Some freak meteorological glitch has extended our annual two-week allotment of spring into nearly two months. People everywhere are scrambling to find a workable fashion statement that splits the difference between jacket weather and full-on summer scorch, a transition that usually happens sometime in late March. Here you are nearly a month later trying to stuff an anorak into your fanny pack just in case another blue norther comes screaming down across the prairies. What is this? Wichita? Suffice it to say that unless you’re comfortable with shrinkage, puckering, or goose pimples, you may want to let that banana hammock or dental floss bikini hibernate in your sock drawer a while longer. Sure, it’s going to get warm … hot … insufferable. Sooner or later someone is going to bite the quince, and we’ll all be cast out of Eden, hot-footing it across the gooey asphalt on the way to the pool, schvitzing in the car after work with the windows rolled down waiting for the R-12 to make its environmentally slow crawl to the evaporator. For now, however, summer wear seems exhibitionistic … or at the very least overly optimistic. If you insist on showing a lot of skin, consider a wrap or some other backup plan in the event the temperature drops once again and your skin takes the texture and pallor of plucked poultry. That said, this weekend’s temperatures should be in the balmy mid-80s – perfect weather for just about anything right up to nudism. Oddly enough, there is a reasonable probability of nudism down at Pease Park again this Saturday because last Saturday’s Eeyore’s Birthday Party was rained out and rescheduled. Can the freaks keep up the intensity for an additional six days? Difficult to say, but it’s certainly still worth a drop in. You also might want to check out the Pecan Street Festival down on Sixth Street. It’s free as well, although on a much larger, commercial scale with something like 50 times more bands on six times more stages and plenty of food, booze, and crafts. Chicks in fairy costumes? Not so much. Beef on a stick? Bingo! Splitting the difference is the second annual Violet Crown Festival, a community event sponsored by Crestview and Brentwood residents focusing on neighborhood enhancement projects and the like. It’s not a huge affair, but with a stellar musical lineup featuring talented locals like Davíd Garza, Abra Moore, Sara Hickman, Susanna Sharpe, and Dale Watson, it may soon be. Like any respectable fest, the Violet Crown also features crafts booths, activities for both adults and kids, and food by neighborhood restaurants Curra’s, Texas Rib Kings, Threadgill’s, and the Little Deli. Even though all three events are free, you will probably want to bring along some folding money … unless your idea of fun is standing around sober listening to your stomach growl.
This article appears in April 30 • 2004.
