Beltane\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Garlic Moon<\/p>\n
1:03 AM with a sickle moon, stars and a warmish night fallen over the Twin Cities.\u00a0 Just back from Minneapolis and the Northern Spark Festival.<\/p>\n
There were lots of people, mostly in their twenties and early thirties, but not all.\u00a0 I was there, for one.\u00a0 As the organizer said, folks from other parts of the country can’t believe we roll up the sidewalks at 9:00 PM.\u00a0 This event, which spread folks over several venues, made each place but one feel safe and accessible.\u00a0 The feeling of people out, just out to be out, made me feel glad, joyful.\u00a0 Walking along the River Road behind the Guthrie and the Mill City Museum reminded me of an evening I spent in Savannah a couple of years ago.<\/p>\n
With one exception.\u00a0 We have no small shops, restaurants and candy makers along the river.\u00a0 We preserve our riverfront in a solemn, Scandinavian manner.\u00a0 The upside is that it has not given way to tourist kitsch as parts of the Savannah area has; the downside is that it has no color, no life, only ruins and water.\u00a0 Except for tonight.<\/p>\n
I went to three venues after I realized the free bus ride would take two hours to get me back to my car.\u00a0 I drove first to the MIA, walked to MCAD, then drove to the Walker and finally the area around the stone arch bridge.<\/p>\n
The night itself was perfection.\u00a0 I can’t imagine a more perfect combination of humidity and temperature and clear skies.\u00a0 Not to mention the moon.<\/p>\n
I began at the MIA because the Battle of Everyouth was a 10:00 to midnight affair and I wanted to be sure to see it.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the only venue where it did not feel totally safe was this one.\u00a0 The Battle of Everyouth, though it projected large, interesting images on the Museum’s north facing facade, did not have a very big footprint in the park, so the bulk of the park was dark.\u00a0 This project, which I visited with some eagerness, was a bit underwhelming.\u00a0 Part of that came from the darkness of the setup in a dark park.\u00a0 It got swallowed up as a big event by the bigger park.\u00a0 It’s primary impact may well have been the prep work with the kids from Washington High.<\/p>\n
MCAD had three different venues that I saw and a couple I didn’t.\u00a0 I’ll talk more about those tomorrow, but one, projected on a white wall just to the right of main entrance of the class wall featured a machine programmed by an artist with an algorithm that draws flowing shapes.\u00a0 It got me attention.<\/p>\n
At the Walker I revisited the show about Voyeurism and Surveillance and the It Broke From Within show again, too.\u00a0 I wandered around outside, watching folks make small art projects and sat on the terraced wall and looked at down town.<\/p>\n
The Stone Arch bridge had lots of people, the most of the three places I visited.\u00a0 An excellent projection lit up the four grain elevators silos next to the Mill City Museum.\u00a0 On the bridge there was the sperm and egg ride, a moving illustration of the classic of mountains and seas and a laser set up that baffled me as to its intent and its result.\u00a0 but no horse on the barge.\u00a0 I don’t know whether the floating white horse was elsewhere, but it was one I wanted to see and that I missed.<\/p>\n
It was a fun evening, giving me a sensation I enjoy, that of being a tourist in my environs.\u00a0 I hope it happens again next year and becomes bigger.\u00a0 Maybe I’ll take a room in downtown for the event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Beltane\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Garlic Moon 1:03 AM with a sickle moon, stars and a warmish night fallen over the Twin Cities.\u00a0 Just back from Minneapolis and the Northern Spark Festival. There were lots of people, mostly in their twenties and early thirties, but not all.\u00a0 I was there, for one.\u00a0 As the organizer said, folks from … Continue reading Northern Spark<\/span>