the myth of the king of pop

It has been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well with the untimely passing of Michael Jackson, I think there is TRULY only one thing burning in everyone's mind.

The jury is still out on this one... way the fuck out, in fact.

Who is Corey Feldman's next man crush. My guess... David Blaine. Just a hunch.

R.I.P. Michael. You were amazing.

the myth of the rainbow gathering

The rumors I have always heard about the Rainbow Gathering have always made me want to see the truth for myself. From mostly second and third hand accounts I gathered that it was a hippy festival where money was not allowed and bartering was the only way to purchase anything. I heard of kitchens built by hand where all of the food is free for those who attend. I also heard of thousands of naked women tripping their faces off and dancing to drum circles. I figured that most of the descriptions of the Gathering were bullshit, sort of like the third hand accounts of Amsterdam, but after I finally went to a Gathering and saw it first hand, I honestly still didn’t understand what I was seeing.

I was in Colorado and planning to move to Brooklyn in the summer of 2003. The week before the 4th of July I was having a few beers with my friend Wes who mentioned that he had just got the directions to this year’s Rainbow Gathering from his friend Nathan and was wondering if I wanted to go and check it out. We started going over all of the crazy stories that we have heard in the past: mushroom tea, acid by the sheet, mounds of kind bud, and beautiful naked woman dancing in drum circles. "I'd be fuckin crazy to pass it up" I said. The next day we packed up his car and drove to the Wyoming-Utah border. We got a little lost on the way, slept on the side of the road the night before, and arrived at a dusty parking lot at 7:00 in the morning. We got out of the car and didn't see any of the craziness we heard about. "What the fuck are we suppose to do now?" I said, "where are all of the naked chicks in the drum circles" I asked. Just then a girl in the car next to us woke up and asked "Hey brother, do you know where the shuttle is to Welcome Home?" "No sorry" Wes told her and then said "OK, I guess the first step is to find some kind of shuttle to this place Welcome Home." We started walking and asking around for a shuttle and finally someone pointed to a pickup truck that a few guys were climbing in the back of. "Is this the shuttle to Welcome Home?" I said, trying to sound like I knew what the fuck Welcome Home was. "Absolutely, climb in brothers" said this hippy who looked like he had spent the last ten years in a cave and bathing in mud. We climbed in the back and I started trying to imagine what on earth was waiting for us.

"Rainbow Bear is my name brothers, what do you call yourselves?" "Steve and Wes" we said. Rainbow Bear smelled God awful, beautiful person, but smelled like a dead animal that had been eaten by a homeless guy and shit out a week later. Rainbow Bear told us that he was a seasoned veteran to the Gathering. He explained that it has been taking place every year for about 35-40 years. He told us how money was not allowed and how the food was free as long as we brought some to share with the kitchens in the campsites. Wes and I were aware that we had to contribute, so we brought some potatoes, flour and rice. We finally arrived at Welcome Home. There was a banner welcoming us home and a blockade built out of soda cans and little rocks, so that the shuttle wouldn’t drive past. When we climbed out of the shuttle we were greeted by about 2 dozen hippies who immediately started hugging us and welcoming us home. It was very nice of them to treat us so kind; I was starting to get in the spirit of this thing. The "vibe" was amazing and I wanted to experience everything the Rainbow Gathering had to offer. As we started to walk into the woods, we asked our new friend Rainbow Bear where we were suppose to go from here. He looked at us and said "this is where the adventure starts brothers, you'll find your way" and walked off into the forest. "Thanks a lot you fuckin dirty piece of shit" I said under my breath.

