Street party is best party #

Wife and I went to a local farmer's market today. Though I suppose you could also call it more of a street party, given the live music and food and jovial atmosphere. Tons of people, lots of fun.

The mind hearkens back to imaginings and depictions of markets and bazaars in days past, in places far from where I live. Though in some ways, the same concepts carry on in spirit even today.

• the omnipresent aroma of various meats sizzling on grills and in smokers;
• tents stood up and down the street, with jars and boxes full of farm products and crafts;
• guitar music and singing echoing up and down the distance of the market's territory;
• people hawking their wares and giving (sometimes impressive and enjoyable) sales pitches;
• multiple languages chattering away over food orders and random goings-on;
• apparently everyone and their dog (in a literal sense) decided to show up that day;

all under the watchful gaze of a hot summer sun.

There was a certain majesty to it; even though it was a random farmer's market in an otherwise nondescript city. In a word?

Idyllic.

It's stuff like this that makes going into a city worthwhile #

I'm not really a big fan of cities in general. Not because I think that we should all return to monke and become hunter-gatherers again. But because I think that rapid and widespread urbanization over the course of the last half-century has resulted in a certain loss in quality of the American cultural soul; a lifestyle and world that I've never had a chance to be a part of was long-since paved over and replaced by wide asphalt streets.

But walking between all the byroads and streets and alleyways of this nearby city in Redacted, USA, I feel some of that old world come back to life through the signs and people and atmosphere. I see a street full of shade stands and people having fun; not a traffic jam full of cars.

I think it's obvious which experience I prefer.

What did we score? #

Wife and I snagged some local products, including a really cool geode. There was a tent selling geodes of various sizes, and my wife and I chose one arbitrarily. It came out full to the brim on the inside with really clean, white crystals - including a secondary crystal growth that had started forming inside the main chamber. It drew oohs and ahhs from onlookers as the vendor unveiled the geode from the towel that covered the rock cracker next to the tent. Not half bad for a random outcome.

We also scored a box of fresh, hot dumplings. Greasy, meaty, awful - in all of the very best ways. Nothing like sitting in the shade and chopsticking away at street food, watching the crowds go by.

Final notes #

Real quick post for today. It was just a fun little side-quest in the midst of lots of other adventures and things going on in my life right now.

I'm currently thinking of what I'll have to do in way of a more longform piece. I'm talking citations, structure, in-depth research and bibliography, the whole nine yards. I just need to whittle down the list of topics I've thought of into something a little more sane.

So, we'll see where that goes. If it does.

Till next time.