Weekend photos... Memorial Day Weekend

Parade, Sacramento Music Festival, Old Sacramento

So far this weekend, I've been to both the Sacramento Music Festival, and the Sacramento County Fair.

The music festival is always fun, and I so love seeing our senior generations out there, enjoying the music, the music which for many, shaped their youth. Twin-sets and pearls... because that's what we all do. That's why there are so many 50+ audience members at rock shows. Music is life, and music is memories. So while I understand the financial drivers for the morphing of Sacramento's one-time all-jazz festival into what it is today, I do also wish that there was a pure jazz festival here, with big names. Having spent several years attending and covering jazz festivals in Grenoble, and Vienne, in France, seeing some of the huge names they were able to attract--from John McLaughlin and Bill Frisell and Wynton Marsalis to James Blood Ulmer and the late, great James Brown--the SacMusicFest lineup these days isn't at the same level. Fun? Yes. But does it make me want to explore music that I've never listened to before, shied away from? Not so much.

Bull riding, Sacramento County Fair

The county fair, and last night was my first rodeo, or rather, bull-riding (there were no other rodeo events, just the bulls). While it was definitely photographically challenging, the whole event left me feeling rather sad. I'll leave it at that, for now, until I can shake off the feeling of gloom that I woke up with and write something more meaningful about exactly why it made me sad (it's more than just the involvement of the animals).

Click on the photos above to go to the galleries!