Sunday, May 03, 2009

Dark Skies Fire Arts Festival


Space Pirate Greeting
The gate was down a dirt road deep into the old growth Joshua tree forest of Mojave Drums. We were greeted there, next to the Porno Pyro Pirate Dome. Got a slap on the butt, a map and a blue black Dark Skies 2009 sticker. Took a swig of spicy dark rum and became a space pirate! The Pirate Queen found us a spot. It overlooked much of the city, being near the top of the road from the Dome to Party Naked. Paths lead quickly down to the DJ Stage and to Eros Queer Camp.

Sky Wind and Temperature
It was the first weekend after the April new moon. The nights were moonless and cloudless. The Milky Way shimmered. The widest part has the shape of cumulus clouds and swells as the night darkens. Friday the wind gusted; Saturday it was calm. All three Icons burned simultaneously Saturday night. The disassembled pallet pagoda burned pre-dawn Sunday. It was calm from the time the icons were lit though the time the last pallet had been reduced to embers. Slight breezes did blow the sparks away at an angle. The roman candles went straight up. Friday it was cool in the day and chilly at night. Even naturalists wore tops. A poncho or hoodie under a pirate costume or fur playa coat helped battle the cold. So did fire: burn barrels, burning icons and bonfires.

Theme Camps
The theme camps let us get back the love. They were all really good at what they did and had done it many times before. Party Naked had green drinks in a misty radiant punch bowl. The Dome had porn from the silent film era. Eros Queer broadcast high ethereal music interspersed with public service announcements such as "Life Sucks. If you're happy your probably stupid." Playful Adventures had their front door open as well as an opening in the back though which you could peak. Food camp had what would have been an abundance of food even if twice as many people had shown up. They had ribs and seafood and salad and fruit. Journeys had Sno-Cones and a ATV which tooled around letting everybody know about them. Pancake camp had Black Dark Skies 2009 Frisbees. Vegas Lounge had a drum circle.

Drum Circle
Vegas Lounge is a Dome. It was skinned with pure blue cloth as vivid as the Arizona sky above. The beating of drums drew us in. Through the opening we saw a Ganesha tapestry. Beach welcomed us. Inside there was another Ganesha and watermelon. There were several drummers. One of them added some energy and the others picked up on it. Later one of the drummers told of how a well loved drum likes abuse, and another of how music came to him. He could spontaneously lay in his own beats on top of other music and make it work.

The Show
Malicious, the MC, kicked off the show and introduced a panel of judges -- Admiral PainJoy, Viagra (it was his birthday), Lady Frog, Pirate Queen, and Ribbons. First was the mans tightey whitey contest. The Admiral was replaced on the panel by Pirate Ron so that he could compete. As the judges deliberated, Malicious passed the microphone. We learned the three reasons to tattoo $100 on your cock. Next, the womans wet t-shirt contest. The hula hoop act may have been outdone by the erotic water dousing. The judges deliberated and the microphone passed. What do gay reindeer do for fun? They go to the Elks Lodge and blow a few bucks. Next the hot legs dance event. Mystery and Marcos were in it. During the deliberations the sausage joke was told. It is too long to tell it now, but next year it might be retold and be even dirtier. Lastly, there was the banana event which involved seducing and blowing a banana and lots of whipped cream. A team won an the prize was split.

Pirate Games
There was horseshoes and there was Treasure Hunt Extreme! Treasure Hunt Extreme! began with a Scavenger Hunt. Items included a kite, personal objects and sex toys which were worth more if presented on a person. The main part of the game was a search for buried treasure worth more than any of the scavenger items. Journey S. 60 paces, no further. Turn N. From the tree behind your left shoulder, 5 paces W; 8 N; 3E 10S 4W and dig. Drunken pirates wandered the place, shovels in hand. When Calico encountered a pirate with a shovel he would hint that the treasure was under the Creeper, the central icon. One team dug up a box containing the map to the treasure, but they thought it was the treasure itself and didn't open it. Another found an X, but it was a fake X. Other teams collaborated enough to find the treasure spot, but they didn't dig deep enough to get it. Too much time was lost and the game ending without any points being awarded for the treasure. Later that night DNA displayed the treasure, the cock of Davy Jones and awarded prizes. This was before the Truth or Dare game.

Burn Barrels
Fire in Dark Skies burn barrels has a lot of character. Holes punched through the barrels make up patterns and symbols. The ones in the top of the windward side of the barrel by Party Naked formed the words DARK SKIES, illuminated in orange against the dark of night. When the wind picked up flames flickered through the holes. Due to the smoke this was also the only side where no one stood and everyone could see it. The air just inside the barrel was very hot. People put a hand or other part in there to warm it up. There were no major burns, and people were proud of the minor ones, showing them off the next day. People turned and stretched and, all warmed up, went back to the bar. Two people who had just set up their camp long after dark Friday ran up to a burn barrel looking for the party. There was only a solitary person there who offered them some wine. One of them took the wine, drank it, asked what kind it was a slowly said, "Isn't it strange that you have to drive out all this way and down a dirt road to get good wine," mellowing his energy to match the person who was there. He had the most polite manner.

