- Well, first we started off with a South African funeral song and then made a very natural segue into
- a French-Canadian mouth music piece called Re La Bouche, in which Abbey Ladin and Evie Ladin and Mariel
- Abel did the footwork.
- get some more of that at 9.15 over the First Presbyterian Church when they join their group, Tongue
- and Groove. You'll be seeing Sam later on in the set. And this group is made up of a lot of great musicians
- here in Bloomington. And it's also made up of many great audience members such as yourself. So we're
- now going to make another natural segue to a Swedish Waltz. It's kind of a mouth music piece.
- mouth music is called Tralning, and this one I borrow from a Swedish waltz called Vardedud Vardag, which
- means, was it you or was it me who danced so wild last night? Something like that. And it's very appropriate
- for the Lotus experience, because I asked myself that question this morning. So here we go.
- learned from a coal miner who died about five years ago at the age of 99, Nimrod Workman. He learned
- it from his Cherokee Indian grandfather who fought during the Civil War. And the song's called Quiloque.
- Scott Robinson on percussion. My family visited Lotus Dickey on the day before he went into the hospital
- for the first and last time and the only other time when he was as sick as he was with leukemia at that
- time was when he was very young, 13 years old, he was looking out the window as he
- to us because my kids were gathering all these hickory nuts and he saw them there and it reminded him
- of this time when he was really sick. Looking out the window he saw these squirrels and Lotus was a
- very keen observer of nature and he always tried to to read signs from these critters out there and
- he saw these squirrels just flying from limb to limb and he thought well if he ate what they ate he
- would be as lean and spry as they were.
- And so he said, he explained to us that he got this whole bushel full of hickory nuts and started eating
- them. And there's a verse in the song called Bushy Tale that I learned from Lotus Dickey, another really
- good friend of, I mean, that I learned from Dylan Buston, but there's a verse that I wrote for Lotus
- Dickey in here. It's called Bushy Tale.
- the bay.
- out of the depths of despair and dreams of flying, and it draws on a 14th century Italian Laude, but
- it's called Pegasus.
- I'm not.
- wrote this song, she was two months old and she looked very much like a potato.
- welcome Claudio Buchwald and Sam Bartlett. We're now going to sail away. And it's been wonderful playing
- for you, Claudio and Sam and Abby playing a group called The Monks. And if you don't have their CD that
- just came out,
- You ought to. It's great. Would you like to be over here? That'd be fine if you want. We're just going
- to go from this point on out there into the streets and enjoy the rest of this music. Thank you so much
- for coming. This has been really fun.
- I'm a townie. I was born and raised in Bloomington and this is my third year at the Lotus Music Festival
- and I'm loving it. I'm volunteering at BCAT right now and we have our first interviewee. His name is...
- My name is Thaddeus J. Holmes. And he's a musician in town. He plays for... The Ballroom Rustabouts.
- They call me T-Rex. I'm not a townie. I moved here seven years ago.
- I came to Lotus Festival for the first time last year and I couldn't believe that I'd missed all the
- years before. It's usually pretty fun, at least it was last year, so I'm hoping this year will be too.
- What acts are you looking to see in particular? The good ones. My plan is to see all the good acts and
- miss all the bad ones. At least that's the plan. We'll see how it works out. What's supposed to be good?
- What's the word on the streets?
- Well, I'm taking my little brother around. He's 10 years old, so I'm trying to think of what would be
- fun for him. I thought Johnny Sacco would be fun, even though it's local. It's part of Lotus Festival.
- And I've heard the Iris Dement show is supposed to be very good. I saw a movie last night that Barberito
- Torres, I think it is, was in. So I got to go see him. And other than that, I don't like plans. I'm
- just going to see what happens. Have you had any food or anything? Not yet. I'm going to go eat right
- now. We've got Joy Brady here.
- She's a musician, an entertainer, a volunteer, and she works at The Rise. I do. She's just a wonderful,
- multifaceted person. She's going to talk about her band that's performing right now and about why she's
- at the Lotus Music Festival. Ocas de Son is about the best band I've played in. We make money, we play
- outside of Bloomington, and we get the chance to play at the local tent here at the Lotus Festival, which is
- One of the best festivals in Bloomington. As a cultural event, it's a top notch. People from all over
- the world are able to come to our community and play music. People from all over the country are able
- to come to Bloomington to hear them. Gotta love it. Can you talk a little bit about the Yuba Singers?
- And even if you're not performing, just talk a little bit about them. Oh, the Yuba Singers, yes. I've
- been singing acapella in Bloomington for over eight years, closer to 10. And the Yuba Singers is a trio
- that we sing socially,
- songs about social justice. Look for more in the future. And how come you're not performing at the Lotus?
- Because they won't let the xylophone in. That's not true, but... We've got two middle schoolers here.
- They're dance theater and singing students, so let's hear why they're at the Lotus Music Festival. Well,
- we first came... What are your names? Oh, my name's Jessica. And I'm Hannah.
- tickets for the Lotus Festival. And we're here to see all the different performers and what they have
- to show us. What in particular did you come to see? I don't know, just everything. Do you think there's
- a lot here for people your age? Probably. I'm not really sure what it has, but... We're just here to find out.
