Festival Weekend.

Saturday was quite the parade. Pictures to follow. Noah did lion dance and we carried our big drum (which would be a small drum for Moh Goon.) in the wagon. "Stay behind the Curley Lion!" I told Noah. We then ducked out to go home and switched to Noah's bike. We caught up with the end of the parade which is what Noah wanted to do, to see his friends. Of course once the parade merged with the Festival it was crazy and we ended up doing our own thing. After several stations of Spontaneous Celebration Fun, we settled on the playground. I realized that the truth is, it's almost like everyday is a festival in JP at a playground. Especially when the weather is nice.
We slowly moved back through the festival, after eating lunch. Watching the Brazilian drummers. I ran into a friend from middle school at a station of foam blocks, and we still spent hours at the cardboard slide. I didn;t have my sun hat so I got a little burned. Noah just got darker.

Then home it was and time to prepare for my midnight lion dance at Logan airport. And it really did start at midnight! I met someone else I knew who happened to be going to Hong Kong, and felt a sudden pull to travel. The possibilities that from an airport you can go anywhere was seeping in. Then I realized I do not even have a passport currently. And the more I thought about it, traveling itself is not that great. It is being somewhere. And that somewhere might as well be home with my kids.

I played the gong, but I was actually more nervous for the group. The kids were well experienced of course and did fantastic. I would like to see the video of this because it probably looked like the mnost awesome party to be at ever... at an airport terminal. The reality... well why ruin the fantasy?

Then on Sunday we went to a Polish Festival in Dorcester. It was much smaller than I thought but this was encouraging. Although I am part Polish I really know nothing about the culture. My Uncle Francis said, "We aren't that Irish, But they were the loudest. So that's what we know about."

But anyway, the Kilbasa sandwiches were fantastic. We will have to come back to those stores another time. Also I realized that bigger isn't necessarily better.

The Japan fest on the Common was huge, but all comercial except for the Showa sections.

The Greek fest, on the same day was kind of sparse even though they must have paid a ton of money for the stage and DJ and booth on the common.

August Moon and Spring Festival are great sure. But is the food better than on the street than the regular restaurants? Is the focus the culture or the money?

For the Polish fest, we were outsiders so we were in an out, just eating lunch. The sandwich that was so amazing was only $2. We didn't watch any performances because well, the kids.

It was basically in the back little parking lot of the Polish American Citizens Association or whatever. An equivalent of Chinatown's CCBA or perhaps Oak Tin or something like that. We felt like we had stumbled into someone's private party, because the only other  non polish people looked like Asian neighbors or people who may not look polish but were polish enough that they spoke it. Everyone was drinking beer and speaking Polish like it was a family reunion.

This was encouraging because as Chinatown continues to shrink, it shows that it will still be possible to have these connections in the Family Associations and little Chinese Fests like this when the restaurants are gone. In fact, these little parties in the future have potential to be better than the big festivals that are put on now.

 The Lion was made by Noah's Class mate's Mom (Riyo Hirota) She studeied sculpting at the MFA. It shows.

Here's to skipping head to Midnight the next day. I hid from this picture. figured there was no space.

 We have stopped drumming and taken a break at this point. In this parade I learned to blend lion dance drumming into Afro Caribbean drumming. I realized that it can be done! And without practice of rehearsal either!

 Noah must be tired. He doesn't look to happy. Amazingly, he lasted for 5 more hours.

And this proves that indeed I was at that airport lion dance. Believe it or not, I actually practiced my gong pushing and warmed up. There are no small roles! Plus it's cool that even our Gong player, can, if necessary jump into the head say, if for some reason TSA could not allow him to perform. A real possibility that night!