a flying womad

i have just completed the annual trek to adelaide
for the one and only compulsory event on my calendar
attendance at the womad festival
world of music and dance
first visited it in 2001 and have been back every time since
in 2002 it was still a bi-annual event so it was a 2 year wait
for my second visit in 2003 and then an annual event
so 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and this year makes 8 times
a few years ago they added new plymouth nz to the list of sites
which means there are now 8 womads a year all over the planet
new plymouth always happens a week after womadelaide
so a lot of the same performers are at both festivals
today i took a flight from adelaide to auckland
as i need to be in that city for work reasons
as i was queuing up to go through immigration
i recognised a few very obvious african musicians
and it occurred to me that i could be sharing the flight with a few more
there's a chap by the name of thomas brooman
has the role of artistic director for womad internationally
which presumably means he travels the world
checking out music and musicians
offers some of them a gig at a womad festival, or 2, or more
then gets to go and see them play the gig in front of an adoring crowd
which basically means this chap has my dream job
he and his wife were seated in the row on the other side of the aisle
they seemed very down to earth considering their envious lifestyle
but then i often think does doing music as a job
detract from doing music as a hobby
he didn't even have a ipod so that proves it (well?)
seated behind me were the members of the terem quartet (russia)
in front were various members of taraf de haidouks (romania)
further back was peruvian diva susana baca
and a number of african musicians with assorted instruments
i was truely humbled by the presence of greatness
wanted to do the gush thing but resisted
and played the part of the ignorant whitey-boy
buried under his headphones and fiddling with his laptop
if only they knew the love and respect i had for them all
but to quote a line from a popular song from the 80's
i am the son and heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
so instead i just happily indulged myself
churning over memories of a great weekend
and happily gave a hand to a romanian to fill out his immigration form
then watched as another stupid dumb white male take him on in a drinking competition
air new zealand are very generous with their mini-bottles of wine
so it was all on for young (kiwi) and old (romanian)
you would suspect a hardened east european musician of senior years
is going to have it all over a football-loving beer-swilling music-ignorant idiot
who upon disembarkation decided to play the accomodating kiwi host
shoulder-tapped a disinterested french lady manager of our lady from peru
and proceeded to question her immigration style on her intended destination
oh - new plymouth - hic - never been there - hic - lived all my life in napier - hic
i catch the eye of the french lady - look at me i will her
we're not all like that - you're going to love it here
by the time i got to immigration the word was out
and i helped another romanian musician with his form
overcome my shyness as he thanked me effusively for helping him
and i in turn thanked him for his music at womadelaide
walked out of the airport very happy i did
last time i shared a plane with a bunch of stars
it was the trounced all blacks on the way back from south africa
couldn't help but compare the experiences
musicians 1 sportsmen 0