Four From the Fair

Minnesota State Fair, September 2, 2026:

Wearing o’ the green:

French Meadow Maiden:

Rope Handlers:

The Candy Man:

The first and last of all sensations.

(Twenty Years Ago on FITK)

Your spine rests in a smooth arch, penetrating the darkness with its soft outline. I could trace its contours with the wet edge of my tongue, turning your combination with my passion, and typing your password with the tips of my exploring fingers. I could see your lips in the dark, the rough texture of them spiking the night with their glistening punctuality.

Every word you say will be forever lost in the satin darkness like a thousand dandelion seeds blowing into the wind, never to be found again. Children pick out their forms as they rest among lawn-mown grass and budding golden dandelions ready to be plucked and given to mother. We will let our bodies lie, entangled in their sweat and fervor, writing poetry in the moon light, waiting to be picked like flowers or weeds.

And this is the alpha and the omega, the first and last of all sensations.


~RS

Reposted

Friday Night Haircut

Studio 101, Reykjavík

I’ve been psyching myself up for my 11th* trip to Iceland with pics from the the last one. Studio 101 is evidently popular with the younger set, populated by teens primping for the runtúr?

* 2000
* 2004
* 2006
* 2009
* 2012
* 2015
* 2018
* 2022
* 2023
* 2025
* 2026

My Little Deuce Coupe…

… You don't know what I got!

In this case, what “you don’t know what I got” is the camera I shot this dragster with. Sold as a “Retro Digital Camera” for the grand sum of $33.50 (it’s a little more expensive now) it’s a fine example of just how far and how cheap digital imaging has become. While it isn’t quite capable of fine imaging and the numbers on the lens are a complete fantasy, it does the job. YMMV.

2026 Minnesota State Fair Fine Arts Preview

Where I live, the surest harbinger of the end of summer is The Minnesota State Fair.

It runs for ten days, starting in late August and ending on Labor Day. The Fair’s Fine Art Competition Previewis usually on the warmest day of late August. It has been covered here numerous times, even when I didn’t get in (i.e., this year.) With 8 categories and as many judges, the result is always a mixed bag. This years competition proved to be no different, and the sweltering heat at the preview was also the same. The best category this year was Textiles and Fabrics with several fine works in what is usually an ignored area. Overall, I sensed a lack of FUN in the entries, which was always a redeeming factor in previous shows.

Trump’s ICE occupation of Minneapolis was noted in paintings and photographs:

J. A. Anderson’s In the Winter of ’26

Textiles were ably represented by Erik Jon Olson’s Once There Were Green Fields:

And Jan Rapacz’s Grief: 365 days:

Photography was especially weak this year, lots of mediocre monochromes and garden-club pics of flowers. There were a few standouts. Reminiscent of Lauren Greenfield’s work with girls was this mysterious study by Tiffany Bolk, Grandma’s Lipstick:

Posing with one’s entry makes for good for people watching.

Elizabeth Putnam, Consolidated Rupture:

Kristina Jager, Salt:

Kellie Kvern, Sanctuary:

Lindsay Kivi, Happiness Retrieved:

And then, as the sun was setting, the crowd dispersed into the night:

How I Spent My Summer Vacation II

Fleeting glimpses of spectral creatures in the campfire:

Fire Sprites:

Fire Dragon:

Fire Cyclops:

How I Spent My Summer Vacation I

“Postcards” from Elm Island Lake, Aitkin Country, Minnesota.

Idyllic Beach:

Flaming Sunset:

Scrollin’ by the Campfire:

Rustic Bunkhouse:

Osprey Nest:

Another Saturday Night

Twenty Years Ago on FITK

… Another Saturday night and I ain’t got nobody,
I got some money, ’cause I just got paid…
How I wish I had someone to talk to,
I’m in an awful way"
-Sam Cooke

A ritual in hundreds of cultures, for thousands of years, and billions of people. It could almost be called a rite of passage, except that the ritual is so sloppy.  When the aim is internal chaos, how can anything be named as such?

The work week’s hard light of mundane reality is softened by a little alcohol, or extinguished by a lot. The Mystery is not revealed, but it cab be ignored for awhile. The results of such actions may be hilarious, or hideous, or, more likely, somewhere in between.

We still indulge. We still meet socially. The cleverest monkeys must amuse themselves and each other. And if the night doesn’t end well, that may be something worth experiencing also.

Salka and Hekla x4

Iceland Airwaves, Iðno, November 5, 2025:

Salka Valsdóttir and Hekla Magnusdóttir, Iceland Airwaves, 2025

Three Eyes of God