Saturday, July 11, 2009

Down in Humanity

I live especially near the Philadelphia Art Museum, which was particularly useful on the fourth. It was in front of the museum that a lot of the holday hullabaloo was taking place. For instance, The Roots and Sheryl Crow playing their music and, of course, fireworks. So, after all that grilling, a group of us went down to see The Roots. It was really, really crowded. I saw at least one spray of vomit on the asphalt and constantly found myself boxed in by the sheer weight of others' breaths.

The dude in the blue hat and basketball jersey was sooooooo into The Roots' show that it was hilarious. Pumping his fist, doing a little white guy shuffle. I kind of wanted a picture with him, but I was afraid he'd take it the wrong way and punch me in the mouth. L. and I did find that one way to stop getting constantly bumped and jostled around, treated like a wall on one side of a freeway. This technique to stop the madness was simple: dance with a passion that frightens other people. While my passion may have been feigned, the results still were amazing. Other members of our group observed individuals trying to find a way through the crowd and seeing us and turning the other way (the way ants go around an obstacle instead of over it).
And once, when we stopped the exuberant dancing? The stream of people started up again...until we started the dancing again.
The songs I stayed and listened to by The Roots were great, but even with the dancing strategy, I got overwhelmed by the number of people around me...and it wasn't like I could actually see the stage...so, I walked back home.

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