"Just keep those boys away from your accordion!" *

(*as spoken by Mr. Harold Weir in the Freaks and Geeks episode "Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers.)
Subtitle: Bliss on the Hudson

About three months ago, it came to my attention that I love accordion music. This realization came shortly after I established for myself a strict "give money to all subway and street performances involving an accordion" policy. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard about the Manhattan Accordion Festival.

Let me just say that the festival was about 100x better than I was expecting. And I had high hopes going in.

The setting was pier 70--a picturesque pier jetting out into the Hudson, surrounded by sailboats and kayaks with a lovely view of the New Jersey skyline. There was a gentle breeze and little waves. Standing by the railing in the late afternoon sun, listening to the Irish accordion band, watching the little kids dancing in front of the stage I had a moment of pure bliss. Pure bliss I am telling you.(this photo was taken either before or after the moment of bliss, but this was the basic idea. the lady on the left is not involved in the telling of this story. The bike is Ashley's--I was guarding it.)

I went with my roommate Ashley. Here's us and the stage during the Irish accordion band:

We were also there for an Albanian Accordion band and a Columbian Accordion band. We unfortunately missed the accordion band that played song by the band Queen. I will catch them next year for sure. My favorite was the Albanian band. I would talk about how much I loved them, but I feel like mere words would sully the purity of my love for them so I will not. I also loved that the Irish band played a drinking song that I knew from my St Patrick's Day CD and i got to sing along. I don't know why exactly but I really love drinking songs. They just seem so happy.

So in honor of the accordion festival and my love for drinking songs, I will end with my favorite drinking song from my childhood. I believe it is German in origin:
In Heaven there is no beer.
That's why we drink it here.
And when we're gone from here,
Our friends will be drinkin' all the beer.

The end.