Roseland pretty much goes off every year for Cinco de Mayo, but last night carried an intense communal electricity missing from the previous couple years. Maybe it was better music; maybe it was the teeming crowds. Organizers predicted that a Monday night would diminish attendance, but it was actually crowded as fuck and at times impossible to make one’s way around the parking lot. Was it packed? Hell yes. Was it worth it? Always.

Community leaders have made a big deal out of the family-friendly aspect of Roseland’s Cinco de Mayo festival, ignoring hella cool shit like people cruising lowriders in the streets, half-naked teenagers sucking face behind the dumpsters, and moms in aqua blue pantsuits carrying around toddlers with mohawks. Something about the unpredictable atmosphere recalls my junior high dances at Comstock. It ain’t all peaches and cream, guys beef with each other, and yeah, people sneak flasks of cognac in. Whatcha gonna do?

Food budget for the night topped out at $9.75 for three tacos, one tamale and a slice of cherry pie with ice cream. And although I’m a huge champion of pupusas, why are there always, like, 45 people waiting in line for pupusas as if there’s only one time a year to ever get ’em? (Here’s the tip: go to Pupuseria Salvadorena on Maple Ave., across from the fairgrounds. I was down with Hot Tamales on Santa Rosa Avenue when it was the only game in town, but Salvadorena kicks their ass.)

As usual, the action was over on the second stage, where last year’s returning breakdance champion Lil’ Tony was dethroned by a younger kid with crazier moves and who was hotter with the ladies—despite Lil’ Tony’s pretty ripping run-through of “Billie Jean,” complete with cartwheels. What can we say, Tones? After you hit 12 years old, it’s pretty much all downhill.

Other second stage highlights: E-40’s “U and Dat” rockin’ the crowd uncensored; a killer group rap about Cinco de Mayo which blew the speakers out; Mayor Bob Blanchard busting a move; CD giveaways galore; and after the not-really-reggaeton “reggaeton” sounds of a certain group from Oakland, Santa Rosa’s own Latin Hyper storming the stage and shouting, “Now it’s time for some real reggaeton! Manos arriva!” Jeans + black shirts + Sean Johns + shades + pounding dancehall rhythms = killing it.

Tattoo of the night: “Dogg Pound -4- Life,” obviously homemade. Arrest of the night: the guy so drunk he couldn’t stand on his own two feet while two girls led him out of the crowd. He was swiftly intercepted by Sheriffs who wrestled him down, kneeled hard on his head and married his face to the pavement—see photo below. Ouch. Speech of the night, after a couple more flareups: “Walk home peacefully! Be proud of being Mexicano! We don’t need you in Juvenile Hall! We don’t need you in jail tonight! It’s not every day we get to do this!”

Police were out in force, but really, what’s with hundreds of kids running down the street at breakneck speed towards a fight while groups of cops just sort of mosey along towards the action at a snails’ pace? I witnessed it a few times; kinda weird.

All in all, it was a hell of a celebration, and I can with all honesty say that the music this year was way better than ever. Among the performers, my favorites had to be the aforementioned Latin Hyper; Quinto Sol, five energetic kids from Santa Rosa’s sister city of Los Mochis; and Pilar del Rocío, who sang so goddamn beautifully it was as if her blood were slowly dripping away from her soul. Don’t believe me? Hear for yourself:

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More photos after the jump.

We do find it more than curious that the only person arrested at yesterday’s May Day march in downtown Santa Rosa (other than seven gang members who violated parole by hanging out outside the mall) was CopWatch activist Ben Saari. Indeed, Saari—cofounder of Free Mind Media—was probably only one of a handful of people out of the estimated crowd of 2,500 who exactly knows how to interact with officers without violating his or their rights. Yet he was nonetheless hit with a misdemeanor charge of interfering with an officer and had to post $2,500 bail. We called him up this morning as he shook the jail experience out of his head. Here is his side of the story.photo of May Day march 2007 by Brett Ascarelli

“When I think of public art,” Boback Emad keenly observed during an interview earlier this year, “I think of a bunch of children holding hands around a globe.”

It was no surprise, then, that when Emad’s wife finally succeeded in convincing him to enter Santa Rosa’s call for artists to decorate the triangular intersection of College, Healdsburg, and Mendocino Avenues, he discovered that one of the other finalists had submitted, yes—a sculpture of a bunch of children holding hands around a globe.

Emad’s design won, and we can all be grateful. You can read about it in the profile I wrote on Emad and his sculpture in the the Bohemian; additionally, what you’re seeing here is a computerized image of what the intersection will look like once his sculpture is installed. Nothing arouses the ire of citizens quite like public art, but in the context of some truly terrible public art in Santa Rosa, I’d say it’s a virtual godsend.

On or around June 28, in the middle of the night, the sculpture will make its way slowly down the middle of College Avenue, clearing the Highway 101 overpass by just a couple feet (anyone ever see X’s film The Unheard Music, where they film a house being carted through Los Angeles in the dead of night?). I’m planning on watching it, and if anyone else wants to check it out too, lemme know and I’ll keep you updated on the exact date.In other public art news, does anyone out there have a name yet for The Fish installed earlier this week at Prince Gateway Park? Somehow I find it fitting that the inventor of LSD died the same day that this multi-colored delight appeared in a hallucinogenic reincarnation. That said, we could dub the fish sculpture “Albert”—or, since the park’s very inviting, downhill entrance reminds me so much of Gate D at Fenway Park, how about “Ortiz”?

And, since I can’t mention Santa Rosa Creek without mentioning the complete atrocity of the creek being forced into three blocks of concrete tunnels in the late 1960s, I’ll say it again: the creek is looking better than ever, but please, don’t let’s abandon the idea of pulling it out of its underground cell one of these days. Yes, it’ll be expensive, but an open creek, running through downtown: can you imagine it?