Scenes from the East Village’s Tour Des Artistes

PHOTO by JENNY STOCKDALE

Through the poppies painted on the windows at Zephyr Vegetarian Cafe, young things and art buffs drifted off into a Wizard of Oz-like daze last Saturday night, fueled by some intense, short-skit theatrics and compounded by good, cheap wine and an entire day spent trekking through Long Beach’s 10th annual Tour Des Artistes live arts and music festival. (Although, thanks to the bus tours, the strenuous trekking was kept to a minimum.)

In between skits, girls in vintage frocks and guys in skinny jeans swapped stories about the best of the fest: a Rastafarian in a full-body gorilla suit, jamming to the Jah Fellowship, his dreads dangling from the back of his mask; fire-flinging Sirena Serpentina belly dancers, snaking to the subwoofer of a car stereo after their PA system quit; Koo’s three-room “Best In Show” collection; Warehouse One’s DJs and wall-sized murals; DDR Projects’ live artist Michael Pukác, making art faster than the wall space could provide for; Obama button-making (and Jäger shake shot-taking) at House of Hayden; the poodle with orange ears; the barber shop breakdancer; and the rickety double-decker bus that jerked and jolted when it changed gears, but safely delivered passengers to and retrieved them from nine art havens ringing the East Village Arts District.

One poetic, punkish lad remembered the way the sun reflected in the glass of all the high-rises. A woman holding a pug dog recounted how many guitarists she had seen that day. And then everyone had another gulp of good, cheap wine. From out of some marvelous place, Uncle Eddie’s Vegan cookies—a Zephyr staple—appeared on the tiled table: the day putting us all further under its spell. But it turned out to be fuel for when the Commotions ripped that poppy-framed haze right off. And everything in the Zephyr—even the chairs and tables—started jitterbugging and knee-swinging.

Tags: art, East Village, Long Beach, tour des artistes