Here are two more instrumental shots from last weekend’s 2011 National Polka Festival from Ennis Texas. You can also see the NPF gallery on Flickr. These are two of my favorite shots of the weekend, one being the corner edge of a steel guitar. These were both taken handheld from about 20 feet away from both instruments, while they were being played. If you are interested in the EXIF data on the images just head over to the Flickr gallery.
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Last night started the 45th Annual National Polka Festival from Ennis, Texas. I’m not going to post a bunch of photos here on my blog but you can see the photos on my Flickr Set for the National Polka Festival. This festival is something we try to go to every year, and it’s an event Deborah has gone to since she was about 3 or 4 years old. Unfortunately it hasn’t changed much since she was 3 or 4 years old, but it’s still quite fun to celebrate her Czech heritage with others. I just wish the promoters and people in charge of marketing the festival would recognize we are no longer in the 1970′s and make a better attempt to pass along an important event and heritage to the younger generation. It’s time!
I’m not in charge of course but I do work in communicating a message, communicating a way of life that has to be passed from one generation to another in order to survive, and there are some similarities to this and my own ministry. I totally understand their desire to maintain tradition, and that’s important, but each year that goes by the festival promoters attempt to remember the past, not necessarily the traditions, and do nothing to bring in the youngest generation.
Case in point, I go to the SOKOL (the starting hall last night), open Foursquare, no venue checkin. Fine, I create one, take a pic, upload it, now I’m Mayor (haha). I take some photos, go to upload them to Flickr. There is no Flickr group, so I create one (Polka Festival). The only pics on Flickr that show up are from 2 years ago when I posted them, ok, I’ll post a few more. There is no chatter on Twitter, none on Facebook (none that I can find officially from the NPF website, thought they do have a Facebook page, very commendable), and zero, I mean zero computers or other connected devices at the event. Of course there is no wifi (I brought my own) so it wouldn’t make much sense to have a “device” anyway. And, not to embarrass anyone at all, but, all you have to do is take one look at the National Polka Festival website and you get the whole picture. I mean really, come on guys, pay some high school kid $250 to update your website? Do a google search for the “National Polka Festival” and after the official site I’m number 2 and 3 on Google’s list, and I have nothing to do with the festival at all. So far, what they did do differently is bring in a “magician” for the weekend. It would take a whole completely different blog post to explain the things I think are wrong about that, but oh well. We have given it several years and we will probably not come back after this 2011 festival, instead opting to go to Nebraska where at least it will be a new experience.
I say none of this to chastise the festival but in an attempt to give them an outside, objective, perspective on the festival in hopes they will embrace the younger generation so it won’t completely die off… and I’m NOT the younger generation just in case they are reading this, I’m over 40, so you need to be ahead of what I’m talking about. I’ll get off my soapbox now, that’s my free advice to the NPF people in charge.
So, today there is a parade, venders, and Czech dancing and food at all three halls. I will be sure to ruin my diet by eating all the great German and Czech food available, and I’m sure we will enjoy our time at the festival today. For photos of the event just check out my Flickr page. You can also see posts from the previous years 2010, 2009, Saturday Parade 2008, 2008, 2007, Saturday 2006, and 2006.
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So we made it to Dallas, just a quick 12-13 hour drive and we arrived. The trip was pleasantly uneventful and after dinner I was thrilled our hosts wanted to stop at their favorite skyline view so I could take some photos. I love photographing traffic at night, it has a unique motion all it’s own, but being here in Dallas standing over the I-30 bridge with a large tripod looked conspicuous to someone driving by and it only took about 10 minutes before the Dallas Police Department showed up. For once the police didn’t make me pack it up and go home, instead she just wanted to know how much my camera cost? The three above were my favorite of that shoot. At dinner tonight I found out I am going to get to go to the PGA Byron Nelson Championship, so hopefully I will get my first decent PGA Tour shots while I’m there, after that it’s Polka time.
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Today is Thursday so I pulled this gem out of the closet (literally) for Throwback Thursday. I love the expression in Deborah’s face in this shot, it has always been one of my favorites. It was taken back in 1982 when she was 16 years old. This photo was sitting right next to all the pictures from “punk day” where they all seemed to go to school wearing what seems like normal clothes to us now (although Deborah had on a “RUSH” shirt, and I’m pretty sure that was for the band, not sorority week).
