I haven’t had much business in Liberty Park for years. It’s nice for running, as long as you don’t mind the occasional nest of bugs swarming at your face. But creatures with beaks are on my list of irrational fears (you have one bad goose experience …) so you won’t see me feeding the ducks, and I really have outgrown ruling the playground.

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Of course, there are plenty of activities for most people to enjoy at the park: Barbecues, The Tracy Aviary, possibly a night stabbing, some good old-fashioned people-watching and'if you’re into it'the notorious Sunday drum circle.

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Since my hacky sack was at the cleaners, June 3 turned out to be a bad day for drum circling. Instead, I joined Uprok Records for the local shop’s summer kick-off'a little something they call “Doin’ It at the Park,” which just so happened to conflict with Pride’s festivities downtown. Curiosity beat out diversity and, since you learn by “doin’” …

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Of course, the most I could come up with was a MySpace page (MySpace.com/UprokRecords) reaffirming the music store’s involvement. I had no idea what I was getting into.

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In my defense, the phrase “doin’ it” can be taken any number of ways, perverts.

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After finding a pithy bit of information, and unaware of a start-to-finish time, or where in the park the event was taking place, I circled until I used deductive reasoning that the event was not the children on the playground, the guy sunbathing or the drum circle, but the pavilion filled with loud music and fly folk.

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I was expecting angry hip-hop and people rapping but what I stumbled upon was some of my favorite ’70s funk and some old school hip-hop with kids taking turns on a break-dancing mat.

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I watched them and watched everyone watching them, and then wandered around to the surrounding areas to check out what others were doin’.

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They had some boards set up with spray-paint cans and people working on graffiti art. So far, this seemed very participant-oriented and, as I am an itinerary person, I wasn’t quite sure in which order events were supposed to be happening, if any at all.

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After asking around to see if other things would be happening'in or out of order'most people had no idea. So, I turned around, stepped in a giant quicksand puddle of mud to cool down (OK, the puddle jumped me) and made my own graffiti sculpture of mud in a weak attempt to clean off my feet, followed by that discomfiting “Hey guys! Nothing happened. I will sit around and watch a bit longer with an island in my shoe” moment.

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With no time frame or clue whether there’d me more to do, I headed home to unravel the mysteries of Doin’ It at the Park.

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The best thing for promotional purposes would be to have a schedule of events for next time so that I would not feel so befuddled and so that passersby could stop, hang out for a bit, figure out what was going on and pass this information along to their friends. Perhaps I missed it, or perhaps it just hadn’t been outlined.

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In short, all I know is that Doin’ It includes an Emcee Battle complete with break-dancers. At the beginning of the day, graffiti art can be made and meat'bring your own'can be grilled. It will be happening again July 1, Aug. 5 and Sept. 2.

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If you find yourself in the park’s vicinity between 2 and 10 p.m. on these dates, you may want to watch it all unfold with a friend. I will meander back with a slightly better idea as to how it works but with the same confused look I always have on my face.

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Oh, and make sure to bring your break-dancing clothes. Show the most def break-dancer of our time how it’s done, son!

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DOIN’ IT AT THE PARK
nnLiberty Park
nn900 S. 700 East
nnJuly 1, Aug. 5, Sept. 2
nnMySpace.com/UprokRecords

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