every year on the first of may i take the day off of work in celebration of international workers day. this habit started in college when a dear friend and i used this particular day as an excuse to hang out eating strawberries and whipped cream while drinking champagne in the park instead of doing our homework. i feel compelled to continue the tradition since the first of may holds much significance all over the world, except here in america.

throughout history may day has been celebrated as a ritualistic pagan holiday, a day of rest, a day to make sacrifices, a time to pick flowers and decorate homes, and more recently a labor holiday. here in chicago may day holds special significance as a historical day. in may 1886 a worker rally calling for shorter work days ended in police brutality against the protesters with a countless number of injuries and 6 workers deaths at the mccormick harvester company resulting in the haymarket riots the next day. as a result several countries adopted may first as international workers' day in commemoration of the struggle for workers rights. even today the workers of many countries join in worker solidarity and march through the streets protesting the ongoing struggle. here in america few people celebrate or even give a second thought to the first of may.

i'm not much of a joiner and i find movements particularly labor movements and protests to be uncoordinated. so instead, i celebrate the day by taking some time off work and relaxing, preferably outdoors. since the weather wasn't cooperating and i was feeling slightly under the weather this may day, i instead took some time off and went to the art institute with j3s. while there i experienced a video installation, touch, by the artist janine antoni. in the video we see the beach with the waves of the ocean coming in and out, the line of the horizon between sea and sky soon reveals itself to be overlaid with a tightrope which a woman begins a delicate balancing act on to cross from one side of the screen to the other and then after a momentary pause she begins her return.

one note about the sound. besides the sound of the sea you might expect to hear sea gulls. instead you hear the chirp of a bird that is someplace off camera and seems somehow far removed from what the artist is presenting.

and j3s took a picture of me sitting on a bench recording sound for this page.