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Wednesday, 25 August 2010 11:04

Written by Diana Nelson Jones

Some people want to jump the gun into fall, but Walkabout is here to speak up for the four weeks that remain of summer, albeit a weird summer. The last drops are to be cherished.

I am trying to figure out how to keep it from boarding that fast train toward winter, but I know it’s useless. You raise your darling summer, give it your best attention, enjoy the tomatoes while they last and know that you have to let go when the time comes.

At least it’s easier than raising children. But the point is, soak up what’s left because soon we will be slipping on ice. Two neighborhood parties on Saturday are open to the world.

At the Uptown Street Festival on Gist Street, between Forbes Avenue and the Boulevard of the Allies, from 1 to 5 p.m., you can see artist James Simon and his gorilla (that's them on the left); experience a special event of the Gist Street Reading Series and see the following entertainment. There are two stages:

1 p.m., the documentary “Voices of Uptown;”

1.15, an original musical production by Rick Schweikert;

1.15, Flamenco dancing by Carolina Loyola-Garcia;

2,  The Fields;

2.15,  Deryck Tines Gospel Singers;

3,  Northside Urban Pathways Sounds of Steel;

4,  the Ortner-Roberts Duo, and Jazz Inc.

The event, sponsored by Uptown Partners, is free. It will include a dunk tank for kids and food. The Pittsburgh Association of the Deaf will have a hot dog sale.

Save room for more food at Randyland for Community Gardens Night, a celebration of the people who grow "urbanic" food, starting at 6 p.m. on the corner of Arch and Jacksonia in the Central Northside. This one is a fund-raiser. The proceeds will benefit the neighborhood's community gardens: $15 at the gate.

Randyland, as many of you know, is the compound of buildings for which Randy Gilson is locally famous. He transformed them with an outpouring of paint colors that exceed Crayola’s box of 64. Randy was, for most of the past 30 years, the self-proclaimed garden tsar in the neighborhood; now he has so many acolytes he has become a sort of elder statesman.

These are two wonderfully quirky neighborhoods. Join their parties!

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