IFest is a world music festival that will be held in downtown Houston the last two weekends in April. Come Back to Jamaica, Come Back to Downtown features Reggae music this year, but all music genres will be heard.

The incredible line up of artists for IFest includes:

Burning Spear, Robert Cray Band, Joe Ely Band, Steve Marley, Bobby “Blue” Bland,Yerba Buena, Billy Joe Shaver, Brave Combo, Gena Delafose, Buckwheat Zydeco, Ivan Neville, Carol Fran with special guest Marcia Ball, Shake Russell

. . . and those are just the bands or performers I know!

IFest takes place on the weekends of April 22- 23 and April 29-30 from 11am to 8pm in downtown Houston (Bagby Street, Upper and Lower Sam Houston Parks, Tranquility Park, Allen Parkway), rain or shine. Enjoy free lunchtime concerts at City Hall Plaza each Festival weekday (April 21 and April 24-28).

I grew up in Houston, and I believe that the RV parks listed below are close to IFest. Please use Mapquest or other mapping service to verify locations.

ABA Travel Park
1711 Jacquelyn Dr., #42
Houston, TX 77055
(713) 682-0557 / (888) 459-5017

All Star RV Park / Houston
10650 SW Plaza Ct.
Houston, TX 77074
(713) 827-2819 / (800) 385-9074

Lake View RV Resort
11991 South Main Street
Houston, TX 77035
(800) 385-9122 / 713-723-0973

Rivers Inn RV Park
3602 Rivers Rd. CR 905
Pearland/Manvel, TX 77578
(866) 989-2600 / (281) 489-2600

Roll on down the highway to Houston!

Eileen

After the Roman Empire devolved into the Dark Ages, barbarians sacked and burned the cities of the civilized world. As the libraries, the temples and the churches burned, the collective history and the great scientific and mathematical advances of past civilizations went up in smoke.

Meanwhile, a Roman living in Britain named Patricius was captured and taken to Ireland. He escaped from slavery to become a priest. He returned to Ireland, bringing with him the word of God and the knowledge of the ancients. Thus, Ireland became the sanctuary for the thoughts and dreams of Western civilization.

Patricius founded a network of seminaries and libraries in Ireland that protected, preserved and advanced the knowledge that had been lost everywhere else. Patricius died long before Europe emerged from the Dark Ages. His legacy, however, lived on in the Irish intellectuals who became known after the Dark Ages ended.

These learned Irish–girded with the knowledge of the ancient world, bearing illuminated manuscripts written by hand, and with the intellectual fervor of scholars–went forth to spread the word of God and to plant the seeds of scholarship that later founded great universities in Paris, Oxford, Rome and Bologna.

Did you guess that Patricius was later to be known as Saint Patrick? Not all Irish are drunken louts in green hats wearing Kiss Me * I’m Irish buttons.

Eileen

The USAer featured blog this week is Oregon Adventures. After reading Jeff’s blog, I think Jeff is a very physical, intellectual and spiritual man.

Jeff serves his country in the armed services but hates guns; he is a single parent who eats organically; claims to be a liberal tree hugger who drives a SUV; he is fitness conscious, yet listens to love songs, soft rock and musicals.

Women looking for a sensitive, caring man who has a social conscience, likes museums and has a life list, you really should see about Jeff. He says he is shy, so just go on over to Jeff’s blog and tell him CyberCelt sent you!

It must be Spring when even old women start matchmaking!

Eileen