Southside Shuffle 2008 - revised

Well, another very successful day in partially-sunny Port Credit, down by the lake in Mississauga! The day started with a nice lunch with my friend Brock, then off to a bar for some beers, then down to the "Shuffle", where we met up with my buddy Doug and brother-in-law Emeric to catch some of the street scene along the Lakeshore, which was as usual closed off to traffic from 3-7 p.m. Some quite decent amateurs playing very enthusiastically all along the street, incuding the Dave Murphy band, who we all enjoyed. At six-ish we were joined by my other brother-in-law Brian and watched a bit more of the street bands before he "tricked us" (except Emeric, who had to leave us for the evening at this juncture) into popping into a bar right there on the Lakeshore called "Spice" for some beers on their very nice back patio in the (finally!) sunshine. Then the four of us went over to the main stage/shopping area beside the Credit River to buy our wrist-bands for the big shows that were coming up later in the evening - great value: $20 for the two very good acts that we saw! Then we walked back east along the Lakeshore, as the street portion of the festival was winding down just at seven o'clock, to a block east of Hurontario Street to get to our dinner destination for the second year in a row: the Thai Signature Restaurant, where we just stuffed ourselves with their excellent food and Singha beer, and enjoyed again their very friendly service. Back over to the main event at the park by the river, Charlie Musslewhite and his band went on at 8:30 and did a great set, including "Church is Out", a very good tune that puts me in mind of "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits, only way cooler. The Funk brothers, shown here in my favourite Chaka Khan "What's Goin' On" Marvin Gaye song clip from the classic (well, it's a classic to me anyway!)"Standing in the Shadows of Motown" movie, went on at 10:00 p.m. and played right through to almost 11:30!! They had most of the people, young and old, in the big crowd swaying and dancing to the impossible-to-stand-still-to Motown classic hits from the Four Tops, Temptations, Smoky Robinson, Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Rare Earth, Martha Reeves, etc. *Full disclosure/embarrassing personal moment: Just to sort of round out the day, I managed to keep the guys entertained even after the show by tripping over a concrete bench just beside the sidewalk in front of a bar on our walk back along the street towards home...I went down pretty fast and pretty hard, but escaped without any major damage. Brock and Brian were kind enough to reserve most of their laughter for about four minutes after the incident, for which I am quite thankful! We're all looking forward to next year's Shuffle, and are absolutely not an exclusive group, so we'd be delighted to have some more guys join us in 2009...**note for more info, click on "Charlie Musslewhite" in the above text, as well as on "Thai Signature", then on the word "here" right after the Funk Brothers, to get the Chaka Khan clip.