Staging it

 On a day when the temperature was tipped to exceed 40 degrees the most welcome text message I received was the one advising the cancellation of Folk Festival gigs on the Fiddlers Green between 1.30 and 5.30 pm. By some act of the gods this coincided with my scheduled shift as stage manager, and left me free to endure the heat in a manner of my choice. It left me, however, with one shift to complete on Sunday night.

I arrived at my designated venue (the Shebeen Bar) at the regulation 15 minutes early, to be greeted by the preceding stage manager. She said she would introduce me to the venue supervisor (assuredly “very officious”) who would take me through some sort of induction process and make me sign a piece of paper to indicate I had understood what he told me. 

The induction involved pointing out the whereabouts of exits, fire extinguishers etc., and more importantly, the need for me to be wearing closed footwear rather than the open “slide sandals” I was sporting. I assured him I had some shoes in the car (which it turns out I didn’t) and would change. Eventually I donned a pair of dark socks to make it look less obvious than bare feet.

Towards the conclusion of the supervisor’s address a group of half a dozen teenage girls burst into the backstage area, purportedly seeking autographs from members of the very popular band “19 Twenty”,  who were preparing for their upcoming performance. I commented to the supervisor that these looked like groupies, and queried the legitimacy of their presence in the area. He immediately swung into action, telling the girls they could leave their items to be autographed with him and he would give them to the band, whilst they would have to wait outside (thus avoiding any activities other than autograph collecting).

“19 Twenty” whipped the audience into a frenzy and the screams of “more” at the end of its 60 minute set could only be quelled by an announcement regarding the need for changeover time. During a lull in proceedings I noticed a young man sipping wine in the shadows and queried his need to be there. He assured me he was the manager of the next act - an African funk band called Cool out Sun.  I took him at his word, and he did seem to be legitimate. His later requests for the location of, firstly, a rubbish bin and, secondly, a toilet, were more than testimony to his managerial status. If the induction program included identification of toilets for performers I missed that section, and could only suggest the facilities available to the public.

The final act was a funk dance band called the 7 Ups, who seemed to mellow the alcohol fueled crowd into a rhythmic sway. During onstage introductions of individual Seven Up members I thought I heard “Michael Schack on percussion”. Surely not the famous Belgian drummer sitting in? I queried the band excitedly at the conclusion of their show only to discover the percussionist was “Michael Sacks”!

Midway through the SevenUps performance a couple of young men bounded into the backstage area wanting to know what to do. Somewhat mystified, I eventually established that they did not have festival armbands and had somehow talked their way past the gate attendants by telling them they had a personal invitation from the singer of the band (whom they had met in the pub). They had been directed  backstage, so I escorted them to the main audience area of the Shebeen and told them they should be alright there if they remained quiet. It was only later I realized there was no singer in the SevenUps - a totally instrumental act.

My two final duties were (1) to take a photo of the 7 Ups from the stage (with the audience in the background) and (2) to give authoritative consent to an encore as it was the last act of the day. The encore over, chants of “one more song” rang out for a while before the dismantling of the drum kit sent a message the audience couldn’t ignore. 

Culture trip

A recent visit to Melbourne reminded me of the colourful characters that populate Victoria's capital city. Some current health concerns prompted me to make an appointment at at a medical centre located in Victoria Street,  Abbotsford. Prior to accessing the clinic I detoured to  make use of an adjacent public toilet. As I got nearer,  the screaming and groaning sounds emanating from the facility suggested caution, but necessity over-rode apprehension. As my eyes adjusted to the dark surroundings,  I observed an Asian man dressed in a white "Buddhist monk" type garment moaning at the urinal. When queries as to his well being went ignored I thought it wisest not to pursue the issue.

My consulting doctor issued a pathology slip, and recommended I get blood tests at a related clinic 800 metres further down Victoria Street. My journey on foot was punctuated by a man who had fallen off his bike on the footpath,  and a young woman crying and wandering aimlessly amongst fellow pedestrians. It was not until later that I recognised the proximity to the safe injecting room. Shaken, but undeterred,  I navigated my way to the pathology collection centre. The blood collector was a young woman who proceeded to tell me she was looking forward to ending her shift and that she had been unfairly blamed for a number of mistakes recently.

