Kentucky Bluegrass: Daja Vu, Too - in the Golden Gate Park today, Communitas There, With Awareness

Daja vu, too ... in the Golden Gate Park today, at the "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass" Music Festival (and happening).


The 1960s and 70s - countercultural influences, if you will - are somewhat close to the surface in the San Francisco Bay Area. And today's festival was ongoing seeding of the same. It took place in the park in 3 or 4 venues at around 27th Avenue, and a lot of folks came to this festival. People milled around on this cool autumn day, some dancing, some eating, and all listening. The festival was free. (Thanks to the organizers and funders).


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I look for times when people find 'flow: the psychology of optimal experience' experiences, and I saw more people happy, relaxed and dancing than I do generally, - mostly from the music in the air.


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When the music was really happening for me, I explored explicitly freeing my mind in the park observing and engaging mentally the tent peaks, the trees, the moving people, individuals with interesting pieces of clothing, faces, dancing ... all to come richly into the moment, and open to transforming my perceptions and thinking into kinds of 'art.'

It's particularly the high notes - the high, male tenor voices, and the fine, high-noted picking - that get me kind of high, and which freedoms I can begin to cultivate especially in relation to a lovely surrounding environment, with observation.

While there was good bluegrass - Ralph Stanley and his band, for one - and I heard the names Scruggs and Randall and other famous names, but perhaps of relatives, there was also a fair amount of rock and roll.


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This festival didn't take place in Second Life, so people around the world couldn't participate, but it did draw out alternative and music-loving San Francisco. (It would have been easy to produce in Second Life).


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The political messages I heard in the music were about forgiving debt to African countries, and universal health care in the U.S, in an English accent by one performer.


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There were a lot of booths selling food, and the smells in the air were great.


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A San Francisco bicycle collective offered bicycle parking en masse. This was an instance of progressive, sensible thinking and planning. Some folks at this festival had long hair and dreads, but not everyone by any means.


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This festival shaped a kind of communitas in a S.F. urban park setting which was great.


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Thinking about a friend I met the evening before with whom I found a connection ... :)


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Relaxation response... :)





(http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2009/10/kentucky-bluegrass-daja-vu-too-in.html - October 4, 2009)