As regularly as I can, I break away from the normal grind and jump into some ridiculous adventure. Our yearly hockey tournament / Hootenanny concert is a great example.
It starts with the hockey
I grew up watching and playing hockey so it doesn't seem so extreme to me. This weekend is a tournament we have played with our team The Dufferin Groove for a quarter of a century. I am sure many of my followers are not sportsy people so you have to trust me about how much fun this game is to play.
Even those who are not fans of sport, you can probably relate to how much fun it is to be part of a team. Beers in the dressing room aren't actually allowed but a pint after a hard-fought game recounting the plays is about as good as it gets.
We award the big golden chain to the Most Grooviest Player. It can be for anything notable during the game and Mitchy won it this game for playing a solid game on defence.
Making it even more Canadian, craft lager for the dressing room refreshment for me.
Good thing we have ice to cool our beer when some of us need some ice for sore spots where you get hit with the puck.
I can almost smell this picture where we are getting our game faces on for the next game.
For a change, we went undefeated in the round robin, won the semi finals, and lost the finals in the last 15 minutes of the game on a lucky shot. Best performance in years on the ice at least...
win or lose, celebrations in the parking lot with the boys are the best.
The Music
The special thing about this tournament is the musical aspect. Not just your typical tournament, this one leans heavily toward players with a creative or musical talent. It started over 25 years ago when a requirement to join included having to put an act on stage for everyone for a 30-minute set. This is the trophy awarded to the best set of the weekend at wild nights we call The Hootenanny. We pulled this with a show in 2012.
Back to the parking lot, we have the acoustic instruments out to polish up our act and try a few new tunes for our next show.
The hootenanny is a wild night for sure. Acts of all kinds usually very lightly rehearsed and improvised as you go. As an example, this is a strange one where everyone dressed badly as Billy Corgan and did a perfect set of Smashing Pumpkins songs. Pumpkin props and all.
The Hootenanny and our view of it is at least another post I will try and find time to post later this week. As a little sneak peek, here are the same hockey doods on The Groove up on stage with our Travelling Wilburys tribute act.
Tune in next episode where we skate through a dozen wild acts and I give you the back stage view of all the spectacle.