My diminished confidence in people attending to my needs was not restored when I called into an IT shop to ask some questions about Wi-Fi extenders and the like. The young sales attendant was of limited help,  and eventually told me he had not used a particular product and suggested I look it up on the Internet. 

The next day I attended a musical performance at a suburban hotel. My appreciation of the music was interrupted by a drunken man crashing into me as he weaved his way to the exit, seemingly oblivious to other patrons. Not long after I was tapped on the back by a man who said "Steve?". I told him I was not Steve and he asked "where is Steve?" After I assured him I didn't know Steve, let alone where he was,  he offered a self-assessment of his current condition -  "so f&**d up I don't know what's going on". Taking a side street short cut to my car an hour or so later I came upon two men staggering back to the pub -- you guessed it.

Driving out of Melbourne the next morning I noticed a travel advertisement for a "Culture trip to The most exciting cities in the world -- ".

2020

 

There is an internet site (https://www.thetoptens.com/worst-things-happened-2020/) that lists the ten worst things that happened in 2020. Predictably, the Coronavirus outbreak is listed as number one, and the Australian bushfires as number two, with another 8 covering a range of events. This essay examines things at micro level, and lists a more localised "10 worst things in 2020".

1. Anal fistula: Whilst "annus horribilis" is applicable to the year in general, "anus horribilis" is more relevant here. After 11 surgical interventions over 2 and a half years, colorectal surgeons at the Austin Hospital finally (July 2^nd) attempted what could have been a curative procedure (known as a LIFT - ligation of intersphincteric fistula tract). Given that the success rate after LIFT ranges from 40 to 95 %, with a recurrence rate of 6-28 %, optimism ensued. High hopes were dashed when a recurrence resulted in admission to the Warrnambool Hospital on July 26^th. To make matters worse, it coincided with a scheduled Collingwood-Eagles “home and away” game. The broadcast of the match was interrupted at half time by a nurse saying it was time to be wheeled to the operating theatre. As Collingwood's performance had been less than promising, the idea of being anaesthetized for the remainder of the game somehow seemed attractive. The pre-op prepping was interrupted by a flurry of activity signalled an incoming “trauma” -  meaning the  procedure would be delayed.  A return to the ward meant a confrontation with a 10 goal deficit.

2. Cottage:  The frequency of regional “damaging winds” warnings on the Vic emergency app had long produced an unwarranted complacency regarding such dangers, but a cognitive realignment was necessary in August. Damaging winds uprooted a large pine tree and landed it on the cottage. The destruction, although not complete, was sufficient to warrant a “non-repairable” assessment, and a recommendation for demolition. The insurance company asked curly questions like “was the building maintained in good condition?” and “was it an unoccupied dwelling?” but amazingly came to the party. 

Before

During

After

3. Painting job: To re-house the 30 years worth of acquisitions that had been stored in the cottage, a shipping container was purchased. To make it more aesthetically pleasing a search for a painter was initiated. After a couple of quotes a young man, who assured us he could start the following Monday, emerged as the preferred candidate. When he failed to appear as agreed, a message was sent to see if there was a problem. Eventually he replied saying he’d just got out of hospital after breaking his collarbone on his mountain bike and would be "out of action" for 2 months.

 

 4. Car: Using a car to transport goods from the cottage and garage to the container may have saved backs, but not wallets. Incident one involved wife backing into a pole and denting the passenger side rear panel. Fortunately there were not too many derogatory comments from husband. Incident 2, a few hours later,  involved husband backing into a parked trailer and denting the driver's side rear panel. Off to the panel beaters. 

5. Internet access: The New Year was ushered in with an NBN upgrade that somehow went wrong and removed all access. Initial assurances  that a technician would attend by January 4^th, were tempered by a follow up message postponing his arrival because “everyone is on holidays”. Still, a small irritation compared to what was to follow. 

6.Credit card: Credit card fraud reared its head in October when my bank transactions revealed a $300 Uber Eats purchase. Not even having an Uber eats account, and not being able to eat $300 worth of food, it seemed suspicious. The bank was good enough to take this on board and refund the money. 

7.Tape copying: After a long history of outdoor machinery misadventures,  an indoor activity seemed a safer option. A project to transfer some old VHS tapes to DVD turned sour after 4 screwed up tapes and 10 non readable discs.

8. Football: The ABC News headline says it all

 

9. Music career: Six decades of involvement in music stalled on St. Patrick’s day (March 17^th 2020) when Coronavirus restrictions closed entertainment venues down. 

