May Day celebrations include the Kentucky Derby, May Pole and Beltane,
the anniversary of the opening of the Empire State Building.

Ellie's Silly Hat - Photo Taken on by a client today May 1, 2010

The tree was seemingly placed above my head as if by accident.

I always thought it would be fun to wear one of those silly big hats and strut around at the Kentucky Derby, but it's one of those experiences that past me by. My friend and her husband spend several years attending the festivities as they owned races horses, inviting me once, but I couldn't make it that year - don't remember why. I love horse racing ... action sports do it for me.

Kentucky Derby   Wikipedia

The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival and is widely considered the most prestigious horse race in the world. The race is one and a quarter miles (2 km) at Churchill Downs. The race is known in the United States as "The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports" or "The Fastest Two Minutes in Sports" for its approximate duration, and is also called "The Run for the Roses" for the blanket of roses draped over the winner. It is the first leg of the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing and is followed by the Preakness Stakes then the Belmont Stakes. The attendance at the Kentucky Derby ranks first in North America and usually surpasses the attendance of all other stakes races including the Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes and the Breeders' Cup, for more information see American Thoroughbred Racing top Attended Events.

Beltane or Bealtaine is an ancient Gaelic holiday celebrated around May 1. Historically, this festival was celebrated in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. There were similar festivals held at the same time in the other Celtic countries of Wales, Brittany and Cornwall. The festival survives in folkloric practices in the Celtic Nations and the diaspora, and has experienced a degree of revival in recent decade.

The Empire State Building opened. The building's opening coincided with the Great Depression in the United States, and as a result much of its office space went without being rented. The lack of renters led New Yorkers to deride the building as the "Empty State Building". The building would not become profitable until 1950.

In the 1990's I taped a Satellite TV show from a studio at the top of the Empire State Building. I was known as The Satellite Psychic.

The skyscraper establishes the block,

the block creates the street,

the street offers itself to man.

Roland Barthes