September 4, 2009

Summer's last great party at First Friday?


It was one of the most successful First Fridays ever. No doubt the end of summer had a lot to do with it, but the weather also cooperated. Whatever the reason, the crowds came out; galleries and boutiques were packed, you could barely walk down Main Street without bumping into friends. Nor was the music limited to Monument Square: Mark Paffrath, Macyn Taylor and Jeff Ward were strumming guitars and singing on Main Street, Paul Kaye and American Restless were on Sixth.

At the north end of Monument Square -- conveniently near the beer tent -- was a birthday party, an Over the Hill bash for some poor geezer who hit the ripe old age of 40. More towards the middle, a family put one of the marble game tables to good use for a pizza party. Meanwhile at the south end, to the rockin' sounds of Mean Jake, there was an old-fashioned dance party.

If that wasn't enough, there were artist receptions, demonstrations, free admission at RAM. Smiles were everywhere. Here are some pictures from the party; if you're not in any of them, you missed a great event.



Mother and daughter requested a jig from Jeff Ward...

...and when he complied, Kameryn Wisch, 7, danced

At RAM, Joseph Seigenthaler's glazed stoneware, rocks
and 'found chair' sculpture got a lot of amused attention

Kids kept busy running around the Monument

Harold Solberg gave Connor Graceffa, 7, a woodturning lesson


11 comments:

  1. Pete, you really tested the wide-angle lens with capturing the 4 young ladies dancing AND including the other female to the right in the same photo - wow!

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  2. Gotta love the fat people in Racine chowin' down on the pizza....Health care costs are rising people, time to start eating healthy.

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  3. Wow, 8:07. With folks like you around with no tact, it's no wonder Racine's unemployment is so high. How about posting somthing positive. This is a great event.

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  4. 8:07 did post a positive comment - the event's food vendors reign!

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  5. Went to Evelyn's. NightWing performs inside on each First Friday event. Place was full of young & old adults. I enjoyed the music, the interaction between the people and the band. It was fun. Will definately stop back for the November and December First Friday at Evelyns, and will put on a jacket to walk the streets of Downtown Racine.

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  6. 9:02, what did 8:07 say that was so wrong? Health care costs ARE rising and people should be more concerned with their health. Let me guess, you probably weigh around 350-400 LB's right?

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  7. No tact? Unemployment? I don't see the correlation. Where have you been living? 90% of Racine people have no "tact". "Little city, big attitude". "A drunk city on a sober lake". I could go on and on with city slogans, and mine are original, not stolen from wtmj channel 4 ("Positively Racine"). I just tell it like it is, no sugar coating with me.

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  8. Good food, great music, wonderful people -Looking forward to next time...

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  9. And thank God, no Koreans, nor did I see many if any Blacks or Hispanics. Thinking here... I know Downtown Racine great if your rich and white.

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  10. Unfortunately less than 10% of them are rich.

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  11. Anonymous, You did not see any Hispanics because we are mix with white now you can't tell who is white, hispanic, native american, greek, italian etc... where you been?

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