State Fair 101

Syllabus:

I. Do your chores first, dontchaknow.

A. Bake bread - yeasted and sourdough - oh ya.
B. Take out recycling, trash, compost.
C. Wash dishes, do a load of laundry, water plants.
D. Eat something (e.g., eggs, toast, rice, beans). Keep it simple.

II. Get going by mid-afternoon.

A. Bring water, money, hat, sunglasses.
B. Find free parking on Dora Lane (alley off 17th Ave. and 4th St.) in front of Xenos Christian Fellowship.
C. Find ATM in convenience store, get more money; experience small inner-city, multicultural, bilingual confrontation; awaken to the fact that all adventures involve things going other than as planned.
D. Enter at 17th Ave. gate.

III. Go directly to the sheep barn.

A. Take time to observe things you don't have on your agenda.

1. Sheep: their appearance, habits, character.
2. Sheep owners, handlers, families, judges: their appearance, habits, character.
3. Other fairgoers: their appearance, habits, character.
4. Consider a career as a shepherd.

B. Peruse the raw wool and wool products on display in a side area of the sheep barn.

1. Suggest to spouse that a couple of wool-bearing animals might make a good sideline if/when we move out of town.
2. Receive skeptical response.

IV. Go to the dairy barn.

A. Watch the Jerseys, Guernseys, and Brown Swiss.

1. Remember Ms. Red, our cow at Strawberry Mountain Farm in Walker County, Georgia, whom we milked every morning and evening for about two years, whose milk we made into yogurt, skimming the abundant cream, which we drank in our coffee and ate with our oatmeal.
2. Notice similar traits between breeds, ask a dairy farmer, who patiently explains a few simple things for the city folks.

B. Get a chocolate shake.

1. Use a spoon; it's way too thick for a straw.
2. A large shake will last the rest of the afternoon if you work it right, perfect on a hot August afternoon.

V. Go to the beef cattle barn.

A. It's a completely different crowd/subculture.
B. Think NASCAR.

VI. Go to the amphitheater.

A. Oh, well, there are no performances this afternoon, so we missed all the cool horseshowmanship.
B. There is, however, a single horse trotting round and round the arena with a teenage rider who takes obvious pleasure in the rhythmic movement of the big animal.

1. Note the somatic (physical, psychic, emotional, etc.) connection between the horse and the rider, how they respond to each other instantaneously.
2. No wonder the ancients were fascinated with centaurs.

VII. Go look at chickens and rabbits.

A. These are probably the prettiest hens in the whole state, otherwise they wouldn't be living the high life at the state fair, right? But they are quite beautiful.
B. The roosters are much smaller, but they make up for it in magnificent crowing.

VIII. Go to the fine arts building.

A. Finish your ice cream first, because you can't take a lidless container inside and spill your chocolate shake all over the objets d'art.
B. As in any gallery or museum, take your time. Walk around, don't stop at every piece, but let something grab you by the throat to take a closer look.

1. This show was carefully hung by someone who knows what they're doing, and there were three well-selected paintings hung together just inside the entrance: same size (large) but very different styles in similar palette of reds and oranges. I bounced from one to the others and back, finally transfixed by the one called "Sun Salutation," which had a lot of energy.
2. Only a few other pieces really made me want to keep looking - a pair of prints playing off Japanese printmaking and calligraphy, especially - but I like the way they include a huge variety of media and subjects. It's the state fair, after all.

IX. Winding down, check out the cool Andean music coming from a band at a little tent on the edge of the midway!

X. Quilts and other crafts are in a building on the north side of 17th Ave.

A. Gven Golly's Aunt Irene has a few exquisite traditional quilts in the show, as usual, and they are fine work indeed.
B. Gven's friend Kate has a whole bunch of small quilts on display that her students made with a cow theme: Andy Warhol-style, each kid in her class in Sandusky made an original color combination from a common shape (head of cow), and the assemblage of cows is dazzling.

XI. Epilog: Rumba Cafe on Summit St. is a perfect respite.

A. We were ready to call it a day but not ready to go home; Gven Golly suggested a beer; I suggested a place where my drum teacher plays sometimes.

1. Now for something completely different: polished wood, quiet for an early Saturday evening, the Browns exhibition game on the tube, and a decent selection of beers.
2. As the band set up inside, we found a table out on the patio. As our neurons processed a day of high stimulation and rich midwestern (agri)cultural ethnography, we relaxed into wide-ranging conversation.

B. We had a lot to talk about.