aprilstarchild (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aprilstarchild) wrote2005-07-09 09:47 pm
aprilstarchild) wrote2005-07-09 09:47 pm
(no subject)
First update:
Friday night I went to see my brother Chris's drum and bugle corps performance. Drum and bugle corps is like marching band field shows, except that it's not associated with any high schools (there is an age cap of 22 though) and there's no instruments other than percussion (including "pit," such as xylophones) and brass instruments. The quality of the shows, including how difficult they are, is usually much higher as well. It was a competition of mostly groups from the Northwest--there was one from Medford, one from Seattle, one from Tacoma... My brother is in the Oregon Crusaders, they're based out of Portland.
The exception to the local thing, was a group from Illinois. Oh My God. They were awesome. First of all, their musical choice was a good one--it was an arrangement of Gershwin's An American in Paris, and Rhapsody in Blue. Then, their color guard was all dressed in flapper outfits. For a while they were using huge black umbrellas as props. The whole time, though; I kept thinking: "They better do the Charleston." Sure enough, near the end all the color guard is in one area, doing the Charleston. Yay!
All of the groups are doing what amounts to a tour. Friday they were in Hillsboro, the next day Tacoma, the next day Seattle...oof. It's a huge time and money commitment for these people.
Because the Oregon Crusaders were on their own turf, they played some encore stuff after the competition. They played the Kiss song Detroit Rock City. It wasn't a show per se, but at one point Chris's section started bopping their huge instruments up and down in such a way as to imitate head-banging. Very amusing, lemme tell ya.
Most performances have a theme of some kind. One group did stuff about flight, which was actually really awesome--their color guard at one point had these things that looked like WW1-era planes (made out of nylon, near as I could tell) on long flexible poles, and ran in and out of the corps imitating airplane dogfights. It sounds goofy, but it was actually really neat.
I ran into my friend Rylee there--her brother is in the Crusaders as well! He was playing bass guitar during the Kiss song.
I also told my mom that I have a girlfriend. I wanted to tell my dad first, but I didn't get a chance that night. My mom drove me home, and as we were nearing here I said, "I should probably tell you something before I move in. I have a girlfriend." There was a pause. "Um, what do you mean, you have a girlfriend."
"I have a girlfriend girlfriend."
".....oh." *pause* "Ew!"
*lmao*
I told her a bit about![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
dragon_mintz, and she was quiet. As we pulled into Nana's driveway I asked, "So, how do you feel about this?"
"Well, I dunno. I just always pictured you getting married and having kids..."
"Okay, first of all, we're not terribly serious yet. Secondly, I can still have a ceremony--my church would even do that. Third, she wants kids too. The only question of course is who gets to go first." That got a laugh out of her, which is what I was going for.
Yay for Oregon Country Fair. I added up all the days I've actually been at the fair. This is my eighth year going, and I've been able to camp three times. So I figured today made my official two-week mark. The advantage to this, is that I've been enough times to mostly know my way around (it gets a lot more confusing when it's crowded and you can't see landmarks very well), and I don't try to squeeze absolutely everything into one day. I didn't go near the main stage area all day, and I'm okay with that. That area is mostly food booths and massively overcrowded anyway.
I took an assload of pictures. Also a few videos, but sssssh! Those are, technically speaking, against the rules. I took one of the people at the drum tower, and several of Aziza dancing. It's her fifteenth year at OCF!! That rocks.
Of course, y'see, the cables for my camera are at Nana's. Which makes no real sense now that I think about it, because wtf am I going to do with them down there? *rolls eyes* I coulda sworn I left them up here. C'est la vie. Maybe I'll upload them atdragon_mintz's place, her upload speed is much faster.
