NorCal Rabble December Kilt Night

[The F-H.C.A.G.]

Last night was quite possibly the best Beer...umm...I mean Kilt Night of the past year, so be warned, there are a LOT of pictures to follow.

We were all eager to see AlanH and his band play. Now, normally there are good cover bands at The Devil's Canyon Brewery, and they are fun to dance to, etc, but this band was GOOD. Meaning musically really talented and tight. They also played some really fun stuff (the theme being international music). I'll hope that Alan chimes in and describes it better. My favorite was "The Girl From Ipenema"!

Here's the band, I'm sorry I can't name them all-I am notoriously challenged when it comes to remembering names, and I drank a lot last night:







The drummer was hard to get a good shot of, here's the best we could get:




They were supposed to play from 6-8 pm, but the next band didn't show up (they were a Reggae band, go figure), so they ended up playing almost until 9 pm.

Dancing, festivities and latest projects being shown off will follow.

Be well,

[The F-H.C.A.G.]

Because we had such a good band, with such a varied repetoire, we did quite a bit of dancing.

No one was able to get a shot of us polka-ing around the room, but Panache handed the camera over for some swing dancing shots (thanks to Monkey@Arms):

Note the swinging pleats:



From behind:



Hamming it up:



Little Xena tends to get jealous when we dance together:




We had to break it up and let the little ones have a turn...more pictures to follow (remember, I warned you!)

Be well,

[The F-H.C.A.G.]

Before I turn into a mushy mom and post a bunch of cute pictures of our offspring, I should perhaps show some of the rest of the rabble (I tend to be a bit self centered, sorry!).

We had AlanH of course, shown here with the Lovely Dameris, who it appears, has just pinched him in a sensitive area?!



Monkey@Arms was there and we met this gentleman, whose name escapes me (remember, beer, bad memory for names?)-wearing a nice combo of Hawaiian shirt and Utilikilt:





We were blessed with the presence of The Luminous Joan, who managed to have a good time it appears:



TimC and Motorman4life were there (although they seem to have forgotten that this is a KILT night!), just hanging with Panache:



Here's another one who forgot his kilt(bad Chris) !



way2fractious admires walkerk's latest acquisition:



and looking good with Monkey@Arms:



Finally, the obligatory group shot:



To follow...kids and the things we brought to show off.

Be well,

[The F-H.C.A.G.]

Be warned, doting mother posting pictures of her kids....


The kids weren't supposed to even be there last night, but we had a last minute baby sitter problem (which is also why Panache's dad couldn't make it, being that Panache's mom was supposed to be the baby sitter-long, boring story). In the end, I'm glad they could come, since they had such a great time dancing:



Here, they start to get a little wild (yes, he's actually spinning her around):



Consequences:



so, we decided on a safer activity....Bar stool spinning (ok, I'm not the world's best mom!):




In addition to child endangerment, we all took a look at some of the things brought along for show.

walkerk's Inverness Cloak from Empire Canvas Works (shown earlier as way2fractious was admiring it):




My latest project (a LOOOONG time in the making, due to, well...a busy life), thanks to a generous donation of a unique camo material from way2fractious. This is inspired by AlanH's instructions for both the X-Kilt and the X-Skirt, with some modifications of my own. It turned out ok, but, as is usual, I think it could have been better. I'll not bore you with those details though.

Pleat shot (there are 24 pleats with a Kinguisse style):



Front shot, so you can actually see the camo pattern for what it is (I call it Mud Flap Girl):



Turns out, when I took the skirt off, in the tapered area on the inside it's actually almost pleated to the set! I think walkerk got pictures of that-maybe he'll post them.

Well, Thaaaaat's all Folks!

The kids got tired at that point and began campaigning to go home:





Be well,

[McMurdo]

Wonderful photos, I do like the Empire Canvas Works Inverness cloak, must look into one soon.

[CameronTaylor]

"bad Chris ..." I guess I'll have to have a talk with his girl about that. something should be done ....


CT - I was front and center at The Poxy Boggards / Young Dubs show

[Alan H]

Ahhh, the band, the band.

some wierd guy in a kilt is playing clarinet and whistles

fiddle is Lisa Ratner
guitar and bouzouki, Kathy Sherman
Keyboards, Naomi Temes
Bass, Ben Fox, who doubles as Lisa Ratners son
Drums Tim....gaaa....from the Afro Cuban dance group Zanzibar

The mainstay of the Band is Klezmer, meaning Jewish Party Music. Last night, though we started with six Klez tunes, then moved to Ireland and Scotland for two Reels sets and a waltz....took a break, then two Greek tunes (lung busters for me), then moved to Brazil for two Sambas and then came North to the USA for some 1930's-40's style swing jazz. What was to be a 2 hour gig turned into a 2 1/2 hour job, but we had a lot of fun.

[Alan H]

Highlight of the evening, however, was standing next to this hot redhead with lots of hair when she, smack dab in the middle of the dance floor, whipped off her kilt to show me that the mud flap girls really DID "pleat to girl" on the inside of her kilt.

Gracious Heavens! *wink*

[walkerk]

Cold and drizzly for California is why most everyone was inside and the turnout was smaller than usual. With a new rain cape to try out, I was secretly hoping for the promised deluge which never came. W2F "admiring" your gear means he has inspected and mentally recorded every cut, fold and stitch - it will be fun to see what he creates.

Here's a view of the inside of the new kilt:



And a detail of the Mud Flap Girl tartan:



My thanks to Jamie and Star for the gift of a splendid tankard hanger.

[MacKellar]

It was cold and wet. I'm a wimp.