SCI at Hornings - Sunday

On Sunday I was pretty tired. I moped about Dawn's camp for a bit until Jade of Lucent Dossier pressed a bunch of us into service for the 4th Annual Underwear Invitational. We set out in our skivvies with a disco ball (Jade's) and whiskey (Justin's) and a lightsaber (mine). Dawn came with us in sexy underwear, and Hannah came in sexy clothes that were nearly underwear. Chalan came, too, and he really brought the sexy with his slouch-walk and baggy boxers. Ron even put on some undies and accompanied us. There were more folk; we were quite a group. Loud, we were.

We descended upon folks who smiled, or wore bright costumes, or simply failed to flee quickly enough. Jade would hold the disco ball up and begin to disco-dance around the victim as we all chanted "Disco-disco, disc-o!" and bumped & ground our disco sexiness. Then we'd switch to "Uhn! Uhn! UnderWEAR!" and crescendo. People loved it. I saw it as helping to boost ambient weirdness. It took us about 2 hours to tour the entire festival, including a stop for me to go swimming. Super fun.

Lisa Hahn was at Dawn's camp and I spent an hour or so talking with her. She wants to give us some pointers on basket-tosses, and hopefully performance stuff as well. She's super-professional - Lucent Dossier is amazing and she choreographs their stuff. I hope she can come to practice tomorrow!

I joined Dawn's crew for the final Cheese show, and bumped into Dutch and Sara who were sitting literally 4 feet from them without realizing it. Awesome! The show was great, but I mostly enjoyed watching the crowd. Blissed-out people are way fun to watch.

Dawn's ex-hubby Nick is dating Creedence. Weird. It was great to see her, though Nick seemed unthrilled that I was pals with his girl.

Dutch & Sara left right after the concert. Dawn & I hung out for a while with various friends, and did a few stunts. On a boring T-Rolldown, her hip went out with a click. :( Ouch. She's been hobbling since then. Lame - she always seems to get injured just as she's trying to head home.

We gave Dawn's friend Rosie a ride back into town. I was mostly comatose - I was exhausted and out of it. I tried to help Dawn a bit when we got home but mostly I just crashed like a log.

Dawn and I did amazingly well together. We've done really well at all of the parties and festivals we've attended. It's pretty cool. Neither of us really thought we'd make it this far but things just keep working out. I hope we can continue to shine like this. We're really good together, and really good for one another.

I hope to find amazing pictures and maybe even video to post. It was a spectacular event! I love doing what I do, and I love my friends, and I love Kazum. How can this summer possibly be even more magical than last summer?...

SCI at Hornings - Saturday

On Saturday morning we met for some busking. We wandered for hours, performing tricks wherever we found groups of people. Lots of people took pictures and everyone seemed much entertained. I think we did a good job of adding ambient magic to the event.

We broke for lunch and the girls went to rest. I eventually moseyed in search of showers, and found the coolest shower ever. It's a big truck with a shower in it that holds up to 10 people. Once there are enough people ready, they turn on the foam hoses and we all squirt one another and ourselves with thick white foamy soap for 10 seconds. Then we get 5 minutes to wash and rinse, after which we can hang out in the carpeted dance room outside until we're dry and ready to head back out into the festival. It was super comfy and friendly and fun, with music pumping throughout the whole process.

The DJ was Blade, and he was awesome. There was also a dude there doing sweet breakdance-style flipping. I lifted up a couple of girls in fancy costumes, too, but didn't run into any of them again. I trained a bunch of fliers but never had any of 'em find me and re-stunt. Too bad.

Dutch and I stunted with Lisa Hahn at the hospitality camp. We did some sweet basket-tosses. She used to be a cheerleader.

We met backstage at 9:00. There was a big inflatable UFO as well as half a dozen enormous white helium-filled balloons. Lots of fire spinners, and a dozen or so half-black half-white clad folks. Clover had broken her foot earlier, so she couldn't be in the show. Uli & Miranda dressed up in white body-suits, Dutch and I put on our black body-suits, and Doc dressed down as darkly as he could. It worked; after the show Lisa Hahn asked why only 2 guys had done the show. She didn't see Doc at all. Sweet.

First came the fire. They lit a big peacock frame while the fire folks did their spinny burny excitement. Amy Hatfield was there - I saw her a bunch over the weekend. :) After the fire came hoopers, and finally the half-white/black people. Then us. I think we looked pretty tiny... Uli & Miranda circling out in either Angels or Arabesques (I forget which). We did static stunting and posing while the half-folk did their show. Then we came together to run our routine.

It was the first half of Death Blossom. We set it a bit too far forward - I wish we'd all been at Tech Rehearsal to get that dialed in, but none of the rest of Kazum feels like we need Tech Rehearsals. People I talk from outside the group, from other artists to our Production folks to audience members, tend to not agree. Gripe.

Anyway, it seemed to go well. Granted, it was an easy audience... they'd just been Cheesed and at least 3/4 of them were blitzed out of their gourds on E and acid and 'shrooms. Still, they roared most appreciatively at various points - the Double Lotus seemed to be a big favorite when the bases are invisible. The Diamondhead (aka Chinese Star) also got some loud love.

Then we scattered and did s'more stunting - Uli and I did the L-base Triangle sequence while talking and coordinating. When the balloons came out we left the stage and they opened it to the audience. The balloons, to my amazed delight, lifted an aerialist up to about 100 or 150 feet, where she did a breathtaking tissu routine. It was spectacular with her and the UFO both sharing the sky over Horning's. A really magical show.

