Live music

Blues guitarist Laurie Morvan wales on her guitar during a solo as the Laurie Morvan Band performs in Washington Park Friday.

I had never heard of the Laurie Morvan Band, and I had never been to Blues in The District before, so I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting myself into. I was positive I would run in to more reluctant people who did not want to be interviewed, and I still have not acquired a threatening persona yet, and nor do I like pushing people to do things they don’t want to do, but if I really am getting annoyed, I just use the line — “Hey, I’m on deadline people, can you help me out…” — when most of the time, I don’t even edit the event until two days later. Tricks of the trade, of which I just gave up … oh well, I do what I can to get what I want.

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But with this crowd … I had NO problem finding people to be interviewed. (You will see for yourself when you watch the video below) I thoroughly enjoyed how easy it was to get people to oblige to my interviews. Or maybe it was the constant flow of alcohol that was running through their veins that provoked them to make such a rash decision in letting me videotape and post them on the internet for all to see, forever? (Ok, a bit much…) Either way, I had plenty of people offering to be interviewed. It made my life a lot easier, and a lot more fun! Not to mention, I ran into a lot of people that I knew, or at least people who knew me. I have to say, I honestly love my job, and truly feel honored that people are happy at the progress I’m making with my career. It means a lot to hear your compliments, and I love interacting with the people of Quincy. So, on that side note … Thank you!

Back to the band … Laurie Morvan is by far one of the most charismatic performers I have ever met. Even in just talking to her, she has this cool, sleek feel about her, in that she seems like she really cares about her fans and what they think, yet she doesn’t have this fake, “Oh my gosh it’s soooo great to meet you” (when some artists, I’m sure, could care less about fans). She truly wasn’t like that. I stood there for a while, and just watched her mingle with her fans as she signed autographs in-between breaks. The fact that she did that was amazing. Most artists hide out backstage … which would have been hard to do in Washington Park, but I’m sure a port-a-potty would have sufficed. Yeah, no.

I was impressed with the band, the people, the food and the atmosphere. I felt welcomed by the crowd, and the people who came up to me just to say hello. I really appreciate it. I also appreciated the openness by Laurie, I know she was very busy, so with that, I thank her sincerely, for letting me steal a moment of her time.

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Jenny Dreasler

I can not tell you how EXCITED I am for this weekend. I get a day off work,  and I can’t believe it’s already the 4th of July!

There are tons of things to do around town … most of which you probably already know about: Tom Sawyer Days in Hannibal, and the annual Quincy firework celebration being held at the Illinois Veterans Home. (Not at the river this year.) Which for those of you don’t know, it used to be held at the Vet’s home long ago… well long before I was born, and this year is the home’s 125th anniversary, so it will be held there this year, and rightfully so.

If you aren’t in the immediate Hannibal/Quincy area, and you don’t know of anything to do, besides setting off your own fireworks … which may I remind you Quincyans, you can’t shoot them off within city limits. Good thing, I don’t live in city limits. Note to sister: Don’t buy the crappy little $20 firework packs, they just got us a bunch of sparklers and poppers. Never. Again.

But I digress … this weekend there are other things to do if you aren’t planning on staying in Quincy or Hannibal.

Up at the Warsaw Fairgrounds, the Warsaw Community Coalition will host its Independence Day Concert on Sunday, July 3. If you aren’t sure exactly where this is, it’s at 1121 Francis Sartory Road, Warsaw IL. Plug it in your Garmin if you’re as directionally challenged as I am. It should get you there … but if it’s like mine, it will tell you to do things like “Take a ferry to get from St. Louis to Quincy”… Yeah.

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It starts at 4:30 p.m. and goes until 11:30 p.m. The concert will feature Emily Riesen, Jerad Harness and Blackgrass, Staggard and Bocephus Casey. To be honest, I have no idea who they are, but I’m getting the idea, they could be some type of rock band-ish type groups. But, I could be wrong. Feel free to correct me. Google, didn’t exactly turn up the best results on them. But I’m sure they will provide great entertainment.

All ages are welcome, bring lawnchairs/blankets, etc. Gates will open at 4 p.m. Admission is only going to be $10. Kids 12 years old and younger are $5. The advertisement said to bring “appropriate” ID. Whatever that means. I guess it means to all you parents of 13 years olds who are upset you can’t a discounted price anymore, you need to cough up an extra $5 bucks. Well, or you could make your kid chip in since it’s their fault they turned 13 and all. Either way, make sure you bring ID’s they will be checking.. and no FAKES either.

