2009 Tucson All Souls Procession (1/3)

What better way to resume blogging after a month off than with a few pics of one of my favorite Tucson events, Sunday night's All Souls Procession? The All Souls Procession is an annual Tucson event inspired by Dia de los Muertos. In recent years it attracts over 20,000 people downtown for a peaceful and non-commercial remembrance of departed loved ones in light hearted and enjoyable way.

Ok, on to the pictures, starting with the clown above -- I guess birthdays do bring us one year closer, don't they?


This year's Urn, where people can place a short note of remembrance about a departed loved one. The Urn will be lit on fire and lifted skyward by a large crane during the grand finale later in the night (post #3 of my series).

Lots of people of all ages starting to gather at the starting area of the All Souls Procession. The Procession is held on a Sunday night and later than Dia de los Muertos to put some distance between the very different, more commercial, gore and party centric Halloween holiday).

There was a fairly large group of Andean instrument playing, colorful, and energetic dancers which we followed for much of the procession.

definitely a people watching people watching people watching people event!

Its never too early to learn how to play the pan-flute!

beatles seem attracted by the crowd for some reason...

a parasol? even with all that sun block? *smile*

not in control of their own destiny...

GLOW, unplugged (3/3)

While wandering around the GLOW festival looking at all the illuminated art, it was easy to miss some of the year-round art sitting in the dark along the path. Time to turn on my camera's flash and take a few snaps into the surrounding darkness to see what lurks out there. Turns out, some pretty cool stuff...

"found art" / "found junk?", lit by my flashlight, sitting in the dark next to a building

more a GLOW in Oracle (2/3)

An unfortunate choice of night for this saucer to land and attempt first contact with earthlings. We didn't realize it wasn't part of the GLOW festival until it lifted off and went skyward... No doubt they thought us rude.

A GLOW musician playing fiddle by the light of a headlamp.

These were spinning wheel lamps, "cycle delic"

Looking up into the sky at the ranch windmill. Looked like it was intercepting a night rainbow!

GLOW 2009, Oracle, AZ (1/3)

I had a fun time last night at the Triangle L Ranch in Oracle attending GLOW with friends. GLOW is an annual multimedia art event held during a full moon in the town of Oracle (north of Tucson). Dozens of artists set up illuminated art out in the desert and people wander around enjoying the art and live music under the night sky. GLOW is being held October 2 & 3rd this year.

This was really cool, stained glass and cut out metal, about 6 feet tall. This would make a striking entrance to a house entryway!

wine bottle electrics...

the way a tea party should be held...

This Mad Hatter's Tea Party looks small in the picture, but was really quite large extending back maybe 20 feet or so into the desert. The stack of tea cups might have been 4 or 5 feet high.

Strange things out in the desert... This large creature was quite tall, kind of looked like a cross between a cat and a man. Quite impressive.

and it was made out of cardboard

3-D faces

one of several propane fueled fire artworks along the path

a ranch shed lit up nicely

abandoned refrigerator with lava lamp

a blacksmith was still working into the night at the ranch

one building had several interior illuminated art exhibits

a large bird along the outside path with a microphone that would convert your voice into twitters and tweets played out of a nearby speaker.

fun little shadow puppet show

another propane fueled piece of art

oil & soap & water

A quick experimental photo: top down shot of a little vegetable oil and dish soap in a blue plastic tumbler, lit from the side.

reflections on water

I escaped town today with a short drive up Mt. Lemmon (one of the mountains surrounding Tucson) to listen to bands perform at Music on the Mountain in Summerhaven. The forest was wet from morning rains -- very pleasant for walking around and taking a few snaps before the music began. The rain droplets at the end of pine needles looked like blown glass ornaments.

No passing this puddle in the center line strips of the road. I decided to try my luck at "working the angles" of pothole water reflections. This angle gave a surreal reflection of some pine tree trunks along the road.

A puddle pines for time it will return to the sky.

my muddled leaf image is all wet...

Footprints from the sky

Time to walk back and catch some tunes!

Back up in Summerhaven it was time to kick the shoes off with the rest of the crowd and listen to some great groups perform, such as the Nathan McEuen Band (above). It was very relaxing sitting under the large tent listening to the tunes, raindrops hitting the tent, and thunder in the sky. Nice.

2:00 shadow

A quick snap of a bougainvillea shadow outside at 2 pm today. No photoshop effects, just cropped.