I switched to Spiderman and helped the balloon folks take Lisa Hahn up. One of the bases stood on my shoulders to base - it was pretty interesting. Then they took Tia, our other contact. They let me hang on the balloons but I'm 20 lbs. or so too heavy. Otherwise I could've flown 150 feet above Horning's. As Spiderman. Bliss!

Spidey stunted around for hours with Dawn, who was in a beautiful peacock headdress that drew mad attention. We had a blast and got home at around dawn again.

SCI at Hornings - Friday

Uli was adamant about a 10:00 call time, even though we didn't go on until 12:45. But there was a meeting for the Saturday lightshow then, too. Ari and I were there at 9:45 - nobody else showed up until 10:30 or so. Nobody was actually *there* and ready until 11:30. It was really frustrating 'cause I get cussed out for being 10 minutes late to practice now & then, but the cussers are frequently an hour late for performances. I attended the Sat-night show practice as the sole Kazum rep, which sucked - we would've been way better positioned for the show if we'd all been there.

Anyway, by 12:45 we were all set up. We had Daniel Flynn for our MC, with Tommy Twimble & Blake Hicks & Jackie for 'Tweener acts. Blake really ripped it up - people kept blowing past Dutch & I to compliment him on his bikery. Very cool.

The show was great, though there was low turnout at 12:45. We busked through quickly and gathered a bit of attention, but it was still not many people. It filled up as we went, though, and it was an okay crowd by the end.

We did Piggies, then Tommy took over. Then it was Lions, then Jackie. Then Cards, then Blake. We ended with Death Blossom. The show went seamlessly - it was wonderful.

We wandered and busked for a few hours in Peacock costumes. It was a blast - people really enjoyed seeing us do stuff.

We also went swimming. Dutch and Blake and I competed in rope-swing leaps. I did pretty well - I've not swung on a rope since before I was an acrobat. I represented well. Doc and Alysia showed up and weighed in - Doc's a natural but I have more training. Alysia looked like an aerialist - very impressive.

The Cheese show was pretty cool. I like Keller Williams, so I like the Cheese okay. But I'm not big on 'em. Clover & Uli & Miranda tried to dance to them but couldn't... we had to bail. *shrug* We stunted a bit here and there for hours, wandering.

The girls wandered home to sleep, so Dutch and I took over the evening set. We had Biscuit, though, and I eventually found Dawn again. We wandered and stunted and had a spectacular night. I met lots of people and lifted many of them - success! Dawn and I wandered home around until dawn again.

SCI at Hornings - Thursday

I first found Horning's Hideout when I was married to Heather, and 'Topher was an infant, about 10 years ago. There was a Father & Sons' campout and I took Jed & Alex. We sang & played guitar and had a wonderful time, and I fell in love with Horning's. We go a few times each year, and we've continued doing so even after Heather & I divorced.

I remember when they built the stage. I wasn't a performer yet, but not long after I became one. I've wanted to perform on that stage since it was just framework. I still do, come to think of it, though we did get to at least perform in front of it.

When I heard about the Horning's gig I was thrilled. But we were already scheduled for Sand by the Ton in CA with Wanderlust. :( Then SbtT canceled, and we confirmed the SCI gig, yay! A day or two later SbtT reaffirmed, but by then we were committed. I'm very sad to miss SbtT, but Horning's was astounding and I can't claim any regrets that things worked out this way.

Dawn and I came up on Thursday. I was stressin' because we couldn't get there until noon, and that's when Kazum was supposed to meet for ambient stunting. It turns out that everyone but Ari was held up by traffic. I saw him leaving as we rolled up. :(

Dawn's camp was way out past a rickety footbridge. The Kazum camp was in the Production area, up atop the hill behind the Hornings' house. We were almost never there - it stored our clothes & gear, and a few folks slept there. I didn't, though - I was at Dawn's camp during the nights.

We stopped by the Woodcut Stage, or whatever it's called. It's a huge inflatable stage in black & white, with black & red spinal columns. It also had a huge spiky urchin-looking thing that brought the ceiling height from 25' down to 10' - totally inadequate for Kazum routines. We started planning the rechoreography to move the whole routine to one side. But Eric the supercool stage manager offered to get the huge spiky thing taken down. Blessings on him - it gave us a clear stage for our show the next afternoon.

We also went to a meeting with Lisa of Lucent Dossier, and got our costumes for Saturday's show. They were single-piece spandex bodysuits. White for Uli & Miranda & Clover, black for Dutch & I. A zipper in the back, and no apertures. We cut eye-holes and feet and hands.

The other Kazumites bolted back to Portland on the first night. I was frustrated about that, but it turned out to be okay. We provided all kinds of ambient stunting over the weekend - I feel good about what we delivered. Dawn really stepped up - she was my stunt partner for at least half of the ambient stunting.

So, on Day One it was Dawn and I out wandering and stunting. I was in her fuzzy black & white leapordskin coat, and the Patchwork Vest costume. She was all purtied up in costume, too. People were mostly dazzled by the stunting, though a few seemed to feel like we were showing off. That bugs me, but we were paid to stunt, so it felt way less like showing off than it usually does.

We had a wonderful evening wandering and stunting. I missed my Kazum folk, but it was a great Dawn & Scott night. We wandered back to her opulent camp and crashed around dawn. She parties with the wealthy Burner-folk who party hard across several generations. It's pretty impressive - I've only known 1st and 2nd generation partiers before, and most of 'em weren't very wealthy. Dawn's friends put on high-quality fun.