PIFA Transe Express

WOWZA.  Tonight was going to be the end of the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts and was going to end with a huge performance from Transe Express that required this huge crane:

Mama thought about it for about two seconds, and it was decided that I would stay home and guard the house.  While I wasn’t exactly thrilled with this decision, once the bells started ringing and the music began (just 2 blocks from my house), I realized what a good decision-maker she can indeed be.

So Lulu here:  The show started with this guy ringing his bell…

Then the crane started to slowly pull him off of the ground…

The musicians were attached to the large metal cage, which opened and closed like a giant steel flower – all around the edge were the musicians, who flew in a circle as well as went up and down.  And then there were the trapeze artists inside.

At the finale, the bell-ringer dropped down and was hanging from a box with lots of lights and smoke…

They were all over 100 feet in the air – it was pretty magnificent.

Even from my crappy vantage point behind a tree, this was spectacular.

Thanks Philly and PIFA – I was feeling kind of crappy this week, but then you go and do something wonderful like this.  Glad I came out and walked the 2 blocks.  Not completely thrilled with the group of drunk Italian-American (I know this because they told me repeatedly) women drinking directly from their bottles of red wine right in front of me (or that they used some of the event’s equipment boxes as “recycling stations”), and there was a lot of “interesting” trash around the hood this morning during Bogie-walk, but hey, you can’t have everything.  Still – Made me smile.

Love,

Lulu & Bogart