Baron Dave Romm
May Day 2010
By Baron Dave Romm
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The May Day Parade
In Minneapolis, the May Day (or MayDay or even Mayday) Festival is put on by In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre. For 36 years, they have been hosting the parade and ceremonies, helping people create costumes and floats. It's quite the thing. I'm just going to post a few pictures and videos.
The fun started well before the parade.
As I
was taking a picture of the facepainting, this joyous child leaped
into the frame. Sometimes, it's better to be lucky than good.
I
showed the image to her mother, who loved it and wanted it on the
net.
Powderhorn Park, May Day 5/2/10
Tigers were a major
theme of the parade, since this is The Year of the Tiger.
This was
part of the "Breathe" section of the parade. Quote is from the
program book.
May Day Parade, Minneapolis 5/2/10
"The Dead, Pregnant with
Life"
Surrounded by the four dead seasons (in other
images),
the pregnant skeleton heralds a new beginning.
May Day
Parade, Minneapolis, 5/2/10
The drums herald clouds (the white stuff) and
tiger (not quite in this shot)
May Day Parade, Minneapolis,
5/2/10
Short videos
When I wasn't snapping still images, I was recording video. These are taken with a hand-held Flip Camera, which fits in a pocket. Whee!
The Lake Street
Laydown
Performed by: Your Community Band
Every year at May
Day, this group stops at Lake Street,
the largest space along the
parade route,
and lays down to a dirge-like "You Are My
Sunshine".
May Day Parade, Minneapolis, 5/2/10
Direct link: The Lake Street Laydown 2010
The
Unseen Ghost Brigade performs "River of Sorrows"
by Powderhorn
Lake, after the parade
May Day Festival, 5/2/10
Direct link: "River of Sorrows" by the Unseen Ghost Brigade
The Tree of Life
Ceremony starts off with The Sun Flotilla
Powderhorn Park,
Minneapolis, May Day 5/2/10
Direct link: The Sun Flotilla 2010
All these and more can be found:
Facebook
public galleries:
Mayday
2010 Part I: Parade
Mayday
Part II: Festival and MN-StF Picnic
Baron Dave's YouTube
Channel
Previous May Day photo galleries: 2009
I, 2009
II, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog maintains a Facebook Page, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. A nascent collection of videos are on Baron Dave's YouTube channel. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
NOAM CHOMSKY: Rustbelt Rage (inthesetimes.com)
... in a brilliant exercise in doublethink, people are led to hate and fear the deficit. That way, business's cohorts in Washington may agree to cut benefits and entitlements like Social Security (but not bailouts).
roger ebert's journal: Putting a better face on things
Would I want to start over with a new face? Would I like to eat, drink, talk, and look like a normal person? Even if that person were a stranger? In theory, this is now possible. I've been thinking of it, on and off, for the last two weeks.
Marilyn Preston: The Zen of Fitness: Calm Your Mind, Activate Your Health (creators.com)
I don't know about you, but most mornings I read the news over my bowl of Koala Crisps and unsweetened almond milk (yum!), and less than three swallows into it, I'm saying, "Oh my God!"
ADAM PERRY: THE (NEARLY) LOST ART OF SPORTSWRITING A PROUD TRADITION SOLDIERS ON (boulderweekly.com)
On vacation in Oakland the other night, I had the unique (and arguably profound) experience of 10,000 Athletics fans vocally battling 10,000 transplanted New York Yankees fans throughout a close game, and my thoughts somehow turned to academia, and writing.
Michael O'Donnell: Infinite Regret (washingtonmonthly.com)
An account of five days on the road with David Foster Wallace offers a coda to the writer's sadly truncated career.
"Jane's Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World: by Claire Harman: A review by Brooke Allen
Not long after Jane Austen's death in 1817, at age 41, her brother Henry wrote a "Biographical Notice" to coincide with the posthumous publication of 'Persuasion' and 'Northanger Abbey.' "Short and easy will be the task of the mere biographer," he assured his sister's readers. "A life of usefulness, literature, and religion was not by any means a life of event."
