Shambhala and Goodbye to Calgary

We just rolled in last night, after going to Sham and spending almost a week in Calgary. Sham was great, it was fun to be there with Hitoshi for his first time. We arrived Wednesday late afternoon, and waited in line almost 5 hours. It wasn't bad, Hitoshi worked on our Clockwork Orange costumes and we watched movies. The only bad part of the line was how so many people were drinking and throwing their cans on the side of the road. I started picking them up and putting them on the roof of my car, and by the time we got in my roof was covered. They seemed pretty happy that I had done it though, so we didn't get searched which was nice. The ticket scanner did break down when we were 6 cars from the front and we had to wait almost an hour, but as soon as we got in we found Pat and Kelsi and a great place to camp with them so everything worked out well.

Thursday was a pretty rad day, from what I can remember. I started drinking pretty early in the morning, then spent the day drinking vodka and running with my friend Brit. Hitoshi spent some of the day in the Village building a structure shaped like a mushroom with Pat out of twigs and branches.

For 4:20 we headed over to the potluck. I am a huge forum geek and spend time on the Shambhala message board, and every year we have a potluck so we can actually meet each other in person. I don't think I really met any new people this year, it was mostly saying hi to the people I talk with on line all year but hardly get to hang out with. The picture on the left is my friend Travis, me and my friend Dan and on the left is Elesa (I think making her angry Russian face), Asia and I. We all ate tons of good food, I brought popcorn balls because that is what I bring every year and there are people who insist that I continue doing so every year. One of the people that posts on the forum is named Valeon (oh my, no idea what his real name is) and he is an wikked acrobat so the past two years he has treated us with a really entertaining show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9joKFuaoNY). Overall from my foggy memory it was a raging success.

Not too sure what we did the rest of the night, more running around and screaming with Elesa and generally having a great time. We went to see Hitoshi's friend Timothy Wisdom play at the Rock Pit, but by then it ten so I'd been drinking over 12 hours, so Hitoshi just put me to bed.

Saturday Hitoshi and I wandered around together, checked out the stages and saw some people we knew. We had a nap and Elesa, Mark and Christine came to wake us up at 11:00 pm. Hitoshi and I were wearing the Clockwork Orange costumes that nigh, which turned out really well. I had a bowler and Hitoshi had a top hat, I had a great find a Value Village for black boots, and we bought these plastic tubes filled with candy as our sticks. After we got our costumes on we all headed over to the Village to see Hoola and then Krafty Kuts play. It was good music and we went to bed not too late.

Saturday during the day we checked out the vendors and mostly lazed around, we had to be well rested for the best music night of the year. Elesa came and met us at our tent and we all put on our Ewok costumes. The Village stage is called the Village because it basically looks like the Ewok village on Star Wars. There are tons of platforms in the trees and bridges and walkways connecting it all. This year especially looked incredible, they did so much work. So there had been talk on the Shambhala forum of some people trying to dress up like Ewoks, although I didn't see any others that night. Hitoshi's costume got rave reviews, everyone loved it. He bought a stuffed bear from Value Village, cut a hole in the back and put in a zipper, then cut the face of the bear out so he could put his own face through the back and his face in. He wore all black and he attached sticks to the bears arms so he could move them around. I'll tell you, that bear shook his ass to some awesome jungle all night.

We got to the Village just in time for Pat's (who plays as Broken English) set, which is always the musical highlight of Sham for me (I posted two clips on YouTube of him and MC Black Rose http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs3p_7w7jlU and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deBgXsa8TVg). Dirty dirty jungle with bass that vibrates your entire body. It was the only time all weekend that I braved the crowds so I could go dance right in front of the speaker. Hitoshi got on a platform and that Ewok danced like mad, and I had to take part of my costume off I was dancing so hard. After Pat's set we went on a walkabout with with some friends, and Dae and I and Hitoshi took a picture on the Bench. Dae and I have a pic of us sitting on it back in 2000 so every year I have to find it and get a picture of me on it.

