American Apocalypse in Seattle
Saturday night, Nov. 8, swarms of interesting people of all ages (over 21), styles and costumery descended upon Magnuson Park in Seattle for an annual event that mirrors the playa of Burning Man. The idea is to allow those of us who could not attend the real event in the desert to have a similar experience. There were double decker buses inside and outside - and you could go in them and on top of them and hang out for a while and chill. There were converted school buses on which to draw or leave written sentiments that suited the occasion such as “Love is The Answer” and other profound statements. I enjoyed a simple tea ceremony, had my fortune told by psychics who lovingly told me that I was creative. Who knew? The psychics, of course. Then there was the hippie dippie body painters who were using paint and markers. Markers. I declined the body paint and just watched. It was quite fascinating to watch the intricate designs they came up with. Then there were tasty pancakes being shilled by a woman with a scarf barely covering her lower half and body paint and a huge smile that worked for the top half. For our entertainment there were films about the past several Burning Man events, complete with popcorn and soundtracks from “out there in the universe” according to the man sitting next to me.There were jugglers who were not really all that good as jugglers but they had heart. There were drummers who got the crowd dancing and revved up for the fire dancers. The fire dancers included a redheaded man with a bone in his nose no less, and on stilts wearing a fiery helmet. They even had burning sabre fight dances as well. Those fire dancers were very belly-dancerish. (Now that’s not a word but if people say it, then it counts). And, for a change of pace, there was couch surfing and I was really excellent at participating in that event. Yeah. One man doing scientific “experiments” with dry ice and flowers and had two girls sitting at his feet in adoration. I’m not really sure what that was all about, but Burning Man is all about discovery. Self-discovery and wonderment and being open to the moment. It is a very spiritual event. Seattle’s version became more and more spiritual as the evening wore on. And alcohol made that even more the case, at least it did for me.A couple of my favorites were the ginormous Twister-like game going on right next to the kissing/spanking booth which was changing back and forth depending on who was walking by or the mood that struck the Ploop group at the moment. They were right next to the men who were tying up women and keeping them in “suspense” by strange hanging devices and swinging them back and forth and then very sexily holding them whilst untying them. Very spiritual indeed. The men were rising to the occasion and the ladies were playing along very submissively.The Seattle Apocalypse included having two different DJs in two back-to-back dance floors with extremely similar music where the crowds were digging the beats and getting their collective groove on. Incredible that each room’s dancers were distinctly different.I was entertained by the crowd itself. The collection of interesting folk gathering to simulate the unsimulateable was of endless amusement and wonder. There were little vignettes of special little places to quietly chat and get away from the crowd if you wanted to do that. On a personal note, I felt terribly under-dressed. My cat eyes and tie-dyed shirt just weren’t quite the caliber of costume there was to be seen. Outside there was the infamous Taco Truck for the revelers to eat something other than pancakes or shots or just popcorn I guess. But the big thing was the fire - Dave Otter and nine others built a “Burning Man” of sorts - it is a chimera that’s about 10 feet tall and swirls upward with designs cut into the side of the metal so when it’s burning the designs glow. Awesome and pretty damn hot. Literally. Unfortunately I had to leave before the band took to the stage but overall I’d say it was a tremendous success. Now go forth and remember to dream, think with wild abandon and be accepting of one another no matter how different. Now that Obama is President-Elect, perhaps we can all also breathe a sigh of relief, too. Amen and Amen.
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