A Veritable Slice Verging on Surrealism
Ether Vying
on my birthday. At the last possible minute, I decided that a small get
together with just my closest, most beloved (in town) friends was what I
wanted. It was the perfect excuse for luring their bizzy butts to the
garden ... on a Saturday afternoon, no less. My girlfriend B made all
the arrangements and the calls ... and miraculously, most of the friends
could make it to both the Dessert First Garden Party and the Chinese
restaurant feast to follow.
We had tasteful music playing at low volume on small, but decent,
wireless speakers, and the ambiance was airy and relaxed in the garden
... with Monarch butterflies gliding and nectaring on the slope, and
the hammocks swaying invitingly in the warm, gentle breeze ... a
peaceful and pleasant summer pastoral ... till the unexpected delivered
a heaping helping of incredulity to the party.
An insipid lounge lizard act suddenly dominated the soundscape, playing
loud and live from the neighbours at the bottom of the garden. The
syrupy singer served up a schmaltzy repetoire of hand picked moldy
oldies ... I Can't Help Falling In Love With You, Love Me Tender, It's
Now or Never etc. ... ad nauseum.
Ironic that my first birthday excuse for a party in 5 years was being
subjected to the unstoppable barrage of the übermusic of someone else's
life* ... it verged on surrealistic ... more than one of us came up
with 'Felliniesque' to describe the feeling.
By the time the lounge lizards got around to Delilah, we were getting
shell shlocked ... and giddy with laughter. Some of us started heckling
the band ... but their party was far enough away that they couldn't
hear us ... so what was the point?
Coincidentally, when the übermusic stopped for their sitdown dinner, an
irritating birthday candle played a tinny version of the traditional
tune atop the cake on our picnic table ... signaling open season on the
desserts. A slice of creamy, nutty Caramel Crunch meringue cake with a
thin slab of Solid Sangria fruit terrine turned out to be the perfect
combo.
Because we were all going to be late for the restaurant reservation, the
most innocuously persuasive man among us went ahead to claim the table
for 12, so that it couldn't be given away to the hordes of lined up
Chinese foodeating wannabes.
The table for 12 could have accommodated 6 comfortably. The restaurant
was packed with extra tables and chairs added for the weekend, full to
overflowing with customers, and the wait staff had trouble negotiating
enough space to bring food to the tables and put it down.
Soon after we'd ordered, a waitress came toward us with a platter of
food held high above her head. But instead of delivering it, she stopped
a few feet away and stood there holding the heaping helping aloft. We
watched her as she gazed intently toward the kitchen, then waved the
platter back and forth over her head a few times. When she finally got
a visual cue from the kitchen, she turned away from us to deliver the
dish to another table, took two steps, caught her left foot on a chair
leg, and crashed ... hurling hot food chunks all over the floor, as well
as several nearby tables and patrons.
But the Felliniesque fillum wasn't over yet! There was still act 3 to
go.
One of our party had just had flashy pink rhinestone braces put on her
teeth. Cute, but they hurt like hell and she couldn't chew, so she
ordered some soups. They arrived at the same time as the appetizers ...
a few of which had peanut halves on them. The baby in our midst had a
peanut allergy and the mom made it known, in no uncertain terms, that
the peanuts on the other side of the table made her uncomfortable. I
wondered if she suspected they'd jump off the platters and down her
child's throat from across the table for 12.
Shortly thereafter, in the 2 seconds that no one was supervising, the
allergic toddler shoved a spoonful of his mother's boiling hot
(peanutfree) soup into his mouth and, understandably, began to scream.
The threatening peanuts, painful braces, and shrieking offspring were
more than enough for her ... so she wrote herself and her child out of
the scene and exited stage left.
It was unfortunate, but we didn't let it spoil our fun. The 10 of us ate
and laughed for 12, and amused, entertained and enjoyed one another till
the teapots ran dry for the third time. None of the food attacked,
scalded, or harmed us in any way ... and no one else crashed that night.
I figure Fellini must have left the building by then ...
Ether Vying
* Later found out that the überevent was the neighbours' 30th Wedding
Anniversary, complete with a renewal of vows in the church and reception
with dinner, dancing and a live band in the backyard.
slider
Ether Vying wrote
The 10 of us ate and laughed for 12, and amused, entertained and
enjoyed one another till the teapots ran dry for the third time. None
of the food attacked, scalded, or harmed us in any way ... and no
one else crashed that night.
