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Post by lola on Jun 18, 2011 0:09:08 GMT
Wednesday night, my daughter and I stumbled on Fire Jam in Forest Park. We were at the top of Art Hill, in front of the Art Museum, and could hear drumming. A half mile or so away, at the end of the Grand Basin, we could see flames twirling in the darkness. It bore investigating.
It was the perfect evening for anything outdoors, with the moon rising a few days past full, low humidity, and temperature in the low 70's.
Forest Park is in the middle of St. Louis, and the Grand Basin is in the middle of ~1300 acre Forest Park (~500 acres larger than Central Park in NYC). It's a gem. The Basin is a large pool with illuminated fountains, and at the end furthest from the Art Museum a wide landing with steps down to the water.
Maybe 50 young people were gathered, drumming, watching, dancing with battery-lighted hula hoops, and juggling fire. Some of the hula type hoops had maybe 7 containers for flammable liquids around, and they twirled around the dancers' bodies. You could walk among them or watch from where the flames were reflected across the water.
It was magical.
A heavily tattooed young woman came up to offer feathered earrings for sale, and she told us it's Fire Jam, and they gather every Wednesday and Sunday evening. It started as a drum circle a few years ago.
Here's a clip of something similar in Chicago:
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Post by lola on Jun 18, 2011 0:30:51 GMT
We were on out bikes, so after we'd walked back up the hill we had to take the path through some dense woods. The moon hadn't gotten up over that hill yet, so it was dark.
A young man with bright flashing head and tail lamps came up and rode past us, so we followed him with our weaker lights. The fields were full of lightning bugs. Once we're out of the park, it's only 5 miles downhill and we're home.
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Post by lola on Jun 18, 2011 0:35:57 GMT
Here's a Chicago clip more like what we saw:
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 18, 2011 0:59:42 GMT
They do this twice a week?! Magical, indeed. The description of the ride through the dark woods and the fields of fireflies was worth the price of admission, Lola. Lovely!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2011 14:52:47 GMT
Oh! This is so cool Lola!! My only wish is that the clip was of Forest Park.....As you know,I lived in Saint Louis only a stone's throw away from Forest Park,and,it remains one of my favorite parks that I've been to in the U.S. As with Audubon Park here,it was established as a direct result of a major World's Fair,or in the case of Audubon,a World Exposition,maybe cotton had something to do with it if I remember correctly. I spent many a morning,afternoon evening in Forest Park. I hope you or your lovely daughter could perhaps take some pics of this very cool spectacle in one of my favorite spots. Last Wednesday was a Full moon btw,so,you guys really lucked out. Up in New York,at a local beach on the Atlantic,there is a group that meets every single evening at sunset and, there are drums of every imaginable size etc, that are played along with dancing. I try to go as often as I can when I am there. It's such a perfectly lovely way to end the day. I always end up seeing someone I know,and,on one occasion,several years ago, met a second cousin of mine for the first time!!! She had a family look about her,and when I could no longer stop staring at her,I went up top her and asked if she was a 'M', and she said yes. It was very cool. Anyway,enough dithering.... Thanks Lola,I hope we can see Forest Park on here. Pretty Please? P.S. I miss fireflies,we don't have them here.....
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Post by lola on Jun 21, 2011 3:24:27 GMT
Thank you, casimira.
Isn't Forest Park great? It's even nicer in the past 10 years when people with will, money, taste, civic pride and knowhow converged to restore some beauties and add others. It's so well used now by all sorts of people.
I will overcome my technophobe slug self and photograph/post at least some of what I like best about it. You didn't live in the DeMun neighborhood, did you, my favorite student ghetto?
How dear that you recognized a cousin and kindred soul.
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Post by lola on Jun 21, 2011 3:27:15 GMT
We are so rich in fireflies here. I sometimes wonder what parts of the world have them. Would've really thought NO would.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 21, 2011 3:57:48 GMT
I think you need some open area for fireflies. Back at the very beginning of the 70s, the empty lots near my cousins' house on the west bank, right by the levee, used to be full of them in the evenings.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2011 10:29:45 GMT
Lola,I lived in the West End of the city. Right off Euclid and McPherson in what at that time was a kind of Greenwich Village of sorts.Lots of cool cafes,clubs,restaurants and very cool turn of the century houses built around the time of the World's Fair there. At that time it was dirt cheap to rent a whole house and,I lived in two different locations there until eventually going to live out in Webster Groves to be closer to the college I was attending at the time. I heard that there were fireflies in Jefferson Parish which indeed has more open areas. I was also told that the levee used to have tons of fireflies. I'm afraid that all the mosquito pesticides killed them off. Lola,please do try to get some photos. I too,had major photo posting phobia. I look back at some of my earlier photo posts now and cringe as some of them are not even in focus.
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Post by lola on Jun 21, 2011 14:48:43 GMT
The Central West End is still hopping, Casimira, but now mostly priced out of a student's reach. We had Father's Day supper at Llywellyn's Pub, Euclid and McPherson, and our daughter's favorite salsa dancing club, Viva, is just around the corner.
While one of our good cameras is home for the summer I'm out of excuses.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 21, 2011 16:53:36 GMT
Oh!! I know/knew Llewellyn's Pub very well. The original owner was my journalism professor,and was Welsh. Thank god those walls can't talk.... The area was becoming very 'yuppified' before I even left there,and that was in 1975.... I look forward to seeing some pics Lola!!!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 21, 2011 23:04:54 GMT
Lola,please do try to get some photos. I too,had major photo posting phobia. Casimira is a force for Good. Fact.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 22, 2011 9:05:05 GMT
And a lot of us have begun to take better pictures now that people are actually looking at them.
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