yes I am back from phish and my feet are clean. Hippie dirt does come
off. I do, however, make these embarrassing squeaking sounds when I
walk around the office- casual attire on non filming days usually
doesn't make enough noise to have to cause me to take alternate
routes..... it does today with my hippie squeak.
It was a great show- and one I enjoyed sober. I made it back in time
enough to get 4 hours of sleep. There was lots of drama. Our ride that
was supposed to get me back for work fell though and DG and I had
to do some last minute running around to get to the city. We found
some poeple who were headed to Manhattan- these two really dorky and
really nice guys. So 40 years after woodstock you can still hickhike
home from a concert.
I needed some hippy action. I like my panic crowd better. but I just
like being reminded (especially sitting here at a desk in an office)
of real life (or even one extreme fraction of real life). Everyone is
so dirty and there for the music.
We drive up from a friends beach house in New Roselle, a caravan of 3
cars. I found a book in the car on the way up called Sugar Queen. It
was so good. It takes place in North Carolina mountains. And every
book Ive read about that region always has a little bit of magic a few
ghosts and some root or herbal remedies- its just how mountain people
are. And I love things that are only the tiniest bit of magic.
There was one character who had books just appear- everywhere- and the
type of book depended on where she was in her life or important
decisions she needed to make- like when the relationship goes wrong
she gets followed around (literally they appear next to her on the
counter, on the floor in the bathroom etc- and if she doesnt pick them
up they appear to her again) anyway- she gets followed by "finding
forgiveness" and then old love new life (or something like that) and
then when she buys a new house- the complete homeowners guide follows
her around (I LOVE THIS IDEA) anyway.
I finished the book just as we are pulling into the Saratoga
Performing Arts Center. We are driving (bumper to
bumper) through these tall trees- so self standing with a pine canopy
above. the trees are big- and I can feel that it is a north eastern
forest. (I was surprised by how rocky the soil seemed to be on our
drive up there). This place is beautiful... it is kind of a family
recreation summer center, with a maze of brick and columned buildings
that has a conference hall, a pool and brick walkways that go through
a maze of arches and benches etc. Everywhere is covered with
phishpans- music lovers, true phish phans, diehards who are over 60,
lots of family's and their kids many in the 8 and under age...
although walking back from shakedown street I saw a 12 year old hippie
boy walking in front of me on the path checking out/ doing a complete
turnaround doubletake of a hippie girl walking with her mom carrying
cookies for sale.
There are a few things that I love about concerts. One is the economy.
Some venues are better than others but the sheer basics of economics
rock in the microcosm that is The Lot. People can get around the
country and into shows selling nothing but grilled cheese before and
after the shows (I know- at jones beach I shredded lots of cheese for
Mikie D- a guy from colorado who quit his job for this phish summer
tour because hed felt empty while phish had been on their 7 year
hiatus from touring) You walk down shakedown street and can find
EVERYTHING for sale- tampons, ponchos, any kind of drug that you ever
could imagine, (also fake drugs and fake tickets) earrings, tshirts,
games you can play (like washers, this beanbag toss game) cups,
coozies, cigarettes, jewelry, beer, water, every baked good (funky and
nonfunky) and CLOTHES--- clothes hand made and sewn by hippies--
Yesterday, standing in the portapoty line on the pine needless, in the
shade of trees, I watched a these little kids play in the dirt while
their parents ran into some friends from their touring days almost a
decade ago. I chatted in the line with this girl who was selling her
skirts. They were super funky. Shed sewn all these crazy fabrics
together and the main focus was a printed piece of cloth featuring
trey playing guitar.
The economics of it all is a fine line. S- one of DGs friends
from long island who went to UVM and then Colorado and is the most
serious Adreliene junkie I have ever met-- seriously anything
dangerous he does- skydiving, serious rock climbing, base jumping, he
even has this float that was discontinued after 3 weeks because it
killed too many kids -when you pull this float behind the boat, it
flies. Yes flies. like 10-20 feet in the air. S is a master
lotsman.
First of all, any concert that I have been to- he knows the lot rats.