- Yes, I am. Can you tell us what you do here and why you're at the Lotus Music Festival? I am a professor
- at the university in the Department of Afro-American Studies and I'm at the Lotus Festival because I
- like arts and music. What do you teach in particular in the African-American Studies Department? I teach
- African-American history courses. And are you giving your students extra credit for coming? No, I'm not.
- I'm encouraging to come, but not for extra credit. Next time I will. So tell us who you're going to
- hear, or who you came to hear in particular. I just heard a Laotian group with music and dance. I'm
- going to hear a band from Zimbabwe tonight, and I'm going to hear some Tibetan chants and some cabaret,
- which is the last act of the evening, yes. So how's the food? Good. The bite I had.
- It's good. I only had one bite of this. It's a burrito, and it's good. Oye! This is Arturo. He's a jewelry
- maker and a salsa, merengue, mambo, what have you teacher? King. King. Undre. We want to know why he's
- at the Lotus Music Festival and what his plans are. Well, I plan to enjoy the music. There are some
- great bands performing tonight.
- Down by the 10, there's an orchestra song playing right now. So I was planning on getting me a wristband
- and just go all over the place. Usually he teaches dance while the orchestra song is playing. Is this
- the case this evening? Yeah, pretty much. I'm going to be down there and some people are gathering and
- getting ready to learn some steps. Well, he's going to have to show the camera some. And did you know
- that he is from Lima, Peru? Are there any musicians from Peru here?
- Not this year. For the last year a lot, I think it was actually in 1998, some Peruvian singer came,
- it was Susana Baca. She's an Afro-Peruvian singer, but not this year. And she was fabulous, and he made
- this ring. And they are dancing.
- Introduce yourself and your shirt. Oh, I'm Andrew. Hi. How are you? Shirt? Oh, Horseflies. Used to be
- a great band. Then their bass player died, unfortunately. Colon cancer. Awful. John was a great guy.
- Are you a musician? No. Why are you at Lotus? I used to play piano, though. Why am I at Lotus?
- People watching, great music, great stuff. How many years have you been coming? Bloomington is the cultural
- vortex of the universe. I think we need to catch that on record again. What, cultural vortex? The entire
- thing. Bloomington is. Bloomington is the cultural vortex of the universe. That is a powerful statement.
- Okay, we've got police on bikes here keeping our
- city safe. Isn't Bloomington the safe and civil city? Okay, tell us about your experience with the Lotus
- Festival as cops on bikes. There isn't really much of one, just everybody's quiet. We're just kind of
- riding around making sure there's no problems. Have there been any problems so far? That's why I said
- it's been quiet, no. I'm glad to hear that we're behaving ourselves. Okay, come over here. He's scared
- of me. Hopefully he won't arrest me. Okay, talk a little bit
- about why you're here and what the job entails? Basically just to keep the peace and if people need
- to know where an event is and need to find out directions we can help them there. So no one's even come
- to speak with you? Oh yes, yes a few people have come because they like the bikes and they'll come to
- at least speak to us because we're on the bicycles as opposed to being in the cars. So you enjoy being
- on the bikes better than in the cars? Absolutely.
- Hope there's no emergencies. Are you guys going to hear any of the music or are you guys stuck outside?
- We'll be outside. But are you enjoying any of the local acts outside in the tents? Absolutely. Yes.
- Is that it, boys? Okay, the beer god is here. Can you please state your full name and all the restaurants
- and bars you own and tend and explain what you're doing at the Lotus Music Festival?
- Well, we're here with the Bloomington Brewing Company, and we're thrilled to be a part of Lotus. It's
- always a lot of magical moments every year. So we're just happy to be a part of it and have everybody
- drinking good beer and eating good food with soul. So explain to me what beers are here and why these
- particular beers were chosen. Well, our flagship beer is the Quarryman Pale Ale. A lot of hops, unfiltered.
- It seems to be the beer that everybody likes in town. So we always bring that out to an event like this.
- People love it. It's a bitter, hoppy beer. As good as any pale ale in the Midwest, I'm convinced. So
- what's your motto? Have more fun. And you can achieve that way? More beer. Sounds good. Do you get to
- hear any of the events? I'm going to go see some reggae right now. Hi, I'm here with Peter Lobelow, director
- magazine, newsletter, what have you, and he's going to talk a bit about why he's at the Lotus Music
- Festival and how they've been advertising the Lotus Music Festival and writing articles, etc. Well actually
- the writer was the first newspaper to sponsor the Lotus Music Festival in its first year. So that year
- and ever since then we've been a co-presenter and we've
- Since we're monthly, we come out a month prior to the event. We're the first print media to cover and
- to preview the event. Is that enough? And then post-Lotus, what do you do? Post-Lotus, there's no such
- thing as post-Lotus. No, I mean you interview people and there's articles. Post-Lotus, you get ready
- for the next Lotus. Lotus is a continuing process that never ends. It just grows and grows and grows.
- It's like that movie The Blob with Steve McQueen.
- I think that should do it. That was a pretty good end quote. Thank you.