earthdance

[Drunk Monk]

@ the Hog Farm 9/14-17/6

DM fell on his ass. ON HIS ASS!! :o

more to come.

[Drunk Monk]

So it was past midnite, methinks, hard to be sure, and we get this call about a tripper. earthdance was chaotic, so DM loses his partner in the crowd, and wind up radioing each other trying to find the IPR while standing pretty much back to back. Anyway we do manage to find him. He's screaming 'noooo! i want love. i want peace. noooo!' and he has a lot of friends. He bolts away and DM catches him by the edge of his sleeve, and tries to talk some reason. Suddenly, DM is looking at the stars. BOOM! That's always a bad sign like when you're asking why there's carpet on the wall. We were talking on this hill and poor DM misstepped in the dark to fall on his ass in a bowl of dust. He wasn't injured, except for his pride. A rugby scrum formed around the patient in the chaos. We got him backboarded and into the tent which was like a freaking mile away, far too long to be carrying a full grown writhing wriggling man strapped to a surfboard with handles. His friends got around him and brought him down with a kirtan, a traditional Hindu chant. It was a beautiful thing to witness.

[Drunk Monk]

In about 12 hours, I'm off to earthdance at the Hog Farm again, the last camp out for Rock Med of summer 007. It's the 10th anniversary of earthdance already and they're at like 300+ worldwide simultaneous events now. Amazing what some CA hippies can do. If only they could grab the election. Unfortunately, there's not many interesting acts at earthdance this year. I have to leave before Sunday evening's closing acts, Ozo and M.M.S.& W, but I'll be able to catch Heavyweight Dub Champion, who are turning out to be a one-trick pony act, given their appearance at this year's Reggae Rising. Still, they are playing three sets and their DJs are spinning two more in the dancehall, so I'll see them through. This year will be all about the dancehall at earthdance for me.

Last year was freezing cold. Literally. It drizzled one night and the night krew watched the puddled turn to ice to stay awake. I only went up on Saturday, did that night shift, and then came back on Sunday. I brought my family, so Mrs. DM could drive us home without falling asleep at the wheel. This year is forecasted to be about 10 degrees warmer at night, but I'm still busting out the long johns. I'll be travelling solo and coming back Sunday afternoon. Do I have all my gear packed? I think so.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

DM sez:

Amazing what some CA hippies can do. If only they could grab the election.

But...that would be something useful!

[Drunk Monk]

We had a classic borderline at earthdance. He had come from Maui, managed to hitchhike to the show, but didn't have a ticket or money to purchase a ticket. He was at the gates, making a ruckus. The gate faces highway 101 so you can imagine the hassle. We talked to the guy. He was pretty sunburnt, like he'd been on the streets for a while, but his clothes were relatively clean. He was a dreadlock Asian and very gamey. He constantly brought it back to the 'white man's oppression' and I constantly retorted by asking him to look at me more closely. The problem was that, given his behavior, no one felt comfortable releasing him upon some poor citizen fool enough to pick him up as a hitchhiker (there was about half a dozen guys hanging out at the gate trying to hitch rides). We couldn't bring him into the show without a ticket. The only solution was to turn him over to the SO, which none of us were comfortable with at all. He bolted at one point onto the highway. We corralled him back and I sat with him until the Sheriff arrived. The Sheriff searched him and pulled off a working buck knife, then accused him of carrying concealed. That seemed a bit trumped up since we were all carrying knives at a campout, but when the cop found three throwing knives tucked in a quick-draw sheath hidden beneath his shirt, it was a done deal. That's about as concealed as you get with knives. We shook our heads - it's been quite a spell since either of us have pulled knives off anyone. The cop stripped his backpack. He had six bottles of good beer, a sleeping bags and some odd clothes. The throwing knives were decent - the $30 Chinatown set instead of the $10 set.

When I first started this, there was hardly an Asian in the scene (and they always became my patients). Now I'm pulling throwing knives off Asian dreadlocks. It's just a matter of time until I uncover a tripping ninja... just a matter of time...