Here's a short (honest!) recap:
I didn't take much money with me, which was probably a good idea, but at the time I was kicking myself. I didn't want anything hugely expensive, but I normally get a tarot reading from a particular woman and I didn't this year. I wonder if she misses me. *lol* Come to think of it, I didn't last year either. Next year for sure! I mostly bought food, because it's everywhere and really really good. Turns out the veggie tempura booth near the Gypsy Caravan Stage (no relation to the Portland tribal troupe) isn't vegan, but the pakoras near Stage Left are, and they're very similar--but it's eggplant-only. I was really looking forward to the fruit "pies" near the front gate and omg they're good. They're completely raw and vegan. The crust is mostly crushed almonds, and then some sort of banana sauce thing on that, and then on top you have a choice--some are mostly mango and peach, some are mostly berries, I can't remember the other kind. I got the berry one. Oh, so good. A few of the time's I've camped and stayed all weekend, I've used that booth for my breakfast.
The show at Stage Left was one of their best in years. Like most of their shows, it was a political message mostly hidden in a loose plot and combined with lots and lots of vaudeville-type performances. Singing, juggling, random stunts (they were hysterical, but I was so busy watching I didn't get any good pictures), music, dancing!! Part of the plot was a teenage girl getting her fortune read, and the fortune-teller would be showing her a tarot card, and people would come out with a blown-up image of the card, hang it up onstage, and then something related to the theme of the card would be onstage--with the people involved dressed up as people straight out of the Rider-Waite major arcana!! I got a pretty good shot of the woman dressed as The High Priestess--she even had that throne thing on wheels. The bit for The Tower had a bunch of people on the Titanic, no kidding. Ha ha ha ha that's appropriate.
The actual basic plot: a girl goes to get her fortune read and the fortune-teller sees a ukelele in her bag (no, seriously...this is vaudeville folks). Turns out it's this old ukelele made a thousand years ago by some guy named Ukelini. The girl was upset, apparently, at the current political process. She actually sang a song (in an operatic style no less) at her hopelessness at realizing how easily people in the government could be bought. The fortune teller then told her the story of (supposedly) the ukelele, which is cursed! We got to see monks chant in random latin (while playing said ukelele) and then sing a livelier tune with other people in medieval costume about buying indulgences. They then went through various time periods showing different people selling out their values for money, randomly involving the ukelele. Including a woman with a husband and lover on the Titanic. Her lover was a kind and fun person, her husband was an asshole but rich. We saw three girls sing at a WW2 USO show about how they would be friends forever, and then one signs a contract to be in a movie without them. You get the general idea. Faith Petric (whom I adore) got to sing:
"have you been to jail for justice? I want to shake your hand.
oh sitting in and laying down are ways to take a stand.
have you sung a song for freedom or marched that picket line?
have you been to jail for justice, have you been to jail for justice?
well you're a friend of mine."
during a bit about the McCarthy hearings. The last part? A political song about getting involved (with all the people in the show singing) that turned into "Everybody loves stupid ukelele songs..." *LOL*
They have a spot called "altared space" that's basically a large altar with representations of every faith imaginable on it. There's a Jesus statue, a Mary candle, Kwan Yin, Ganesha, a picture of the Dali Lama...there must be a good thirty statues on there. There's some carpeting and cushions in front of it, along with a bowl containing pieces of paper and a pen, a bowl of sand with various burned-out incense sticks in it, and a vase full of unburned incense. So the altar is also covered in little slips of paper, sometimes folded up and tucked into some of the statues--Artemis had one under her arm where she had her hand on her hip. Candles, too; and pictures of what I assume are dead loved ones. The area has such a good energy--such a feeling of universal reverence, of unity. I love it. Elska and I spent a bit of time there.
Elska and I spent all day in each others' company, which I enjoyed quite a bit. We both were in belly-dancing outfits, although mine was slightly goofier in the theme of OCF--I had on striped socks and put my hair in pigtails. A few times we randomly danced--for a bit at the drum tower (I got pictures of Elska) and then when we came across drummers elsewhere, which is a frequent occurance. She got quite a few compliments. Elska's got talent. She might start taking classes with me at Euphoria, she's been taking them from parks'n'rec.