We checked out some of the other stages, but as every year the Village is really the only place I want to be. The line up that night was sick, after Pat was Diesel Boy and then Hive. I danced and danced until I was too tired to dance any more, then I tried to stay awake and listen until I couldn't listen any more. Eventually I was falling asleep, so I turned in for the night.

Sunday we got up and headed down to the beach stage, where a friend had mentioned there would be people doing capoeira, which is a Brazilian martial art. Hitoshi trained for four years learning it, and although he hasn't trained at all in the past few years he is still a super ninja. I love watching him do it, it is really graceful and pretty tough at the same time. Usually there are a few people playing instruments performing a half circle, and two people enter the circle at a time. At first there was only two or three people down there, but once the music started going at least 10 or 15 people came down to play and tons more stopped by to watch.

After a while we decided to head down to the beach. It was the perfect afternoon. It was sunny and hot, and we found a shady spot by the river. The Salmo river is great, there are places you can walk across and places you can submerge yourself completely. We laid in the shade all day and splashed in the river and laughed our asses off and had a really fantastic day.

That night was pretty relaxed. Since I drank 3 days worth of booze on Thursday I was totally sober, which was just fine. My friend Shamik, who is an unbelievably talented beat boxer (you can see his profile and hear him on his myspace at http://www.myspace.com/teamshamik) opened for Lorin Bassnectar. He did really great, I loved seeing him up there in front of so many people. He has been all over the place in Alberta in the past few years, and it seems like it is really paying off. When I saw him at the gas station on the way home later I asked him when he would be in Van he told me he is opening for Method Man in November, which is rad.

Anyway, he was on for 20 minutes then Lorin came on. The Village was just packed, so many people just wait all weekend to see Lorin at the Village on Sunday night. Unfortunately after less than ten minutes the bass stopped working. Pat told me later that someone smashed some equipment with a hammer; I can't imagine who would do something like that, but it took over 45 minutes to get the sound back up. I didn't even really mind, we just hung out and chatted with people, there wasn't anywhere else I wanted to be. When they got the music back up we listened for maybe an hour and then headed to bed. It was good music, but I know that Lorin will be playing several times at Burning Man so I felt like it was ok to pass out early.

Monday morning Hitoshi woke me up with breakfast, then we packed the car and took one last jump in the river before we left. We drove to Calgary and got in around midnight, then slept a solid 13 hours.

So the past week we spent in Calgary, mostly hanging out with family. We went out for sushi with my mom, had a really nice dinner at my dad's, stopped by Cyries to say hi to people, went out for lunch with my friend Ginnette sitting by the river, hung out with Kuma and took her for walks, and finished packing and cleaning up the house.

On Saturday a bunch of people came over to say goodbye, it was meant to be a potluck but mostly we just chatted, drank beer and spun fire. Hitoshi and I brought out our staffs and Lindsay had fire poi and fans. I was glad everyone came over, even Sarah was in from Toronto. It was sad to say goodbye, especially to Kelsi. I was feeling pretty emotional and overwhelmed after everyone left.

The next day was hard too, we packed everything up, said goodbye to my uncle, my grama and Norm and drove to Salmon Arm. Stacey's parents Sharon and Gary live there and offered to take Kuma until we can find a place where we are allowed to have pets. I am so grateful to them for taking her, I know she will be happy and well looked after. It was still hard to say goodbye to her, I'm sick of saying goodbyes. We spent the night and then drove into Van the next afternoon.

Now we're back home, and we have 3 days to build the art car for Burning Man, build a cover for the back of the truck we are borrowing, pack and shop. So I can't believe I just spend so much time blogging, I've got work to do!

Getting to Vancouver

Wednesday July 25th was my last day of work, and I felt some serious love. I got presents from people at work, and Hitoshi sent me gorgeous flowers. I went out for lunch with Dae, Marion and Maria and then out for drinks after work. It was weird to say goodbye, although it didn't feel like I was really leaving for good.