Final gig at Mickey Bourke's

10. Computer “bargain”: It seemed too good to be true, but a Macbook pro retina 15 computer was advertised  online for $52, and couldn't be resisted. A disappointment  factor of 10 followed the delivery of a “hard shell case for a Macbook Pro Retina 15”.

Expectation

 

Actual

 

 

 

How Labour Day weekend changed Victoria’s virus fight

reproduced article written by Grant McArthur, Health Editor, Herald Sun,  Published Herald Sun, April 11th 2020

As Department of Health contact tracers painstakingly investigate each COVID-19 case back to its source to get one step ahead of where it will spread, recalling the Labour Day long weekend sends shivers down the spines of those charged with trying to control the virus.



Among the dozens of places visited by one of Victoria’s latest COVID-19 patients, one venue sticks out. Contact-tracing investigators interviewed others with confirmed coronavirus who reported being at the same place on the same night — but they attended a different function. As they compared the cases searching for a connection, no obvious source for the infections jumped out because no guests attended both events. Another COVID-19 patient emerged and recalled attending yet another gathering at the same venue days later, but further interviews struggled to nail down any person that all the sick had in common. Then, a check of the staff on duty threw up a match at all three events and a new possibility — does Melbourne have a super-spreader? “He worked in a hospitality venue. Initially we thought there was a cluster of cases who had all been to that venue on a particular night and we thought somebody in that place had it,” said Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer, Dr Annaliese van Diemen. “A bit later there was another cluster from an event at the same place. “Now there are at least three clusters linked to that venue, and at least one of them has seeded off another.” Although the worker never had strong symptoms, tests confirmed he had COVID-19. “It is becoming clearer that some people are more infectious than others for reasons we are not certain of yet,” Dr van Diemen said. “We have seen it in SARS and MERS as well — this is a virus that has the capacity in some people, even though they are not hugely sick, to spread it to a lot of people.” With so much unknown about COVID-19, the work of Department of Health contact tracers to painstakingly investigate every case back to its source is the only way of getting one step ahead of where it may spread to. Each case may require hours of interviews, producing scores of leads which need analysis and cross-referencing. This can result in dozens of the patients’ loved ones, friends and colleagues ordered into self-isolation. Dr van Diemen knows getting a step ahead of each cluster is all that stops COVID-19 surging through Victoria. “At the moment we have 52 clusters — that is how many we are trying to keep track of,” she said. Until then, the disease that had devastated parts of China and was threatening Europe had barely made its presence felt in Victoria. “All of February was quite quiet, before the March long weekend which will be etched in all of our brains forever,” Dr van Diemen said. “That was case 11, which was just over a month ago — now we are past case 1000.” The turning point was the case of Toorak GP Dr Chris Higgins, who returned from the US before it was classified as a major coronavirus zone. Suddenly Victoria’s team of 30 contact-tracing specialists had to find and interview more than 70 of his patients, place each one in isolation and investigate whether they had spread the virus further. Thankfully, there were no further cases linked to Dr Higgins or the Toorak clinic. But as the weekend progressed, more cases flowed in from other US travellers, and every epidemiologist’s worst fears were realised. “That weekend we had a couple more cases dripping through and we thought, ‘OK, we are going to need a bit more space than what we have now’, so we expanded to this room on the Monday,” Dr van Diemen said. “By the end of that week we had already run out of room, so we had to expand to different locations.”

