Back to Artica. While the crowd was waiting for the concluding bonfire, a group of young men performed a very not-authorized-by-the-festival stunt, the likes of which I've never seen. They had a hollowed-out pumpkin, open at the bottom. The top was smeared with a flammable gel. One of them put it on his head while another lit the goo on fire. It there were eye holes I didn't see them. As they say, what's the worst that could happen?
Ellie, her mother and I went to the women's rally at city hall on Saturday. Mrs. C had another obligation. The turnout was a little disappointing, maybe 150, but there were disputes on the event's Facebook page about whether it was a good idea with the virus around. Mask use was 100%, everyone kept their distance and there was a good breeze.
Mom helped Ellie make her sign. Her shirt says RESISTL. She was interviewed by a TV news crew but it didn't make it onto the air.
I'll probably go back and forth between this and Artica for a bit.
Some of us geezers remember that riff by Janis Joplin: https://youtu.be/5ddnwyyGo4s . This - I don't have a better term than performance artist - was at the second day of Artica, dressed in a tailored black suit, red tie, black patent leather shoes and a silk top hat. He knelt on what may have been a prayer rug in a posture of submission, subjugation and entreaty.
The sign, hard to read here, said:
$ PLEASE HELP $
#make America great again
#get off my grass (a reference to the McCloskeys, https://saintlouismodailyphoto.blogspot.com/2020/07/that-house-on-that-street.html)
#nearly lost $ in the stock market
And it was hot on that black suit.
Artica is a family affair. Anyone who wanted to hear some music, see some visual art and hang around beneath the colorful ruins of the Cotton Belt Railroad freight terminal came along. Bring the kids.
One of the works on display at Artica last weekend. The question in front is rarely considered by most of us. Saying "I just like it" is unsatisfying. Maybe the question requires a real interest in art rather than casual glances. On the other hand, the poet Archibald MacLeish coined the well-known phrase, which can be used in a broader context, "a poem should not mean but be."
And as to the two questions in the rear: I think I have a fair idea of where I am. I have no idea where I am going. Life has far too much randomness to make such predictions.