George Varga: "Jeff Beckons: British Guitar Icon" (creators.com)
There was only one problem when the Rolling Stones invited Jeff Beck to become a member of the legendary band after lead guitarist Mick Taylor abruptly left the Stones in late 1974.
Irene Monroe: Country star Chely Wright comes out and joins Faith in America (huffingtonpost.com)
"...coming OUT...and speaking all her truths...how she was so close to suicide, how she now knows she can be gay and a Christian, how God created her and loves her the way she is.....all the things a 14 year old kid living in a home of country western fans might need to hear. All the things voting age fans need to hear." -- Mitchell Gold, founder of Faith In America.
David Mesker: A Chat with Alexander Gow, Oh Mercy singer (bullz-eye.com)
I'd like Americans to get into us so I can keep making albums a little while longer. We're about to make a new record, and even though I adore our first record, I feel apologetic about it in some ways. I thought we were making demos.
Will Harris: Brenda Vaccaro, Co-star of "You Don't Know Jack" (bullz-eye.com)
Dr. Kevorkian told me "'You know, a lot of these people came to me, and I said, 'I'm here if you need me, but why do it now? Let's see if life doesn't end up meaning a little more to you if we help you to live with what you have.'
Leslie Gornstein: PREACH IT! Yes, Lindsay Lohan has a job and you don't. Get over it (latimes.com)
Lohan has signed on to play Linda Lovelace in a biopic about the star of the porn classic "Deep Throat."
Will Harris: A Chat with Geoff Stults, Co-star of "Happy Town" (bullz-eye.com)
I'm not saying that ('Happy Town') is going to take the place of "Lost," because that's a tall order, but this is something that could help fill the void for viewers of that kind of mystery-type show.
David Bruce: The Kindest People Who Do Good Deeds: Volume 3 (Lulu.com)
Free download. This 3rd book contains 250 anecdotes about good deeds.
Soul Asylum: Runaway Train
Hubert's Poetry Corner
"Big Hair Big Trouble at the 7-11"
The Weekly Poll
New Question(s)
The 'Double-Trouble' Edition...
This past week has brought two significant issues to our (ahem) attention that begs to be commented upon. (I'm pretty sure you all have opinions on these matters, haha...)
The 'What does that even mean?' Question...
In the aftermath of the enactment of Arizona's 'Papers, please' law, various and sundry administration officials, politicians and activists have said that this event only proves the need for immediate "Comprehensive Immigration Reform". However, specific details were lacking and
Mr. Obama has shied away from the issue by saying congress has no appetite for that political 'hot potato' with the fall mid-term elections looming. So, here's your opportunity to give them your input (or a piece of yer mind, if that works). I trust (cough) Rahm reads Bartcop E*...
What would you like (or not like) CIR to include and when (or) should it be done?
The 'Drill, Baby... Spill!' Question...
Not a month has passed after President Obama proposed increased off-shore oil drilling operations when karma bit him in the ass with the BP platform disaster. (Hello? 911? Gaia calling!)
Should Mr. Obama rescind or modify (how?) his decision?
Send your response to
wrote:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Windy again.
Painting Identified?
Raphael
A finely painted portrait of a demurely looking woman nestled in an exceptionally ornate frame that was kept in an Italian ducal palace storeroom appears to be a Raphael original and not a copy as long thought, an art official in central Italy said Friday.
However, experts on the Renaissance giant quickly cautioned that art historians would have to closely study it before any conclusions can be made.
Mario Scalini, state superintendent for art in Modena and nearby towns, said he was doing an inventory of about 20,000 paintings in storerooms after he was named to the post a few years ago when he was struck by an unusually fancy, gilded 17th century frame in the palace in Sassuolo, near Modena.
The work was long considered to be a copy of the head of one of the subjects in the much larger "Madonna della Perla" (Madonna of the Pearl) in Madrid's Prado museum, Scalini said.
Raphael
Australian Postage Honour
Russell Crowe
Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe is to feature on Australia's latest postage stamp, mail officials said Thursday, in a series celebrating his portrayal of folk hero Robin Hood.
New Zealand-born Crowe, 46, who has taken Australian citizenship, produced and stars in Ridley Scott's re-imagining of the Sherwood Forest legend, due to open at France's Cannes Film Festival next week.