THE CAVALRY ARRIVES
It’s now just four weeks later, but the team of 30 has grown to 1000. They fill floors 1, 13, 14, 15, and 18 of the Department of Health tower at 50 Lonsdale St. Those who can’t fit there have taken over the offices of a nearby travel agency. Others who have contact with patients must work from home so they don’t risk infecting the COVID HQ. Of all the staff working hard when the Herald Sun visits, a dozen stand out. Wearing military fatigues, 12 members of the Australian Defence Force have been deployed to “floor-manage” the teams of nurses, doctors and public health bureaucrats. Next week the military presence is expected to multiply, but the sight of camouflage in the corridors barely raises an eyebrow now. The sheer number of patients and speed at which COVID-19 spreads means the investigators have had to change everything they do. In the case of common outbreaks such as measles, the flu or salmonella, a specialist investigator follows each case from start to finish. Since last month, COVID-19 investigations have become a production line of testing, interviewing, contact tracing, isolation measures and recovery. Less experienced nurses and others drafted in oversee the initial stages, and cases are passed up the line as they become more complex. “Because we now have so many cases — 50, 60, 80, 100 cases a day — we have had to separate the tasks that would normally be done,” Dr van Diemen said. “Every now and then, we sit down and say, ‘The stuff we’re doing in a 12 to 24-hour cycle would normally take months’.” The State Emergency Management Centre on level 1 looks like NASA’s mission control. Facing a wall of huge screens, rows of desks house the heads of each arm of Victoria’s COVID command who receive updates from investigators scattered on other floors, in hospitals or at coronavirus testing centres. At midnight, the team takes stock of the day’s new confirmed cases and prepares the data to be “cleaned” between 5-7am so the updated infection and death totals can be released to the public. Some days’ totals are much higher than others. The grim findings inform Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton’s recommendations, which in turn prompt the increasingly strict border and social distancing controls. Among the worst days for Victoria so far were March 14, 17 and 20, when investigators kept uncovering patterns of new cases linked to large gatherings. One cluster stemmed from a wedding attended by almost 300 guests and staff, including family members who flew in from overseas and are thought to have brought coronavirus with them. Eight guests became sick and tested positive after the celebration, while others were infected during post-wedding family visits. “Everyone at that wedding is being considered a close contact. They have all been isolated,” Dr van Diemen said. A guest flying to Australia for another wedding happened to share the flight with a person already suffering coronavirus, gaining the infection in time to attend the nuptials. Another cluster was born. Another two people became ill following a third wedding, though the timing of their illness suggests they caught coronavirus off another guest rather than introduced it. On March 25, weddings were limited to five people, while funerals were allowed just 10 mourners. As a COVID-19 tests comes back positive, the results are sent to the contact-tracing team and an investigation is launched. The first job is to uncover how they caught COVID-19. Once the source is established, investigators pore through everything the patient has done since, identify everyone they have been in contact with, and search for any possibility the virus may have spread further. The best-case scenario is that new cases can be linked to others already identified, and the people around the cluster are isolated to stop it running away. But when the painstaking analysis cannot uncover a clear source, the Victorian unit adopts the most conservative approach — closely monitoring locations the patient has visited for any further cases. Investigators can only let close contacts know where and when they came into contact with an infectious person, not who the carrier was.

But team leader Rebecca Shack [i.e. Schack] said 90 per cent had already been told by the carrier, and had been accepting of the news. “Some people aren’t too happy, some people are OK if they are friends, but there have been a few instances where people are incensed if they are not too close to them (the carrier),” she said. In the early days of COVID-19, international travellers wandering unrestricted through Victoria made tracing a nightmare, with dozens of leads and close contacts in each case. Travel bans and social distancing mean most cases now have only a few contacts of concern. Some have none. After seeing the chaos overseas, Ms Shack [i.e. Schack] said Victorians were now more understanding of the vital interview and isolation process. “There are still a few people who are angry, but the messages have been a bit nicer in the past couple of weeks,” she said. “But if you look at Australia’s numbers compared to other countries, they should think themselves lucky we are doing this.”
NEW EVIDENCE
Some patients have had very mild hay fever-like symptoms that disappear for days before re-emerging as COVID-19. Investigations into some clusters have now had to be reopened to trace back further than the days where it was previously accepted a person was infectious. “The trickiest bit at the moment is figuring out when they got sick,” Dr van Diemen said. “We have to be very careful about everybody maintaining physical distancing until we can work out more about this illness.” But the hard work is now paying off. With a drop in cases, the contact-tracing team this week celebrated a milestone — the median time from a patient’s onset of symptoms to home isolation was zero days. The less time an infected person is in the community, the fewer clusters contact tracers have to cut off. “The shutting down of international travel, the stay-at-home stuff, that is what has driven this down,” Dr van Diemen said. “We were on a trajectory with England two weeks ago. We were quadrupling every week. Now there is a palpable ‘maybe we can do this’ mood.”