I bought a poster by one of my favorite artists, Mara Friedman. She's been in the We'Moon book more times than I could count. The poster is tall and thin, and has pictures representing each of the eight chakras, with the name on the left and a phrase ("I know, I see, I speak...") down the right. Very awesome. Mara seems to specialize in very, ah, vaginal looking art. I gotta admit, I love it.
Near sixish Elska and I walked out and met up withsingswithtrees and Tyson. Kara was there with Myriad, who is just over a year old. Holy crap they grow fast. *LOL* She's blond with big blue eyes and six teeth, and she can walk if Kara holds her hands.
I'm ridiculously jealous of Kara right now, because she's moving out to Dexter, five miles from the Lost Valley Educational Center. They have long permaculture internships (two months or longer) and have workshops on things like earth building and communication and all sorts of things. I've thought about attending one of the internships. They're $2,000 or more, really intense, and at the end you get a certificate (the program is apparently based on ones in Britain, so the certificate is a kind of standard for education in permaculture). Turns out you can actually make money in permaculture. You can have your own farm etc, you can teach, and/or you can do consulting. It sounds really appealing. I have this stark terror of uncertainty, but it's something I've thought about, off and on, for something like six years now--ever since I heard of the idea. I have some thinking to do. In the meantime I'm going to try to take a weekend and visit Kara and Myriad and get a tour of Lost Valley. I'm trying not to overthink this kind of thing, and let my heart be my guide. "Follow your bliss" and all that. To quote Starhawk: "Find out what is sacred to you. Let that guide your relationships and your livelihood. Never let fear or insecurity turn you aside." That's a paraphrase, and probably a bad one. At one place I lived, I had printed it out and taped it near my door.
*sigh* I did get the Tower for my yearly tarot reading. Gah. Strange stirrings are afoot.
Talked to Deanna. The roomate situation she was looking at fell through, so I might end up living with her after all. Yay!
Friday night I went to see my brother Chris's drum and bugle corps performance. Drum and bugle corps is like marching band field shows, except that it's not associated with any high schools (there is an age cap of 22 though) and there's no instruments other than percussion (including "pit," such as xylophones) and brass instruments. The quality of the shows, including how difficult they are, is usually much higher as well. It was a competition of mostly groups from the Northwest--there was one from Medford, one from Seattle, one from Tacoma... My brother is in the Oregon Crusaders, they're based out of Portland.
The exception to the local thing, was a group from Illinois. Oh My God. They were awesome. First of all, their musical choice was a good one--it was an arrangement of Gershwin's An American in Paris, and Rhapsody in Blue. Then, their color guard was all dressed in flapper outfits. For a while they were using huge black umbrellas as props. The whole time, though; I kept thinking: "They better do the Charleston." Sure enough, near the end all the color guard is in one area, doing the Charleston. Yay!
All of the groups are doing what amounts to a tour. Friday they were in Hillsboro, the next day Tacoma, the next day Seattle...oof. It's a huge time and money commitment for these people.
Because the Oregon Crusaders were on their own turf, they played some encore stuff after the competition. They played the Kiss song Detroit Rock City. It wasn't a show per se, but at one point Chris's section started bopping their huge instruments up and down in such a way as to imitate head-banging. Very amusing, lemme tell ya.
Most performances have a theme of some kind. One group did stuff about flight, which was actually really awesome--their color guard at one point had these things that looked like WW1-era planes (made out of nylon, near as I could tell) on long flexible poles, and ran in and out of the corps imitating airplane dogfights. It sounds goofy, but it was actually really neat.
I ran into my friend Rylee there--her brother is in the Crusaders as well! He was playing bass guitar during the Kiss song.
I also told my mom that I have a girlfriend. I wanted to tell my dad first, but I didn't get a chance that night. My mom drove me home, and as we were nearing here I said, "I should probably tell you something before I move in. I have a girlfriend." There was a pause. "Um, what do you mean, you have a girlfriend."
"I have a girlfriend girlfriend."
".....oh." *pause* "Ew!"
*lmao*
I told her a bit about
dragon_mintz, and she was quiet. As we pulled into Nana's driveway I asked, "So, how do you feel about this?" "Well, I dunno. I just always pictured you getting married and having kids..."
