Fe, fi, fo, fun at Foo Fest & more
07:17 AM EDT on Thursday, July 12, 2007
DAVID BRUSSAT
GIANT BLOCK PARTIES, two of them, are preparing to pummel downtown Providence this weekend and next. All day Saturday, Empire Street will be closed off for AS220's third annual Foo Fest, and next Saturday night Westminster Street will be closed off for the Providence Black Repertory Company's block party, topping off its fourth annual Sound Session, which it runs jointly with the city's Department of Art, Culture & Tourism.
Checkout this fun video on you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLKv4qLTxxQ
Aside from a spike in the sale of earplugs, and apart from the meaning of "foo" (it's associated with comics but has goofy antecedents going back a lot further), what does all this mean for downtown?
I tackled this gargantuan question at a table outside of caffé tazza, at Westminster and Union. It was last Saturday afternoon. Crowds were milling about the tents of the weekly Open Market looking at the work of artists and artisans. Lots of people were shopping in shops along Westminster. I had purchased a -- let's just say (shh!) a birthday gift -- for my fiancée at HomeStyle. That was a bit of a coup for the shop, since I'd rather sit and watch people go by than actually go buy something myself. My resistance will weaken some more when my favorite gift shop, called OOP!, oopens (oops!) -- sorry! how lame! -- soon at Westminster and Eddy.
Speaking of oops, I must backtrack from an earlier criticism of the new sidewalk laid at that intersection, which had seemed to be the ugly brushed-gray default city sidewalk concrete. It has lately been finished off with a reasonably nice granular surface. But since punditorial yin/yang demands balance, fie on the six new black planters on Westminster between Eddy and Union. Too big and clunky. They look like a set of equipment trunks left behind by The Brotherhood's film crew. Won't someone please call them and make them take them away? I hope I've jumped the gun on this, too. Why not try something like the classical planters at the Arcade up the street?
For anyone experiencing the bliss of a café table, the need to find meaning in things like Foo Fests and Sound Sessions can inspire procrastination. So it was with me. Sitting at the next table was photographer Paul Clancy, whose fine work hangs at Project Space, in AS220's Dreyfus Hotel, and The Gallery at 17 Peck, and who was minding his own business when I launched a conversation. He told me he lives in an AS220 studio on Empire, and admitted to wearing earplugs during last year's Foo Fest. I told him of how for years my loft behind City Hall had been under siege by motorcycles until poof! -- they suddenly disappeared! Then they rematerialized on Thayer Street, where they are said to be driving the merchants nuts. And probably driving customers to Westminster Street, not to mention denizens of the al-fresco scene like me. But I admit I'd rather have a fleet of motorcycles parked at the curb near my café table than a minivan or an SUV. Better to roar in my ear than block my view. My Downcity nightmare is that when Westminster Street is at long last perfect, with beautiful people strolling up and down for the benefit of us café trogs, the curbs will be lined with minivans and SUVs totally blocking our view.
Balaton fured couple by Paul Clancy
Checkout more of his great work
In fact, downtown has become quieter as it grows more lively. The motorcycles had always set off car alarms -- the No. 2 bane of the life downtown -- and yet they, too, are approaching extinction as drivers (and their insurers) realize that they serve no purpose but to shatter a quiet that no downtowner expects to be of Barringtonian stillness. Progress can at last be seen even against the late-night bar hooliganism that is still the major threat to downtown's cool rep as an edgy but safe and civilized place.
What all this means is that Foo Fest and Sound Session cause a spike in earplug sales precisely because the overall need for them downtown has fallen way off. Instead of motorcycles and car alarms, we hear Bogie whispering amplified sweet nothings into Ingrid Bergman's ears. What's not to like? Next at the free outdoor cinema every Thursday evening at Westminster and Union, sponsored by tazza and chosen by film director Michael Corrente, are Monty Python and the Holy Grail tonight and, thereafter, Strictly Ballroom, Life is Beautiful and Ben Hur.
Last year's Sound Session and Foo Fest were a total blast. Thousands boogied till all hours. Festivals are the gifts that keep on giving -- not night after night, thankfully, but year after year or, with WaterFire, fortnight after fortnight. These are the new downtown traditions. But wait, there's more! The city has concerts in Waterplace Park on Friday evenings and, based on my experience trying to tolerate concerts at the downtown skating rink (no Beethoven so far!), we will see how that rubs the upcoming invasion of condo residents. Maybe they will find themselves driven, on such evenings, to quieter parts of downtown, such as Westminster Street.
I've never seen so many people downtown. Even before the advent of condotopia -- dare I say even without it? -- downtown may have reached its criticial mass, its tipping point. Or is that too "foo"?
David Brussat is a member of The Journal's editorial board ( dbrussat@projo.com).
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