harlan and the hippies

on saturday, mister irving and i were hanging out around the house as we usually do on saturdays, wondering what to do with our precious family time, since there is always a delicate balance when you have a baby and a dog. it's very hard to find interesting things to do that will make the whole family happy (and as we move into toddlerhood with harlan, i'm sure it will begin to get much harder). as we were padding around the kitchen, drinking tea and eating egg sandwich, our great friend ethan called to tip us off to a street festival that was happening in davis square called "honk! fest". as he described it, "a bunch of punk kids with marching bands, you know, lots of stinky hippies"...he had me at 'marching bands'.
i have to say, i'm not one drawn to the 'pseudo hippie element' that sometimes permeates somerville/cambridge..in fact, mostly those kids annoy the hell out of me (you can not be an anarchist AND a social activist, it just doesn't make sense!!)...but, when it comes to louisiana/carnivale/balkan style marching bands with lots of horns and drums, and circus types, belly dancers and people in costume on stilts, i'm all mush.
somerville really came through on this one. there were five staging areas, where the band would play, then they would all march to the next staging area on the hour, one big crazy sidewalk parade. so, at any one time, at least five marching bands were playing in a one square mile area. i can tell you it felt quite like we were in a fellini film, and that's what made it wonderful.
here are pics from the festival just to give you an idea of what it all looked like.
harlan was less than pleased with all the noise. i'm sure when he is a bit older, he'll love all the hippie freaks in their costumes with their noise makers...but, at seven months into this world, it was a bit much. he promptly fell dead asleep in his carrier.
mister irving and i loved it so much, that the next day, some of the same bands were performing in harvard square at the annual oktoberfest, so we dragged some of our friends out and did the whole thing again.

this is a promo video for the most entertaining band at the festival, the 'march forth marching band', (the one that brought us back the next day).