fair day

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i got to austin's rope zone around 6:40 a.m.  it was dark still.  a few cowboys were already at the rodeo grounds having spent the night in their horse trailers.  no one stirred.  i started the installations on the outhouses using my car headlights and witnessed one of the most beautiful sunrises i'd seen in a while.

one of the first people to come stumbling out of his trailer was fred.  he said he was from idaho and was contracted to be the announcer for the rodeo.  he ambled on into the outhouse.  when he came out he said "...where else would you find a black guy applying wallpaper to the outside of an outhouse at 7 in the morning at a rodeo on an indian reservation?  only in america."  i liked fred.

austin and his crew arrived about 8 a.m.  though i've talked to him several times about pasting the announcer's stand, i hadn't seen him since this time last year.

step + sam on the outhouses.  i didn't stick around long enough to notice whether people picked up the male + female outhouse options.  i guess in the end, it didn't really matter.

everybody loves a parade

one of the highlights for me at the tuba city fair parade is the navajo nation marching band.  i love them.  i'm not sure what year they were formed.  (i'll google it later.  actually, i just googled it and couldn't find the answer.  more on this later.)   the thing that strikes me about them is that it feels like a real community - there's young people and older people making music representing the navajo nation together.  i love their "uniforms" and their passion for what they do.  

this year i finally talked a bit with one of the majorettes as she was warming up.  i mentioned that i first started coming to the parade about 20 years ago and that i'd seen her performing with the band in years past.  i told her i was happy she was still out representing.  i think she said her name is laura begay and that this is her 30th year as a majorette.  like fred would ask - where else are you going to find a majorette who's still at it 30 years down the road?  here's to laura begay.  you go girl!

as happens in all dynamic communities, older people pass on what they know to the next generation.  laura said she's been passing her skills on...

it's weird.  i don't know why i get weepy eyed looking at these images from yesterday.  the thing that struck me as i was taking the photos was people making private moments public as they did their make up and got their hair together.  looking at the photos now, i'm struck by people's sense of pride and their trust to let a total stranger who started the morning wallpapering outhouses come into their lives to capture their private moments.

until next year...

video clip of a parade participant warming up the crowd

the people speak

i asked several friends what their feelings are about the sacred mountain slated to receive artificial snow made from reclaimed waste water.  with the help of raechel running, stephanie jackson and rey cantil, their words were written or painted onto their faces and the final images were wheat pasted.

                                                collage photo by john running    

activist klee benally (lead singer + guitarist of the punk band, blackfire), and his wife said "what we do to the mountain, we do to ourselves."

northern arizona university climate change solutions grad student, stephanie jackson said "i am the change."  she identified the things she'd like to change "...industrialization, pollution, drought."  she went on to identify "earth, air, water, fake snow, co2" as areas of concern.


sam minkler - navajo traditionalist, nau professor (and former member of the techno-traditional 90s band, lunar drive), said "...faces are sacred; faces are beautiful.  we walk on the face of the earth.  the peaks are a beautiful and sacred place that need to be protected."  borrowing from a traditional, navajo prayer, he concluded by saying "...in beauty i walk."

local flagstaff resident, john running asked of his neighbors to "...consider the san francisco peaks are sacred to natives + nonnatives."

meanwhile...

flagstaff born, chiapas, mexico based photographer + artist, raechel running is telling y'all to keep it real - the snow + everything else.

navajo dude passing by who swore shonto is black and not navajo.

navajo painter, shonto begay spoke from the perspective of the san francisco peaks.  his full comment was:

"long after you're gone, i'll be here.

i am earth, i am fire,

 i am air, i am forever.

the peaks, respect."

blue train

thank god i'm almost done with the 350.org project.  it's been rewarding and insightful but i'm ready to move on.  it's been a long 3 weeks getting work up.

sensing it was time to get up, i awoke at 4 a.m.  (although i set the alarm on my phone last night, i ended up leaving it in another room.)  i made coffee, collected 3 day old wheat paste from the garage and set off in darkness to my destination 20 miles away.  in the cloud-heavy, humid morning chill and darkness, i used my headlight to do an installation on a coal train bridge abutment going as high as i could above the graffiti.  school buses and 18 wheelers were the only traffic, passing sporadically.  their headlights would momentarily flash on the spot where i was working prompting me to turn off the headlight and freeze in position on the ladder.

the coal train bridge passes over a small wash.  because of the recent end of the monsoon season rains, the wash was quite muddy making stabilizing the ladder tricky.  and the mud!  i've mud everywhere.  i can't believe i once thought getting off white upholstery in my car was ever a good idea.  there's nothing worse than the combination of clay-like mud mixed with funky smelling, old wheat paste which is now stuck on each of the rungs of my 16 foot extension ladder.

yes, it was a good morning.  (photos to follow.)