500 painted umbrellas, and no Christo?
Published: Sunday, April 12, 2009 at 5:52 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, April 12, 2009 at 5:52 a.m.
An artistic spectacle that will unfold on the Sonoma Plaza a dozen days hence may have onlookers wondering if Christo and Jeanne-Claude have a hand in it.
In fact the creators of the Running Fence are not involved, but the Umbrellas for Peace Project looks to be grand and powerful even so. A procession by an anticipated 400 to 600 children and adults will enter Sonoma's historic square at about 4 p.m. April 24.
Each participant will hold aloft a hand-decorated umbrella, a symbol of safety and strength. The project was brought to Sonoma by noted artist Matt Lamb, who first painted umbrellas with children of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.
In May 2002, Lamb invited 38 children to express their feelings by creating art on umbrellas and then displaying them in a parade. Lamb has since carried his Umbrellas for Peace project around the world.
His partner in Sonoma is the WillMar Center for Bereaved Children (www.willmarcenter.org). Program director Barbara Cullen said hundreds of children and seniors have painted umbrellas and are eager to show theirs and see all the others on the Plaza a week from Friday.
Artist Lamb, who stubbornly clutches the notion that art can change the world, will be there, too.
FEEL THAT? If you sensed an uptick in the local economy, it may have been the free money Sonoma Bank doled out to more than 200 people at the monthly meeting of the Sonoma County Alliance.
Along with two $1 bills, everybody got a note that said, "Economic Stimulus Package. Two bucks . . . One to spend, one to save."
Hey, as a gift from a meeting sponsor, it beat a fridge magnet.
BAND OF BROTHERS: Steve Dixon phoned to say it's great that the Rancho Cotate band will perform at a 200th birthday celebration weekend at the Lincoln Memorial -- and great that Montgomery's band just played at one, too.
As much of a rush as it was to perform on the Memorial steps, the Montgomery band director said, "The students all agreed that the most moving performance we did was the one for the Military Veterans Retirement Home."
There, the Montgomery musicians sat and spoke to old vets. One, a submariner, told them he had a hand in sinking seven enemy ships and he had a brother who survived the Bataan Death March only to be die later in the battle for the Philippines.
The Montgomery kids walked among the countless white crosses at Arlington National Cemetery, then flew home feeling grateful for so much more than the great band trip.
TRUE MAGIC AT D'LAND: The musicians in Analy High's great bands have been traveling and wowing, too.
Of the 140 students' numerous performances during a recent trip to a festival in Orange County, one that most stands out happened alongside the castle at Disneyland.
Before they began, the 26 kids in the Analy Jazz Band -- each dressed all in black, save for white ties and suspenders -- heard director Vance Regan's plea that they play with so much heart that at least one passerby would stop and listen.
Whoa! The kids blew him him off the stage.
"Without exaggeration, it was the most electrifying performance I've ever been part of," Regan said.
Awed Disneyland employees said it's been a long time since any band drew so many people, some of whom couldn't stop their feet from dancing.
BURIED BESIDE BLOODS? Thank goodness no, the Santa Rosa cemetery that ran a classified ad the other day has not started segregating by gang affiliation. A key word was misspelled in the ad for three side-by-side "crips."
-- Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.
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