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 - 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.