Burn's Night

Edina! Scotia's darling seat!
All hail thy palaces and tow'rs,
Where once, beneath a Monarch's feet,
Sat Legislation's sov'reign pow'rs:
From marking wildly scatt'red flow'rs,
As on the banks of Ayr I stray'd,
And singing, lone, the lingering hours,
I shelter in they honour'd shade.

-Robert Burns

As some of you know, Monday was Robert Burns' Night, celebrated with poetry, haggis, and whisky the world over. The bit of poetry above is from Burns' Address to Edinburgh
First of all, how funny is it that he refers to Edinburgh as Edina? Let's all take a moment and compare Edina, MN and Edinburgh, UK. Different. But I digress. There were several ceilidhs (pronounced kay-lees) around campus, but we decided to not attend. None of us were feeling like going to a big event and the Whisky Society is hosting a Burns ceilidh this upcoming Sunday, so nothing lost. A friend and I did, however, go to Sandy Bell's to have a dram in the dear poet's honor and to hear some live folk music (be sure to check out the link). This pub has quite the reputation for being an excellent place to hear live sessions, and it certainly lived up to that reputation. The pub itself was pretty small and the session very informal. It seemed like a group of friends who just gathered there several nights a week and played whatever they felt like. Unfortunately my friend and I were seated kind of around the corner from the group, so we didn't really get to watch them, but the sounded great. At one point a man began to sing a ballad type song (reminiscent of Archie Fisher) with little to no accompaniment. As he sang, the whole pub became quiet save a woman seated at the bar who was softly singing harmony. It was like something straight out of a movie, and it was absolutely beautiful.