Australia Post said the stamps were a celebration of Crowe's achievements ahead of the much-anticipated "Robin Hood" premiere.
Russell Crowe
Mistaken For Tramp
Ian McKellen
Sir Ian McKellen has revealed he was mistaken for a tramp as he sat outside a theatre in costume.
The 70-year-old X-Men star is rehearsing Waiting For Godot in Melbourne, Australia, and was sitting in his tramp costume having a break when a passer-by gave him an Australian dollar.
He tweeted: "During the dress rehearsal of Godot, I crouched by the stage door of the Comedy Theatre, getting some air, my bowler hat at my feet (and) seeing an unkempt old man down on his luck, a passer-by said, 'Need some help, brother?' and put a dollar in my hat."
"The dollar coin is now lodged between two drawing pins on the board above my dressing room mirror. My lucky talisman."
Ian McKellen
World's Biggest Dam Discovered
Beaver
A Canadian ecologist has discovered the world's largest beaver dam in a remote area of northern Alberta, an animal-made structure so large it is visible from space.
Researcher Jean Thie said Wednesday he used satellite imagery and Google Earth software to locate the dam, which is about 850 metres (2,800 feet) long on the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park.
First discovered in October 2007, the gigantic dam is located in a virtually inaccessible part of the park south of Lac Claire, about 190 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Fort McMurray.
Construction of the dam likely started in the mid-1970s, said Thie, who made his discovery quite by accident while tracking melting permafrost in Canada's far north.
Beaver
High Mercury Levels
Taiji
Residents of the dolphin-hunting village depicted in Oscar documentary "The Cove" have dangerously high mercury levels, likely because of their fondness for dolphin and whale meat, a government lab said Sunday.
The levels of mercury detected in Taiji residents were above the national average, but follow-up tests have found no ill effects, according to the National Institute for Minamata Disease. The tests were done on hair samples from 1,137 volunteers of the town's roughly 3,500 residents.
"The results suggest there is a connection between hair mercury levels and eating cetaceans," Director Koji Okamoto told reporters at town hall.
Environmentalists have long protested Taiji's dolphin slaughter and Japan's whaling activities, and have adopted the mercury issue as part of their cause.
Taiji
Whatever Happened
Hole in the Ozone Layer
Three British scientists shocked the world when they revealed on May 16th, 1985 - 25 years ago - that aerosol chemicals, among other factors, had torn a hole in the ozone layer over the South Pole. The ozone layer, which protects life on Earth from damaging solar radiation, became an overnight sensation. And the hole in the ozone layer became the poster-child for mankind's impact on the planet.
Today, the ozone hole - actually a region of thinned ozone, not actually a pure hole - doesn't make headlines like it used to. The size of the hole has stabilized, thanks to decades of aerosol-banning legislation. But, scientists warn, some danger still remains.
First, the good news: Since the 1989 Montreal Protocol banned the use of ozone-depleting chemicals worldwide, the ozone hole has stopped growing. Additionally, the ozone layer is blocking more cancer-causing radiation than any time in a decade because its average thickness has increased, according to a 2006 United Nations report. Atmospheric levels of ozone-depleting chemicals have reached their lowest levels since peaking in the 1990s, and the hole has begun to shrink.
Now the bad news: The ozone layer has also thinned over the North Pole. This thinning is predicted to continue for the next 15 years due to weather-related phenomena that scientists still cannot fully explain, according to the same UN report . And, repairing the ozone hole over the South Pole will take longer than previously expected, and won't finish until between 2060 and 2075. Scientists now understand that the size of the ozone hole varies dramatically from year to year, which complicates attempts to accurately predict the hole's future size.
Hole in the Ozone Layer
Making Plans
Comcast
Comcast Corp plans to sell one of NBC/Universal's three Los Angeles TV stations to win regulatory approval for its proposed acquisition of the media broadcaster, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing an unnamed source.
The No. 1 U.S. cable operator hopes to close a deal this year to set up a $30 billion joint venture with NBC Universal, now owned by General Electric, that it would control.
The NBC television station that Comcast proposed selling is likely to be KWHY, an independent Spanish-language TV station, the newspaper reported, citing a source familiar with the plan.
