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TrolloweenTime is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire. |
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Saturday, October 31, 1998
One year ago: Trolloween
Looking at this day last year: Miss Gwen dove too hard into Cacophony, I guess. I don't think we saw her at an event ever again! At least this year I didn't have any parking tickets to pay before renewing my license plate tabs. (I forgot to mention that I took care of this Friday morning. I know you were wondering!)
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Jack is something of an anime fan. I think the graphical part of these Japanese animated movies appeals to his artistic eye. He worked as a glass etcher at one point in his life. So in the early part of the day we watched Ninja Scroll (real title is more like "The Ninja of the Scroll). It's different than the post-apocalypse science fiction style of anime stories I've usually seen. This one is set in the days of the Tokugawa Shogunate, about a wandering lone ninja. The story is too complicated to summarize, but it involves a faked epidemic, the Shogun of the Dark, a mysterious Yoda-style Buddhist monk, and various magical bad guys. Very entertaining! And the time period kept the endless motorcyle chases to a minimum, which won a lot of points from me. I think about a third of the length of "Akira" consists of the characters riding around on bikes and exploding things.
Jack fixed us pepperoni omlettes for a late lunch. Delicious! It's hard to go wrong when you mix pepperoni, cheese and eggs. I'd asked him to go with me to Trolloween this evening, and he hadn't anything about it for several days, an ominous sign. Sure enough, when I brought the subject up again, he said he had too many things to take care of. Well, I could accept that, since we'd had such a fun time the evening before. But then he started talking about how maybe he wouldn't go to Orycon in a few weeks, either! This would be very disappointing for me, and I was very startled to hear him say this. He hasn't been to Orycon before, and I know he'd enjoy it, and I'd enjoy having him there. Only a few weeks ago he was talking about how we should go to the con and stay in his RV! (since winterized, so we -- or just me, darn it!-- will be staying in a motel.) Jack and his friend Brett are working on starting a business together, and now they are far enough along, he says, that he has a task list of things that need attention. "Put me on the list!" I said.
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I went home and caught up on email and journal reading. I was especially struck by Helen's latest entries in "Up from Sloth". She describes remeeting her husband after a long separation in a very moving way! It made me long for a weekend getaway at a luxurious spa or resort.
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Since it had been raining during most of the day, and the prediction was for this to taper down into showers, I decided to take it easy in the costume department. I wore the black hat with gold stuff on it that I wore last night, with dark pants and sweater, and a duster-styled coat, dark blue, with suns and moons on it. At least it has some gold beading on it! It's the kind of clothing that is tame for a costume, but rather bold for street wear. I skipped the mask entirely.
The Cacophonistas were to meet at the Troll under the Aurora Bridge, in Fremont, along with several hundred other people. I got there about seven thirty, and the drumming and dancing were in full swing. It's a common problem every year, that the sound system that gets set up for the poetry and announcements is never loud enough! At any rate, people just mill around randomly.
Lyle looked great as a Flamingo person. She's a Fremont Arts Council person, and very creative and artistic. I remember working on stuff for the Winter Solstice Feast Invitations (but it must have been the year before last) at her loft near Pioneer Square, and her helping me on the serger, a sort of industrial sewing machine. I think she recognized me when I spoke to her, though we are really only slightly acquainted through my friend Luke McGuff.
There was a good turnout of people, despite the cool, drizzly weather, and most did have some attempt at a costume. I think you should put something on! After all, this event is something to participate in, not a show that you watch! This year they didn't have the Skeleton dancers that they had last year. But they did have lots of belly dancers, trolls, and the Seattle samba band.
I hung out on the side of the crowd that I thought Nick and Tom would be arriving from, since Tom lives in Fremont now. Finally they arrived, Tom as a very scary clown and Nick in a cloak and Jester hat. Nick's image is reddish because I took it in available light from a mercury-vapor street lamp.
I was pleased when Jason and his friends Charles and Sharon arrived! Jason took this one of all four Cacophonistas together. David Richter had arrived also. He said he was a cat, but looked distinctly mouse-like to us.