"Okay, first of all, we're not terribly serious yet. Secondly, I can still have a ceremony--my church would even do that. Third, she wants kids too. The only question of course is who gets to go first." That got a laugh out of her, which is what I was going for.
Yay for Oregon Country Fair. I added up all the days I've actually been at the fair. This is my eighth year going, and I've been able to camp three times. So I figured today made my official two-week mark. The advantage to this, is that I've been enough times to mostly know my way around (it gets a lot more confusing when it's crowded and you can't see landmarks very well), and I don't try to squeeze absolutely everything into one day. I didn't go near the main stage area all day, and I'm okay with that. That area is mostly food booths and massively overcrowded anyway.
I took an assload of pictures. Also a few videos, but sssssh! Those are, technically speaking, against the rules. I took one of the people at the drum tower, and several of Aziza dancing. It's her fifteenth year at OCF!! That rocks.
Of course, y'see, the cables for my camera are at Nana's. Which makes no real sense now that I think about it, because wtf am I going to do with them down there? *rolls eyes* I coulda sworn I left them up here. C'est la vie. Maybe I'll upload them at
dragon_mintz's place, her upload speed is much faster. Here's a short (honest!) recap:
I didn't take much money with me, which was probably a good idea, but at the time I was kicking myself. I didn't want anything hugely expensive, but I normally get a tarot reading from a particular woman and I didn't this year. I wonder if she misses me. *lol* Come to think of it, I didn't last year either. Next year for sure! I mostly bought food, because it's everywhere and really really good. Turns out the veggie tempura booth near the Gypsy Caravan Stage (no relation to the Portland tribal troupe) isn't vegan, but the pakoras near Stage Left are, and they're very similar--but it's eggplant-only. I was really looking forward to the fruit "pies" near the front gate and omg they're good. They're completely raw and vegan. The crust is mostly crushed almonds, and then some sort of banana sauce thing on that, and then on top you have a choice--some are mostly mango and peach, some are mostly berries, I can't remember the other kind. I got the berry one. Oh, so good. A few of the time's I've camped and stayed all weekend, I've used that booth for my breakfast.
The show at Stage Left was one of their best in years. Like most of their shows, it was a political message mostly hidden in a loose plot and combined with lots and lots of vaudeville-type performances. Singing, juggling, random stunts (they were hysterical, but I was so busy watching I didn't get any good pictures), music, dancing!! Part of the plot was a teenage girl getting her fortune read, and the fortune-teller would be showing her a tarot card, and people would come out with a blown-up image of the card, hang it up onstage, and then something related to the theme of the card would be onstage--with the people involved dressed up as people straight out of the Rider-Waite major arcana!! I got a pretty good shot of the woman dressed as The High Priestess--she even had that throne thing on wheels. The bit for The Tower had a bunch of people on the Titanic, no kidding. Ha ha ha ha that's appropriate.
The actual basic plot: a girl goes to get her fortune read and the fortune-teller sees a ukelele in her bag (no, seriously...this is vaudeville folks). Turns out it's this old ukelele made a thousand years ago by some guy named Ukelini. The girl was upset, apparently, at the current political process. She actually sang a song (in an operatic style no less) at her hopelessness at realizing how easily people in the government could be bought. The fortune teller then told her the story of (supposedly) the ukelele, which is cursed! We got to see monks chant in random latin (while playing said ukelele) and then sing a livelier tune with other people in medieval costume about buying indulgences. They then went through various time periods showing different people selling out their values for money, randomly involving the ukelele. Including a woman with a husband and lover on the Titanic. Her lover was a kind and fun person, her husband was an asshole but rich. We saw three girls sing at a WW2 USO show about how they would be friends forever, and then one signs a contract to be in a movie without them. You get the general idea. Faith Petric (whom I adore) got to sing:
"have you been to jail for justice? I want to shake your hand.
oh sitting in and laying down are ways to take a stand.
have you sung a song for freedom or marched that picket line?
