Okay. After a blitzkrieg of reading, the secrets of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows are now known to me. I picked the book up at Chapters last night, or rather this morning, at a quarter to one.

Being a good citizen of the Internet, that is all I have to say on the subject.

The temptation to post spoilers might have been greater had I not been party to even more potent magic last night. Yes, the one and only grand musical wizard of Halifax and environs was abroad last night, casting spells on the hallowed ground of Alderney Landing. latsyrk (who has heard more than enough about the Mighty Joel Plaskett and the baskets of kittens of which he is cuter than and also the batches of muffins you end up tempted to bake for him), along with her husband who is always up for fun, as well as my brother (totally under the spell these many years) and his friend, were all party to the adventure.

It rained all day yesterday--torrents, my dear, accompanied by such thunder and lightning that it seemed advisable to delay a necessary trip into town to order a backup pair of glasses (once they arrive I can send my first-stringers for repair--first time in over thirty years I've had a busted nosepiece and I'm still not sure how it happened.)

It was a wild day, but by the time the show got underway things had settled down to fog and mist. As we left Silver at the parking garage and made our way to the ferry, it was so foggy you couldn't seen Dartmouth across the harbour. We missed the opener, Jenn Grant, but were on time for Peter Elkas (I would need a little more exposure to Peter to decide how much I liked him. I suspect he'd grow on me.) And the interesting thing was, you could see the fog swirling around the stage, right? In great silvery swathes? And you know how when it's foggy your glasses persistently mist over?

Well, mine didn't. Didn't have to wipe them even once. I put that down to the sort of silvery light that circled round the concert grounds. I couldn't tell what shape it was taking but the thought occurred to me: if Joel Plaskett conjured a Patronus, what shape do you suppose it would take?

I mean, forget the Heir of Slytherin. If there was an Heir of Hufflepuff, he would be very tall and thin and wear a sweater vest.

Which he did, at least at the beginning of the evening--after a while the mixture of fog and humidity got confusing and he had to take it off ("I don't know whether I'm hot or cold," he explained, and then looked flustered by the "Woo!"s from the people right down front.) He was in fine form--he and the Emergency were augmented by Peter Elkas on keys, guitar, and harmonica, as well as Gordie Johnson of the late great Big Sugar (as I remarked to my brother, that was one guitar you would expect to be about eight times as loud as everything else onstage.) The recitation from Instrumental was given in person by the knitter of vests herself, although I didn't notice her in the wings until Joel interrupted his guitar work to blow her a kiss as she left the stage.

They played most of Ashtray Rock, there was a brief intermission when the band left the stage and Joel's dad came on to chants of "Bill, Bill, Bill!" to join him for "Love This Town" and "Happen Now," and "Maybe We Should Just Go Home" turned into a tribute to Bo Diddley and then Bob Switzer, late founder of Taz Records ("Bob is gone, but Taz Records lives on and on...") before going all voodoo at the end. And the encore performance of "Come On Teacher" turned into "Diggin A Hole" and then "Hot For Teacher," which I think was the point when Joel was laughing so hard he could hardly sing.

The evening finished with "True Patriot Love" and as we made our way back to the car, both latsyrk and her husband were heard to ask one another whether the baking implements were unpacked and whether they had any muffin tins within easy reach. I didn't ask why they needed them. The Heir of Slytherin might demand power and riches. Other sorts of magical creatures are perfectly happy to accept tribute in the form of cranberry-orange muffins.

Anyway. A magical night was had by all. In this case, there was no question the good guys would win in the end. The only question was who would bother fighting them.

Not even Severus Snape, I'm thinking...

As promised, the weather cleared up nicely yesterday afternoon for the concert. It did get cold, but it's October. Come on.

I got hung up at work a little later than expected helping a student figure out how to cite several oddball references in APA format (also known as the Citation Manual of Satan) but caught the ferry across the harbour in time to wait around before the show anyway. Which wasn't bad at all, I had a hot dog and then spotted various members of the participating bands wandering around.

Alderney Landing, where the show took place, is right where the ferry docks. It's a very unclaustrophobic place to hold a concert because it's only fenced on three sides for events, the other being open to the harbour on the assumption that Navy SEALS are honest enough to buy a ticket.

I had time to take a few pictures from the walkway down by the Landing before the music started. Here's one of the ferry heading back toward Halifax from Dartmouth:



Here's Halifax, viewed from The Dark Side:



( Further pictures plus concert babble cut here. )

At which point there was nothing for my friend and I to do but look at each other and say, "Maybe we should just go home."

And we did.

Full photo album is here. See you next October.

July 2nd, 2006, Q-Blast at Alderney Landing, Dartmouth.

To sum up: it was cold, and it was windy, and it was awesome.

( Pictures and details behind the cut. )

And the ferries were still running so we could get back to the Halifax side. At that point I found a cab and was home by one-thirty.

Happy Day After Canada Day.

Let's do it again next year.