Image of Hustler Sport traction belt

Willie the wandering gypsy and me -- or what I did on my school holidays

Despite easing my back pain during the gruelling flight across the Pacific with temazepam and codeine I was able to greet the sniffer dogs at San Francisco International Airport with a fair degree of confidence. We took advantage of the $15 per head shower opportunity at the airport’s “Freshen up” franchise and it was only after leaving this facility that I realised my removable “ plate” with several artificial teeth attached to it was no longer in my mouth.  I hurried back to ask the attendant if he had retrieved any teeth in the last half hour but received a negative response. A frantic rummage through my luggage located the missing teeth sitting comfortably in my toiletries bag.

The next step was to negotiate the BART rail system to reach a station near our hotel in Union Square, and I was fortunate enough to secure a senior’s discounted pass. Checking in our bags at the hotel we ventured forth to the nearby cable car stop where there was a long queue of tourists being exhorted by a street preacher to follow Jesus. Deciding it may be quicker to walk we headed off in the direction of the Pier area where we were eventually to join our hippie kombi van “Love tour” of San Francisco. As we meandered the tourist laden pier precinct we had no idea that tomorrow 32 year old Kate Steinle would be gunned down at this very site by a 5 times deported illegal Mexican immigrant named Francisco Sanchez.

The kombi van tour bus allowed us to stop for a while in the Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood to see where Jerry Garcia once lived and to pick up a card offering a 20% discount on the first visit to the Love Shack Medicinal Cannabis centre. At the conclusion of the tour we stopped off at Johnny Rocket’s hamburger joint – part of a chain founded in Melrose Ave Los Angeles in 1986 by Ronn Teitelbaum.

The food was questionable and we vacated to weave our way through a bottle throwing incident involving a local gang before arriving at the City Lights Book Store. Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, the store was made famous by the beat generation. Who could then refuse the opportunity to have a drink at the nearby Vesuvio Cafe – an historic bar in located at 255 Columbus Avenue, across from Jack Kerouac Alley from City Lights Bookstore? The bar was founded in 1948 by Henri Lenoir, and was frequented by a number of Beat Generation celebrities including Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Neal Cassady, as well as other notable cultural figures such as Dylan Thomas, Bob Dylan, Rodger Jacobs and Francis Ford.
Eventually laid to rest at the hotel, I awoke the next morning with exacerbated back pain and applied some “ice gel” to my lower back – an act that would prove problematic an hour or so later at the airport security checkpoint when we flew out to Austin. An airport x-ray machine revealed a potentially explosive substance strapped to my rear torso and I was called aside for “patting down” before the guards reluctantly released me.

Will at the bar of the Vesuvio Cafe

The flight to Austin didn’t help the back much but we managed to arrive in time for the last of the free drinks at our hotel -- the Hampton Inn and Suites on San Jacinto Blvd. It was a simple matter of self-medicating enough to make it to the legendary Broken Spoke honky tonk as the Texan dusk descended on South Austin.

At the Spoke

We stumbled in as the 2-step dance class was in its dying stages and ordered some Mexican food before the band “Heybale” took to the stage. Singer Dallas Wayne announced that regular guitarist Redd Volkaert was busy having a penile implant but that they would soldier on. His fill in, Bryce Clark, did an admirable job, as did pianist Earle Poole Ball (best known for 20 years touring with Johnny Cash) and bassist Kevin Smith (Bee Spears replacement in Willie Nelson's family band). Our uber driver on the way home insisted that we had messed up by not attending the dance class where we would have been able to demonstrate to the girls that we were available. Too tired to debate this theory we agreed on “next time”.

Heybale

Waking to more back pain the next morning I considered contacting the Andrew Johnson Hotel in Knoxville to see if they knew the whereabouts of the doctor who had administered a mixture of morphine and vitamins to a pain ridden Hank Williams on New Year’s Eve 1952, but found it easier to locate a chiropractor on Congress Ave.  The practitioner gave me a pelvic readjustment, charged a $65 fee,  and issued a hand written receipt on a scrap of paper before disclosing he went to high school with Willie Nelson’s daughter Paula (whom he described as a “wild child”).

Christy Hayes

Moonlight social

Thus treated,  I felt well enough to attend the early session at Stubbs BBQ to see a female artist named Christy Hayes and a band called Moonlight Social (which did a good version of the Civil Wars' “From this Valley”) before catching an uber ride to Ginny’s Little Longhorn Saloon for Alvin Crow. I reminded both Alvin and his guitarist John Reid that I had met them in 2001 but, not surprisingly, they showed little recognition of the fact. Our uber driver homewards entertained us with a constant dissertation of the Australian pronunciation of beetroot.

