Kipona Festival and Steve Irwin

The Kipona festival in Harrisburg is held during Labor Day weekend along the Susquehanna River. The festival is one of the top ten festivals in PA and features all kinds of activities and enjoyment, including live music. The FLB was lucky to be invited to play at this year's festival and thankfully the weather was great.

I was the last out of the band to arrive, but we still had enough time to unload and set up since sound was provided. The parking situation was a bit tricky with different acts coming in and out, and I had to leave the van on the street. Then, at one point during our performance in between songs we were informed that they were about to tow our van. Thankfully, a couple of folks involved with the festival took my keys and moved my van to an acceptable spot. I caught a bit of an earful from the festival director after the show for parking the van in the street (which was half closed and half open to traffic), but I really didn't see much of an alternative at the time and was just doing the best I could to handle the situation and get ready for the show. Parking situations fell off the list of things to get stressed about a long time ago.

The show went really well and the crowd was very responsive. The weather was great and here we were playing to a lovely group of people next to the river in PA's Capitol City. Life was good. I can't say it enough times: I'm truly fortunate and thankful to be able to share music with wonderful folks in such wonderful places.

MADISON

What was even better about this performance was that the show had some folks in the audience that are very close to me. My friends Lauren and Mark brought their daughter (and my goddaughter) Madison to the show. Near the end of our set we played Madison's Song and I believe it was the first time Maddy had a chance to hear the song that I wrote for her (and her mother) a week before she was born. It's pretty amazing that she's almost 1 and a half now and blows kisses and talks and claps.

This may sound strange to some folks, but it was a very emotional experience to play Madison her song for the first time with her family right there with her. I wrote the tune as a present for Lauren at her baby shower a week before Madison was born, and now there she was, standing with her parents, smiling and clapping along.

An experience like that is hard to put into words--it uncontrollably communicates with the purest unspoken part of you as a person. For a moment, everything makes sense. It's like getting a blink at the enigmatic meaning of life--not to be understood, only to be felt. I started to tear up a few times as I played and sung the song and thought about the whole experience--how far everything and everyone has come and how thankful I am to be a part of Madison's family. It was just an overwhelmingly beautiful moment for me. I know the band probably didn't have the same connection and you all might not be able to relate as well. And I know it probably sounds overly sentimental and it makes me less of a man and all that. But for me, moments like that bring me closer to something that's bigger than myself.

I spoke with a lot of kind folks after the show and saw quite a few friends from the area. Things were pretty chaotic after the show, and I apologize to all the folks I didn't have more time to talk to. Since there was another act coming in, the load-out and parking situation was an urgent matter. After we had everything loaded-out, I had to find a place to park the van so I could hang out for a while. Everything on the street was taken (as expected), so I went to turn into the first parking garage I saw. That's when things got a little crazy...

THE VAN WAS TALLER THAN I THOUGHT...ACTUALLY I DIDN'T THINK

I've only been driving the van for a month or so and didn't even think about the tall height of the vehicle since I'm used to driving a low riding Firebird. The garage had an especially low clearance (less than 7') and as I turned into it there were some absolutely God-awful crunching and scraping noises. At first I was struck with the fear that I had just turned the van into a convertible like some kind of character on the Cartoon Network. I stopped immediately and had apparently made it into the garage, but was stuck. I couldn't go any further because the clearance became even lower, and I couldn't go back easily without causing more damage. What a disaster!

The two parking attendants were incredibly kind and helpful and we quickly devised a plan. I let some air out of the tires and pulled an Austin Powers-esque 20-point turn to turn around in the small box of space I was trapped in. By this time, traffic was backed up on 2nd Street and some lady even got out of her car to yell at me for apparently ruining some portion or all of her day. Another nice man also came along off of the street to help the cause. I apologized profusely throughout the ordeal and eventually we were able to get her back out of the garage at an angle with minimal scraping. I really don't see how the roof didn't come off. The garage was at least half a foot shorter than the van and it was a steel beam I tried to squeeze it under. I have a new respect for fiberglass.

I drove to the next garage and made sure to check the height. I asked if I could park on the bottom floor because I had just gotten stuck in another garage. Apparently I was the talk of the parking garage community at that point because one of the attendants said she had heard about my incident. Finally I found a spot and put her in park and started a damage report. I climbed the roof and she was scraped up good, but not cracked or smashed. Amazing. You couldn't even notice standing next to it. Sometimes life is just a...well, you know the rest.

A lovely friend of mine named Jenn had driven all the way from West Chester with some of her friends and family to catch the show. Jenn and her friends were EXTREMELY patient with me throughout the day as I left them waiting while I frantically loaded in and out and proceeded to almost destroy the van in the garage. After all the dust settled, I thankfully met back up with them and we all walked around the city and went out to eat. It was great to spend some time with them.

Despite the ups and downs, it was a great day. I got a chance to share music with a lovely group of folks in a very beautiful setting and I was able to spend some time in the city with friends and family. The little complications of life really don't mean much if you stay in tune with what really matters most.


STEVE IRWIN

The morning of Kipona, I read on the internet the news of Steve Irwin's (The Crocodile Hunter) unfortunate passing. It was a very sad way to start the day. As much as we have all cracked jokes at his Croc Hunter character and have performed our own Croc Hunter impressions, there seem to be very few people in this world that had as much passion for their family, work--for life--as Mr. Irwin did. He should truly serve as an inspiration to us all. My heart goes out to the family he has left behind.

I was talking with my own family about Mr. Irwin's death later in the evening. My parents were watching one of his last interviews on TV and my mother said that even though she didn't even know him and had only seen some of his TV broadcasts, Steve Irwin's death really bothered and upset her. She related it to the passing of Princess Diana and I understood completely. When a good person (in this case, someone who was loved around the world) befalls an untimely death, it shakes the very core of our beliefs, our notion of karma, and our faith in general and leaves us with a big "Why?" in a new hole of our saddened hearts. I have no answers for this eternal question and can only hope and strive to live out the rest of my days as passionately as our friend the Croc Hunter, the late Steve Irwin.