A sunny Saturday. Perfect for biking down to campus. The 41st Annual Great Midwest MJ Harvest Fest is on the Library Mall (what might be called the quad elsewhere). The spunky band plays rhythmic tunes while a very mixed crowd looks on. A few brave souls dance here and there, including a couple of young "hippie" chicks. One girl wears a rainbow patterned shawl and long skirt riding low to display her slim midriff. De j'a vu.
There is a midway of sorts with vendors, helping to put the fest in festival. And today is also a big game day. The Badgers are playing the Nebraska Corn Huskers who are new to the "Big Ten" and will soon get their a** kicked. Both teams have red as their color. But many Nebraskans are wearing black with red accents, which they must do at away games, as are the Badger fans who must also have black as their alternative color (which, of course, isn't a color). I love red and black! Maybe black is new new jock color - I wouldn't know.
They stream through to the left of the band, some stopping to take in the scene and snap a pic of the poster announcing what this festival is about or listen to a tune or two. Surprisingly the smell of pot is wafting in the soft breeze. In other recent years this was not much of a feature. Though yesteryear it was not unusual for someone to be freely tossing joints off the stage and a couple of people moving through the crowd with ganga cake for sale for .50, or maybe even free. A lone policeman chats with someone, obviously not there for any kind of enforcement.
Fat chalk sticks are available and people have drawn a few things on the ground, so I make a yin and yang sign in yellow and blue. I had gone down to the terrace of the student union beforehand. Lake Mendota was dressed in sail boats bobbing at their moorings as the sun bounced of the waves. Many empty plastic pitchers are stacked up here and there now that most fans have headed toward the stadium. I had a brat (well done - the guy was torching it especially for me) and I got a pricey plastic glass of Octoberfest beer that I was nursing now at the festival. A gray haired woman (perhaps my age, but looking older, of course) was dancing with her eyes closed. A guy was on his knees trying to get a good pic and she skittered away, crab like, when she looked up and saw him.
Dancer that I am I did start to let the music move my feet and creep slowly up as the beat went on, but didn't knock myself out. I'd arrived late and started walking back to my bike at the student union with the last song. What did I see crossing the street but a half dozen young Saudi men dressed in white robes with traditional head dress. What next? Oh yes, on my way back up the mall two young Buddhist monks in red robes stand next to Memorial Library in the shadows wearing parkas to ward off the cool Wisconsin fall afternoon.
Happy day for the cultures this aft down on campus.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment