Autumn III. Time regained again + HSB

Intro & Preface & Contents

Previous: Autumn II. Tristram Shandy

Every one, I suppose; is subject to a trick of mind which often puzzles me. I am reading or thinking, and at a moment, without any association or suggestion that I can discover, there rises before me the vision of a place I know. Impossible to explain why that particular spot should show itself to my mind’s eye; the cerebral impulse is so subtle that no search may trace its origin. If I am reading, doubtless a thought, a phrase, possibly a mere word, on the page before me serves to awaken memory. If I am otherwise occupied, it must be an object seen, an odour, a touch; perhaps even a posture of the body suffices to recall something in the past. Sometimes the vision passes, and there an end; sometimes, however, it has successors, the memory working quite independently of my will, and no link appearing between one scene and the next.

Ten minutes ago I was talking with my gardener. Our topic was the nature of the soil, whether or not it would suit a certain kind of vegetable. Of a sudden I found myself gazing at -- the bay of Avlona. Quite certainly my thoughts had not strayed in that direction. The picture that came before me caused me a shock of surprise, and I am still vainly trying to discover how I came to behold it...

Alpha.

Amazingly, I have no more to say on this topic... for now.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.

I am ambulatory today... Though I note that I tend to make a variety of noises along with any sort of movement. But I survived another year of HSB! This year was a perfect storm of lovely weather and a variety of other factors to bring out the largest crowd ever. Friday went well, but at times on Saturday and Sunday it was too crowded to move from station to station, so I had to just stay where I was and monitor (help people put their trash in the right place and then pull and replace the bags when they became full) until a musical set change caused people to rearrange themselves. From mid-afternoon on I was playing catch up. And trying to stay hydrated. I don't usually buy event food and drinks, as they are over priced and often not that good, but I bought a couple fruit smoothies both days and was happy to spend the money. Each evening I did a final sort as I swapped out the bags in readiness for the following day, or as part of taking down the stations on Sunday. Each morning I had to clear out all the crap the food vendors tossed in the stations before I arrived. These people work these events for a living, week after week, possibly year after year, and yet they have no idea what goes where. And my guess is, they don't care. Aside from the satisfaction of keeping my area in order and (almost) free of unsorted bags (unsorted bags have to be hauled to our super-sorting station and hand sorted), the best part of HSB is Emmylou Harris's closing set just as the sun sets. The day's final, "magic," light disappears up the gorgeous trees surrounding the meadow. I can't say that a sea of hundreds of thousands of people makes the park more beautiful, but the sight of all those people in that setting, with Emmy Lou's voice rising above it all, is well worth the price of admission, which, technically, is free, but for me includes an astonishing amount of (admittedly paid) work. This really is the culmination of my year, both in terms of Greening but also in term of fitness. This is why I workout virtually every week of the year -- because the nasty secret of HSB is the tons and tons of glass beer and wine bottles the crowd hauls in, because the concert promoters insist on not selling alcohol. We have to haul bags, and even big toters, full of these bottles onto carts or trucks to go to the sorting station, and then into debris boxes or specialized glass recycling containers. It is both hard and dangerous since (news flash) glass breaks.

Here is a link to a (literal) overview of the event. And here is a link to an Emmylou Harris set.

Having been alerted by my experience at that previous event, I was very aware of the current fashion for short shorts. One woman was even wearing a version that displayed the bottom of her butt cheeks. What amazes me (pleasantly) is how many young women -- given the obesity epidemic in this country -- have the legs for this style. At any rate, I am grateful. After hauling around bags of trash in the hot sun for 7 straight hours a man appreciates a little visual pick-me-up. And it's a nice counter balance to the visual pollution... a crowd of over a hundred thousand people of all ages and stages of intoxication is not a pretty sight. I wish HSB was the actual end of the Greening season, but in fact there are a number of other events later in October, but they are always something of a let down. Ideally we would all get to hibernate for at least a couple months following the final cleanup of the concert grounds. Instead there's a marathon to tend to and a big tech convention... no rest for the waste diverting.

Next: Autumn IV. Poetry and landscape.