Burning Man: Summer, 2001
My eight-instalment reminiscence of the wackiest art festival on planet Earth.
Author: Todd Snelgrove
I've been having a lot of fun these past fifty-odd years. I've busked and bicycled through more places I can count, taught music and caught dengue fever, managed a band that toured all over North America and worked with Canada's National Orchestra for two decades. I've traveled countless miles to see a thousand concerts, played hundreds of gigs, won in Vegas and lost in Estonia, worked as a concert promoter, university instructor, janitor, and entertainment writer, seen the Grateful Dead and hiked the Dogon Valley, ran the stairs of the CN Tower and pedalled across Scandinavia once and Newfoundland twice. I've visited the graves of Alexander the Great and the great Robert Johnson, drunk excessively with some of the best and worst people you can imagine, and I've slept in some very, very weird places. Several years ago I started writing some of it down, and much of it is collected here for your perusal.
100512 Neil Young & Crazy Horse/Los Lobos, Kingston, ON
On October 5th, 2012 I drove to Kingston to see Neil Young and Crazy Horse…
Skating the Rideau Canal
Come along for the ride as I skate along the frozen Rideau Canal (AKA The World’s Largest Skating Rink)…
092516 Harry’s Bar, Venice, Italy
September 25th, 2016 was the last full day in Venice for m’lady and me, and we took full advantage…
092394 The Tragically Hip’s Day for Night Album Release Party, Kingston, ON
By hook or by crook I had obtained an invitation to The Tragically Hip’s private friends-and-family-only CD release party for Day For Night…
092112 David Byrne and St. Vincent, Montreal, QC
On September 21st, 2012 I drove to Montreal to see the wonderful David Byrne…
091703 Hawksley Workman, Ottawa, ON
By the time I walked into a very-packed Barrymore’s on September 17th, 2003 I had already seen Hawksley Workman at least three or four times before…
090807 Renoir exhibit, Ottawa, ON
On September 8th, 2007 I once again enjoyed a special exhibit of world class art at Ottawa’s National Gallery of Canada, this time courtesy of French Impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir…
090712 Lindsay Buckingham, Ottawa, ON
I ask you, what could be finer than cycling along a UNESCO World Heritage site, through the campus of my old alma mater and along the gurgling Rideau River to Hog’s Back Park on a warm Indian Summer evening to hear the wonderful Lindsay Buckingham play the guitar…
090201 Burning Man VIII, Black Rock City, NV
Burning Man is a festival unlike any other, a collection of creativity and freedom that in my experience is unparalleled anywhere by anything and I’m pleased to the core to have attended…
Todd Man Out 