With Alvin Crow

The following day was a neo public holiday prior to Sat. July 4th and we availed ourselves of a guided tour of the Capitol Building (noting that at 308 ft tall the Texas State Capitol is 19 feet taller than the United States Capitol which is only 289 ft tall) and greater Austin (including the LBJ library).

In the evening we embarked  on a jaunt to the Austin Beer Garden and Brewery to catch “The Merles” and “Choctaw Wildfire”.  It was here that we encountered “Daniel” – a man in an advanced state of drunkenness celebrating his wedding anniversary and wanting to know why we weren’t dancing. When I said I don’t dance he suggested getting drunk. When I said I didn’t drink he asked if I could walk. When I said no, I had a bad back, he said that was perfect – a man with a bad back trying to walk would look like dancing. We also met Mike from Atlanta Georgia, in town for the Willie Nelson 4th of July Picnic, and in a celebratory mood. He publicly stated his dislike of Afro-Americans and claimed they didn’t work, shot people, and robbed innocents. He dismissed any suggestion of racism by indicating he didn’t mind Mexicans because “they work” – slightly at odds with news reports of a Donald Trump statement blaming Mexicans for importing crime. He was there with a friend Kevin, who had been pals with the late Poodie Locke (Willie Nelson’s long-time stage manager, friend and golf partner) and who told tales of accompanying a Willie Nelson tour to Amsterdam.

With Kevin and Mike

The Merles

Saturday July 4th duly arrived and we rose to secure an uber driver to take us the 20 miles to the Austin 360 amphitheatre where the annual Willie Nelson 4th of July Picnic was being held. Arriving about 11.15 am the impending 93 degree heat was momentarily held at bay by cloud cover. The opening act, Pauline Reese, was already in progress.  Reese is an Austin based singer named female Vocalist of the Year & Entertainer of the Year at the 2012 Texas Music Awards, and had a swag of native American dancers to enhance her show and set the tone for the day.

Pauline Reese

Other early acts included Amber Digby – a great traditional country singer in her mid-thirties whose father played bass with Loretta Lynn,  “Folk Uke” – the duo featuring Cathy Guthrie (daughter of Arlo) and Amy Nelson (daughter of Willie) who gave us some of our favourites including “Knock me up”,  the Raelyn Nelson Band  - a Nashville-based band mixing "old country and dirty garage rock” led by  Willie Nelson’s granddaughter, and the Paula Nelson Band featuring Willie’s daughter. ( n.b. : Willie Nelson's 1963 marriage to Shirley Collie broke down in 1971, after Collie found a bill from the maternity ward of a Houston hospital charged to Nelson and Connie Koepke for the birth of Paula Carlene Nelson. Koepke and Nelson married the same year and had two daughters, Paula Carlene and Amy Lee).

Amber Digby

Folk Uke

Dallas Wayne, an Austin-based singer, songwriter, voice-over artist and on-air radio personality who was once part of the honky-tonk supergroup, the TwangBangers, and now fronts Heybale, preceded the first of the legendary names on the bill – David Allan Coe. The "front of stage" mosh pit swelled for Coe, who needed a walking stick and a helper to make it to a stool on centre stage. The impressive but aging (75) outlaw was about to launch into song after uttering the first amplified f word for the day when he realised his guitar was out of tune. A much younger technician got it in order and the crowd sang along to classics such as “Long haired redneck”, “If that ain’t country”, “Take this job and shove it” and “The ride”.

David Allan Coe

Ray Wylie Hubbard continued the crowd participation with “Up against the wall redneck mothers” and ushered in Greezy Wheels – the band that played support for Willie’s first ever performance at the Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin and were regarded as the house band at the Armadillo. The MC mentioned that an original poster for that gig would be worth $10,000.00.

Greezy Wheels

Some audience members were bemused to hear 80 year old Johnny Bush singing Whiskey River” at the picnic until it was realised that the Willie Nelson signature song was in fact written by Bush and was a 1972 hit for him.

Kris Krisofferson opened the main “Pavilion stage” as a solo artist and sang better than ever through "Help me make it through the night" and "Why me Lord". However the harmonica he had brought along for “Me and Bobby McGee” was not in the key he was playing on the guitar and he decided to cut the song short.

