A bit of Burning Man in Reno for Artown

On Sunday afternoons at 2pm and Tuesday evenings at 6pm, gatherings are scheduled at the Celtic Forest with music and fire effects.  The Celtic Forest is exhibited at the Burning Man gatherings up north on the playa of Black Rock.  The location in Reno is Sierra Street and Island Ave in the vast vacant lot behind the Riverside Artists Loft.  Here are a few pictures taken today of early arrivals to this gathering.

http://blackrockarts.org/projects/braf-reno

http://blackrockarts.blogspot.com

Also, see my previous article here with close up photos of each of the sculptures and the signage text explaining each one:

http://renothirdeye.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/a-celtic-forest-in-reno/

“Rockin’ out reception” stages exhibit of interpretative expressions of an ancient art

The first scheduled Artown event today was hosted by the Artists Co-Op of Reno Gallery (located at 627 Mill Street) and involved a reception with the Nevada Rock Art Foundation and the artists whose works were shown on display there.  (Began at 11am.)

Here are some of the works, inspired largely by the pictographs (painted works) or petroglyphs (formed by pecking) found on rock surfaces out in many natural settings (and created mostly by those in the distant past, including prehistorical periods.

artist: Kinne

artist: Kotler; "Mapping the Universe"

(left) artist: Val D Dutter; "Grimes Point Petroglyphs" and (right) artist Steve Erickson "Rock Art Deterioration"

(top) artist: Ann Weiss; "Coso Spirits" and (bottom) artist: Yvonne Logan

artist: Cherlyn Bennett; original watercolors magnets

artist: Robert Bennet (ink on jaspar)

artist: Charles Bechtel

 

Who knows how to really do fireworks, Sparks or Reno? (We click, you decide.)

Jessica Sferrazza at a recent City Council meeting was briefly promoting the idea of reviving a Reno fireworks show for this year’s Fourth of July.  Then, the Mayor came back into the meeting and joined in the conversation.  He was quick to point out that Reno hasn’t been putting on stellar performances in recent years, demonstrating his point graphically.  To paraphrase him:  [Mayor gestures with his hands]  “We just send up one rocket at a time for a little pathetic burst of light”. 

Well….it seems that last night gave us an opportunity to compare the shows put on by Sparks and Reno.  (To be sure we didn’t have an official Reno show, but the Reno Aces gave us one following an unexpectadly late finish last night.)

I took a large number of photos last night from the eastern edge of the 8th Floor of the CalNeva Parking Stadium (which overlooked the baseball stadium a mere block and a half away).  Over 90% of those pictures I had to delete because I made many stupid mistakes (panning in being chief among them).  But, I think I got a fair representation of the two shows.

First, here are the two surviving photos of the fireworks launched from Sparks:

And, here’s a surviving (and fairly representative) sample of the fireworks launched from Reno last night:

A walk to western edge of Peavine today and the view that afforded of Reno…

For some time I have been taking walks up the southern face of Peavine Mountain, taking advantage of the new trails built by the Somersett community.  Today I explored a new route which took me to the most western point that I have gone so far.  The view of Reno (in this picture) is from the water tank near the western edge of Peavine Mountain.  (The other 20 plus photos taken on this walk are now posted at my flickr account—see link in the Photo Gallery category on the right side of page—and will be added to the already extensive photo set of Peavine Mountain photos.)  In the Somersett trail map, recently completed, the future trails to be made are in the upper left portion (in purple color).  Those trails will allow even greater and deeper access to the western edge of Peavine Mountain (and will allow folks to hike even higher up). 

Looking forward to trails being developed up this part of the mountain (taken by water tank):

Painting a picture of “A New American Economy”

At Nevada EcoNet’s first summer “eco-concert” at West Street Market,  a Sierra Club representative gave me a booklet which painted for me a very detailed picture of what is meant by “clean energy jobs”.  (Or, “green” industry jobs.)  Instead of writing an article on the information provided in that booklet, I will simply post the pictures I took of  some of the pages from that.  (The pages related to describing the “clean energy jobs” in particular fleshed out details that I was curious about.)

And, these next several pages really gave me a great picture:

Remember Barack Obama’s reference to the “fierce urgency of now”?

Thankyou to these groups for the booklet:

Citizen activist Paula McDonough, working to get us an affordable downtown grocery store

Paula McDonough is focused on establishing a downtown grocery store at the 2nd and N. Sierra St.  site (where Longs was supposed to have opened up some time ago, but didn’t).  We will be posting details soon on recent developments related to her efforts.  Here she is at last night’s Artown opening festivities at Wingfield Park:

 

Paula’s contact info:  paulamcd@netzero.net

An excellent choice to represent us in the State Assembly

The state legislature this last session moved up our primary date to June (from August).  The race for the Democratic nomination for the Assembly District 27 seat, currently held by Assembly Majority Whip Sheila Leslie (who is “retiring” due to term limits),  is expected to be competitive.

Richie Havens came to Reno to sing and all of Reno came to hear him…

Here’s the flickr photo set that I quickly organized of the amazing opening day and night of Artown in Reno:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28424275@N06/sets/72157620704065737/

Artown begins with Gelatin plate prints crafted at West St. Market…

A large group of children and adults gathered both inside and outside West Street Market today at 2pm for the first scheduled happenings of Artown, where local artist Candace Nicol guided everyone in making Gelatin Plate Prints:

And, here we have some of the art by the hostess of this gathering of young artists:

More young people in the outside courtyard of West Street Market:

Jessica Sferrazza and Dan Gustin take an informative walk with constituents at Pickett Park….

Members of the city council have recently scheduled Monday noon walks in various parks, giving constituents an opportunity to talk with them.  Today, Dan Gustin and Jessica Sferrazza walked with several folks and discussed Renown Hospital’s desire to trade Pickett Park for some land they have along the Truckee River.  They want to build a Children’s wing at Pickett Park.  Jessica told those present (all clearly desiring that Pickett Park remain as is) that the park was “B restricted”  (i.e. the land was to be strictly a park) and she wanted it to remain that way.