Burned, Stretched, Tired & a little bit Snooty

notes from coastal island explorations, volume two :

Two weekends in a row, two wildly different festivals experienced. Dramatic entrances all around.

First, I spent three of the craziest days of my life on a hip-hop pirate ship. We sailed 5 hours down the coast of Vancouver Island to Comox, catching a ride to Big Time Out in Cumberland. Hopped the fence and promptly ran into half the people I worked with all summer, eventually camping out in my old boss' backyard - plus one of the best after parties ever. The festival itself was kind of hollow; I mean, Sam Roberts as headliner? Mother Mother, from Quadra, was an interesting new find though.

Just a few days of rest and then headed up early to do set-up for Carrington Bay Music Festival (no link available). It's remote, secretive, and grass-roots ... a long weekend electronic festival on the North coast of Cortes Island. Aside from a beautiful setting, there wasn't too much to it. Two stages of similar dj's and a lot of drugs. Again, the trip down there proved the most electric. We got waylaid by a friend of a friend on the second ferry out there, went to his house where some other guy fed everyone acid, and wound up being kicked out after we used his clothesline like a slingshot. I guess the guy doesn't like having martini glasses fired at his roof. Heading down to the festival location at 3am we ruptured the gas tank on a friend's car and I had instant flashbacks of Burning Man '06, leaving the 420mobile in Beaverton, Oregon.

What's the point? In both cases, the journey proved to be more of an experience than the destination. I knew from day 1 of BM '05 that my festival going experiences would never be the same. The trouble I run into is that whenever I attempt to explain this to people, I come across as snobby and elitist. But it's true. The balance and interactive experience found in Black Rock is unparalleled. Here's hoping for a theme of epic proportions for 2010!

So, back to semi-normal life tomorrow ... I'd be down & out if it weren't for this intriguing news from the North : Grizzly-Polar Bear Hybrid Found -- But What Does It Mean?