Thunder Gods

Back in Dinner Key for a few days. There are some things being shipped to us here and we have some paperwork to catch up on. (Like taxes.) Also, the Coconut Grove Arts Festival is in full swing and Deb wanted to check it out. When we got here someone told us the price was $15 each per day, which seemed a bit much. Ah, but residents of Coconut Grove (host of the fair) get in for $5. We live on a boat. The boat is moored in Coconut Grove. Ergo, we are residents of Coconut Grove. How cool is that?

The Arts Festival was huge, packed with people and booths displaying every kind of art imaginable. Some was pretty hokey. Some was pretty good. But the photography of Lisa Kristine touched my heart. She takes pictures of slaves; modern day men, women, and children whose lives have been stolen. Mostly forgotten and with no hope; but she tells their stories in haunting images of faces and people trapped in places that should never be. True art opens our eyes and teaches us things we may not want to learn. Lisa Kristine's pictures are true art.

Then, in the weirdness that is life, our $5 included a concert by the ex-lead singer of Bad Company, Brian Howe. Every generation (so I have read) clings to the music of their coming of age. For many of my generation that was the music of the thunder gods of drums, bass guitar lines that shook the lungs, lead guitar riffs that blurred fingers, and lead singers who shredded vocal cords. Rock-n-Roll loud and fast and best served up live.

There may never be another generation whose music is, at its core, unbridled fury.  But with Lisa Kristine's images still haunting my mind and music thundering off the stage as it did when I was young and angry at a world that desperately needed changed, I couldn't help but think there should be.

Night view at the Dinner Key mooring field