A Living Magazine - Day 79 - Last Day Of Pig Out In The Park

What a nice sleep. I slept in until 8:00 am! I think I would have done that even if I had my own place. I really liked my spot and was making it better with each day--clearing sticks away and building them up along the perimeter of that grassy area. 

This was the last day of the Pig Out In The Park and I wanted to see as much as I could. I headed down town to the pond near the carousel to watch the geese for a while...

He was back! The leader of the flock.

I'm not sure, but I think that this Tropical Sno stand is a permanent fixture in the park.

And, the great overlords making sure their investments were producing profits, presided proudly.

I went to Starbuck's on Main Street again (my preferred coffee place in Spokane--nice staff and plenty of tables with outlets), and published my post. I'd been running one post behind for the last few days and the one on this day was a representative of why.

Editing music can be even more time consuming than editing photos and videos. Parts of the audio stick out as so loud (especially in front of those massive bass bins) that I had the reduce their levels in order to make the each entire piece even, volume-wise. And, for a 20 minute file with three songs on it, for example, this can mean a good half hour to forty five minutes of work. The nice thing is that I have all the applications I need on this tiny laptop and can do the work, no matter where I am (no need for Wi-Fi when doing editing work).

I really wanted to get another post up too, but the time bled away, and I had to settle for remaining behind the 8 ball. Nevertheless, the post came out well. Even though I knew that people might not even listen to the audio links, I think they were worth the time I put into them. Working in this way for the last few days, I could understand the appeal of following music festivals around the country and doing photo and audio reviews of them. I will try to focus more on music in the towns and cities that I visit throughout the rest of this year. Since I know a thing or two about music, it could be a rather rewarding extension to this blog--if only for me.

I went back out to the park to see and hear whatever was left there. The Clocktower Stage had been disassembled, so that was that. On one of the secondary stages was the second to last band of the day, Men In The Making. These guys were quite entertaining and the crowd loved them. They are local favorites who have played Pig Out every year for the last 15 years. They dress up in costumes, crack jokes and interact quite a bit with the crowd...    

Chris Shay - One founding member of the band.

He can sing like woman, and does many of the high harmonies.

Kevin Shay - Chris' brother and co-founder of the band. He did a great Jerry Lee Lewis.

Kevin Dodson - Fantastic drummer, singer and apparently has a long resume as a session player.

Michael Hines - An "actor, singer and performer" who was an incredibly diverse

singer with a range from Johnny Cash to Cher. He sang female parts as well as he 

sang male parts. A good in-between voice was his Roy Orbison.

In this photo he was singing a bunch of Monkeys tunes.

Big crowd--the biggest for this stage.

Two things I hadn't taken shots of had to be captured...

Spokane's Sky Cars.

The Indoor Carousel.

When Men In The Making had exhausted nearly two hours of energetic costume changes and about three dozen Classic Rock tunes, I was just about ready to head "home". I made one more circuit around the food booths, wishing I could get something to make me feel like I'd tried the food. These restaurants and their employees worked incredibly hard. There were a couple guys who I'd seen each day. So, I got some shots of them. True professionals (I'm sorry to say, I didn't take note of their particular businesses)...

Jack cranking out the crepes.

Johnny making a massive pot of popcorn.

Veronica, a girl I hung out with for a while talking.

Hopefully she will join us on Facebook.

Then I got to the Twisters Funnel Cake booth. They are a new mobile food business in town. I'd been drooling over these all week, watching people walk by breaking off pieces of this delicious looking pastry off and chewing them up--it is something like a mixture between fried dough and really eggy waffle, poured out in a spiral like a loosely woven mat. These guys made them perfect every time...

Jared preparing the oil.

Sam getting ready to pull a funnel cake out and dump powdered sugar on it. 

I watched the process very carefully so that I might make them when I have a kitchen to work in again. These guys were really nice and didn't mind me poking around asking questions. In fact, right as I put my camera in its little belt pack, Sam passed me a free funnel cake! Made my whole evening. Sometimes it's advantageous to be a food groupie!

Knowing this was the last day of the festival - a festival I had no idea would be happening when I first arrived in Spokane - I had the same sentimental feeling that I've gotten in some of the other favorite cities I've visited in the last 79 days. I knew I would be leaving soon and all of this would become simply a sweet memory. But it is a memory I will be able to cherish and relive, whenever I need to think of a light hearted and fun time. It will be good for those future long hikes, when I let my mind drift.

The camera does not do well at night, and must be kept very still in order to focus in on and resolve images correctly. But I wanted to capture this railing design and its shadow, something I'd seen each night and wished I'd taken taken a picture of--now done...

The railing and shadows when viewed together make a series of concentric circles.

On my way back to the creek, I passed this church on the corner of Fourth and Monroe. In this shot, it looks a bit scary...

It took about 45 minutes to get back to the sleeping place. There were no special events to report from this night along the creek. I settled in for my late summer rest, feeling very grateful that I was still able to have a good time and really enjoy myself. Very honestly, between you - the reader - and me, I had wondered for a long time whether I would ever have the chance to feel real joy again out in public. That concern was now gone. I smiled as I drifted off to sleep.