The people at Artica were good about masks and I had a way to record some of them. My contribution was to set up an outdoor photo station just inside the entrance. Give me your name and email address, get your picture taken and I send it to you with a festival logo on if as a souvenir. Some interesting people passed by. I like the coordinated accessories on this guy.
I've mentioned that Artica is nothing if not eclectic and free-wheeling. This man, who declined to give me his full name, had an ancient Underwood portable typewriter, one with a distinctive aroma to him. He claimed it was a century old, and it just might have been. He had small sheets of brightly colored paper, and would write you a little poem on request. He did one for my granddaughter, Ellie, which read:
we await, wondering
what is he writing?
anything can be.
the dance beat, bassy
speakers and sound system
recorded musicians uplift
and agitate the atmosphere
A sparse one, perhaps, but with enough spirit. Artica's parade goes from the entry gate to the edge of the Mississippi River. Marchers are invited to bring something that they will float down the great waterway, carrying their wishes and dreams.
There are usually many more people but, of course, the virus depressed the turnout. Those who turned out had lots of percussion. You can just see Ellie bringing up the rear.
I never quite understood why but Artica always has a parade to the river starting at 1:11 PM (13.11 to the rest of the world). It was not as boisterous as usual this year, with limited turnout due to the state of the world. Ellie, however, was all in.
She wore her Halloween costume that daughter Emily, on the right, made for her. It is based on an animation series called Avatar. The structure is too complicated for me, but her costume is based on Korra, the avatar and water bender of the southern tribe, https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Korra . Or something. When I was her age, I was stunned by Disney's Fantasia.
All of us are sad about the suspension of artistic activities, depriving us of the richness of experiences and threatening the organizations that present them.* Some outdoor activities, however, manage to carry on.
One of my favorites is Artica, an annual plein air free for all of the visual and performing arts. It's happening this weekend in the industrial wastelands north of the Arch. Anything goes, subject to minimal screening. I'm not exactly the house photographer. They refer to me as the visual documentarian. This chap always shows up with the threatening crow or raven head. He is getting ready for the parade, which we will see shortly.
* The St. Louis Symphony is resuming performances this month. One hour programs, no intermission, spread out chamber orchestra, limited to an audience of 100 in a hall that seats 1,900. We're going on Friday for the Eroica! Gonna be strange.
