First port of call is Columbia Maryland. We were here to help celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Columbia Festival and the 40th anniversary of the creation of the province known as Columbia.



Columbia is a census-designated place and planned community in Howard County, Maryland, United States. It is a suburb of Baltimore, and, to a lesser degree, Washington, DC. It began with the idea that a city could enhance its residents' quality of life. Creator and developer James W. Rouse saw the new community in terms of human values, not just in terms of economics and engineering. Opened in 1967, Columbia was designed to not only eliminate the inconveniences of then-current subdivision design, but also eliminate racial, religious, and income segregation.

This is the guy Rouse that created the place.



Amazing to think that 40 years ago, when I was born, there was nothing here but a few farms and today, Columbia has a population of about 94,600. Rouse's ethos remains a strong influence upon the physical and political development of Columbia. Another interesting fact is that Rouse is the Grandfather of Edward Norton the actor from American History X.



This is a sculpture in the park we performed in called the People Tree. Looks like we weren't the only people up on a pole so we fitted right in.







There were many local artists and performers and loads of residents from varied backgrounds who attended the festival and a big thank you to the volunteers that looked after us so well, especially Dorethea and Doug. An added bonus was that I got to meet a cousin of mine for the first time. He is living in Potomac but used to live in Columbia. It was fantastic to meet Chris and his family and they did a great job of showing me around.



Next stop Pittsburgh for the Three Rivers Festival. This is one of the venues we will be performing at PPG (Pittsburgh Plate Glass) place.



The buildings hear are beautiful and diverse.







Pittsburgh is famous for it's plate glass. It's the first commercially successful producer in the United States of high-quality, thick flat glass using the plate process. Isn't that interesting......



It is also the birth place of Andy Warhol so we went to the museum dedicated to his work but to get there we had to cross a few bridges. Seeing that the city has three rivers, it is easy to see how it got the name City of Bridges.







This is a picture of Andy Warhol and his volume of work was incredible. He was quoted as saying "An artist is someone who produces things that people don't need to have but that he - for some reason - thinks it would be a good idea to give them".













I really like these boxes. They look like normal cardboard boxes but they are blocks of wood, hand painted to look like cardboard boxes.





My favorite exhibit was the room with the floating helium balloon cushions. The fans in the room created a vortex with the air that kept pushing the objects around the room in a perpetual suspension.







Can you see Kathryn and I in the reflection? Now isn't that arty farty!!!!



We had a ball sight seeing and looking forward to more fun tomorrow before we get into the performing. Should be huge as this festival looks well established and the arts here are very well supported.



I'll let you know how it all goes.

Love always,

George

Tags: Strange Fruit