River Dazzle

Here is a shot of downtown with the streets closed off and people starting to gather, and the obligatory Packers fan. Speaking of the Packers, i'm not a huge sports fan, but it's pretty impressive that they've gone undefeated this season, lots of people i know are thrilled. A lot more people gathered for this, as it wasn't so cold as it could be, even though not spring like by any stretch of the imagination, it wasn't bad and the precipitation waited to start until a good deal afterwards. It's currently raining here now, not sure if it will turn icy or snow, hopefully not.

River Dazzle Parade Santa

Here is Santa in the River Dazzle parade that i just got back from. It wasn't too chilly when i left, but although i dressed pretty warm, my nose got a bit chilly. As usual i wasn't surprised to see collage age kids not wearing winter jackets, some no jackets at all. There is more to the River Dazzle than i got pictures of, a rather varied chili cook off, twenty or so vendors, races, a display with camels and llamas in the park, etc. but i have a sick pet rabbit that has me worried, so only went to the parade. I'll be going through the photos later, but wanted to get one up today at least.

First substantial snow

It snowed today, quite a lot actually, and i thankfully saw my first wild rabbit in a long time in my yard. Since i've had my front yard redone, i haven't seen any, and i was worried that they lost a lot of where they could hide, and it made me sad as it was always a bright spot to see them under the bushes. I doubt the snow will stay, its supposed to get warmer later in the week, not hugely warm, but enough to melt.

Drag Show Performer

Here is one of the performers at the drag show. Not in order, this was her third outfit i believe, and i love the way the lights play off her hair and the feathers. Sadly, i totally forgot her stage name, along with all the other people who got on stage, and there wasn't a program either printed or on the web site, so sorry that with my horrible memory they will have to go unnamed.

I'm still trying to whittle down the amount of photos to the best ones, something i really do need to work on with my photography, i tend to "like" too many, and post them all, and i've read that ends up making even the best ones look worse. Oh well, hopefully i'll get that in my brain sooner rather than later.

Line for the Drag Show

Last night was the UW-River Falls Drag Show, and this was the line about half an hour before start. I didn't bring a wide angle lens, so you might not be able to tell, but it started a good deal from the left, stretched along to the right, and then down to where i was, and then went even further. It was insane, i never expected this many people, but a pleasant surprise, as the event was in support of The Trevor Project, which aims to help with ending bullying and suicide among LGBTQ teens. I have a ton of photos to go through, and am still getting over the horrible flu i had, so it will take some time to get them all up.

Culture Fest 2011 - Thai Sword Fighting

Here is the portion that was the Thai Traditional Sword Fighting, with Keng and Damrong. Last year they did a presentation to the theme to Mortal Kombat, also with a lot of humor. Before the fighting, the one guy told a silly joke and gave out cups with the Twilight Characters on them. They also spent a good while after the sword fighting cleaning up the dust that was used to make it dramatic.

Culture Fest 2011 - Fashion Show

Here are some of the people in the fashion show part that all got on stage together and lined up at the end part. My lens wasn't as wide as it could be to get them all in.

Culture Fest 2011

Last night was Culture Fest at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls, and it seems like they got the word out, it was pretty packed. Not standing room only, as there were a few seats, but a whole lot more than the last time i went. I took a lot of photos and it will take a while to get through them as i also have either a pretty bad cold or that flu that's going around, didn't feel so hot last night either, but glad i made it. This was one of the groups that really impressed me, doing the second of the girls performances. So while not in chronological order, it's one of my favorites just quickly looking at the photos. The program described them as "Asian Media Access Dance", although the MCs described them as a group front the Twin Cities of Hmong dancers, of various ages. Sadly, my brain wasn't all there, and i have completely forgotten their actual name. I'll try to find it out later, though.