Yeah, yeah, yeah... I'll get to the debt ceiling agreement, summer tomatoes, and my own self pitying rage at my previous employers and co-workers. Later. Right now I want to flap about the best thing you never did. Every July for the past twenty years they close off the streets of Lowell Massachusetts for the Lowell Folk Festival. Bad name that... implies some sort of crunchy-granola love in for the birckenstocks crowd. What it is turns out to be a rolling street party that celebrates every kind of music you can not hear on the radio. How about this.
Pretty cool huh? Bet you never heard that one during morning drive time, or on satellite radio for that matter. Maybe you don't like it? So go for something more traditional.
Trampy woman with a smokey voice doing a song that you can dance to. It's Lady GaGa's Aunt from the Smithsonian. It was a beautiful Sunday last week so this old agnostic skipped the roadhouse for the lords house. I'm a sucker for a little harmony.
Praise whoever! Does it really matter when the sun is out, the air is clean and dry, the day is just rolling along outside of time and space and you have an ice cold beer in your hand? Hell no! Other stuff too. Every organization in Lowell shows up to make food.
Bolinhos: a fritter made from dried fish. Mmmm dried fish!
Cheese and Cabbage ravioli covered in bacon. Mmmm bacon! Poland Rocks!
Phyllo noodles baked then drenched in honey and rose water. Mmmm rose water!
How good is that on a hot day?
Enough, I was stuffed and it wasn't even 3 PM yet. Time to turn up the heat and do a little dancing. The dance tent and old ladies are an awesome combination. Start swaying a little bit do a little move to the music and suddenly you're dancing. Can I get an Amen for the old ladies! They never make that face at me, you know the one, like they just threw up in their mouth, or the other one where they don't know whether to be amused of appalled by me. Psst... I prefer the throw up face. They just want to dance.
Dancing in the heat really drains you and those old ladies weren't backing off once they found a partner. I begged for them to stop, but they had years of thwarted dance moves in their systems, they were relentless. I had to divert them.
Once diverted by mellowness they went as slack as the strings on Ledward's guitar. It gave me a chance to sneak off and eat more stuff.
Tons of smoky goodness.
If you're having Thai chicken you might as well have thai noodles.
As a society we spend most of our waking hours chasing money, spending money, worrying about money,working for money... but as a resident of this planet none of that compares to feeling the sun on your skin, the rhythm taking you away, or the moment of happy surprise when you bite into something wonderful that you have never tasted before. Nor does the sun or the music, or the food know your wallet, your status, or your wallet. They're the same for everyone. Lowell Folk Festival... no, Lowell Music Festival is definitely a hidden gem. Hope I see you next year.
Twilight is perfect. It's after, it's before. It's outside of time.
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