Artsy Sunday

The phone rings mid-morning; it's teen-age daughter asking if Dad will haul her and a friend to the local "Arts Festival" that ends today (and was the reason Southern Man had to park umpteen blocks from the venue where Rush played last night). Yes, she only calls when she needs something, but Southern Man will take what he can get. After some negotiating, Southern Man eventually found himself downtown on a fine cool spring afternoon with a few hours to wander about and enjoy the sights and sounds and tastes of this annual treat.

The venue is a set of parks and malls near our small (a dozen or so skyscraper) downtown. It's quite pleasant; there's a well-regarded indoor garden, a series of ponds and canals, and plenty of grass and trees. The ever-opportunistic Southern Man hit the food first, then wandered through the booths admiring the paintings and sculpture and artwork. He was especially smitten with an artist who painted comic-book scenes on layers of glass; there was a piece there that he would have gladly purchased had he possessed the $1300 to do so. If he can find the artist's business card he'll update this and post a URL. There was live music at one of the booths, which sold handmade instruments called "didjeridoos." Southern Man has already marked a couple of CDs on Amazon.com featuing this instrument. Southern Man poked about down in the ponds and admired the massive koi and startled a few turtles. And finally Southern Man settled down by he water where a series of bands were performing on the "water stage."

The first band he heard was Dime a Dozen, a local rock/country band. They did a number of nice covers ending with an enthusiastic rendition of Stevie Ray Vaughan's "The House Is Rockin'." They were followed by Suspicious Contra Band, which did a fine set of Irish / Celtic music.

The girls eventually tired and texted "we're ready to go home." We grabbed sandwiches at a local Subway and Southern Man took them home. It was nice to have a little time with teenage daughter and Southern Man would do it again in a New York minute.