have you been to jail for justice, have you been to jail for justice?
well you're a friend of mine."
during a bit about the McCarthy hearings. The last part? A political song about getting involved (with all the people in the show singing) that turned into "Everybody loves stupid ukelele songs..." *LOL*
They have a spot called "altared space" that's basically a large altar with representations of every faith imaginable on it. There's a Jesus statue, a Mary candle, Kwan Yin, Ganesha, a picture of the Dali Lama...there must be a good thirty statues on there. There's some carpeting and cushions in front of it, along with a bowl containing pieces of paper and a pen, a bowl of sand with various burned-out incense sticks in it, and a vase full of unburned incense. So the altar is also covered in little slips of paper, sometimes folded up and tucked into some of the statues--Artemis had one under her arm where she had her hand on her hip. Candles, too; and pictures of what I assume are dead loved ones. The area has such a good energy--such a feeling of universal reverence, of unity. I love it. Elska and I spent a bit of time there.
Elska and I spent all day in each others' company, which I enjoyed quite a bit. We both were in belly-dancing outfits, although mine was slightly goofier in the theme of OCF--I had on striped socks and put my hair in pigtails. A few times we randomly danced--for a bit at the drum tower (I got pictures of Elska) and then when we came across drummers elsewhere, which is a frequent occurance. She got quite a few compliments. Elska's got talent. She might start taking classes with me at Euphoria, she's been taking them from parks'n'rec.
I bought a poster by one of my favorite artists, Mara Friedman. She's been in the We'Moon book more times than I could count. The poster is tall and thin, and has pictures representing each of the eight chakras, with the name on the left and a phrase ("I know, I see, I speak...") down the right. Very awesome. Mara seems to specialize in very, ah, vaginal looking art. I gotta admit, I love it.
Near sixish Elska and I walked out and met up with
singswithtrees and Tyson. Kara was there with Myriad, who is just over a year old. Holy crap they grow fast. *LOL* She's blond with big blue eyes and six teeth, and she can walk if Kara holds her hands. I'm ridiculously jealous of Kara right now, because she's moving out to Dexter, five miles from the Lost Valley Educational Center. They have long permaculture internships (two months or longer) and have workshops on things like earth building and communication and all sorts of things. I've thought about attending one of the internships. They're $2,000 or more, really intense, and at the end you get a certificate (the program is apparently based on ones in Britain, so the certificate is a kind of standard for education in permaculture). Turns out you can actually make money in permaculture. You can have your own farm etc, you can teach, and/or you can do consulting. It sounds really appealing. I have this stark terror of uncertainty, but it's something I've thought about, off and on, for something like six years now--ever since I heard of the idea. I have some thinking to do. In the meantime I'm going to try to take a weekend and visit Kara and Myriad and get a tour of Lost Valley. I'm trying not to overthink this kind of thing, and let my heart be my guide. "Follow your bliss" and all that. To quote Starhawk: "Find out what is sacred to you. Let that guide your relationships and your livelihood. Never let fear or insecurity turn you aside." That's a paraphrase, and probably a bad one. At one place I lived, I had printed it out and taped it near my door.
*sigh* I did get the Tower for my yearly tarot reading. Gah. Strange stirrings are afoot.
Talked to Deanna. The roomate situation she was looking at fell through, so I might end up living with her after all. Yay!
no subject
Sounds like an honest response at least ;)
You know I'm terribly apprehensive about eventually meeting them right? Even though your family seems far more accepting than mine...
no subject
Personally, I hope you'll come over on Thanksgiving. Last year Bink and Ashley were there and it felt weird for me. *lol*
no subject
no subject
I'm going to try to sign onto AIM, feel free to join me.
no subject
cgilbert@idt.oregon.com if that bounces try oregon.idt.com :)
no subject
If I was allowed to just download AIM on this comp I would. Or any chat program.
no subject
Still waiting for pictures!!!
no subject
(Anonymous) 2005-07-10 11:39 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
That got a significant laugh out of me.
Congrats on telling your Mom.
no subject
no subject
Thankee.