Mar 15, 2011

Daylight Savings

March 12th, 2011:  Some of the most magical days in Portland happen in the run-up to Spring.  As Winter's darkness (and dampness) begins to subside, individuals gradually emerge from their cocoons, shaking off the rain and soaking in the warmth.  Saturday March 12th was one of those days when the energy was just there and absolutely vibrant; despite the crises of the world, it  ranked among the best days I've ever had in Portland.  What follows is but a very slim selection of the weird and wonderful people that I met & antics I experienced: 

Mike & Alejandro 
on Line 14 to Portland City Center

As I took my seat on the bus, the kid sitting behind me gave me puppy dog eyes and asked, "Would you be my friend?".  "Sure," I replied, "but that doesn't mean I'll give you a blowjob".  He was really weirded out by my response, so I took it up a notch and told him about my hobby of photographing people holding tarot cards and offered to take his picture.  He tried to deny, telling me that he "looked like shit", but his friend hopped in his lap and convinced him to do it.  They picked cards together, but concealed them from the camera.   
   

Becky & Buddha (a.k.a. Greg) @ Pioneer Courthouse

Beware the Brides of March!  The Cacaphony Society brings yet another rampage to the streets of Portland, this time an unruly mob of brides.  Becky and George are comrades in revels, which is convenient for this situation since Becky's husband wouldn't be caught dead wearing a dress.


Team Green Machine @ SW 6th & Madison

Like most people I am attracted to shiny things, so when I saw these warriors clad in tin foil, I wandered over and chatted with them.  They were taking part in the Urban Iditarod, a four mile race through Portland that is reminiscent of it's namesake only when you replace "sleds" with "shopping carts" and "dogs" with "people".     


Missoula Gang (Cody, Ryan, Rob & Shane)
@ Jake's Famous Crawfish

I was so entertained by "Jake the Crab" that I hung out on the corner waiting for some people to come by and pose in front of it.  The first group to pass by were a group of girls wearing funky pajamas, but they were in the middle of some sort of walk-a-thon and couldn't stop to participate.  The second group to chance upon the scene were these fellows from Missoula, MO who were in town to see a show by proggy-jamband Umphreys McGee.  They were checking out the giant, inflatable crab when I rallied them for a picture.  As they wandered off to the Pearl District, I jokingly warned them to keep their eyes peeled for all the freaks, not really thinking about the irony of that statement until it had already left my mouth.


Jasmine & Charli @ SW 10th & Yamhill

Jasmine and Charli were co-chillin on the corner, checking out the people and kicking it.  Down the block a Mexican dude was one-man-jamming an epic cover of Golden Earring's "Twilight Zone".  He had a gig amp for both his guitar and his microphone and he cranked out that song for at least an hour, loud enough to hear within a three block radius.  Charli was feeling the day like I was:  "I feel like people are budding like flowers," she told me.  Jasmine was also digging the twilight zone. "If you're in the present, you're in the infinite," she added, quoting... um.... Ram Dass?    

* * *

Dawn Marie @ Megabounce

Portland days turn into Portland nights.  This particular night was Megabounce, a dance-party circus spectacular at The Refuge.  Dawn had to get her stilt walking kicks early on in the night, since dance floors get slipperier and stickier as the night pulls ahead in full steam.     


Carlita & Allie

Megabounce featured a giant bouncy boxing ring.  After a few drinks it is insanely difficult to jump around on those things, especially when there are people dressed like animals throwing oversized boxing gloves at you. 


Sarah & Vin Al Eden @ Megabounce

This party brought out the freaks!  People were all gussied up in their Saturday night specials and just hanging loose.  I had a very good time meeting a lot of these happenin' folks and reading their tarot.  


Rabbit & Tim @ Megabounce

Pretty much everyone was in costume.  There was really no differentiation between the performers and audience, since the vibe was palpable and everybody was just getting freaky doing their own thing.   This couple threw together costumes at the last minute and saved ten bucks at the door.  They also win points for androgyny!    


Andrew the Narwhal @ Megabounce

There was also a petting zoo for furries.  In my opinion, Andrew's homemade Narwhal costume gets the blue ribbon first prize.


Strange and Fantastic Creatures @ Megabounce

"All the people who make a circus... turned loose on a thousand crazy heads"


Sara @ Megabounce

Even the furniture shines by the light of it's own spirit.



Wiggins @ Megabounce

I wish I had gotten a better picture of the communal painting Wiggins was helping with.  Communal paintings tend to get garbled up pretty quickly, but this one was really capturing a variety of styles without getting too discombobulated.  


Ocram & Sky @ Megabounce

There two clowns are awesome!  Not like that damn Barnum & Bailey clown that stole my snow-cone!  That guy was a dick, whereas these two were just super kind and stoked to get a tarot reading on the dance floor.    


Sabiah @ Megabounce

Sabiah invited me to become a fortune teller for the Big Top Vortex Family Circus of Light & Sound.  Should I accept?  It seems to be looming in the background, if I just step in....

* * *

Oriana, Ashkahn, & Jackson tending The Stargate
@ The Base of Metal Mountain

I ditched the circus around 2 a.m. & biked to party at the mysterious Metal Mountain.  I rode there expecting crunchy guitar solos but instead walked into a psychedelic love-in.  I went outside looking for a keg, but instead found Ashkahn and friends "tending the stargate".  

Jessica & Sharita @ Metal Mountain

Did someone say "psychedelic love in"?  


Doug & Simon @ Make-Out Central 

I'm pretty sure these guys said "psychedelic love-in" in between rambling off one-liners from the movie Hook and giving each other doughy-eyed kissy faces.


Maya @ Make-Out Central

There were little orgy forts constructed all over this house.  By the time I arrived, the sexploits had mostly been downgraded to make-out sessions, heavy petting, group spankings, and cuddle puddles.  I was lured into one of the abandoned love-labs by the possibility of smoking some groovy grass, but ended up reading tarot for Maya, while her guy-friend patiently waited for me to leave.  Maya told me that her mom is a fortuneteller in Boulder, CO and makes really good money doing tarot readings online.  So if I don't join the circus, I now have another career opportunity lined up as a neurocartomancer.  (That's a cyberpunk pun, sorry)  


Timmy G @ The Summit of Metal Moutain

We climb and we climb... oh how we climb... over the stars... to the top of Metal Mountain.  I'm pretty sure everybody in this room was watching the aurora borealis explode out of their own eyes and beam into space like television signals.  Aliens in distant galaxies will tune into these broadcasts on their space t.v's  and be mesmerized by Planet Earth's psychedelic love-ins.  That is the kind of cosmic power that is generated on the high incline of Metal Mountain at 3 in the morning.  Or was it 4 in the morning?  Daylight savings always confuses me.  
     

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