I went home and Steph and Kelsi came over and helped me absolutely cram my car as full as it would go. I left the next morning and drove all the way to Van, stopping in Banff to meet my friend Mykul for breakfast and in Salmon Arm to say hi to friends. I was pretty tired when I arrived, but so glad to see my man! It felt great to know that now we would be in the same city.

On Saturday was the Illuminaries festival, where everyone makes lanterns and goes down to this park. People are so creative with their lanterns, it was amazing. I saw a dragon fly attached to helium balloons so it was floating over the pond, and even a turtle! We had signed up to volunteer at the Wishing Well, so we spent the day making faerie costumes then went down to park and got our makeup done. They had a well set up where people (mostly little kids) came and made a wish, then threw money down the well and looked inside. At the bottom of the well was a mirror, so they saw themselves. Lots of people wanted to take their pictures with us, it was different being dressed up when no one else was, as opposed to Burning Man or Shambhala where lots of people are wearing costumes so it's not super special.

It was fun and some of the kids were super cute, the only down side was that we didn't get to go see what was going on too much. Our shift lasted until almost 11 pm then we walked around, saw some fire spinners and huge drum circles with tons of people dancing around. There were so many lanterns, all different shapes and sizes and some floating out on the pond. We decided we wanted to go out dancing, so we went home and took all our makeup off, then went out with our roommate Chelsii to see a Boylesque. There were girls hosting it, but the performances were all boys. It was a really fun night, I saw some people I had met before (a nice feeling the first time out in a new city!) and Ooah was spinning. Hitoshi and I saw him earlier in the month at Motion Notion and he just rocked. We were dancing away, but it was insanely hot in there and even standing still you could work up a sweat. So after we wore ourselves out we headed. I love that I have my own place here, and Hitoshi has the best bedroom. I have never had such a beautiful place to sleep before, he did the walls himself and bought a bed that was imported from Asia. The view looks right out to the mountain, and you can see the harbor. I love love love it.

On Tuesday a super sweet Italian guy named Fillipo came to stay with us a few days. He was living in California with one of Hitoshi's friends and was moving to Canada to live and work. On Wednesday he called us saying he was down in Kitsalano and asked if we wanted his parking spot - it was the Vancouver fireworks competition.

"The fireworks competition sees pyrotechnic experts go up against each other to show off their abilities and each have a 25-minute set lighting the skies over the waters of English Bay.

As many as 1.5 million people arrive in Vancouver for the HSBC Celebration of Light every year, which usually features new techniques and experiments as the experts look to outdo each other at the free shows."

The night we were down the country was China, and it was really cool. It was so nice of Fillipo to give us his spot, we just drove in, walked down to the beach, then drove out no problem.

On Sunday we went down to the Pride parade, which was fun. I have been to pride in Toronto before which is party rama rama. I guess Pride in Van has grown a ton in the past few years, and this year there were over 300,000 people down to see the parade. We checked out some of the floats, then went down to the beach where there were vendors, a beer garden and a stage. We watched a burlesque and listened to some bands, then went home to craft it up.

We spent the rest of the week getting ready for Shambhala and Burning Man. Hitoshi bought a little 70 cc A.T.V. which is going to be converted to an art car (I'm hoping a turtle!) and we started getting all the parts for our costumes ready. It feels like we go to Canadian tire at least once a day.

We did actually do some work for a day when Hitoshi got a call to help out for a commercial. I think the commercial was for Pictionary, and they had these astronaut costumes that were in really rough shape and needed to be spruced up. So we ran around and got some materials, then took them all apart and fixed 'em up. It was fun, afterwards we went down where they were shooting to drop them off, so I got to check out what was going down. The best part was playing around in the space suits before we took them back.

We are almost finished most of our costumes, and will be leaving for Sham tomorrow or the next day. This summer is radtastic.