Not just hey man blah blah blah--- but like have been skydiving or to
school or road tripped or something real together. I guess it comes
with the territory when those are your schools.... after SMU- you
throw me in to any country club in America and I bet I either know
someone there or can figure out some connection- but after runs in
Bolder and Vermont- you get thrown in to any major shakedown street in
the world and thats where you know the people. (S by the way is
super interesting- he trades with his family company to finance a
crazy lifestyle- traveling all over the world for these super extreme
adventures--- he hates the city but loves his life plan--- currently
raising money for his next roadtrip skydive etc project with some of
his sponsors where he spends 6 months on the road and they do internet
tv etc of his stuff). Real mover and shaker on the lot.
Phish people are different than Panic people. Panic people are my
tribe. Festivals are always the most interesting because of the
smorgasboard of music lovers and unpredictability of people melding to
music. The phish crowd hasn't changed.
My first introduction to the phish people was in boarding school. They
were mostly the FOCUS leaders (collage kids who spent their summers in
Martha's vineyard at focus camps, or were from the north and came down
south for college). Focus is the christian group for boarding schools
that ironically arranged for overnight events with boys schools in the
woods.
I was struck by the female phish phans intensity. In this fan base it
is expected for all women to be just as informed about EVERYTHING as
the men. The ladies (and this is across the board- age of the fan and
the time period when followed phish) are more often than not Bigger
Fans than the guys they are with. While Panic is mostly a gathering of
familys and coed crowds. It is common for girls to go on tour with
thier own pack of girls.
Now this is a generalization--- of female phish fans outside of phish
shows- they are usually pale and freckled, outdorsey but not lesbians-
lots of fleece wearing on the weekends- a quieter breed than panics
taned drunk southerners.
Now people at shows (especially hard to reach worknight shows like
last nights) there are only the diehards and the hippies. There is a
punkier, rocker harder culture to northern boys that is just not
culturally pervasive in the South.
But what there is at all the shows is the music. For me. I like to
dance. I mean really dance with the music. I pride myself on knowing
when they are going to change tempo and being able to carry the sound
through my body. seriously. This is actually what I am thinking about
when I am at these concerts. That by dancing I am doing my part to
participate.
It can be very odd. The behavior of the crowd. It gets funky. You look
over the crowd and see THOUSANDS of moving, slithering, shaking,
beating bodies and arms. The closest thing I can say to describe it is
when you are scuba diving and looking closely at all that coal that is
constantly moving. Moving both with the ebb and flow of the water, as
a group, and also in that same movement, moving by it self.
The light shows are also a work of art. Phish plays less like panic
where they lead you in with a jam and then you rock out, and more like
a symphony that you go see live. You sit there sometimes just
watching. You dance and are super happy. You listen to them make all
these weird scary noises and take you to somewhere super dark. The
same way that I think I am dancing with the tempo, the lighting man
really is dancing with them- visually- with the lights.
While sober, you are transported to this eerie dream aquarium (one
could say). As the music changes to channel or tell you something else
the lights make it even more real. They use sights and sounds to
transform a place into an illusion of something that it is not.
My real favorite thing is DG. And I will be still just watching the
music and know he is still beside me and then Ill get int to the music
and totally start dancing and then look over and he is right there
with me dancing... it is so nice. It is really hard to find some one who dances on beat with me.
SO there is so much more to tell.... you prolly all know this
yourselves. but I am at work in Manhattan now after hitchiking after a
serious hippie show (oh yeah i forgot to tell you the specifics. While
I did have a ride home, we showed up with no tickets, and it started
raining right when we walked into the venue. I mean getting really
rained on with thousands of other people in a forest. I lost my ride
home... found my ride home and made it there. DG skipped the post
phish festival that is going on up there... it started after the
concert with some crazy field festival that went till dawn and then
starts again this afternoon and ends tonight. I am happily typing away
at work though because, Like they say, you cant do it all.
And I have my flipflops squeeks to remind me that just a few hours ago
I was somewhere very different.
CONCLUSION- I think that if one is not suited to office life and works
in the 9 to 5- it makes me like to juxtapose office life to everything
else.
