Summer Solstice

This past weekend Tom and I went to Santa Barbara. It was the weekend when Santa Barbarians celebrate the summer solstice. They have a wild and crazy parade and the people of the community generally whoop it up. The origins of this dazzling celebration lie in the community spirit and appreciation of artistic expression; there is nothing like it anywhere else. Artist and mime Michael Gonzales, conceived the Parade in 1974, to celebrate his birthday. From its humble beginnings as a group of street artists, the Summer Solstice Celebration has evolved into a street carnival of more than 1,000 parade participants, complete with extravagant floats, whimsical costumes and creatively choreographed dancing ensembles.

We also went to see the play, “Loot”, by Joe Orton. The play was a charming little farce with a horny buxom nurse, stolen cash, a hidden corpse… well you get the idea. It was very appropriate for the Solstice Weekend. I was also reminded of the story of the play’s writer. Orton was a fast rising gay artist in London in the1960’s. The Beatles had asked him to collaborate on a movie. He'd written several plays and Loot was one of those that had made it to the West End. Orton was a colorful character, quoted as saying: “The kind of people who always go on about whether a thing is in good taste invariably have very bad taste”


On August 8, 1967, Kenneth Halliwell, Orton’s lover, killed Orton and then killed himself with an overdose of Nembutal. Apparently Halliwell was jealous of Orton's success and tired of being abused by his more attractive lover.

Maybe a lesson we can take from Mr. Orton’s brief, shining life is this: be kind to your friends and join a parade every chance you get.