tony and i went to our first
folklife festival this past weekend. we live so close to the
institute of texan cultures, how could we not. the cultural performances were impressive and quite the treat for us. we went in the evening and enjoyed native american, philippine, chinese, and spanish dance performances. i have
always been fascinated by the story of the native americans, especially in texas. the cultural connection to nature and the tragedy of their decline echoed in the voice of a native american descendant as he sang on stage during the performance. this was my first time hearing native american singing and chanting in person and i was in complete awe of the amount of strength and passion in his voice. seriously, goosebumps. our favorite philippine performance consisted of dancers clapping long wooden poles while other dancers maneuvered in and out of the poles. picture double dutch and that's what it looked like, just replace the jump ropes with long wooden poles that stay close to the ground. my mouth dropped when they sped up the rhythm and i couldn't figure how on earth the dancers didn't tumble over each other. again, impressive. then, we saw the chinese kung fu demonstration and i could only agree with tony, those boys must surely not get picked on at school. amazing. we'll be back next year...
. . . . . . .
early summer is bringing some heat. in mid-day, it's absolute torture. so of course, this means it's time for some cold juicy watermelon. and just my luck, i happen to have an expert watermelon cutter handy all the time. yum...