Finally the procession moved down the hill. It's a very dramatic spot, under the bridge with the bridge forming a colonade above us. Every one was dancing or boogying in their own style, to the infectious rhythms of the Samba band. The only visible piece of art or installation visible along the way to "La Rue Flambé" was some film projectors showing loops of horror films on a wall on one side of an alley we were sent through. I think that many members of the Fremont Arts Council were used up by all the work they did at Burning Man, so the resources devoted to this part of the haunting of Fremont were less than in some years.
The crowd actually took a wrong turn at one point, because we were following a stiltwalker who went the wrong way. We got turned around before too long, though.
Along the street bordering the water and the Burke-Gilman trail, there were four "stages" set up with barriers. The performances were mostly fire-based. These are effective in the dark, but I was most interested in the ones where I had a personal connection to the performers. Once you've seen someone twirling balls of fire at the ends of a rope, to see it again is just more of the same, really, though the skill and control needed are still impressive. And I can't help thinking of the Seinfeld episode about "Flaming Globes of Sigmund," which makes me laugh, and these acts aren't supposed to be the funny ones!
At the first stage I really did like "She Shakes, He Bakes," which was multi-performer fire puppetry. Each facial part had a person carrying it on a pole, and they needed to coordinate their movements to act out the romantic encounter between the male and female characters. When she blew him a kiss, a waft of sawdust and ash (blown through her mouth with a leaf blower) washed over us in the crowd. I did get a bit in my eyes, but mostly it was on the top of my hat.
I didn't get a picture of my buddy Luke, but he was in a clown act ("Shoot the Chump!") at stage 2. One of the real improvements to Trolloween this year was a printed program! Even though not everything listed happened in precisely that order, it really helped to figure out what was happening, and who the people were, and the intended effect (was it intentionally funny, or not?).
After a quick peek at David Harz doing fire painting, Nick, Tom and I skipped stage 3 and moved on to stage 4. I wanted to be sure and get a good view of my friend Wally Glenn doing his Pyroboy act! We did have to wait a while, and of course we had that "buyer's remorse" sensation when cheers and screams started coming from stage 3! But it was worth it. The clowns started off proceedings at stage 4, by taking the mickey out of the fire marshalls. A "fire marshall" put out a supposedly illegal open flame by "vomiting" water on it, a la "Monty Python and the Meaning of Life." Then more fire dancing with flaming globes on the ends of strings. These dancers did have some impressive headdresses, which were also on fire.
By getting there early, we did have a chance to speak to Wally and get a good picture of him with his helmet-of-fire. He even had me come inside the safety tape and take some pictures of the scapegoat, though I felt nervous and guilty being in that zone. Of course, when the crowd arrived at this last main stage of the street of Fire, we had to move back from where we were. This was so there would be a traffic lane when the crowd arrived, but we would still be at a safe distance when the fires started being lit.
The Firedrake (old name for dragon) was a truly impressive and beautiful fire sculpture, and my picture doesn't do it justice. One of the things that makes it impressive is the noise made by the blowtorches and flamethrowers used to light it! I think it was about thirty feet long, and it had wings that moved, and road flares for eyes.
I didn't get a picture of the Fire Cyclone, but again the noise was a factor in the show. Two performers poured out a huge circle of sawdust and flour on the ground, then used leaf blowers to blow the dust into a twister. This rocked!
Finally it was time for Pyroboy. Wally was carefully checked out by a real fire marshall, then went off! We were amazed and impressed.
The scapegoat is an interesting concept, but kind of an anti-climax visually. The Goat was built of chicken wire and steel wool, and had been paraded through the crowd all through the evening. You could write a sin on a piece of paper and feed it to the goat. We all did this, of course. Then, as the last fire piece of the evening, it was raised on a pole and set ablaze. But since it didn't actually blow up, I think the crowd was a bit disappointed.
We were tired and chilled after all this excitement, so we walked past "The Goddess dances over us," a belly dancing/shadow dancing piece by Delilah and friends that took place behind a screen. Nick walked with me to my car, and I gave him a ride home.
What a fun day! Trolloween remains one of my favorite things of the year. But next year, if product cycles allow, I really would like to work on something and be part of it. I'd rather construct something beforehand, though, and not be one of the performers. If you perform, you don't see all the cool stuff!
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