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?

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, The Weird

notes from coastal island explorations, volume one :

Good News
Met a guy who up and quit speaking 7 or 8 years ago. He apparently used to be a very angry, aggressive person. My impression of him was a gentle, friendly character, who communicates through charades and sound effects. Conveniently, his name is Bob, which lends itself perfectly to the nickname Silent Bob. He's got a small dog named Kiss Kiss, which of course is meant to be pronounced through a double serving of the kiss noise.

Bad News
After arriving late at night in Courtenay and heading straight to an abandoned mill party, came back after dawn to the party organizers house. Drank beer all afternoon; by 2am everyone had passed out except little old insomniac me. I decided not to sleep in the tent that had been set up out back for me and went to get my sleeping bag to crash on the couch. Some kind of weird shadow seemed to be moving in the tent, thought I was experiencing sleep deprivation hallucinations, but checked anyways by rolling a big medicine ball towards it. Whatever it was, it charged me - looked like some kind of black dog. But this was a totally sealed tent ... to date, one of the creepiest demon-type encounters I've ever had.

Ugly News
Tried a single, small bump of what passes for coke around here. It certainly wasn't, my guess would be some kind of freebase, baking soda concoction. Spent an hour of the mill party curled up outside by the van, with horrible stomach pains.

Just Plain Weird
Got dragged along to a Logging Sports Fair in Campbell River by my friend and host. Coincidentally, both her father and boyfriend (who hadn't met before) were in the beer gardens, getting wasted together. I proceeded to watch them get to the point of falling down, alternating between telling one another how much they loved them, and threatening to beat each other down. After the father left, she got mad at him for calling him 'Dad', they got in a huge fight, he started crying, and I was left for two hours on my own. Did I mention how little I care for logging sports?

Luckily, I was saved by the arrival of Crimson Reign, the blistering four-piece cover metal band. Evidently they know enough concerning synchronicity to wait three songs into their set before clobbering the crowd over its collective head with their take on The Ace Of Spades.

I.T.B.

Funniest thing seen today at the I.T.B. (International Tourism fair in Berlin): "Official Travel Korea Year 2010-2012"
Runner Up: a skinhead with a moustache.

Side Note - I got busted trying to enter with my friend's staff pass (apparently I'm not a Ms.). Security asshat wanted my passport or i.d. ..... Fuck! I didn't even want to go; was babysitting for my friend while she worked the Malaysian booth and she asked me to bring her son by since it was the final day of the fair. Anyhow I got in.

Side-Side Note - How bout that? I'm actually updating this blog regularly!

the Smell of Cologne..

Just back from a three day trip to Cologne/Koln. 'Twas a nice reunion of sorts, Mike&Tania from Germany hosted us and Brian from Ireland ... we all lived in Vancouver last year and it was nice to see a few familiar faces over here.
After a crazy barhopping night out the first night, we all went to see Gogol Bordello again. Made for an exhausting three nights in conjunction with the night before we left Berlin, when we had a Spanish language dinner and late-night jam session at Zach's.
Here, I'm still job hunting and getting discouraged, but generally that's when things pick up in my past so ... here's hoping.
I've started playing around the city a bit as a drummer for Katinka, which pays a bit, and gives me something to do for NY's.
In case you're wondering, there was nothing significant in the smell of Cologne...