Thanks to the intercession of Kenny and Craig (who took this picture), I was able to attend WOMAD on the earpollution tip. Otherwise I probably never would have gone. My vast experience w/ one Jones Beach (Lawn Guyland, that is) festival was one of confinement, price gouging, and bags turned inside out in surly searches for contraband--beer, weed, and potato chips. But WOMAD was different. Lots of room, lots of families, lots of artists from everywhere, sunshine and pine shade, temps in the dry 80s, the Slug and Lettuce beer garden, roasted ears of corn dipped in margarine w/ salt and cajun seasoning. Not to mention the Music Art & Dance that puts the MAD into the mix. From Clise Mansion porch steps a perfect view through some bushes of the Sonic Foundry stage where played such immensities of talent as the Guo Brothers, flautists from China who spoke of young lovers singing to one another across moonlit lakes and conjured images of Mongolian horsemen galloping across the highlands. And that was just the start...