[Drunk Monk]

So truth be told, I'm not that into Heavyweight Dub Champion. They rocked the dub lounge (our nick for the talkdown tent) at Reggae on the River 06, which means we didn't really get to listen to them because we wrassled trippers for the whole set. I got the CD and loved their Rasta Mad Max trip. I got to catch the whole set at Reggae Rising 007 and they didn't really impress me. So I was looking forward to them at earthdance. They played two sets as HDC and two sets as Liberation Movement, which was just the SF DJs. All I saw was half a song from the 2nd HDC set before I was called away to backboard a tripper. That was a big disappointment. four chances and missed them all.

The other act I kind of wanted to catch was Don Carlos, a reggae veteran. I've seen him before, but I love my reggae so I was working my way there when he came on. Three friends had dropped mescaline and wanted me to join them, but I had to sleep that night because I had to drive home alone the next morning and didn't want to fall asleep at the wheel. So I became their tour guide, which is always entertaining. By chance, we ran into the big honchos of Reggae Rising, who took us up to their camp behind stage for rum punch cocktails. Then we went backstage for dinner. By the time we were done, so was Don Carlos. Another set missed.

Being tour guide, I escorted the mescalito threesome to the Yard Dogs Road Show, a burlesque act that none of us had seen before. It started out sort of Tom Waits like, evil carneys barking for the show, scary off key singers and a pretty tight band doing wacked out circus music, not at all what we expected. It took a while for the dancing girls to appear, but when they did, they were great - traditional feather fan dances, cape dances, very beautiful and classy for a topless show. There was also a fire eater and a sword swallower. The boys were very entertained and so was I.

Musically, I also enjoyed Christafari DJing in the dancehall dome.

Thus ends my earthdance music report. As for my adventures, all I can say is this. When I'm chasing multiple nekkid trippers at 3 in the morning in 40 degree weather, one thing is for certain - this season's batch of acid is good. Real good.

[Drunk Monk]

arrived solo after dashing away from work at around 6ish friday. rm was in great disarray, so dm went straight to work. could hear the main stage: neko case (innerestin..but not enough to go take a look), mc yogi (didn't register) & kinky (entertaining - seen before at the fillmore - love that mexican radio version). stayed up all night putting out small fires. it was all chocolate fun & gus for the whole nite krew. got very cold after 5 am - fortunately we got busy and that warmed us up until daybreak.

freezing cold at night. high 90's at midday, enough to sprout mud women at the swimmin' hole and inspire mass hordes of nudity.

little food was provided and no t-shirts by the time dm exited. typcial of rm 2008. nevertheless, dm has remarkable foraging skills when alone in such scenes and managed to procure all sorts of comestable delights, mostly as gifts. did buy some garlic fries - $5 for a heaping dish of homegrown fresh cut potatoes, fried to perfection with thick chunks of fresh garlic, all organic. yum. gave dm the winds something fierce thru the next day (the baked eggs for b-fast surely added to that gastric alchemy) but that was ok. there's a pleasure to passing wind loudly and cleanly when the surrounding soundclash is so loud at baseline that the most trumpetous of farts goes completely undetected by the ears, and it's hippie land, so once you cut through the incense and herb smoke, there's a lot of funky smells and a windy culprit easily escapes unnoticed.

saturday, slept the morning, foraged for lunch, slept the afternoon. caught a little of moonalice, who f-ing wokr me up in the morning. old hippies love them but dm can't get past g.e. smith. they did a serviceable stella blue. overheard some of wisdom. actually attended the prayer for peace w/a native american elder/buddy. it was ok - the music/prayer was just a new age power chord that went on for a tad too long, but the sentiment was felt for sure. there was much discussion of buckethead because of the buckets and masks, but dm felt that was a cheap stunt to cover self-indulgent guitar riffs. the highlight was cheb i sabbah. dm had a major epiphany during a cis set in '96 at laguna seca daze. major epiphany. that epiphany burned lsd into dm's memory. been trying to get back there ever since. haven't quite made it, but cis always satisfactory. this set almost made it. that eastern dance mix borders from deeply spiritual to bollywood, so it fits dm's tastes to a t. wound up dancing by: a zebra furry, stoned capoeiristas who really had no concept of the practice, belly dancers, two newbie trippin teens that were exploring their 'sparring' moves as dance and desparately trying to look cool (sort of cpt. k in a way), and a family of 4 (poor kids - all they see is shaking dirty hippie butts). dm bought the new cd after the set. after that, caught this weird act - that one guy - which was one guy playing this strange bending pole/pipe that worked as a synth and delivered some remarkable sound - couldn't quite understand how it played but it was entertaining to postulate. could overhear a little dumpstafunk, which sounded good, but mostly worked.

