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For many of us, it’s time to head back to school. This image from Shorpy here. There’s lots to learn, of course, and lots of fun to be had outside the classroom.
There’s The Gym Club.
The Science Club
The Home Economics Club from 1929, when home economics was more important than nuclear physics.
The Senior Nature Club, 3 nature-loving young men and 25 young natural women.
Here’s a Pep Club. I feel better already.
The Guys Who Know How to Line Up Club
The Thespian Club, not to be upstaged by Pep or Nature or Home Economics.
The W Club Service Group is just for being Wonderful, we think.
So play safe out there, learn a lot, have fun. At school, it seems there’s always something for everybody.
The Trigonometry in Tutu’s club.
Vancouver’s local summertime fair is on again for the 101st time. There will be lots of fun to be had during the 2 week run–food you only ever see at the fair, fun-scary rides that make you scream and then want to go again, simple games you never can win, beads and trinkets that look crummy as soon as you get them home, revolutionary mops. Photo from here
Above summerday shot of Vancouver’s PNE from here. Lots of things have remained pretty much the same since the start in 1910.
Above from 1940 when the amusement park portion of the PNE was known as Happyland. Image from here
But there have also been changes over the years, most notable for us at the R of L is the loss of all the weird sideshows that made you want to look and NOT look all at the same time.
Above snake and sword specialists from a remarkable website called sideshowworld.
An actual portrait of Jo Jo, a Human Sky Terrier. Above 2 banners from here
And a team photo-portrait of the Clyde Beatty Congress of Human Oddities, circa 1937 , found here.
This photo above shows that the tradition of making a living as a result of unusual physical characteristics continues today here and there. Photo from here.
So in your heart you know that Miss Electra the Danger Diva is probably just an ordinary woman who likes the spotlight and has frizzy hair. But still, you want to see for yourself, right? She’s a performer, she’ll do a show. It’ll be worth the $3. Right? Seen here
James here looks like he might have a bit more of a scientific approach to the electric phenomenon. Found at vintage venus here.
No matter where you find a fair, no matter when, there is always something you just never see anywhere else, whether it’s a giant man, a horse smaller than a dog, ALIVE!, or a juice maker for $700. Or..
Deep fried jellybeans at the Massachussetts State Fair, full gooey description here.
A crazy brave kid riding a sheep. Seen here
So get out to the fair and prepare to be amazed and appalled, maybe all at the same time.
If you’ve spent any time around people who fish, you’ve probably noticed that they are a generally a gentle bunch, long on smiles and short on sentences, and very very patient. Among those who fish, those who prefer fly fishing are distinguished by their preference to be in beautiful places while fishing.
This is Austria.
And above is somewhere in Idaho.
This person is fly fishing at night. Somewhere nice.
Look at that scene behind this man: it’s like a calendar. Put on your rubber pants and wade in.
Or just stand in a sunbeam on the rocky shore of a lake in South Dakota. Here
South to Argentina, above, with a flyrod
North to Scotland, on the River Tay, above.
You don’t always need rubber pants to fish, or any pants at all, in Scotland
At the end of the line, these are the flies, the beautiful tiny feather sculptures used to lure the fish. Most are hand made.
The ‘Silver Doctor’ above is a mixed wing full dressed salmon fly. Invented by James Wright, 1850. Wright was an award winning fly tier. So says fish4flies.
Off to Iceland, nice photo seen here
Wading in Canadian waters, above, with a mountainscape you want to kiss.
This above os Elk River, Fernie, BC, Canada (Pic’s by Ravens Eye Photography at the 2009 Canadian National FlyFishing Championships) seen here.
Well, we have to go now. The fish are waiting, and so are some of the most beautiful spots on earth. This one is in New Zealand: Taupo, Nelson & Southland.
Give yourself a treat sometime. Go fish. And if you can, go where the fly fishing is good. It’s probably one of the most beautiful places you’ll ever see.
People at outdoor music festivals are usually a pretty happy bunch. But no one seems to get as happy and yes mellow as people at FOLK music festivals. Look at the two above seen here and the hoola hooper below seen here, all at the Port Fairy Folk Festival in Australia.
Folk festivals seem to occur just about everywhere that folk can be found. In North America, there are hundreds every year and each one seems to develop a personality of its own over time, though always remaining within the framework of being a laid back/come as you are/easy does it/beads and musk/natural food and fabric/rainbow colour/smile the whole time/love fest.
These people above are at the bliss fest kc in Kansas City. If that weren’t the actual name of the festival, people would probably call it that anyway.
This is the folk fest in Canmore Alberta. Stilt bliss. Get high on 2 by 4′s. Photo from here
England has lots of folk festivals too. This is a shot of a recent gathering of the Cambridge Folk Festival, seen at the bbc.
Still at the Cambridge Festival, this is one of the performers last year, Eliza Carthy. At folk festivals, it seems, the people on stage get blissed as much as anyone in the audience. Seen again at the BBC.
Still in England, these folks above are at the Bromyard Folk Festival in Shropshire. No, they don’t actually look blissed, but they are, they are. Especially the guy on the right inside the brown dinosaur suit. See here
This lady above is attending the Fairy Folk Festival in Sonoma California. She’s as mellow as a kitty cat who’s just finished eating an entire sockeye salmon. More here
Getting extremely happy, inside and out, at folk festivals did not start with the 1960′s as you may have thought. This banjo player is performing at the Folkways Festival in Arkansas in 1941. Found here.
There is a site called we love festivals with a day by day calendar of festivals, mostly folk, if you want to check it out . Site here
Lets head back to Australia, this time to the amazing Woodford Folk fest, image here
Another day at the Woodford, which is held in late December, early January to see in the new year in high summer in Australia. High summer got muddy this time, image here.
Woodford again above , here’s their website
Wherever you see the words folk and festival , in any country, you will find people having the time of their lives. It may only last a few days, but it shows us what we could be. Maybe we need folk musicians on every street corner in every town and city all year long, to get us to stop awhile and bliss out. Image above from here.
Badminton is a perfect summer game. It’s inexpensive, most people can play it, you can play in your back yard, in a park, at the beach, in a gym….No one gets hurt. And it’s been around for quite a while. Above image from here
Above is an early badminton match, netless, but plenty of fancy garb and look-at-me attitude. Seen here. Picture by one Nicolas Arnoult, around 1685
She’s playing for keeps, though her grip is a bit unsporty. But Look at those shoes. More here.
This match is just for Ladies, without a net. Seen here.
This is based on an actual incident–and finally, a net. You can go to zazzle.ca and find these cats on postcards, coffee mugs, and yes mousepads, here.
The introduction of the plastic bird. Oh no. What next? Decaf coffee? see here.
Here’s the book. Available here
If you need to stay indoors (maybe you’re in prison for massive fraud, say), here is the miniature indoor version. see it here
Badminton is big in England. The Queen put it on one of her many postage stamps. Here.
It is also big in other countries. The competitors can be very fit,and they might take what they do as seriously as any serious athlete. This above is a shot from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. This is the winning team that day. Seen here.
Badminton is also big in, of all places, Kansas. This is a sculpture at the Nelson-Atkins museum in Kansas City, Missouri by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Go here for more
This gentle, simple game is beginning to attract the alternative crowd. Get the T shirt at donkey T’
And the highly athletic, airborne crowd, as seen here
But for me, it’s mainly the simple game you can set up in no time and play in twos or fours or threes or nines, for hours and hours. IT’S FUN. Everytime, everywhere. Backyard badminton from here.
Your serve.
