sbrobert
By Robert Bernstein
The Santa Barbara Summer Solstice Parade is another COVID-19 casualty this year. But the parade will live on in Virtual form! Artists are creating ensembles and floats and performances in real life. These performances will be recorded on video. Experienced film maker Penny Little is doing the heroic task of editing these many short videos together to create a two-hour Solstice Virtual Parade!
Last week I was invited to participate in an ensemble created by Pali X-Mano who has created the Solstice Grand Finale ensemble for over 20 years.
Here are my videos and photos of some of what Pali and his partner Raven created.
The 2020 Solstice theme is “Beautiful Earth”. Pali and Raven created head pieces and tunics made from National Geographic maps of our Beautiful Earth. All we had to do was put them on and do our thing.
Here you can see make-up artist Joan Melendez in all her glory posing with former artist in residence Mary Price.
Angela Genesis struck a “worldly” pose for me:
I had not been on my unicycle since the last Solstice a year ago, so I wanted to do a bit of practice first. My wife Merlie captured this video of me warming up:
Then I captured this video of the rest of the group warming up:
And Merlie made this short video of all of us doing our thing while videographer Michael White made the real video:
We were fortunate that State Street was closed to motor vehicles so that we could perform in the street, with the Arlington Theater as a backdrop.
We also posed for a few group photos:
Yes, we were not practicing perfect social distancing. But we seem to be in a transition time now. Brief proximity of small groups outdoors is starting to happen during this transition. Santa Barbara has already opened up some restaurants for indoor dining. In my understanding, that is far more risky. We will certainly know more of the effects in the next week or so.
After we finished using the space, the next group got ready. They were dancing to the new Rolling Stones song “Living in a Ghost Town” and I made a short video of their practice.
Here is information about participating in this Virtual Solstice Parade: https://www.virtualsolstice2020.com/parade
The official deadline is Wednesday this week, but they will try to be flexible since word is just starting to get out. In addition to artistic ensembles they are welcoming videos of people posing as spectators or making chalk drawings.
Stand by for more information about where the final video will be shown. It will all happen for real on the actual Summer Solstice this year: June 20! Check here for more information: https://www.virtualsolstice2020.com/
I hope with the year off, the Solstice organizes can come up with some new ideas to refresh the “same ‘ol same ‘ol” event. Fiesta is bad enough as one year is nearly identical to the previous 50. However, with Solstice, it should be new/fresh, and never boring. The usual participating groups/troupes can also spend time thinking about coming up with new ideas/costumes/”floats”. This event gives a lot of people an opportunity to feel good about themselves and get the attention they need. For one thing, I’d like to see a bit more actual cultural diversity, which would go a long way to attract more people to the event.
It will be interesting to see if they try to combine Solstice with Juneteenth……or?
I think that person is supposed to be a cat… not blackface? That’s my take.
SBRobert: I was making no reference to the skills of the makeup artist, but only to what seemed tone-deaf, especially at this time, to have blackface. (I did not see that it was a cat that was portrayed, even though I am Bird, usually sensitive to the presence of cats.) Hope you find it constructive that persons of good will may well have completely different interpretations of the same thing, the same artwork. It is wise, even sensitive, in the context of public art, as is a virtual solstice parade, to ask how it might be perceived.
As the Hippies get old and start to die off (finally!), maybe we should reconsider the scope and scale of this event and parade? After all, the only people who want to see old hippies in bikinis are, well, old Hippies… The rest of us would like to see a little more modern style, diversity and a whole lot less of the sweaty, wrinkled old people dancing to the same ol’ song…
wow yeah finally old people dying, right? hopefully the open economy speeds up the process amiright?! diversity is synonymous with overinclusion with these “modern style” thinkin’ hipsters who will scream in your face but if you touch a finger on them they want you thrown in the slammer for 20 years because they are peaceful like that.
I miss Dragon and Susan Mangan. Their sexuality-themed entries featuring body paint, leather and chains added a lot of sizzle to the Solstice parades of years ago. Eventually, they were banned from participating and later arrested and convicted of running a brothel.
My oh my, such stereotyping and loathing here. Looks like people having fun to me. Anything wrong with wrinkles? If you are lucky, you’ll have a few someday.
I was one of their chosen recipients of a black rose one year…wasn’t sure if I should be flattered or freaked out. Gotta agree, they brought a certain sizzle to the parade.
That said, I have never found the Solstice Parade boring. And sexy isn’t necessarily the key…I loved the RBGs during the Legends year. (Only ~7 more months–hang in there Ruth honey!)
The Old Hippies were the ones who started the Solstice Parade in Santa Barbara.
Solstice has nothing to do with hippies. The real hippies and their lifestyle are long gone as no one in their right mind would continue to live like that. When you see those few “hippies” at events like Solstice at Alameda Park doing their best to swing and sway to the music while looking at the sky (God bless them), just know that they’ve lived a good life off of their family inheritance, have never been hungry, and still hate Nixon as if it were yesterday (not 60 years ago). How do I know? My sister…I just described my 75 year old sis who is one of those lone “hippie” dancers you see at these events.
I was kinda shocked to see blackface, especially now.
Consider: https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/19/world/brownface-blackface-yellowface-trnd/index.html
Good for her maybe she will dance for many more years to come.
Constructive creative suggestions are most welcome. Please offer any that you have. Glad to see so much interest. Today is the last day to submit videos for the Virtual Parade.
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BIRD: Joan Melendez is a brilliant makeup artist and can be seen with a rainbow of face colors on any given day. Which fits with her proud rainbow color heritage mix. Glad to be able to set the record straight.
I also miss Dragon and Susan Mangan. Apparently they went a bit too far one year with hooks in flesh. But otherwise I enjoyed their edginess. The “brothel” charge never seemed fair to me. They rented out rooms to people who engaged in sexual fantasies. I don’t see how renting out rooms to people is a crime.
Do not agree that the use of all face makeup should be discontinued in case some people might mistake it for blackface. I did not mistake this makeup for blackface. Wasn’t sure it was a cat, though.
SBO, seems a little ageist. I’ve always loved the Solstice Parade, especially those without the witch/warlock couple that were arrested a while back. Best Parade of the Year in SB.
Probably a or the reason against this good idea would be that it is next to impossible to have social distancing — and local spectators would be attracted, along the sidelines and as volunteer performers unless no one knew about it beforehand! Somehow, surgical-masked performers would be off-putting but maybe there could be halloween-type masks?