Miranda and I went to the Berkeley Kite Festival and West Coast Kite Championships today. There were people with kites everywhere, and we saw some really amazing and fun ones.
Among the more impressive and interesting things we saw were the Rokkaku kite battles, where people's kite strings are lined with tar and broken glass (The Kite Runner, anyone?) and then you fight to try to cut other people's kite lines and be the last kite standing. Or I guess, in this case, flying.
We also watched Ray Bethell, a 78 year old deaf guy who puts on choreographed kite performances with three kites--one kite string in his right hand, one in his left hand and one tied to his waist. It was pretty impressive. Besides being known as the "three kite guy," Ray is apparently also known for never wearing a shirt, which means he's pretty tan. This fact led the kite festival broadcasters to announce "Well, it seems Ray is wearing a nice brown leather jacket today. Oh wait, that's not a jacket at all. That's just Ray."
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