GOOOMBAY
Well this friday night I had a little adventure downtown with my camera. For me it was exciting because this is some of the first footage I have gotten for the documentary and the Goombay festival is allllways fun. My night started by walking past the drum circle where I got some footage of glow in the dark hula hoop dancers and of course the usual drum craziness that goes on there. I then ventured down patton and walked past a ventriloquist playing “wild thing” and a man painted all white playing gutair. After that I ventured down Biltmore Avenue to the Goombay festival – which was in full swing. At center stage the “Heather Hays Band” was getting down to Brick House. I quickly pressed record and began getting some awesome footage. Check out the bass and sax player get down in some of this raw footage:
As I watched, I found it hard to keep the camera steady as my knees kept telling me to dance. But this didnt stop me from pausing the camera and getting down a bit. Some people connected to the band let me get behind the “do not pass” lines and get some nice footage there as well.
Overall, I just had a blast. I think its really nice that one of the staples of asheville is to celebrate culture. I checked out some African basket weaves and pounded on some djembes while I was there. As my knees started bending I couldnt help that I felt I was getting in touch with my African side ( this being completely white ). Its nice to be surrounded by people and music from a different culture than one I’m normally in. People that think a little differently than me and get down and dance a little more. Its kind of funny that by celebrating differences among cultures, you seem to feel closer to one another. You realize that these people are actually just like yourself in ways you might of not realized before. Because I might not be black but I do (i do i do i do) love to get down and dance. The YMI Cultural Center does a great job with this festival and I hope they continue it for years to come.
DREW OUT
Drew
Adam
You got footage of glow in the dark hula hoops, ventriloquist playing wild thing, and a man painted all white playing guitar. And you decide to post this boring video!?! haha I kid.
But I don’t think dancing is part of your undergrad project Drew, get back to work and stop playing around! lol
Asheville? What can I say about Asheville? I could start with ,”I remember when…” Asheville was a town that I brought my daughter for shopping at department stores and at Christmas to see all the window decorations. A town where you didn’t have to stop every five minutes and tell someone NO you didn’t have any money. I miss that. Asheville has had many cultural changes that are for the better, but somewhere along the way, a good “something” was lost. I would like to see that part return. I applaud the diversity, but hate the feeling of sadness that pervades Asheville. So, to close..when I look at Asheville today, I see progress, but along the way that progress has taken away some of the charm of the small town feeling.
Thanks for commenting Linda – its always nice to hear from people who have been around/in asheville longer than I have.
I think one of the biggest reasons that Asheville might of lost its “small town feeling” is that it is no longer such a small town. According to http://www.city-data.com Ashevilles populations has been steadily rising since the 80′s and believe it or not they had unemployment decreasing till 2007, but then spiked up to about 8% since then (highest in awhile) (first thought – recession).
It’s hard to shake off the effects of being a pseudo-big city while still actually being a big city. However, maybe this feeling of sadness could just be growing pains as Asheville gets more recognized on a national level (of course there’s more to it but I am merely just postulating). For instance, homelessness and unemployment are an issue for every major city in the US.
We may never get back to being a small town – but we can still work towards keeping this “charm” which has defined Asheville and made it popular in the first place.
Matt, dancing is not only part of my undergrad research but also my 450 project. I think you found this out yesterday
And the ventriloquist just didn’t get down like those guys.