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Newfoundland wrap up
Sound Symposium = very fantastic.  We had a great time in St John’s: SPIN went over super well (with thanks to our local bicycle-shop helpers Bills Bicycles, who lent us the light blue ladies Raleigh that played beautifully, and Canary Cycles, for the loan of the mechanics stand) and we have all developed buns of steal from walking the steep and unavoidable hills and stairs of downtown St John’s.
After the show, our last day in town was perhaps the most memorable: we stuck all our tourism into 12 hours, beginning with a hike up Signal Hill (what a completely magical place) on what i think must have been the hottest and windiest day of the year in Newfoundland – so windy they closed Marconi’s tower, and certainly somewhat anxiety-producing conditions for walking on the edges of high cliffs and rocks on the edge of the Atlantic .  Throughly sunburned and windblown, we then went whale watching from Bay Bulls.  We went out on the boat for a couple of hours, and saw whales, whales and more whales!  So amazing!!  So incredible!  Two humpbacks were within probably 5 feet of the boat, and we traveled beside them for 10 or 15 minutes (or, I suspect, they decided to travel beside us) watching them surface and dive and blow their spray up in the air….such incredible creatures. Awe inspiring. The size of a school bus!
Whale watching was followed by the Cape Spear Sound Symposium finale concert/event, which took place as night fell in the World War II barracks at the easterly most tip of the country…a memorable, spooky and atmospheric event, where all the participating artists were given secret instructions in an envelope, which included sound-related tasks to be performed at a certain time during the hour of the event: my personal favorite was getting to scream for two minutes in an dripping, candle-lit, echoing hallway in the underground barracks.