hungrySaturday evening I hooked up with Sharkins, Carol & Ulysses and we caught the tag-end of Folklife. When we got there the booths were starting to close down, but the music was still going strong. You couldn't go two feet without tripping over someone busking, including one little girl who couldn't have been more than 6 or 7 years old, with a miniature keyboard and a tiny hat for change. Interestingly enough, the resulting cacophany wasn't nearly as dischordant as I had imagined it might be. I'm the kind of person who gets a headache if the radio and the television are both on, or when I'm in the overlap of two competing stations from people's cubicles at work, so I'd wondered how it would be. Perhaps, the music all being live, there was some subtle and unconscious park-wide melding of beats and melodies. That thought is actually kind of cool...
Yesterday morning, Sharkins,
faintheart, my mother and I were invited over to the Labrynth, and Carol made us breakfast. Some hours later we exchanged my mother for the elders of the Somers clan and went back to Folklife, for pretty much the rest of the day. I got a little too much sun and wimped out around 5 p.m. but the rest of the group met up with more friends and stayed well into the night. Ran into rjl20 in the crafts booths while I was searching for a sunhat. He recommended I check out the Australian Bush Hat vendor, so I did - but since Mr. Bush Hat entirely failed to recognize I was trying to be a customer, I did not actually purchase one.I had a very pleasant time, and managed not to spend my rent money on a Dobro, or any of the gorgeous drums - mostly by staying firmly outside of the musician's alley where the instruments were for sale. Lots of talented dancers & musicians, some very pretty trinkets, and a mellow enough crowd that I never felt overwhelmed by the sheer mass of people.
As I mentioned, I did get a bit overwhelmed by the sun - I didn't know when I set out from my domicile that we were planning to go back, so I went out sans hat or sunscreen. I managed not to get burned, by some miracle of chance and the blessed presence of the trees over many of the avenues at Seattle Center. Also being aware of my danger I deliberately stuck to the shadows where possible. Uly kindly lent me a hat, as well. And maybe all the walking around I do to and from work, and hither and yon for grocieries, etc. has provided me with enough casual exposure to forstall an instant burn on my first longish exposure. In any case, I was profoundly grateful to find myself scorch-free when I arrived home. I was tired enough to catch a nap even so. I'd planned to hook back up with people later, but I ended up watching the Truman Show instead. I enjoyed it - Peter Weir usually makes a good film - but I think my head was too much in Matrix space to give it my best attention. Speaking of Mr. Weir, it looks like he's got a film in post-production at the moment - a Napoleonic War piece.
Today we line up for the hair-stylist, courtesy of
amnotsurly. 