Food and beverages will be very inexpensive, as no outside food or beverages will be allowed. T-shirts, souvenirs, and CD’s will also be available. Proceeds will help to fund future projects by the WCC, including the 2012 Warsaw Bicentennial.

Sounds like a great community activity to take part in, not to mention, Warsaw is a very pretty little antique town. I would highly recommend going to this event.. who doesn’t love fireworks, food and drinks. Well, and for my sake they better be serving more than just beer…margarita’s please!

For additional information email: warsawchili@gmail.com

Jenny Dreasler

Sophia Soltwedel, 10, lets out a laugh as she is spun around by dance partner Mac McPike as they and others from the Heinze Dance Academy perform during the Junefest event Saturday evening at St. Dominic Church in Quincy. (H-W Photo/Phil Carlson)

My experience at Junefest this year was a very unique one. Not only was I to be covering the event for the Local Q, but also for WGEM! That is a pretty big deal in and of itself.

When I drove up to the event, I was alone, set out to shoot my first video that would be on live TV. Yes, scary. I walked into the event, and noticed it was a bunch of families with their children, as expected. I could smell the aroma of funnel cakes, I was actually offered one, but had to decline as I was working. I didn’t want to seem like a slacker, chowing down on funnel cakes on the job. So, to the kind woman that offered, thank you!

I was lugging my equipment around, I’m sure I looked absolutely ridiculous, as I normally do, and I was surprised to see that not many people had shown up yet. Then I looked at my clock and realized they hadn’t even been open for an hour or so. The weather earlier in the day was very questionable, so I’m sure that had something to do with it. But as mother nature would have it, it was a beautiful night for a picnic, and eventually a lot more people did show up.

I was expecting to see the Heinze Dance Academy perform a few dances, and sure enough, I got some really good video of the girls dancing. I even took the time just to stop and watch them. It was like one of those childhood dreams, thinking to myself, I could have been a dancer, or a gymnast, but I chose the sports route, and I have played soccer all my life and continue to play soccer in college. I think it’s normal to wonder what it would have been like to be a dancer, and get to be girly with makeup, and pretty costumes. Instead, I chose to throw my face into the mud, coming away with numerous bruises, broken bones and sprains. But sometimes when you watch them dancing, you just get captivated in the beauty in the art of dance. The girls did a great job, and I really enjoyed watching them perform. I got some great video of the girls, too. The video did air live on Saturday’s 10 p.m. news. I was ecstatic to see it on there, and that I didn’t screw it up.

I continued through the event and the smell of food wafted through the air. Food I could not eat, but wanted to. I traveled over to the other side of the festivities where the silent auction and raffle items were. They had some pretty interesting things they were raffling off, nicely wrapped gift baskets filled with goodies, and next to this station was a quilting station. At this station you were greeted with a trio of cute grandmother figures. I didn’t have time to talk to them, but they greeted me with the biggest of smiles as I took video of them. Not to mention, some of those quilts were beautiful.

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I have truly gotten to see the community of Quincy pull together some nice events, last weekend I covered the St. Francis picnic, and this weekend I covered Junefest. I wish that I could have stayed longer, but when duty calls, duty calls. Bands that I did not have a chance to see, as their scheduled times were a bit delayed due to wet weather, and with the schedule I was on, I couldn’t afford to stick around any longer, if I wanted to meet deadline. Tim Hart, and the Cheeseburgers played. I really was looking forward to watching them, but thankfully one of my friends went, yes the shy one, and she called to tell me that the bands were great. She just got back from Bonnaroo, which is a massive live band festival that took place in Manchester, Tenn., last weekend. So for her to say the live bands were great is a huge compliment. Great job guys!

I did get a chance to interview some really sweet ladies too, most of the people I came up to were very hesitant, which is normal. Not a lot of people like to be interviewed. It’s a scary thing. I got to interview Shari Keck. She was definitely a good sport about being interviewed, and not to mention she was my first ever interview for the station. She was really helpful in understanding this was my first time, and she did great. Her interview went really well, and not to mention looked great on camera. So, Shari, thank you again for the interview. You never know how much we appreciate people who are willing to be interviewed. It makes our lives a lot easier, and interacting with the people and getting their feedback on the events in Quincy is always something I find interesting.