there was a lot of work to be done. earthdance has grown. entertainment to be found in every corner. notable additions this year was a sweat lodge that looked a lot like 'the oven' from one of those old prison flicks, psychedelic jungle gyms, and several spectacular hindu altars with large brass/bronze statues - the best was the nataraja outside the electronica dome.

many, many rm war stories, but here's the most amusing perhaps. a tripper disturbs a meditation circle (imagine, just moments from satori and some damn tripper cuts in like a cell phone to completely derail your focus). the tripper is escorted to security, which is right by rm, and freaks. knocks over their main table. rm is on it in force and the ipr is quickly contained within the space tent. during the takedown, one of the other volunteers tries to remove his radio so as not to crush it between the ipr and him for the takedown. unfortunately, it catches in his belt and he only succeeds in bearing a large portion of his ass. dm is at his usual station, grabbing out the legs to break the root and fell the tree. the ipr kicks sending dm nose first within 2" of his friend's looming crack, an shockingly rude place to be. dm has worked with that guy for years - been through many scrapes together and trusts him with his safety constantly - but that was way more intimacy than ever desired. after, dm's comrade grinning over the course of the incident, asks dm if he'd like a cigarette. it'll surely be a running joke for years to come and dm will have to ingest mass quantities of whiskey to rid his retinas of the trama - p.t.a.d. - post traumatic ass diving. what is up with dm's ass theme at earthdance?

got some sleep before travelling last night - a few hours of respite. a gorgeous drive - the dead's so many roads and the new cis cd devotion reminded dm of that dylan verse (and every one of them words rang true, and glowed like burnin coal, pourin off of every page, like it was written in my soul from me to you, tangled up in blue.) blasted back this morning to arrive home just after lunch. shower, snacks, shitter, and next, sleep.

[thatguy]

I was wondering how Buckethead was going to fit in there. I guessed maybe he was going to play his "jam" set...(oh, wait, that's all he plays).

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

that one guy - check the vids to see what he does http://www.that1guy.com/

buckethead was well received by the younger audience and scoffed at by the older audience. young people are easily suckered by a band with buckets on their heads. old people have seen that before, so it actually works against the performers. they really have to deliver to justify dressing up so silly. but still, some of the adults liked it. i never got out to watch it, but it sounded amusing over the din.

[thatguy]

thanks! Pretty impressive. makes me thing of a Les Claypool one man band. I'll have to keep him on my radar...

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20.../809159913

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

From now on, no more sleeping at the Hog Farm.

[thatguy]

that one guy - check the vids to see what he does http://www.that1guy.com/

buckethead was well received by the younger audience and scoffed at by the older audience. young people are easily suckered by a band with buckets on their heads. old people have seen that before, so it actually works against the performers. they really have to deliver to justify dressing up so silly. but still, some of the adults liked it. i never got out to watch it, but it sounded amusing over the din.

That 1 Guy plays at Moe's tonight. I might go if I get everything done for my trip tomorrow...

--tg

[thatguy]

That Guy's That1Guy review:

If Les Claypool was a one man band...Magic tricks, fog machine. The Magic Pipe, The Magic Boot, The Magic Saw...What more could you ask for (besides a comfortable chair and a drink that actually contained alcohol...)

Played "Word Up" as an encore. Good stuff!

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

Next year, I'm going to have to change the title of this thread. This year's earthdance was the last to be held at the Hog Farm/Winnarainbow/Black Oak Ranch. I talked to the promoter, Bob, an old friend who shares my b-day (ironically his wife shares a b-day w/my wife too). He said he just couldn't keep doing earthdance to his local community. So next year, it moves to a county fairgrounds in Vallejo, which is going to suck ass by comparison. However, the ranch is launching a new event, GAIA, which will be held on the first week of August 2011, a date traditionally held by Reggae Rising/on the River.

I left for this on Thursday afternoon and arrived just in time to claim some nice real estate before sundown. I left Saturday after the prayer and global OM. T had a meet on Sunday and I had to get back to support her. It was hard to leave. I have a lot of memories from this event at this venue, some of which I've shared with you all here.

I'll be posted some fb pics. I'll also be filling in some DM adventures for the weekend soon. Stay tuned...