The Return of the Hippie

I've been off the radar for a while, but now I finally made time to write a post.

About 2 weeks ago, a usual Friday night consisting of an awesome BBQ with my awesome friends, an old hippie suddenly emerged. After chasing powder snow in Canada and Who-knows-where Hippie had gathered his wits and returned to Cali. This is the story about our adventures.

Floatopia

For weeks there had been rumors about an epic event called Floatopia. It's a mix of alcohol, Pacific and home build rafts. About 10 000 people or so partying on the beach. It was scheduled for the Saturday after Hippie's arrival, but the police had effectively shut down every beach access to prevent the event. Instead it turned into a carneval on Del Playa, girls in bikinis, boats on wheels and water pistols blasting. Oh, yeah!

Solvang

In the valleys nearby there is a Danish town, with fake korsvirkeshus and a lot of pastries. The only thing genuine is the hunger for profit, the rest is a red and white fasade. But the pastries were good.

Jay Leno

A few weeks ago I applied for tickets to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It's a talk show on NBC that is recorded in Burbank. It was all Hippie's idea and it was a surprisingly good dito. Jay Leno was amusing, the guests were B- and C-actors and some country singer, but hey, it was free and fun. You can watch the episode until April 30 here.

Coachella

In the desert east of LA there is a giant music festival named Coachella during one weekend in April. It's a Mecca for sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll - and more drugs. The temperature was unbearable before 2 pm but the mild evenings were perfect for concerts. We borrowed tents from the Excursion Club. I got the most depressed tent ever. It was all scew, only the inner tent was left and the door zipper was broken. No privacy worth mentioning.

Some of the bands were cool, Jay-Z had a pretty good show with a visit from his (more famous) wife, Beyonce. The scene was build from big blocks where they projected ligths, e g in his New York song they looked like sky scrapers. The Gorillaz had a big movie screen and showed cartoons, the music was dark and the movies violent and morbid. How strange that I didn't get a hot fussy feeling from watching an anime girl being burned inside a flying windmill. Hippie was on fire during the Devo concert. He had seen them during the Olympics in Whistler and hence owned a blue Devo hat that attracted attention from other festival guests. Strolling around with a ziggurat hat wasn't very spectacular tho, not compared to some of the advanced hair and make up creations we saw. I was so jealous of the glittering fethered mohawks and fairy wings.

Grand Canyon

McConaughey came to visit from Vancouver and Hippie, Turtle and I picked him up at the airport and packed into the VW van and went on a road trip to Grand Canyon. On the way we stopped in the Mojave desert and climbed rocks. Arms and legs were scratched and sore afterwards. There's a reason why Grand Canyon is so famous, it is stunningly beautiful. It was formed during a couple of million years, first a tactonic

plate lifted up the sea shore and then the Colorado river and heavy rain carved the canyon.

The van had a bad cough and sometimes needed physical motivation to get started, and who doesn't love the smell of leaking gasoline in the morning. Miraculously it didn't shake into pieces on the 15 h drive there. A tip: always bring duck tape, in case something breaks, or someone (we don't have to point fingers at Canucks, do we?) gets word diarrhea.

There were beautiful campgrounds and, as always, paying was considered optional. McConaughey took the surviving in the wilderness very seriously and carried big jars of salt and peanut butter on our 4-hour hike. We found the perfect rock and sat on the rim watching the sun set over the landscape, the shadows growing pink and purple.