Kris

The sun beat mercilessly down as the main MC (Kinky Friedman) reminded the audience of an old Willie joke – if you’re going to have sex with an animal it’s best to make it a horse because if things don’t work out at least you’ve got a ride home.

Kinky

It was now a case of alternating between stages – the Grand Plaza offered us Billy Joe Shaver (who delivered “Ride me down easy” perfectly), Leon Russell (the second walking stick devotee of the day), Asleep at the Wheel (covering Waylon Jennings’ “Bob Wills is still the king”) and Jamey Johnson (whose version of George Jones’ “He stopped loving her today” brought the crowd to a standstill).

Jamey Johnson

Billy Joe Shaver

Asleep at the wheel

Leon Russell

New age acts Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell delivered credible sets (as did Chris Stapleton - having no idea at this stage he would be male vocalist of the year at the 2015 CMA awards) as a prelude to the fireworks and headliners Eric Church and Willie Nelson.

Jason Isbell

Kacey Musgraves

Chris Stapleton

During the fireworks set I ventured forth to a scene of desecration on the outside lawn where a lone shirtless figure paced through the conglomerate of prostrate  bodies chanting “Anyone got a joint for sale?”.  It had been five o’clock before someone offered us our first joint – far later than at San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival some years earlier when it seemed it was breakfast fare. Joints were also the focal point for song pauses by Kacey Musgraves (“Follow your arrow”) and Merle Haggard (“Are the good times really over for good?”).

\

Merle and Willie

Eric Church sang a lot about smoking and drinking and appealed to only a certain demographic in the audience.

Eric Church

Willie finally came on around midnight but much of the audience was in a more subdued state of mind by this point, having reached a peak of appreciation earlier when Willie joined Merle Haggard for “Pancho and Lefty” and “It’s all going to pot”. Nevertheless we sang along with his classics and filed out in an orderly fashion after an obligatory encore.

Willie and family

Being 20 miles out of Austin without a car at the end of a Willie Nelson picnic isn’t as much fun as it first sounds and it is amazing how quickly panic and anxiety can replace euphoria. After much wandering around in the darkness we attempted hitch hiking at several spots before two women stopped and offered us a lift (for a fee). Assuring the female passenger (who claimed she had “not signed up for this”) that we were not murderers was a hurdle, but eventually we got in the car. As it turns out the driver was the daughter of a racing car driver named Masten Gregory. Known as the Kansas City Flash,  he is in a distinct club of motorsport being only one of seventeen drivers to compete in all three legs of the Triple Crown of Motorsport (Indianapolis 500, 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Monaco Grand Prix) and to have won at least one of those events. At any rate, his daughter was a good driver and got us home for only $30.

Masten Gregory

As we drifted in to a deep sleep at 200 San Jacinto Blvd. we were blissfully unaware of a drama unfolding only blocks away at the nearby Omni Hotel (700 San Jacinto Blvd.) Michael Holt, 35, was seen with a rifle at 5 am in the lobby. Moments later a 911 call came saying he had shot a man in the lobby and police responded and shot Holt dead. The innocent bystander killed was 60-year-old  Yellow Cab driver, Conrado Guadalupe Contreras.

The next day (Sunday) was a late start but we managed to make it to the afternoon show at the Continental Club where the Casper Rawls Band included,  on this occasion, bass player Glenn Fukunaga and Merle Haggard’s piano player Floyd Domino. As a former member of Asleep at the Wheel – which he joined at 17 – Domino had joined the band for a guest spot at the previous day’s Picnic.

With Casper Rawls Band

In the evening the FIFA women’s world cup final (USA v Japan) was on everyone’s mind and we took the opportunity to watch it at a bar in Rainey Street where chants of "You Ess Ay" echoed along the once sleepy residential street.  Rainey Street was rezoned as part of Austin’s CBD in 2004. Bars and eateries have flocked to Rainey,  since CBD zoning enables traffic-heavy cocktail bar or restaurant use without any additional zoning request. As such, old bungalows have been fixed up and turned into bars and cocktail lounges with ample backyards and porches. Examples are: Banger's Sausage House and Beer Garden, the Blackheart, Javelina, Jack and Diane's and Rainey Street Bar.
It was then back to the Continental for the mid evening show featuring the Wagoneers – a band popular in the 80s that opened for such diverse acts as Bill Monroe and The Ramones, and featuring guitarist Brent Wilson.

