Solstice 2012

This year’s theme …Solstice Gone Wild

Solstice 2011

Solstice festival

I roll outta’ bed way too late ..search my cabinets for breakfast supplies ..plan the day over yogurt and coffee ..and get interrupted by a phone call from the parade route where Jim is hollering “where the fuck are you ..?” I say I’ll catch up with him ..but I may have to blow off the parade and go directly to the park, where the festival is taking place. It’s like walking into a bazaar. I pass tents selling Indian tapestries, halter-tops, hand-made jewelry and black T-shirts with white skulls and iron crosses. I stop inside a tent carrying supplies for the mediation hall and listen to a guy make this cool humming sound by running a puja stick around the outside of a bronze bowl. I run into Jim sitting with a group of people from NORML ..and go “Heyyy, there’s some normal people here.” One guy is telling a story about how he and his buds used to crash on John Wayne’s boat while it sat vacant in the harbor ..another guy asks me if I’m with the band and I go “what ..?” The girl sitting next to me says she likes the Eagles ..and another guy is trying to remember the name of the singer who does “..I’m bad to the bone.” I blurt out “George Thorogood” ..then turn to the girl and ask her how she knows music from a band that broke up way before she was born (I ask stupid questions like that). “I just love the song Desperado” she beams, and I go “..guess rock ‘n roll will never die” and somebody shouts “I know that one .. Neil Young.” Then someone else goes “No ..you’re thinking of rust will never die” and I go “sleeps..” and he goes “What ..?” and I say “..rust never sleeps” and he says “that doesn’t make sense” and I tell him that I stopped making sense a long time ago ..and start drifting off in the direction of the sound coming from the drum circle, where I will dance to the beat until I stop caring whether or not I make any sense.

Solstice

I drag my tired ass outta bed ~ pop a couple vitamin C and chase them with coffee ~ reminding myself that this is not the best way to absorb them ~ I trudge down to the parade route ~ planning to catch the tail end and follow it to the festival at the park ~ a plop my ass down on the curb and watch the parade pass ~ I see Arabian belly dancers ~ King Neptune and his mermaids ~ Egyptian pharaohs ~ contortionists ~ acrobats ~ Swedish campers wearing only backpacks and hiking boots ~ Ojai girl riding a bike ~ wearing only pasties ~ children chasing bubbles blowing out the back of a float ~ and it dawns on me ~ this isn’t the tail-end ~ it’s somewhere near the middle ~ which suits me fine ~ I haven’t been keeping track of time ~ particles of shimmering colors rain down from the sky ~ and I’m mesmerized. After the grand finale I duck into Starbucks ~ it’s like 100° out ~ and the humidity is like 100% too ~ so, I figure I’ll sit here and conserve energy (and fluid). When I arrive at the park I see a swirling mass of multi-colored humanity ~ I plunge in and collapse under a tree ~ the drummers are drumming but there’s no one dancing ~ I sit up and see everyone passed out ~ I’m drenched in sweat ~ which mixes with sunscreen ~ and goes into my eyes ~ burning like hell ~ I flush them with bottled water ~ do some deep breathing exercises ~ feel hot air burning my lungs ~ and still see no one dancing ~ someone passes me some herb ~ which makes my lungs burn even more ~ sweat and sunscreen continue to fall into my eyes ~ I’m parched and blind but too stoned to get up and look for water ~ or anything else that may refresh ~ Laura is going to meet me here but I’m wondering how long I’m gonna last ~ when a beer vendor drops off several bags of ice in front of me.

