Jazz Festival Weekend
I had a busy weekend. After work on Friday, I went to check out the jazz festival in downtown East Lansing. I was a little wary because scattered thundershowers were forecasted. I didn't feel like carrying an umbrella and it was too hot to wear a rain jacket. I arrived in time to see a lively band playing with a lady singer. There was plenty of seating under the stage tent. When they finished their set, I went to get some food. I heard that there were food vendors, but when I checked, I was disappointed to see that there were only three: one was selling pies, another ice cream, and the third selling chips and dips. I wanted a meal, so I stepped into a restaurant behind the stage tent. Two minutes after I stepped in, the sky opened up and everybody ran under the tent to avoid the rain. I took my time with dinner. The shower passed when I went back out. (Good timing!) I sat and watched another performance for a while, but when I saw another shower approaching, I bought a apple mini-pie from the pie vendor and went home. Five minutes after I got to my apartment, it really started raining. (Good timing again!) There was thunder and lightning all over the place. It went on like this for several hours. I would have rather stayed to listen to jazz, but not if I had to walk home in that kind of rain.
I got up early on Saturday and went down to the photography studio in Old Town to take in a seminar about posing. This was all about tips to posing females and males for standard portraits. I probably should have taken notes, but I didn't feel like carrying around a notebook. I knew several people at this session, including my friend, Barb, who I talk with frequently about photo stuff. The only bad thing about this seminar is that the model did not show up. One of the girls in the class volunteered to stand in for the posing demonstration, and the instructor stood in for the male poses.
Saturday afternoon turned out to be sunny and warm. After the seminar, I took the bus back to downtown Lansing and walked a few blocks to an area called "REO Town". There was a motorcycle rally with contests and live rock bands. There was also a raffle with the proceeds going to the Humane Society. I've seen classic car rallies before, but never a motorcycle rally. Two blocks had rows and rows of bikes parked out for show and there were biker guys and girls walking around all over the place. I learned that there was a Lansing bike club on this block as well as a "biker's church". Clearly, this was the biker section of town. I'm not into motorcycles, but I took photos of some of the ones I thought looked cool. I'll probably get to work on those after I finish my Detroit photos from a few weeks ago. After walking around in the hot sun for a couple hours here, I went home.
The second night of the jazz festival was starting up when I got back to East Lansing. I went home for a quick shower and went to listen to more jazz. I stayed much longer, but I did step out to a different restaurant for a bite of food and a glass of wine. The nice weather held up and nobody had to worry about rain. I watched two more sets then went home. They always pass a hat for donations, but I never give. This year, I supported the festival by buying a t-shirt.
I slept in Sunday and only stepped out to make a bicycle grocery run. (The bicycle basket is really working out for this.) I spent a chunk of time editing the wedding photos from last week. I didn't do much else, but that made for a nice end to a fun weekend.