On our uber trip home we observed a stationary police car on Congress Avenue Bridge as crowds gathered to watch the bats fly out. Two officers were attempting to subdue a suspect in a not too subtle manner and back up had obviously been called for. We passed seven police cars racing to the scene, but continued homewards to get some sleep before flying to Dallas.

Dallas was hot and windy when we landed but we were pleased to find we had a good view of the Dallas County Jail from our room at the Hyatt Regency. We visited Reunion Tower (an observation tower with a revolving restaurant and 360° views, being the 15th tallest structure in Dallas), took a JFK assassination tour where we noted the area where Lee Harvey Oswald boarded in 1963 has not changed much, and explored Dealey Plaza and the Grassy Knoll before visiting the Sixth Floor Museum. At the Grassy Knoll we bought a souvenir newspaper from a vendor who assured us that Oswald could not have acted alone and that secret service agent Clint Hill had changed his original statement (Hill’s modified statement that Oswald acted alone is presented to visitors in the Reunion Tower and now matches the official line).

On the Grassy Knoll

Monday evening in Dallas is not the most lively night of the week but fortunately Adair’s Saloon at 2624 Commerce St, offers live country music 7 nights a week. We were able to chow down on one of the nicest but least healthy cheeseburgers I have experienced to the sounds of the Troy Cartwright band (Troy Cartwright is a country singer and songwriter born and currently residing in Dallas.  He graduated from the Berklee College of Music,  was selected as the winner of the 25th annual B. W. Stevenson Songwriting Competition, and was the recipient of the 2014 Rising Star Texas Music Award).
The following day we visited the A T & T stadium –  a city-owned 85,000-seat capacity stadium with a retractable roof in Arlington (the guide told us the roof is opened so God can watch his favourite team play). It serves as the home of the Dallas Cowboys - one of the most valuable sports clubs in the world with a value of $2.3 billion. The facility can also be used for a variety of other activities outside of its main purpose (professional football) such as concerts, basketball games, college and high school football contests, soccer matches, as well as motocross and  Spartan races. It was interesting to learn that on Feb. 14, 2010, the NBA All-Star game drew a 108,713 strong crowd. The Cowboys’ first home game in the stadium still stands as the largest regular-season crowd with 105,121 people, whilst George Strait’s June 2014 concert became the largest indoor concert in North America as 104,793 people packed AT&T Stadium. It broke a 33-year record previously set by The Rolling Stones in New Orleans in 1981, when an estimated crowd of 87,500 people crammed into the Superdome. Although Kenny Chesney and Jason Aldean drew a crowd of only 47,256, on May 16 2015, Chesney’s songs “Drink it up” and “Beer in Mexico” generated record beer sales at the stadium.

Cheerleaders change room

On the playing field

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Not looking forward to a four stop journey home (Dallas-San Francisco-Los Angeles-Sydney-Melbourne) we nevertheless fronted at Dallas Love Field airport. At San Francisco the flight to LA was delayed and delayed until we were unable to make the connecting flight to Sydney. News reports said United Airlines flights were grounded for almost two hours due to a computer hardware problem, creating travel headaches for tens of thousands of passengers. After a ninety minute wait in a queue at the United Airlines service desk in Los Angeles we were allocated tickets on the following night’s flight to Sydney and given a voucher for a room at the Concourse Hotel and a voucher for a $21 meal at participating outlets.
The 24 hour delay provided the opportunity for a quick trip to Hollywood where vendors pushed marijuana cards (i.e. cards that would allow you to get medical marijuana) for $25 as they jostled for sidewalk space with scientologists offering personality tests, Jehovah’s witnesses offering free booklets and Chinese Christians imploring people to turn to Jesus before entering the adult bookstore. At a set of traffic lights on Hollywood Boulevard I coincidentally ran into Quinn Toohey from Melbourne – proving the world is indeed a small place these days.

Later that evening our United Flight did take off and 14 hours later I was in Sydney amongst 3000 passengers from all parts of the globe trying to negotiate the Australian Customs system. The back pain had returned and news of Collingwood’s 3 point loss to Port Adelaide added enough mental anguish to cause temporary separation from my travelling companion (my son Will). We were re-united on the Qantas flight to Melbourne and lived happy lives.