Sucky folklife

[leftyjew]

One of my favorite DC things to do in the summer is Screen on the Green. That's not what this entry is about.
I also really love the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. It's a two-week-long festival on the Mall where they traditionally invite two foreign cultures and an American state or region to present what makes them special. They have music, food, art, crafts, exhibits of all sorts, and of course, a gift shop. Recent festivals have been:
2000: Tibet, "El Rio" and DC
2002: Silk Road (spanning from Venice to Mongolia) - They really couldn't fit much else.
2003: Appalachia, Mali and Scotland
2005: Oman, Forest Culture (??), Nuestra Musica (???), Food Culture USA (which was actually really cool).

Notice a theme. there's at least one other country included in the whole line-up, and that usually gets the largest acreage. This year, the displays will be:

• Basketry
  
• Gulf Coast Afro-Carribean/American Music
  
• Nuestra Musica
  
• Alberta

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about the Culf Coast music. And Nuestra Musica has been around for three years, but it's kinda fun. I'm really disappointed, though, by Basketry and even more disappointed by the "foreign country" reporesented. Alberta may be really cool. I've never been there. But honestly.... which of the following don't belong? Tibet, Oman, Mali, Scotland, Alberta.
I hate the Bush administration even more by stealing money from this wonderful cultural event and putting it to fighting a losing war we should never have started. Dammit, dude, since you took office, the Folk Life festival has gone seriously downhill. Alberta?? That's the only foreign culture?? Please.

Comments

[queerrocket.livejournal.com]

the only alberta culture is beef. It's also the only canadian province that supports bush. it is *by far* the most conservative Canadian province.

[alanscottevil.livejournal.com]

how exotic!

[alanscottevil.livejournal.com]

Bryant Park summer film series in NYC has twice the movies....why is DC dropping the ball?
http://www.bryantpark.org/calendar/film-festival.php

[leftyjew.livejournal.com]

I feel ripped off. Especially since it's the SAME friggin movies!!! We only get a subset of NYC's :( Damn you corporate sponsorship! Damn you!! (this is another reason to be mad at Sandy Weill)

[rivka-m.livejournal.com]

NY's may be cooler, but I'm soo going to DC's... esp since after living in suburban MD for 18 years, I've never been yet.

Alberta

[(Anonymous)]

How dare you insult the great province of Alberta!!! The great Alberta has supplied us with our last two Western Conference Champions, both huge underdogs who slayed their goliath opponents en route to the Stanley Cup Finals. Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals is infact tonight, live from Rexall Place in Edmonton, where the fans of the Oilers have set new decibel levels. Perhaps Ales Hemsky or Fernando Pisani or even Ryan Smyth will score an unlikely goal on Cam Ward and send the Oil Train one more win closer to the Cup.

And who could forget the mighty Calgary Flames of 2004??? The great goaltending of Miikka Kipprusoff amazed us all at the Pengrowth Saddledome and timely goals from Jarome Iginla, Villie Niemmenen, and Mike Commodore sent the Flames within one win of Lord Stanley's Holy Chalice.

The next time you diss on Alberta, perhaps you should remember their 2 great hockey teams (once 2 of the most feared teams of the 1980s) and their unlikely runs of 2004 and 2006.