The UMW Blogs Twilight Zone

I guess I have been having too much fun on UMW Blogs featuring faculty and students blogs. But this evening something happened to me, something so strange it invokes the smoke smooth voice of the great Rod Serling, “Next stop, the Twilight Zone.”

RSS Reader Roblog

While scanning through my RSS reader this evening I saw something that brought the UMW Blogs experiment full circle for me. A blog from a student was titled “Where in the world is Jim Groom?: National Folk Festival.” Say what? I was, indeed, at the National Folk Festival in Richmond yesterday, and I had the good fortune to experience some awesome music and storytelling (more on this below). But how did Roblog know this? More than that, why am I being featured in the title of one of his blog posts?

Well, quite simply, because Roblog is an awesome blogger and he sure knows how to have fun. He must have recognized this good Reverend from doing one of my WordPress revivals in front of numerous classes this semester (in fact he has two classes he is blogging for). Not to mention all the times I commented on his blog. So, he saw his opportunity to catapult me into the blogging Twilight Zone (for I am sure he knows how closely I follow all the UMW Blogs, and particularly his) and nailed it.

Well, here’s to you Roblog, your blog rocks, and your latest post just goes to show how much fun a profoundly silly thing like a blog can be, thanks for making my evening. Additionally, I appreciate the candid photo of me with my WordPress t-shirt –not to mention your color commentary!– I must say I look damn good!

Image of the bavaking
This one goes up on the “I love me” wall!

How fun is that? I love UMW Blogs!

I also love the National Folk Festival at Richmond. Roblog’s and my path only crossed once (even if previously unbeknownst to me), for the Campbell family band is the only show we both saw, and that is no surprise given how much was going on at this festival. My family and I got there at about 2:00 and started off with the amazing brass Gospel band The Madison Hummingbirds, also known as a “Shout Band.” They were unbelievable musicians, and immediately electrified the audience with their bopping sounds. If you can spare three minutes check out the video of the Madison Hummingbirds on YouTube performing at the National Folk Festival a couple of years ago.

We later heard Dovie Thomason, an extremely gifted story teller from the Lakota/Sioux tribes, tell the story of how Iktomi became an accidental hero. Iktomi is a trickster figure specific to the great plains tribe and the story chronicled how he traded his mind for beauty and the resulting encounter with Iya, the “camp eater” who face is as big as the full moon rising and the backward sucking of his breath inhales entire camps. Wow, the story of there encounter, and Iktomi’s ability to trick Iya and save the imperiled camp unintentionally was so beautifully told. I could have listened to her tell these stories for years and years. She even had a few jabs about the ways that technology isolates humanity from the land and one another even further, Antonella looked at me knowingly, and at some level I completely agree with Dovie Thomason.

Finally, we saw Maggie Ingram & The Ingramettes, Gospel blues by evangelist Maggie Ingram, her son, daughter and granddaughter, plus six more vocalists and band members. The Ingramettes, with their deep, over-powering voices, were relieved by the James River which rhythmically rocked in the backround to the deep-felt gospel blues as the sun extinguished on an almost perfect day in Richmond.

Image of Maggie Ingram and daughter

Thanks for helping me to blog all this Roblog, you’re an inspiration.

This entry was posted in fun, national folk festival, richmond, UMW Blogs, WordPress and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to The UMW Blogs Twilight Zone

  1. Gardner says:

    I’m pleased there was a Campbell involved in this uncanny loopback.

    That signpost up ahead….

  2. jimgroom says:

    Isn’t there always a Campbell involved? But looks like the real Campbell’s were on an exciting road trip.

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