Yellowknife to Calgary

Happy Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day!

We had an interview in Quebec (seems like another lifetime ago already) and our interviewee suggested that we might find more unity if Canadians everywhere celebrated French things as well as English things. Like Saint Patrick's Day and Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. Do we really need an excuse to head out to the pub for a drink or two? Instead of green beer, drink blue beer today!

Anyway, we're celebrating by taking another long bus ride, this time down to Calgary. We've been on the bus about 12 hours. Only 17 or so more to go. I hope Darcy doesn't mind if we get to his place and just crash. I find it's easy to sleep on the bus, but when I wake up, I'm still tired.

The interviews and performances in Yellowknife for the rest of the festival were amazing. And we got so many musicians willing to let us use their music for the film. And they're so diverse. Art Napoleon www.artnapoleon.com & Wajjo - West African drummers with Scottish pipers www.telusplanet.net/public/wajjo/index.html and Michelle Boudreau www.michelleboudreau.ca plus the throatsingers. And finally, William Greenland, a Gwich’in Radio Broadcaster, who struck me first because he shares his name with our high school film and video teacher. Small world.

And we met some awesome artists who were working the festival. Martin Goodliffe, first off, who was making incredibly intricate jewelery in a tee pee. I wish I'd had some of my stones for you. Dan the Balloon Man www.dantheballoonman.ca who can make ANYTHING out of balloons in under 2.4 seconds. Zee Artiste www3.telus.net/public/woodbury/zee.html who drew a very cool caricature of me while I was interviewing him and mosquitoes were eating him alive. And Snickerdoodles www.wonderstuff.ca who kept many rambunctious children happy with her face painting magic. We had a really cool conversation about this documentary and its goals. She mentioned it had prompted a discussion with her daughter about success and what's important in life, and it made me realize that that's my success right there.