NBC also owns the NBC station in Los Angeles and Telemundo, another station affiliated with the company's Spanish-language network.
Comcast
Bug In The System
Glitch
In 1998, a hacker told Congress that he could bring down the Internet in 30 minutes by exploiting a certain flaw that sometimes caused online outages by misdirecting data. In 2003, the Bush administration concluded that fixing this flaw was in the nation's "vital interest."
Fast forward to 2010, and very little has happened to improve the situation. The flaw still causes outages every year. Although most of the outages are innocent and fixed quickly, the problem still could be exploited by a hacker to spy on data traffic or take down websites. Meanwhile, our reliance on the Internet has only increased. The next outage, accidental or malicious, could disrupt businesses, the government or anyone who needs the Internet to run normally.
The outages are caused by the somewhat haphazard way that traffic is passed between companies that carry Internet data. The outages are called "hijackings," even though most of them are not caused by criminals bent on destruction. Instead the outages are a problem borne out of the open nature of the Internet, a quality that also has stimulated the Net's dazzling growth.
The crux of the problem is that each carrier along the way figures out how to route the data based only on what the surrounding carriers in the chain say, rather than by looking at the whole path. It's as if a driver had to get from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh without a map, navigating solely by traffic signs he encountered along the way - but the signs weren't put up by a central authority. If a sign pointed in the wrong direction, that driver would get lost.
Glitch
Weekend Box Office
'Iron Man 2'
"Iron Man 2," the sequel starring Robert Downey Jr. as Marvel's gadget-happy billionaire superhero, earned $133.6 million domestically on its opening weekend, according to distributor Paramount Pictures' estimates Sunday. The opening rocketed past the original $98.6 million debut in 2008 and landed the record as the fifth-biggest opening weekend.
"Iron Man 2" has taken in $194 million overseas since it debuted in many international markets last week, bringing its worldwide total to over $327 million. While Hollywood blockbusters typically open around the same date in most countries, some get an overseas jump of a week or more on their U.S. debuts. The biggest opening came from China with $7.3 million.
The victory of "Iron Man 2," which is only available in 2-D, comes at time when 3-D films like "Avatar" and "Alice in Wonderland" have recently dominated the box office. IMAX chairman and president Greg Foster said the $10.2 million earned by "Iron Man 2" from IMAX theaters set IMAX's 2-D record, beating out the $8.5 million debut of "Star Trek" last year.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com; final figures will be released Monday:
1. "Iron Man 2," $133.6 million.
2. "A Nightmare on Elm Street," $9.1 million.
3. "How to Train Your Dragon," $6.7 million.
4. "Date Night," $5.3 million.
5. "The Back-up Plan," $4.3 million.
6. "Furry Vengeance," $4 million.
7. "Clash of the Titans," $2.3 million.
8. "Death at a Funeral," $2.1 million.
9. "The Losers," $1.8 million.
10. "Babies," $1.5 million.
'Iron Man 2'
In Memory
Lena Horne
Lena Horne, 92, an electrifying performer who shattered racial boundaries by changing the way Hollywood presented black women and who enjoyed a six-decade singing career on stage, television and in films, died Sunday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
Ms. Horne, considered one of the most beautiful women in the world, came to the attention of Hollywood in 1942. She was the first black woman to sign a meaningful long-term contract with a major studio, a contract that said she would never have to play a maid.
Ms. Horne's reputation in Hollywood rested on a handful of musical films. Among the best were two all-black musicals from 1943: "Cabin in the Sky," as a small-town temptress who pursues Eddie "Rochester" Anderson; and "Stormy Weather," in which she played a career-obsessed singer opposite Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.
In other films, she shared billing with white entertainers such as Gene Kelly, Lucille Ball, Mickey Rooney and Red Skelton but was segregated onscreen so producers could clip out her singing when the movies ran in the South.
Ms. Horne appeared on television and at major concerts halls in New York, London and Paris. She starred on Broadway twice, and her 1981 revue, "Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music," set the standard for the one-person musical show, reviewers said. The performance also netted her a special Tony Award and two Grammy Awards.
