Sorry Boomers, the Sixties Are Dead

The Age of Aquarius has been extinguished:

“Woodstock 50 organizers announced on Wednesday that the beleaguered music festival, which was supposed to take place Aug. 16 through Aug. 18, is officially canceled.

‘We are saddened that a series of unforeseen setbacks has made it impossible to put on the Festival we imagined with the great line-up we had booked and the social engagement we were anticipating,’ organizer Michael Lang, co-founder of the 1969 festival, said in a statement.

— “Woodstock 50th anniversary celebration canceled after lineup issues, financial problems,” Sonia Rao, Washington Post

More:

“Organizers pull plug on Woodstock 50 at Merriweather Post,” Rick Massimo, WTOP

“Woodstock 50 Officially Off,” Shirley Halperin, Variety

“Organizers finally cancel troubled Woodstock 50 festival,” Mesfin Fekadu, Associated Press

“Excited For Woodstock 50 In Maryland? Too Bad, It’s Canceled,” Rachel Kurzius, WAMU

“Woodstock 50 (Finally) Throws In The Towel,” Anastasia Tsioulcas, NPR

“Woodstock 50 music festival officially cancelled weeks before event,” Miranda Bryant, The Guardian

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2018 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is back in Washington DC, June 27th to July 1st and July 4th to July 8th. You’ll find it on the National Mall.The free festival features the cultures of Armenia and Catalonia (music, dance, craft and foodways), crafts of African Fashion, Migration and Creativity, and a special Sisterfire concert.

The festival schedule is here. See you on the line at the food concessions.

Festival map. Festival blog. Download the festival program here. 

More:

“How To Get The Most Out Of The Smithsonian Folklife Festival,” DCist

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2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is back in Washington DC, June 29th to July 4th and July 7th to July 10th. You’ll find it on the National Mall between Fourth and Seventh streets, north of the National Air and Space Museum. The free festival features Basque culture of the Old World and the Americas (music, dance, craft and foodways), music of California, and the cultural impact of Immigration.

The festival schedule is here. See you on the line at the food concessions.

Festival map. Festival blog.

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Mardi Gras 2.0

New Orleans has all the urban problems of any American city — crime, poor education, no parking spaces, economic inequality —  and it’s still suffering the aftereffects of devastating Hurricane Katrina. But as the Crescent City celebrates Fat Tuesday, technology has solved one age-old problem:

You’re sipping Dixie Beer and watching the Mardi Gras parades but there’s nowhere to pee? Now there’s an app for that.

The Airpnp smartphone app directs you to nearby locations where, for a small fee, the business or homeowner will let you use the toilet facilities. Ninety percent of arrests along the French Quarter’s parade routes are for public urination, so it’s not a piddling matter.

More:

“AirPnP, an app helps find Mardi Gras rental restrooms: BBC report,” By Doug MacCash, Times-Picayune

“Inventive startups are changing the way New Orleans celebrates Mardi Gras,” Shannon Sims, Quartz

Top video: “Ain’t No Place to Pee on Mardi Gras Day” by Benny Antin, from the 1997 album Wild Linoleum. Lyrics here.

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Skeleton Dance

“Skeleton Dance,” by Skullmapping, an arts collective run by Filip Sterckx and Antoon Verbeeck, presented at Brussels Light Festival 2013. Dancer: Verónica Arís Zlatar. Sound design: Valentijn Steenhoudt.

(Prefer Vimeo? Look here.)

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Mosquito Festival!

The internet is just humming about Mosquito Festivals. If you’re just itching to go this summer, there’s only one pesky problem: Which one to go to? The mosquito festival in Texas has some pretty good music, but the one in Russia has a Most Delicious Girl Contest judged by swarms of bloodthirsty insects. There are ‘skeeter celebrations in Oregon, Indiana, Arkansas, Montana, New York State, and Italy. No wonder blood bank deposits are running low.

We just hope these insect-centered events live up to all the buzz, and to the high standards set by the big Blackfly Festivals of Vermont and Maine and the legendary Luckenbach Mud Dauber Festival & Chili Cookoff.

Related:

“How mosquitoes zero in on warm bodies,” Jonathan Webb, BBC News

“The 20 Most Mosquito-Plagued U.S. Cities,” Vicky Gan, CityLab

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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2015 Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival is back in Washington DC, June 24th to June 28th and July 1st to July 5th. This year’s festival has a smaller footprint; the site is between 3rd and 4th Streets NW, near the Capitol Reflecting Pool, National Gallery of Art East Wing, and the National Museum of the American Indian.The free Festival features music, dance, craft and foodways demonstrations and evening concerts, all from Peru. Don’t miss the related activities around town.

The festival schedule is here. See you on the line at the food concessions.

Festival map. Festival blog.

More:

“Major Changes Coming to This Year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival,” Mark Segraves NBC 4 Washington

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Foreign Minister Salutes Belgium’s African Past — in Blackface

Last week Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders participated in a local Brussels festival. He was in blackface. Ah, the subtitles of diplomacy ….

Les Noirauds (blacks) festival, known as Zwarte in Dutch has aided a childcare charity named Conservatoire Africain since 1876, but the children in question live in Brussels. 1876 is also when King Leopold II started maneuvering with other European powers for a piece of the African Continent. That’s why the Belgian paraders first blacked up: colonial fever.

King Leopold got a piece of Africa in 1885, not for Belgium but as his personal possession. He called it the Congo Free State (État Indépendant du Congo) and ruthlessly exploited its resources and people for his personal enrichment. His mercenaries forced inhabitants into the jungle to harvest wild rubber, and those who refused or missed quotas were killed or tortured. Millions died.

DC: Snow, Then Cherry Blossoms

The DC Metro Area will get more snow this week, but we’ve been promised signs of Spring. The National Park Service predicts peak cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin between April 11th and 14th. Of course the National Cherry Blossom Festival ends on April 12th, but what the heck, lots of stuff will be happening in DC anyway, not just pollen allergies.

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Photo: (“Cherry Blossoms in the Snow, St. Patrick’s Day 2014”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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National Book Festival 2014

The 2014 National Book Festival is running until 10:00 PM Saturday August 30th in Washington DC, produced by the Library of Congress. This year’s festival was kicked off the National Mall and is being held in the cavernous Walter E. Washington Convention Center, but they could have held it in a phone booth. 24 percent of Americans haven’t read a book in the last year, and those who did read around 5, probably comic books.

You can attend for free. Go to the Culinary Arts Pavilion to enjoy America’s new National Pastime, watching other people cook.

Related:

“The Decline of the American Book Lover,” Jordan Weissmann, The Atlantic

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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