I hope somewhere in this Lent season you are finding some time to relax, reflect, and rejoice, it always seems like there is so much going on… the earth must be spinning twice as fast now as it was back in 1982.
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We have very few traditions in our house. We usually try to have special days throughout the year, but not necessarily on the day everyone else decides it should be done. One tradition we have maintained for the last five years is going to the annual National Polka Festival (their website needs a serious update) in Ennis Texas. This year through all kinds of different circumstances we were not able to make it, but today, for the last five years, we have been in Ennis enjoying some of Deborah’s Czech heritage with all the other Czech, German, and Texan people from around the country.
Each year Deborah has hand made an authentic Czech costume, and I usually get a vest and or shirt to go along with her costume. This past year her costume was red, white, and black. In order to enter into the Czech dance contest you must be in full costume, so Deborah has made a point to hand make hers each year.
Since we were not able to be there this year I thought I would post a few photos from last year. We are already making plans to be at the festival next year, but at least this year I saved about 10,000 calories from all the great Czech and German food that always accompanies the festival. I am sure everyone will have a wonderful time this year, we will be enjoying our Memorial Day weekend at home, watching all these thunderstorms rolling through.
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This is a guest post by Deborah, she explains the Polka Festival far better than I do. Scott
Things around here have been so crazy that I have been unable to post this years collection of images from the Polka Festival. Now that the mid-terms are over and the grandson has returned home I can finally turn my attention to more entertaining subjects. Ebby enjoyed the trip to Dallas.
The trip back was another story. There were three of us, Me, Scott, and our three year old grandson William in the front cab of our little truck for the 14 hour trip back home. Ebby lived in my lap the entire ride back. All is well though. We made it home without incident, unless you count the first hour in the truck when William turned to me and basically lost all his orange juice he had taken in before we left. It was a mess, but we survived.
This year my dad and I competed in the King and Queen Dance again. There were 21 couples competing this year and we didn’t even make it past the first cut. We had fun though and the couple who won were far superior dancers and will represent the festival well in the year to come.
Here is the video of our 2009, meager attempt at stardom…
On Saturday, we went to the parade as usual, but the parade was a huge disappointment this year. Not only did it start about an hour late because of an inadvertently parked train across the intersection, but there were bands included in the floats that had absolutely NOTHING with Czech heritage, except perhaps that the members were residents of the greater Ennis area. These bands were beyond metal in flavor and there was not a polka to be found. Sad, really. If Ennis wants to do something to promote the Polka Festival in the future they might want to try updating the website and begin thinking “nationally” again. They are, after all, the National Polka Festival. Ok, rant is over… The best part of the parade for me was seeing Ebby all decked out in her costume. She is truly a Czech/Mex dog! Ha Ha
We will not be attending this festival next year (or probably for a few years to come), mainly because we want to go visit some other festivals in other parts of the country. Now that I have my supply of costumes, we can dance in style throughout Wisconsin, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Ohio, to name a few. Stay tuned here for updates on our adventures to a polka festival near you.
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This Friday night Deb and I decided to take off from working and go see the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace and have dinner at Friday’s (not because it was Friday), and do our friday feet photo post (this one may be TMI, but it’s my blog). I actually saw two other friday feet posts (here if your on Facebook and follow Kevin, and here if you read Stephen DeVries blog) by fellow bloggers this week and although it was a total coincidence, let’s just say for ego sake it was for this series.
The new James Bond movie was good, although a few observations. The last movie Deb and I saw in the theater was Casino Royale in 2006 (yes the last James Bond movie), and these last two have been different but really good. There were few gadgets and the cars were some futuristic hydrogen cell Ford? The cost of a movie is still ridiculous. We went to the 4:20 show, ticket were $14, a small coke (I think 8oz) and a small popcorn was $10, and after talking to a friend in China, apparently everyone over there can watch the same movie for $1.00. Oh well, all part of the fun I guess, and I love the James Bond series, so today it was Quantum Solace.
I used Deb’s feet in the photo again (for those of you new to my blog, yes, we are married for some 15+ years now), pretty much a dead giveaway who’s who, but, Deb put the duck on the left in the photo just for you b/, yes, that is actually a Hook’em Horns rubber duck. You can’t see it for my big toe but it says Texas across the front. She’s pretty proud of that duck (although it’s fun to fill him up with water and sink him).
