Bubbles on Final Friday
Last Friday was a wicked long day for some of us at the Fine Arts Fund. Happily, it ended with bubbles (watch closely):
We’ve been super busy doing what we always do, and at the same time, working hard to create what we have nicknamed new-FAF. (Generally we eschew acronyms because they don’t mean anything to most readers – but that’s sort of what we are aiming for here. *Smile*)
The crew working on new-FAF was “invited” to meet at 6:45 a.m. Friday morning. After a decade of east coast start-time (around 10), this was an excruciating meeting time for me -- and I was not alone.
Even so, some of us ended the day (mind you – this was the Friday before a three-day-holiday-weekend) by meeting at 4 p.m. to discuss the arts plank of our regional plan – Agenda 360. That’s a fine initiative – but at that time, on that day, after such an early start....well, you get the idea.
So, all day – even tho sorta, kinda exhausted – I looked forward to walking out the work door and into the Final Friday celebration of community, with its open galleries, special shows, street food, and so on.
We started at an exhibit of photographs in our local coffee place and then sat on the patio at one of our pubs, visiting with friends who wandered by on the street.
I left one group to join another for a bite of walk-about food at the new Fork Heart Knife (homemade pretzel for me), stopped in at a couple galleries on Main Street, and then headed round the corner at Jackson and 12th for home. It was still early evening, but remember – there was that very absurd start-time.
There, in front of Know Theatre, I discovered a show: people playing music and throwing around the bubble-making liquid, others on Segways (including the Fringe Angel), many already dancing on the sidewalk. It was the First Annual Spontaneous Final Friday Cincy Fringe Parade.
Sitting on the Know Theatre “porch”, I watched them gather for an impromptu march around the neighborhood. When I got home, I found a feather in my hair. Thanks Angel.
Final Friday is extraordinary, more so every month – and the upcoming days of the Cincy Fringe Festival will be too. Both fill our neighborhood with people – some who come by all the time, and many new visitors. They swell the sidewalks and restaurants and bars of the area – and we get to share a whole bunch of dance, song, galleries, murals, and music all at once in a place that has extraordinary vitality and energy. You know – we Play, with bubbles.