In the early 1960s, Ms. Horne said she felt her sophisticated act sounded increasingly obsolete as she saw a younger generation at sit-ins and marches protesting racial discrimination.
"I thought, 'How can I sing about a penthouse in the sky, when with the housing restrictions the way they are, I wouldn't be allowed to rent the place?' " she told the New York Times in 1981.
Ms. Horne struggled for years to find a public role on race matters. Her earliest mentors urged her to remain reserved and graceful in public, what she called "a good little symbol."
In the late 1940s and 1950s, she chose to focus on quietly defying segregation policies at upscale hotels in Miami Beach and Las Vegas where she performed. At the time, it was customary for black entertainers to stay in black neighborhoods, but Ms. Horne successfully insisted that she and her musicians be allowed to stay wherever she entertained. One Las Vegas establishment reportedly had its chambermaids burn Ms. Horne's sheets.
In 1963, Ms. Horne appeared at the civil rights March on Washington with Harry Belafonte and Dick Gregory and was part of a group, which included authors James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry, that met with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy to urge a more active approach to desegregation. Ms. Horne also used her celebrity to rally front-line civil rights activists in the South and was a fundraiser for civil right groups including the NAACP and the National Council of Negro Women.
Lena Mary Calhoun Horne was born June 30, 1917, in Brooklyn, N.Y. Her father was a civil servant and gambler who largely abandoned the family, although Ms. Horne reconnected with him in the late 1930s. Her mother, an actress, was largely absent from Ms. Horne's early life because of work on the black theater circuit.
Shifted at first among friends and relatives, Ms. Horne was raised mostly by her maternal grandmother, a stern social worker and suffragette in Bedford-Stuyvesant, then a middle-class Brooklyn neighborhood. Ms. Horne said she was influenced by her grandmother's "polite ferocity."
In 1933, when she was 16, Ms. Horne was reunited with her mother and new stepfather, a white Cuban. It was the peak of the Depression, and they lived on relief in Harlem. Ms. Horne was pushed into a job at the Cotton Club by her mother, who knew the Harlem nightclub's choreographer.
Ms. Horne began by wearing three large feathers and doing a fan dance, but she took singing lessons and gradually won better parts.
Exhausted by 19, she fled to her father's home in Pittsburgh and married a friend of his, Louis J. Jones, a minor Democratic Party operative. She and Jones had two children, Gail and Edwin, but the marriage disintegrated over money quarrels.
As she returned to singing and struggled to find work, one club owner told her she looked "too refined for a Negro." Her agent advised her to "pass as Spanish," but she refused. She appeared in a "race movie" intended for black audiences called "The Duke Is Tops" (1938) and in the Broadway musical "Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1939."
Working closely with NAACP Executive Secretary Walter White, Ms. Horne said she wanted to "try to establish a different kind of image for Negro women." They successfully challenged the casting system that had long marginalized black performers onscreen by having them portray servants, minstrels or jungle natives.
To Ms. Horne's surprise, her efforts to overcome servile screen parts was resented by many black actors who viewed her as a threat more than a pioneer. She said she was perceived as a danger to the system of informal "captains" in the black acting community who worked as liaisons with film producers when they needed "natives" for the latest Tarzan picture.
Bored from infrequent movie work, she began taking outside singing engagements and devoted more time to advocating fair employment and anti-lynching laws. She also filed a complaint with the NAACP when she sang for soldiers at Fort Reilly, Kan., on a studio-sponsored tour and saw German prisoners of war seated ahead of black soldiers. This complaint irritated the studio.
In 1969, she won a leading part in a dramatic movie, as a brothel madam and the lover of a white town sheriff played by Richard Widmark in "Death of a Gunfighter." She later called the film "too little, too late."
Ms. Horne continued her active singing schedule, appearing with Belafonte and Tony Bennett. She also appeared on "Sesame Street" singing to Kermit the Frog and played Glinda the Good in "The Wiz," a 1978 musical based on "The Wizard of Oz" and directed by Sidney Lumet, who was then her son-in-law.
Her son died in 1970, at 29, from a kidney ailment. Lennie Hayton, from whom she had long been separated, died in 1971.
Lena Horne
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