Crazy Night aka Capoeira, Weed and Pancakes

Last night, was an eventful night. It started with me running late to meet with my sister and ended with the two of us in a Denny's at midnight.

For every first Friday of a month, downtown Phoenix has what might be called an art walk, though it has grown to such a size that you cannot simply walk the entire thing. Many museums are open to the public, free of charge, around 6pm and several art galleries have their doors wide open for everyone. There's a street blocked off so that vendors and artists can set up items to sell. Clothes, paintings, photography, crafts, jewelry, food and more. They, quite conveniently, call this event First Friday.

This evening was my second 1/2 time. The first time I went I didn't realize just how big it was as I didn't stay long and had come for a different reason than browsing through paper flowers and metal sculptures.

This last time though, I was captivated by what is called Capoeira. It's an Afro-Brazilian art form. It combines martial arts, dance and music. It's beautiful, in a violent sort of way. We had to crowd around in a circle to watch them flip and turn, swipe their legs at each other and invisible opponents. Here's a video of a different group from Toronto.



We stayed to watch that for a while, then we went to get some gelato, then we got stranded in a shady part of town a mile and half from our car. That, was not so fun. My sister and I took one of the trolleys that they have for this event and on an impulse we got off at this place called the Kooky Kraft Store. It wasn't until after that we realized that the trolley we were just on would be the last one of the night. So, after a guy came up to us and asked us if we "got weed", both my sister and I pulled out our pepper spray and started walking. 3 blocks, a gallery of mutant pinatas and finally getting into a more well lit part of town later, we spotted familiar buildings and placed our fates in the hands of my sister's iphone for directions. And, that led us to finally finding our car and having pancakes at midnight. What a night.