Westcott Street Cultural Fair Outfit

I'm going to the Westcott Street Cultural Fair! When else do I get the chance to dress up like this?

http://westcottstreetfair.org/



(And then I have to get back to work....)

Westcott Fair Report

I had a good time during my brief presence at the fair. I realized after photographing a quarter of the parade that I'd forgotten my memory card; someday I'll learn to check the slot every single time I pick up the camera.

The parade made me homesick for renaissance faires. There were huge body puppets, a stilt-walker, a group that looked like some version of morris dancers, lots of local groups like churches and an LGBTQ group with hand-made banners, belly dancers, and other more mainstream organizations like police and business groups. The streetside booths included a couple people from the SCA in full garb; I chatted with them briefly. I also talked to a volunteer who was soliciting volunteers and donations for an agricultural workers' rights organization. It sounds like they do some really great stuff, including getting doctors and dentists out to migrant labor camps for free care. It's as fantastic to see that happening as it is outrageous that it must happen. It's one of many things I can see myself getting involved in, someday when I have time.

The library book sale's book selection was actually not all that interesting to me. But, I *did* pick up eight CDs and a movie in addition to a single book. Find of the day: Laurie Anderson's "Life on a String." I saw it while going through a bin and exclaimed "Oh wow!" I also picked up albums by Nick Drake (two of them!), Enya, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Waits, Yo-Yo Ma, and Beck.

The book, perhaps, reflects the same sort of eclectic taste for the odd that's part of why I like Anderson. I got a copy of a book of residential photography called Weird Rooms. From the Amazon.com description:

"The authors sought out people whose personal obsessions and fetishes have led them to transform their domestic environments into quite unusual places. Some rooms are designed solely to enshrine pop icons, like a Kennedy Room or an Elvis Room. One man transformed his entire apartment into a spaceship with rolls of duct tape, tin foil, and a few dozen computers and television sets; another turned his bedroom into a Lego City, complete with an airport, cathedral, and city hall."

The photographs in here are wonderful!

(no subject)

I've got to learn to get to a point where I can decide something is good enough and let it be. And that point, ideally, should be prior to the day that something is due. I need to be a little more hand-off and chill.

On that note, I'm going to leave my writeup of research project tasks alone. I'm going to walk out to somewhere and buy some diet soda. I(I'd go to Aldi, but they never have diet caffeine free soda, sadly.) Then I'm going to come back and read for my Poli-sci class. Whatever I do after, I think getting out and walking will be good for me.

Shopping Trip

Remember me writing about Double Dollar Corner, the intersection about three quarters of a mile northwest of my apartment with the Dollar Tree and the Dollar General? I missed one. I went over to the Save-A-Lot on that corner today and realized that, directly next and in the same building, is a Family Dollar. The trifecta is complete; it's Triple Dollar Corner, the mecca of my recurring hajj in search of cheap-ass food.

I bought a couple bags of treats (chocolate eyeballs and Sixlets) to stock the pretty fabric bag (a gift from Lisa,​ originally filled with Cadbury Eggs) that I keep behind the wooden "Relax" sign (a gift from my dad that I refer to frequently) that I keep on top of my 'fridge. The two expressions of care fit well together.