note:
it took me so long to write this, that i'm not going to proof read it. sorry. it's not an eloquent piece of poetry anyway, it's a summary. deal.
ok, so michigan. wow. here's what's so amazing about michigan: organization and love. i know it's a music festival, but somehow the music was almost a secondary to my experience as a whole. the summary is going to be really unorganized unless i do this as a list. so here is a probably not so complete list (because there are some things that you just have to experience to appreciate) of the things that are amazing about the michigan womyn's music festival:
~organization. from the moment we drove into the front gate to the time we drove back out, there was this sense that no matter where i was, it was exactly where i was supposed to be. even among the people i was camping with, we had a great system of getting things done, like setting up places to sit for concerts, getting food, making coffee, doing the dishes, and just plain living out there in the woods. any festival that can feed 10,000(?) womyn 3 nutritionally balanced meals every day for 7 days gets a wow from me. also, any festival that is organized enough to have the most amazing recycling system i've *ever* seen also gets a wow. (tip for next year: the recycling workers go through *everything* in the recycle bins, so if you want to write them little love notes, you can drop it in any recycle bin and they *will* get it, and they *will* love it.) seriously though, there was minimal waste because everyone brings their own dishes, the dish washing sink and the kitchen in general was amazingly put together. i raved all week about how great of an idea the dish washing sink is, such that 20 people can do all of their dishes all at once and they will actually be clean. womyn were like "uh huh, we know." wow. fucking wow.
~cleanliness. speaking of organization and the dishwashing sink, the overall cleanliness of the place was amazing. the systems for cooking and cleaning in the kitchen area, especially since it's all outdoors, was fantastic. the last time i went camping, things started getting messy after the second day, and we started calling it "camping sanitation." there was none of that at michigan. the dishes were done right, and none of the food had been on the ground, or even touched by dirty hands or utensils. also, the port-a-janes get my biggest gold star of wowness. clean. all of them. all week. and you know what, sometimes i even sat on the seat. yeah. i fucking hate hovering. and i never saw one fly or spider or anything inside of them all week. 7 days, 10,000(?) womyn, clean potties. wow.
~love. when ki-ki and i hiked (yes, on our backs, *hiked.* no shuttle.) our gear in on monday night, we had very little daylight work with. so we found a clearing and set up camp. we found out the next day that our spot could not have been better had we planned it. there was plenty of space around for stillray and raydar to set up later that week, plus we had the best camp neighbors *ever.* hence, madicago was born. we laughed until our bodies ached and then we laughed some more. it was amazing. add manray, who was herself a huge source of warmness, with birch and their camp of amazing womyn and i could have spent another week (at least) out there in the woods. along with the people i actually met and hung out with, the festival as a whole seems to be a little bubble of generosity and love among human beings. womyn were comfortable being themselves. really themselves. it's amazing what kind of womyn you get when you take away societal standards and men. i wonder what it would be like to live out there like that, to live in a society that is completely created and sustained only by womyn. ponder.... anyway, the other thing that totally struck me was that there was not one on-duty police officer anywhere on the land that i saw. no patrols, no authoritative watchful eyes, nothing. and you know what, there didn't need to be. there was just simply no need. wow.
~generosity. if there was something that you needed, someone would help you figure out either how to get it, how to improvise it, or how to get along without. and i don't even know how many times someone would happen to bring back a handfull of icecream bars or a pint and handfull of spoons to share with whoever happened to be around. sharing. wow.
~music. the thing i liked the best was waking up to sound checks and falling asleep to drums. the shows themselves gave me a greater appreciation for bands that i knew but had never seen live, as well as bands that i only vaguely heard of. i love music: whether new or familiar, i love live music. though animal could have shown up and le tigre could have cranked it up a few notches, i fucking love feel-it-in-your-chest live music. during the drumsong orchestra, i really really really just wanted to go up there and lay down on the front of the stage so that i could be half surrounded by the drums. when i die, i want a large group of djembe and djun-djun drummers to rawk out on my grave. that would be awesome. i should write that down somewhere... anyway, with the exception of the amazing drumming that was going on, i wasn't particularly inspired by the actual music itself. what was inspiring was the way that the music brought the people together. and, to me, *that's* a huge part of what music is about.
so now i'm a "festie." i will go every year unless something huge keeps me from it. i understand now why when we first drove in, womyn greeted us by saying, "welcome home." it felt like a home, like a safe place, like a bubble of clean air and positive, healing energy. i have yet to remove my wrist band and the little piece of yellow plastic that got tied around my arm when i was a "hot get-it-girl" during my kitchen work shift. just knowing that such positive energy exists, however spread out it may get during the year when the festival is not going on, will help me through hard times. i understand things now that i didn't before. not physical things or lessons that someone told me or taught me, but things that i feel. an understanding with energy; a reconnection with my own, and a confirmation with the collective.
ponder.
so now i'm home. back in madison, at least, trying to make a home out of the apartment i frantically moved in to in the days before i left for michigan. the phone company tech came right away this morning to hook up our internet service, so things are starting to feel a little bit more like home and less like a place where i store my stuff. today i will get some hardware and some tools and fix the shower drain, put up some shelves, and clean. things are starting to come together.
extra special super props to jessie for helping little and pem become best friends while i was gone.
coming up:
michigan pictures. people are really sensitive about michigan pictures, so i'm only going to post ones that are either of myself or contain images of people who gave me their permission to post their picture. if, when the pictures go up, you see a picture that you don't want me to post for *any* reason, please let me know.
listening to:
random city noises and the kitties happily chasing toys around the livingroom.
