December 12, 2020
Donna and I were invited to a show
We were in a group of 8 to 10 people sitting in a small room with a large screen
Projected on the screen in black and white was a man bumbling \ bobbing his way down a wooded path
He moved like a tele tubby
The screen started to raise and the image was now in color and not a projection but a real person
“Come on, follow me.” He said
He was wearing a big Orange jumpsuit with rainbow leggings and armings and had a huge bouncing orange afro.
He continued down the path and we all followed
We arrive at a strange machine with cables, metal tubes, and a chair that had sliding things on the arm.
He explained that the sliders changed the pitch to create a melody.
He attached long awkward pieces of bent metal to the cable which was looping slowly around the construction of this machine randomly clanging and dinging as it made its way through the course. “You can put as many as you like to get these percussive sounds while you play upon the sliders,” he explained
Next, we made our way around to another demonstration of homemade instruments
One was a gigantic 2 stringed bowed instrument that was pleasant with deep rich harmonics
One of the tour people, a lanky short-cropped haired guy, talked to me about new technologies for controlling the sound
He asked if we had seen the living quarters of this collective. We told him no.
Donna said, “Oh. I get it. This is a sales pitch! You’re trying to get us to join!”
“Well, yeah!” he exclaimed.
We followed him to his workspace passing other strange instruments, some electronic, some made of wood crudely put together.
We passed a billboard that had our name on it. He said that we were the topic of a seminar yesterday.
We continued down a hallway and down some steps arriving at his cubicle
He sat down and put on what we thought was a helmet.
He turned towards us and it was a leather bondage mask. he explained that the rolling of the eyes controlled the pitch and intensity of the musical notes.
He donned the rest of his bizarre red and black leather outfit and affixed a syringe with a glop of putty on the nose of the mask.
A type of wild metal rock emanated from the sound system as he moved around the room dancing in a very disturbing way.
We laughed with him and began to ask some questions
I woke up.