Solstice festival

I’m having smoothie and coffee for breakfast ..loud music is coming through my window ..I look out and see Anastasia hosing her deck ..I howl at the daylight ..and her dog howls back. Now I’m walking mindfully along Anapamu street ..reaching upper State street at about the place where the parade goes around the bend to Alameda park. There’s a sea of humanity. I hear the sound of drums ahead ..I enter the park from Sola street ..pass by the vendor tents ..there's Rastafarian ..Indian tapestry halter tops ..and tons of jewelry shops. I get a solstice button that looks like an exploding supernova ..which is the theme of this year’s event ..which is subject to every variation of interpretation ..for me ‘everyone’s a star’ works best. Now I’m sitting in the square by the gazebo ..eating watermelon someone handed me for free. Eventually I hook up with Carol and Skylar ..they’re eating nachos and drinking iced tea. Now I’m dancing in the drum circle ..feeling self-conscious ..but there’s no reason ..just revelry. I begin to relax ..my legs loosen ..my hips unwind ..and I’m moving in rhythm. Everyone is smiling ..my jaw slackens ..and I’m grinning like a fool. There’s belly dancers ..Polynesian dancers ..Sufis ..twirling dervishes ..and gypsies. I’m not like any of these though ..more like a refuge from the sixties. I lean over and shout that twenty years of Grateful Dead concerts are paying off. Now the sound of a flute weaves in and out ..and I hear laughter ..colors swirl around me like taffy ..I move fast ..I move slow..I take a water break ..Injun Joe offers me some grass ..I pass it along ..someone hands me a tambourine ..I hand it to someone else ..don’t want any encumbrances ..not another thing to make me feel self-conscious again. I’m swaying through the afternoon this way ..endorphins kicking in and feeling no pain ..I break for dinner ..BBQ tri tip ..elote (corn on the cob) and lemonade ..I’m walking more fluidly now ..feeling grounded but untethered (?) Now I’m resting under the Norton tree and chatting with a girl named Noella ..who she says she gets the strangest comments from the guys leaving the beer tent ..things like ‘take me to your kasbah’ ..or ‘lets f**k’. Her feet are bare and so is her midriff ..but it's no excuse for their behaviour. She says something about her friend from Jamaica that I didn't quite get ..so I just say ja mon ..and tell her I’ve never been there ..I say goodbye to everyone and walk home after sunset.

Solstice Celebration

I guess if I had to choose .. my favorite part of the parade was the Viking ship. It looked like a dragon ..and there were ‘Vikings’ dancing around it to the beat of Congo drums. It's not just a parade ..it’s like a moving theater ..because they were frequently attacked by hordes of ‘barbarians’ ..armed with big rubber mallots and swinging balls ..who called themselves the ‘corporate raiders’. Everything else was relatively peaceful. There were costumed gymnasts doing back flips ..traveling minstrels ..inline skaters doing trick stuff ..elves and fairies either passing out flowers ..squirting water or throwing confetti eggs ..that sort of thing. No nudity this year. Not that I’m a perv ..I just see it as another sign of growing intolerance. Later on Brian asked whether or not I saw the giant jelly fish squirting purple fluid ..I’m afraid I missed that ..but I could see the purple stains all over his shirt. Smelled like Burgundy. When we got to the festival in the park, there were people, music, funny looking costumes ..and just about anything else you can imagine ..coming at me from every direction. I particularly like the scent of patchouli oil. I went to a booth and tanked up on lemonade. I wanted to be ready. My favorite part of the festival is dancing to the circle of drummers ..I guess that’s because, for me ..it’s the closest thing to an outdoor rock concert. There were belly dancers wearing earth tone chiffon ..‘ocean’ girls, from the parade, painted aqua blue ..and tons of tie dye. The lead drummer looked like he commanded some kinda' respect ..with a big, tall conical hat ..long grey hair ..violet color spectacles ..big ivory beads ..and African shorts. Anne came wearing a long red-and-silver skirt, pink tee and a dark blue sequin vest .. how festive! She also brought her own tambourine ..so I guess you could say she was ‘with the band’. I swear my body has it’s own memory for old rock shows ..as well as a few recent aerobic classes ..because, after awhile ..I don’t have to think much about what I’m doing.

Summertime

Summertime ..to me that means boogie boarding at eucalyptus beach ..taking Pacific Coast Highway to Big Sur ..and, this year ..visiting my family in Germany – 5 sisters and a brother. Means that pretty soon we’ll be sitting in beer gardens ..walking past orchards loaded with apples and pears, too small and bitter to eat ..but just right for the schnapps we drink. We’ll drive through the hops and vineyards around lake Bodensee ..take a ferry to the city of Konstanz, which is a town so old it feels medieval. We’ll also hike up Mount Pfänder (pronounced ‘fender’) ..and take the ‘tele-freak’ (cable car) back down.

Solstice

Ahhh, craziness ..the summer solstice parade ..a day-long festival ..and a procession of humanity coming from every direction. It's put on by local artists ..not civic organizations ..so there’s no marching bands ..nothing traditional. It's a celebration of life. How pagan. How fun. This year's theme was ‘wild things’ ..which could mean anything ..and usually does ..because anybody can participate in any way they want. For instance, my neighbor walks up the street playing a trumpet ..one of my friends was one of the belly dancers ...a former coworker and his wife used to dress up like scuba divers and pull their kids up the street in wagons with water guns ..until their children grew up and thought it was silly. I buy tons of confetti eggs and hand them out to kids ..tell them it's ok to throw at their parents. For me, the best part is the 'circle of drummers' at the park ..they play a continuous African-tribal beat ..on drums from every part of the world. I join the circle of people surrounding them ..and dance to the rhythm ..until I move past self-consciousness ..and activate a part of me that moves effortlessly. Kind of like at a rock festival.