I’m all over world festivals now since going to
Carnival. Nothing surpasses the energy (or intoxication) people seem to have during these day-long celebrations. Next
up in the festival circuit worth joining in comes right out of Amsterdam. On April 28-29, 2006 the Dutch and a tourist
or two will take to the streets of Amsterdam dressed in orange
colored clothing or paint to observe the former Queen Juliana’s birthday. (Queen’s Day is normally held on April 30 unless it falls on a Sunday
like this year.) Like most large festivals the area will be lined with street vendors, tons of local food and Oranje Bitter, folklore performers, features outdoor concerts, and
fireworks to eventually explode in the night sky. Awesome event to check out will hanging around Holland.
Rock & Roll London
Some might say that London is to Rock & Roll as Nashville is to country music. When you think of the
great bands that came out of this wonderful city in the 1960’s and 70s, it is truly amazing: The Who, Rolling
Stones, Sex Pistols, Kinks, David Bowie. The list goes on and on. The British invasion may have started in
Liverpool, but it quickly shifted its heart to London.
Awash with Rock & Roll history, the capital of England is a must see for music aficionados. Fortunately,
a short piece in The Times (UK) highlights 15 of London’s best musical
landmarks. Interested tourists can check out Heddon Street where Bowie shot the cover of Ziggy
Stardust or Berwick Street which graces the cover of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory by
Oasis. Or how about the Bag ‘O Nails on Kingly Street where Paul McCartney met his wife Linda or the Old
Compton St/Dean Street intersection where Bob Geldof sold hot dogs before making it big.
Many of the suggestions on the list are historic venues where bands like The Who or Rod Stewart played their first
gigs. Pop in and check them out today; you never know if the scrappy garage band you might catch will be the
world’s next biggest band.
Chicago's Gay Games 2006 & Culture
From July 15-22, 2006, Chicago will play
host to the 2006 Gay Games. Chicagoist reports more than
8,000 athletes are preparing for the games and Chi-Town is "thriving" as a gay-friendly city.
Beyond the games there is much for the extremely liberal minded to do in the city aside from the snoring-boring old bar
scene as pointed out in a new book by Kathie Bergquist and Robert McDonald, which is scheduled to hit shelves in May, "The
Field Guide to Gay and Lesbian Chicago." Just in time for folks with an interest in the Windy City and taking
part in the games.
The games will offer 30 different sport competitions varying from recreational to elite
levels. The sports villages will be split into five areas for convenience and to help foster camaraderie and support as
noted on the official site. Sports include badminton, basketball, beach
volleyball, ice hockey, rowing, martial arts, power lifting and rugby to name only a few. Sir Elton John, a Gay Games Ambassador, is thrilled to be involved with the
Gay Games and feels a well-deserved spotlight has been turned on athletic and cultural performances by members of the
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender folks and their friends globally due to the games.
Check out the official website for additional details inlcuding event schedule.
Red Corner: Lenin Museum Reborn
Shortly after the fall of communism, countless specialty museums from Warsaw to Vladivostok gutted their collections and closed up shop. The controversial subject of these doomed museums was none other than Vladimir Lenin himself.
Lenin museums were like churches. During communism they were sacred halls of veneration that honored Lenin as though he were a religious icon. Every item he came in contact with was preserved and exhibited like a holy relic. Visitors could gaze upon his writing desk, cloak, hats, pens, books, cars, paintings, busts, gifts he received, and innumerable other objects. When I visited Moscow’s Central Lenin Museum in 1991, the sheer number of mundane artifacts carefully exhibited and spread across 34 rooms was simply overwhelming. The museum was officially closed down in 1993 and its collection of 100,000 items mothballed.
For those of you disappointed to have missed this audacious display of personality cult, you now have a second chance. Moscow’s Historical Museum has hauled a small part of the collection out of storage and is now exhibiting it as, “Symbols of the Soviet Epoch.” The exhibition, which will run until May 22nd, is conveniently located in a massive red-colored building adjacent to Red Square. You can’t miss it.
Citizen Penn
I’m
about a week behind on my New Yorker reading and so was pleasantly surprised this week to find last week’s issue had a
rather informative and interesting profile by John Lahr on Sean Penn. Now, I’m no celebrity worshipper. I honestly,
deeply believe that our fascination with celebrity is both absurd and harmful. Absurd because we are placing such lofty
value in people’s whose compensation (in the form of money and status) is completely incommensurate with their
societal contribution. Harmful in the respect that we are largely distracted from more meaningful aspects of the human
experience by spending so much time and caloric output on worrying what Brad and Angelina are up to.
Now,
with that as a rather ridiculous, if contradictory, preface for this post, let me say that I did find the article on Sean Penn rather interesting. Penn, you might
remember has been traveling the world…or at least certain dangerous parts of it…to show us the other
side of these places, the happy faces of the Axis of Evil, and it certianly is nice for him to have himself
photographed walking among the people. He penned, if you’ll pardon the pun, a series of articles, some 12,000
words total, for the San Francisco Chronicle, some of which we discussed here.
Now, despite my cynicism, there is value here, because Penn holds himself out as a kind of citizen of the world, a
purveyor of higher truths, and he is one of a few celebrities who really tries of leverage his status to heighten
public awareness of issues that lie outside of Hollywood. Now whether that is a good or bad thing is another issue.
Whether we should in any way trust that Penn possesses the smarts or experience to be the one who alerts us to the
world’s ills is a fine question to ponder. So you just go ahead and do so. But I think you will find the article here
pretty fascinating, as Penn comes across as a rather complex character. I can’t positively say I like him, but he
intrigues me.