Shindig on the Green

shindig bass and guy Originally uploaded by mygothlaundry.

I took my cool hipster NY brother to Shindig on the Green tonight. Shindig is hard to describe: it happens almost every Saturday night in the summer here as it has for the past 40 years. There's a main stage, and a house band, and cloggers, and square dancing, and, perhaps most important, any number of string musicians playing in informal groups around the perimeter. This year, because of lengthy construction at City/County Plaza, it's happening in a park on the other side of Charlotte Street that I didn't even know was there. The crowd figured out the change, and they were all still there. It was lovely, and it hushed my NY brother right up, because this is a thing that doesn't happen in NYC. It's a precious thing, Shindig, I thought tonight. An amazing thing, and I'm lucky to live here, where we can take it for granted and bitch about the lack of beer.