A week ago I spent Saturday at the East Bay Mini Maker Faire, a wonderful place for the gadget minded to hang out. I had two reasons for being there. The first was that my singing group, TOSCA, was performing on the main stage – in fact, they were the opening act, performing Ward Swingle’s Music History 101. TOSCA is The Oakland Symphony Chorus A La Carte, and you can find more about them on the Oakland Symphony Chorus web page. Page down to the bottom on the right side for contact information.
Here they are waiting to go on:
They sang valiantly, competing with 8-year-olds swinging hula hoops, and a swing-the-hammer-ring-the-bell arrangement in the next field that shot huge bursts of flame into the air at unpredictable times:
Outdoor performances are always trying but they sang their best.
The jazz tune was great until the sound system died in the middle of it 🙁 The costumed young woman at the right was their “time machine,” who “moved” the performance from era to historical era. I wasn’t singing because back in August I came down with walking pneumonia and I missed too many rehearsals to try to perform this complicated music.
After the performance I went off to my volunteer stint at the Oakland East Bay Symphony’s Instrument Petting Zoo, which was extremely popular. I didn’t take many photos there – I was too busy cleaning the mouthpieces of the flute, the trumpet, and the trombone (and the conch shell), before the next person picked one up to try it!
I did like the little Zen fountain behind the booth:
After my shift was over I wandered around, and could not resist a photo of the Intergalactic Imagination Transporter – that’s what it says on the door.
This is my second Mini Maker Faire and they’re always fun. If one happens near you, drop in on it, you never know what you’ll find. I remember with pleasure the booth surrounded by 9 year old kids, each madly swinging a small bottle – they were making their own butter! They were right across from the beekeeper’s booth, with its hive of live bees. A lovely day.