I figure Fellini must have left the building by then ...
### - sounds like everyone (and everything;) conspired to present you
with a most 'memorable' birthday party EV... a good cross-section of
life... a day in the life etc... a souvenir and a 'keep-sake' from
good 'ole planet earth that's even worthy of continual
contemplation... (jus' loved the story of the vacillating + telepathic
waitress for example hehe;)
(warming to the mood, slider starts-in on the karaoke machine... "life
is a cabaret 'ole chum... come to the cabaret" - but mercifully
someone quickly grabs the amplifier and lobs it straight out the
nearest window - and that kinda' puts-paid to that hehe:)
rainbowbird
>
> I figure Fellini must have left the building by then ...
Right he came to visit me :)
First I had to fight with my butterfly-wings, drooling like dog-ears
over my shoulder. So in the last minute I found a solution.
I glued a couple of woodframes up to the front. Not that I had the
design in my mind, but hey, so is life.But the wings winged!
Then I packed.
Of course the shop who sold the gascartouche I needed to make tea
camping, where out of it, so I had to go back a second time late in the
afternoon.
It always beats me how a person can pack so much stuff.
It took me hours to get it all together, but finally I had all needed.
Djembes, drums, feathers, smudge, campinggear...
We could leave at 9 o'clock that evening for Ruigoord.
As we drove out of the street, the car decided to go quiet every time we
had to slow down, so M kind of got a funny drivestyle, one hand on the
wheel the other at the key. And somehow we got there, nearly that is.
We had a road-description in which the last road was the opposite
direction of the direction we should have going, and try find the right
road in the dark in the middle of nowhere.
Needless to say that we had a strange tour around the haven and the
whole industrial area. Finally we could ask a nightwatch for right
directions and we arrived after 2 hours we had left. A good score if you
think that it is a 15 minute drive.We are definitely master of getting
lost. We can get lost everywhere and on any occasion.
Never expect us to be on time for anything.
After we had passed all the guards of the festivalterrein, who didn't
know that we where on the guestlist and needed to be convinced by
talking, we got to the campground. I mobiled my friend who waited for us
since the afternoon and she came to help us to put our tent up.
The campground had turned into a temporary tribal village. Campfires
everywhere.Groups gathering.
Still where we had to built the tent, it was dark. Pitch-dark.
There was another slight problem, I had bought the tent two years ago
and had never used it since. It still was brand-new in the bag.
I also had forgotten how big it was.
M studied the set-up description with a flashlight.
It just took four bows to built, but we managed to mix them up in a way,
that we had to rebuilt twice to get the right shape. Finally the tent
stood and we went to the festival terrain.
The landscape was great. Imagine something like a Mad-Max -village built
by artists. All warmed with huge campfires everywhere.
Plenty of tipies, mongolian tents, a solarcell driven movie with a
great coffeebar. Now late at night, spectators had to produce energy on
bikes, but no problem, we had enough sportive visitors.
In the middle of it the Landjuwel, where people could buy what Amsterdam
is famous for.Mysteriously lit it transported you into another dimension
without having the famous smoke.
Next to it a library and a barbie-fairygarden, as well as a place where
alien had a landing.
Everywhere statues that looked like coming from the Eastern-Islands,
surrounded by huge mobiles.
I felt totally at home,it was like Shantytown.
We changed our money to Ruigos and had some food at The Dead Cow Bar and
went to the main-podium to listen to the music.
In the tent a little further people danced to rave.
At two o'clock my friend wanted to sleep and left for her tent on the
other side of the area.
We went to look for our tent, which wasn't easy to find and got our
drums to celebrate the full moon at the main campfire.
Other drummer came too. However the musicians on the main-podium where
having a ball and didn't want to stop, so one guy got us to find
another place.
Slowly the energy got running and soon we have been with 10 drummers
and some dijeridoo-players of several nations having a good time.
At 4 o'clock we where asked to go back to main-fire and here we joined
with the drummers that had waited for the band to stop.
With 40/50 drummers now it really hit off.
To dance in the inner circle was like being in a sweatlodge and
people who danced here where hitting deep trance immediately.
At half six I had to get M out of there, we went back.
The drumming went on for several more hours.
