you saw him at our show with the giant wall fan at Sterling, you’d understand—thank you, “Lord William Meriick!” It was a delight to have you in our audience! (Hey Wil, could you please drop a line so I have your e-mail?)

I hope to play with Cantiga again soon. In the meantime, I’d like to thank everyone reading this blog for taking interest in a little-known but thriving American sub-culture. In traditional Rennie fashion, I’d like to say: “drive safe, and I’ll see you next time!”

Sterling, '06

The band is in beautiful, scenic Sterling, NY again and I can’t believe my luck-- I am staying in a beautiful house on an onion farm not far from faire. Rennies come in an out all the time, unannounced, at all hours, and it’s kind of crazy but I like it. Just the other day I woke up to folks recording music in my living room. Very cool. The second morning I was here, I woke up to someone asking me, “do you want cheese on your eggs?” After the surprise-breakfast-in-bed, as I came down the stairs, someone I had just met the night before was sleeping on the couch, the front door was wide open, and my roomates’ dogs (Nexus and Basil) were happily frolicking through the onion fields with tennis balls in their mouths. Better still, Nexus has no problem with me being the alpha female-- as long as I keep feeding her sausages. Now people are making a movie in my living room. I love it!

My rennie roommates are heaven-sent, and they’re even helping me beat what I call The Road Blues; even with a nice place to live, for some reason, the constant moving is really getting to me… as it does, at some point, to just about everyone. So one of my roommates woke me up this morning and drove me and his dog down to Lake Ontario (20 minutes away). We walked down the beautiful, shaded forest path to the lake, and stumbled through the incredibly rocky shore into the frigid, wavy water of Lake Ontario holding steaming cups of coffee up above our heads as the waves pushed us down… when we were up to our necks in the cold water, we drank the hot coffee, laughing as the waves kept pushing us under. It became a game to keep the coffee up above water, and we gazed up at the cliffs, the forest, and the seemingly endless lake and sky that stretches, uninterrupted, all the way to Canada. (Basil stayed on the shore, staring at us like we were insane.)

Afterwards we sunned on the rocky beach, and as I wiped the seaweed from my legs, little black jumping spiders danced around my toes. With the fresh air blowing in my face from the lake the hot coffee cup in my hands, I felt a whole lot better about being on the road. Now I make an effort to go down to the lake at least every other day, walk in the woods, and sit on the cliffs to watch the sunset. It’s amazing how such a simple thing can make the whole day melt away…