the carnival at the end of the rainbow
Like a concrete rose reaching for the sun from the cracks of the pavement, a multi-colored ferris wheel rises from between a community college parking lot on one side and the projects abutting the infamous East 14th of Oakland on the other to herald the coming of The Ghetto Carnival!
This carnival literally packs up and goes from one end of the city to the other on a day to day basis as the spirit moves it. It's so migratory.
Long time readers of this journal will no doubt be familiar with my fascination with such grassroots sources of pleasure as county fairs. Well, with the 500th straight day of rain we have had in 2006 (and it's only the 106th day of the year!), summer certainlly will not be getting here any time soon so to tide me over, I decided to attend The Ghetto Carnival.
Alas, there was not one booth to be found selling kettle corn, so it was kind of a bummer, and it started raining (BOOOOO) 30 minutes after we arrived, cutting our experience drearily short. More pictures follow.
The Tipper certainly looked like it was going to live up to its name at any moment, flattening the collective members of Xscape, SWV and Total standing sassily in front.
If the ocean was a ghetto, this giant eight-armed orange blow-up doll would be Deacon Dr. Pimp Master Pussy.
If you tilt your head a certain way, this Criminal Suspect Line-Up could pass for one of those revolution-turning rides.
As we drove home, what do we see but the second most breathtaking and magical double rainbow I have ever seen.
This would be Number One.
And now, I would like to end with beautiful and poignant words from the great Mariah Carey:
I know there is a rainbow for me to follow to get beyond my sorrow.
Thunder precedes the sunlight so I'll be alright if I can find that rainbow's end.
Poll
This carnival literally packs up and goes from one end of the city to the other on a day to day basis as the spirit moves it. It's so migratory.
Long time readers of this journal will no doubt be familiar with my fascination with such grassroots sources of pleasure as county fairs. Well, with the 500th straight day of rain we have had in 2006 (and it's only the 106th day of the year!), summer certainlly will not be getting here any time soon so to tide me over, I decided to attend The Ghetto Carnival.
Alas, there was not one booth to be found selling kettle corn, so it was kind of a bummer, and it started raining (BOOOOO) 30 minutes after we arrived, cutting our experience drearily short. More pictures follow.
The Tipper certainly looked like it was going to live up to its name at any moment, flattening the collective members of Xscape, SWV and Total standing sassily in front.
If the ocean was a ghetto, this giant eight-armed orange blow-up doll would be Deacon Dr. Pimp Master Pussy.
If you tilt your head a certain way, this Criminal Suspect Line-Up could pass for one of those revolution-turning rides.
As we drove home, what do we see but the second most breathtaking and magical double rainbow I have ever seen.
This would be Number One.
And now, I would like to end with beautiful and poignant words from the great Mariah Carey:
I know there is a rainbow for me to follow to get beyond my sorrow.
Thunder precedes the sunlight so I'll be alright if I can find that rainbow's end.
Poll