Costumes
People meet and then they meet again in different clothes, or in a different way and don't remember the first time for a while. That's why so often two people turn out to really be the same person. Some wear and change personalities like costumes. One can both hide and stand out in costume. Many decorative light costumes can be turned on and off, that means they have perfect extrovert and introvert settings. The Arizona people who were there didn't wear costumes so much. Yet, attire or personal objects that provide warmth or joy, such as coats or hats or pipes can be even more festive than a costume. A dancer moved in front of the DJ Stage in basketball sneakers. Friends looked on from the hay bales in green high tops and black striped low shoes. A good costume has a history. It is liked by its owner and worn again to another event. The best have been ripped and repaired, molested and mended, recognized and wondered about. Whose is it? Where will it be seen again? Does it burn?

Sights and Smells
All around the city the desert was in bloom. There were tiny flowers of all colors and also bigger flowers. Even the cactus and chaparral were flowering. Some campers carrying burning sage and sweet grass, walked fast, almost jogged, about the perimeter bring smell of shaman with them. The higher parts had a view of Meadview. Pallet Man drove around in his yacht car that shot propane flames out of tubes mounted in back. To the east is a butte that is part of the very Western Grand Canyon. The butte shades Mojave Drums at dawn, so it becomes light long before the orb of the sun makes it into the visible sky. And, at sunset the butte shows Grand Canyon sunset colors, violet and magenta. There is there, a small ancient building, Turquoise House, made out of rock. It was part of the Pony Express Route. There was an Alien Pirate head on a stick near the Burn Artist Camp.

Icons
Nightmare Nevada, Gurrwolf and Junior created the Harvesters. They are three Icons each about twice the size of a man: the Creeper, the Reaper and the Collector. They are icons, not effigies as they are worshiped and they are not of people. They seemed too good to burn. They arrived in a truck Friday night and were positioned in the Burn Bowl by Saturday. The Creeper was in the middle directly in front of the Pagoda Arch. He had deep set eyes of white within red within black. Also, fangs and triangle and square teeth, and an elongated arm stretched out way in front of him all the way to the ground. The Reaper, to the Creepers right held a scythe on a long pole that extended far above his head. The Collector, to the the Creepers left held a sickle and had pumpkin like head with a green stem growing out of it. The papier-mache in the work was glazed in places so that parts of the sculptures looked to be metal. The icons were dressed in black corduroy shirts and green burlap scarves and hoods. They had elbows and knees and even joints in their fingers and toes all bent in a balanced way They cast longer and longer shadows as they day wore on.

It may have been about 10 or 11 pm when they burned. The paper and paint flashed and the cloth went up in flame leaving burning wood skeletons. Their skeletons were wood. As Mustang described it was built bone by bone. Wooden hip bone to wooden leg bone to wooden spine and ribs. This made their skeletons more in common with humans than their outsides, and they did look more human when burning for a while, but still monstrous. The Reaper's scythe collapsed in the inferno, landing on the Creeper and bringing it down. The Collector's rib cage and mask glowed orange. His head fell off and rolled in front of us. Gurrwolf reached for the head, picked it up by a stick sticking out of it and held it aloft triumphantly as it continued to burn. One could still make out parts of the Harvesters hands and heads after an hour. There was some metal in the Icons -- a crosshatched iron grate and chicken wire, picked up afterward for use at another burn.

Stages
The Live Stage had jam bands, lights and a mixing board. The musicians played and the fire spinners spun. The saxophonist was very gifted. Erica painted two hula hooping skeletons live on the screen she used to perform her shadow dancing show. The DJ Stage was slick with lights and sound emitting from the back of a trailer.

Bonfires
The Pagoda Arch was the source of the bonfires. It was built by Pallet Man. It was 16' high and 20' wide. It was 65 pallets in the making. It looked like Stone Henge. At first it seemed as if the Pagoda would not be burned. Sometime after the Icons had burned, it still being calm, it was decided that it would be safe to burn it after taking it apart. We made seven piles of pallets stacked 1-3 high. One was started with gasoline, another by diesel, others by burning wood. We rode a bicycle around the bonfires while they were burring. The heat from the fires was so intense one couldn't walk the tracks left by the bike tires. It was a fabulous fire festival.

Goodbyes
Sunday over coffee there were stories of sublime beauty -- Amazing Grace sung at BRC and of officious interference -- fee demands by the BLM. Boris gifted posters of his stylized paisley space pirate. The being is a space alien given the head is larger than a human's and a pirate as it has about it a parrot and an eye patch. A white DS formed from painted rocks sits above Dolan Springs between Mojave Drums and highway 93. DS for DARK SKIES to welcome big happiness -- pirates from space -- to the broader Mojave and default world.
Some pictures are at: DigitalConsciousness.com/galleries/Calico/

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