Wes and I saw more and more people as we walked up the road. We wondered if this was the main part of the Rainbow Gathering. There were people here drinking and smoking weed in a forest. This had to be it. We kept asking these hippies if this was what we had come here for and most people wouldn't say a word to us, and when they did, they would ask if it was our first time and tell us that the adventure of the Gathering, was finding the Gathering. "No one is talking, this is weird" Wes said. "I know what the fuck, the hippies back there were way nicer" I said. We finally found a completely dusted out old hippy just laughing away at himself. "Excuse me um brother, but do you know where we go from here, I mean is this like the main part of the Rainbow Gathering" we asked. He tried not to give us too much information, but we managed to get some from him. We heard him mention a place called Bus Station. "OK" I thought, "find this Bus Station place next." We asked around about Bus Station, but no one would really talk to us, but the forest was getting much thicker, so we knew that we were probably heading in the right direction. We kept trying to talk to people; we figured that at least a few of these hippies would talk back to us. Finally one hippy and his girlfriend whispered to us that everyone was supposed to pray in silence until 12 noon. He even pointed the way to Bus Station. We thought that the hippies were treating us like assholes because we didn't look hippy enough, but they were actually staying quiet because of some Rainbow Gathering ritual.

I can only imagine what this place smells like?

We were walking through the forest and I noticed that different themed camps were set up everywhere, each with its own kitchen. There was Celtic camp and Israeli camp and plenty of others. When we inspected some of the kitchens we were completely blown away. They were built by hand and could handle just about any meal. They even had ovens made of clay, so that they could bake cakes and cookies. Hippies love cakes and cookies. We finally made it out of the forest and walked into Bus Station. This was definitely it. It was the most beautiful meadow I have ever seen. It was the size of a city. There were little brooks running through the middle with manmade bridges going over them. In the middle of the meadow was a giant prayer pole with many people, religious and otherwise, sitting around the pole praying. We saw Native American's in war paint tripping peyote by their wigwams. People were tripping balls and painted in assortments of colors. We saw people dressed in black robes performing weird ancient pagan ceremonies, and finally the naked hippy women that we heard so much about, but actually, I wish about 90 percent had put their clothes back on. Still, they were naked and we were happy to have found the secret Bus Station after hours of searching. It was an adventure to get here and it was clear what the object was when we finally arrived: smoke shit loads of weed and find the mushrooms, pronto. It was about eleven thirty am and we started seeing people migrating to the edge of the meadow. We whispered to a few people to ask what was going on and were told that at twelve noon all 25,000 of these hippies would circle around the outside holding hands. "What, really" I said to one of the hippies. "Yeah" he said, "it’s so beautiful brother, come and see." Wes and I figured "fuck it, when in Rome."

We went and joined this giant circle comprised of 25,000 hippies holding hands and I must say it was one of the most beautiful feelings that I have experienced in a while. I could actually feel the energy of everyone in the circle; it was pretty insane, but great. While we were holding hands with these 25 thousand hippies an older man of about 65 years old, was walking around the peaceful, still quiet, edge of the circle, banging a drum. It seemed as if he was a local from the town who hated the Rainbow Gathering and wanted to disrupt this peaceful circle. One of the hippies standing next us acted quickly and reached out and gave this conservative looking man a big hug. The man with the drum retaliated by slamming the drum stick off of the hippies head. All of a sudden about 10 other hippies joined in on the hug trying to turn this man to their side with the power of hippy love. I thought it was fucking hilarious. The local from the town was squirming and screaming "get the fuck off of me you god damn hippies" but they acted as if they knew that their hugs would turn him and just hugged harder. Finally the man broke free and continued his disruption of the peaceful circle. We continued to hold hands and in the distance I heard a faded out song. I couldn't tell what it was. I looked over to the left and saw about 800 children all in a parade singing "All we are saying, is give peace a chance." They were all in the cutest costumes I have ever seen. They had come down from Kiddy land, a place where parents could drop their kids off in the care of volunteers who helped watch the kids as they went and tripped like maniacs and danced to drum beats. As the kids got to the prayer pole, the circle broke. We all came walking to the middle and had a party that lasted for a few days. There were drum circles with hundreds banging away and the most naked of people dancing to the rhythm.

That night we stopped by one of the kitchens to watch a few guitarists playing some beautiful freestyle and we noticed a giant witch’s caldron with liquid in it. “Finally” I thought, “We found the mother lode of mushroom tea.” We walked over and dipped our cups in and started to trip into another world, it was beautiful. We were relaxing by a fire, the music was great and people were just loading hash into our pipes. Everyone was so friendly. By this time I had completely immersed myself into this thing. I was in the hippy spirit and loving it.