Next day the 3 other friends arrived, brought food and we shared tea
and coffee with two cups.
We got the location for our performance.
I hoped for the best.
The afternoon we where supposed to hold a workshop,
but as Fellini wanted, before us there where two woman who gave
a workshop intuitive wrestling.
As we arrived on time, one had fallen so severely on her head, that she
didn't know anymore where she was. She definitely has shifted her
assemblage point.
It gave a huge commotion and when it was all over, all we could do
where smudging the tent and drum a bit.
Well drum a bit... the drums of the girls went down because of humidity
in the air.
So I was the only one left to do the drumming.
It was nice as some people came for meditation, others came and played
flute and we had a guy that did some overtone-singing.
Outside it had started to rain.
We hoped that it would calm down later, but it didn't.
So we canceled our performance in the open air, I said good-bye to my
wings and went for some food
in the big wooden shag. Despite the rain everybody had still a good
spirit and praised the food.
Great tortillas and a hot soup. I even got some news about an old friend
who emigrated to Polen to start a biological farm and of whom I had lost
sight. He was doing well.That was good to hear.
I also heard that the wrestling woman was ok. She got back after an hour.
In the meantime I told friends on the mobile to stay home.
Later we waited in the tent for the weather to calm down,hoping for
better time to come.
While we did that, we discovered during a strong windblow that we hadn't
all tent hooks used.
Our tent blew half away and everything , everything got wet and the
place that was dry a minute ago, looked like a lake.It is amazing how
much water can pour from heaven in just a few minutes.
Why don't we can it and ship it to the deserts. They have pipelines for
oil, why not for water?
We packed our wet stuff in our car, and seeing that other cars where
drawn out with machines, we had low hopes to get out safe in the dark.
The place had turned into swamp.I was wet despite my army-pocho.
But we did and we had no accident either on the way home.
At home by midnight the rain stopped and we where feeling sorry for
ourselves for a couple of hours. And right we where. One friend had
stayed and had another wonderful night dancing and she told how the
drummers played another night on the island around the main-fire.
In the middle of many little pools of water.
It was then that Fellini left the building.
RBB
Now the week before we had a heatgolve but as the weekend came,
rainbowbird
>
> It was unfortunate, but we didn't let it spoil our fun. The 10 of us ate
> and laughed for 12, and amused, entertained and enjoyed one another till
> the teapots ran dry for the third time. None of the food attacked,
> scalded, or harmed us in any way ... and no one else crashed that night.
>
> I figure Fellini must have left the building by then ...
Right he came to visit me [:)]
Ether Vying
> Ether Vying wrote
> The 10 of us ate and laughed for 12, and amused, entertained and
> enjoyed one another till the teapots ran dry for the third time. None
> of the food attacked, scalded, or harmed us in any way ... and no
> one else crashed that night.
>
> I figure Fellini must have left the building by then ...
>
> ### - sounds like everyone (and everything;) conspired to present you
> with a most 'memorable' birthday party EV... a good cross-section of
> life... a day in the life etc... a souvenir and a 'keep-sake' from
> good 'ole planet earth that's even worthy of continual
> contemplation...
Writing it has provided about as much contemplation as it's likely to
get, though it'll provide laugh fodder for years to come. Just goes to
show you that you can't control the outcome, but can roll with the
punches and enjoy the ride.
> (jus' loved the story of the vacillating + telepathic
> waitress for example hehe;)
Coincidence run rampant ... through this lens. Wonder what the other
aperatures focused on.
>
> (warming to the mood, slider starts-in on the karaoke machine... "life
> is a cabaret 'ole chum... come to the cabaret" - but mercifully
> someone quickly grabs the amplifier and lobs it straight out the
> nearest window - and that kinda' puts-paid to that hehe:)
Inspired by Slider, EV's neighbour pulls out his accoustic guitar and
sings House of The Rising Sun with more voluble gusto than talent. (Yeah,
he does that too. )
EV
Ether Vying
Ahahahaha! I guess the universe was laughing its ass off all weekend long.
Good thing you're a such a saint. You managed to spread your wings and fly
even without them strapped to your back. Resistance is futile. :-)
>
>
> Now the week before we had a heatgolve but as the weekend came,
So it was cold and miserable too, huh? Sigh ... that damned universe ... ;-)
EV