I was very impressed with the setup of Junefest, and I was very happy that with whatever questions I had, such as the one about how many years this has been going on, a very nice woman, whose name I didn’t catch, went out of her way to go find the information for me. I really appreciate the kind people of Quincy. It’s the small things like this that you get to see in the field I’m in. To whoever she was, thank you so much for doing a bit of background research for me. I really enjoyed the atmosphere at Junefest, a place where kids could run around and play, and were monitored by volunteers, while their parents mingled with friends. It was a very safe environment, and I think that’s one of the main qualities I like about Quincy. This is a very trusting community filled with people who truly care about the community and the people in it. I didn’t have to stay at Junefest for longer than 10 minutes to see that.

Looking forward to next year’s events!

Here’s the video from this years event:

Jenny Dreasler

I’ve never been one to go to the local picnics or festivals. I always found something a little cliché about them. Maybe it was the little kids running around that made me feel too old to be there, or maybe it was because I was doing something else that night, or maybe it was the fact that I wasn’t 21, and couldn’t drink. I’ll let you pick the real reason.

Either way, I went to the St. Francis Picnic on Saturday.

I wasn’t feeling particularly good, nor was I feeling particularly bad. It was just one of those days where you want to relax and sleep the day away. I made my way into the picnic, in my black “Local Q” t-shirt, realizing I was without my shy friend that I usually mention. As I walked in, I really couldn’t tell where the band I was supposed to be shooting was. I got there at 7 p.m. and Raised on Radio hadn’t started playing yet. I was looking for The Heidelberg Band, and all I saw singing on the stage were a bunch of men dressed in German-style folk dress with beer mugs in their hands playing instruments and singing. I was under the impression I was looking for a hard-core rock band. Confused, I kept walking aimlessly through the crowd of partying parents and wild children.

So I continued on my search for the band. I was getting some pretty odd looks, as some people aren’t familiar with The Local Q yet. So when I decided to interview two sisters, who were about seven and 10 years old, for the website and I had to tell their parents, “Yeah, I’m interviewing your children for an entertainment website on the internet,” which didn’t sound too safe. They told me they were from Elgin Ill., and that’s when I realized they would obviously have had no clue what the website was, so thank goodness for press passes. Although they never gave me the impression that they felt that way, I still commend them for their parenting, and I have to say sorry that I couldn’t use their children’s interviews because they were so short. Either way, Abby and Kassidy, you two were great!

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I eventually found my interviews, and ran into some old friends that I hadn’t seen in years and took in all the festivities. There were a lot of people there and the food smelled great. Not to mention there were beer tents everywhere. My first thought, OK, I’m not a beer drinker. I’ve only had beer a few times in my life, and I’ve always heard the saying, “it’s an acquired taste,” I don’t know how I could ever “acquire” that taste, because to me beer tastes like regret and bad decisions. I won’t drink it. But I did manage to find one little margarita tent, so for all the non-beer drinkers out there, which didn’t seem like many, we were saved by the singular margarita tent in a mass of beer trucks. I was starting to change my mind about the pre-conceived notion I had about local picnics and festivals. This wasn’t a kiddie carnival. This was parental play time, and on top of it, the weather was beautiful, it couldn’t have been better.

Eventually, I heard the announcement that the German band playing on stage was indeed the Heidelberg Band. So it was apparent I hadn’t done my research. The men of the band were done playing, and off mingling to the side. I decided to make my way through and ask for an interview. As it turned out, the member who gave the interview, Jeff Schuecking, knew my family and my grandparents. I don’t know why I was surprised, it’s Quincy. He was very nice, and his band even fired their piano player that night to have me play in the band. Not really, but the offer was out there. They had their beer mugs and were drinking away, when one of the members had come back with some cups of beer, and offered me one. Even though I don’t drink beer, I thanked the member for the beer and took part in a toast for the band. Yes, I took a sip. It wasn’t that bad, but you won’t catch me with a beer in my hand any time soon.

After I was done mingling with the Heidelberg Band, I made my way back to my car and started my drive home, and then got a text from a friend who wanted to go to the picnic that night. Like I said earlier, I was never one to go to these type of things, but I did end up going back later when my age group was there, and let’s just say, the one margarita tent was my savior, and I will be looking forward to Junefest next Saturday!

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Jenny Dreasler