Beyond Thunderdome
Thunderdome, I don't know how I feel about you anymore. I know it's been years since I've been to the desert and last year while the fundraiser raged, I was sipping limoncello in Rome, but I always come back to you, Thunderdome, and expect to party like it's 1999 (or 2000, or even 2001). But you're changed, Thunderdome - who the hell are these people? Who is that getting people into their harnesses? Who are those guys working the bungees? Where did all of these tribal bellydancers and piercing people come from? Who let Devon have a goddamn microphone?
Little Matt is in Laos. Kurt is at home with the baby. David King had to go back to work. Ogre won't fly now that they won't allow him to carry a dozen knives onto the plane. Marisa is just here to sing. I don't even know where tiny Kalico and spooky quiet Tanya and bubbly Raven went. I know that a lot of them were jerks, Thunderdome. I know some of them liked to bitch and didn't like to work. I know some left in a huff and some grew up and some just disappeared, but I always kind of thought that as long as someone built the Dome, they'd be around, like so many Death Guild Thunderdome action figures.
Now, that doesn't mean I didn't walk into the Dome. I danced on platforms and dangled from conduit. I harnessed combatants (badly; they were new and unfamiliar harnesses and I probably did more harm than help) and cheered Nadya on her hoop and did tricks on the Spanish Web with Ari (watch us dangle from ropes and magically NOT DIE!) and screamed for Marisa's aria until I was hoarse. I sat in the fire garden when the night turned cold and watched a shirtless boy perform acrobatics.
But when I went home, when I crawled under the covers, scratched up and sore, I felt relieved that it was over. Oh Thunderdome, I think I might be done with you.
Little Matt is in Laos. Kurt is at home with the baby. David King had to go back to work. Ogre won't fly now that they won't allow him to carry a dozen knives onto the plane. Marisa is just here to sing. I don't even know where tiny Kalico and spooky quiet Tanya and bubbly Raven went. I know that a lot of them were jerks, Thunderdome. I know some of them liked to bitch and didn't like to work. I know some left in a huff and some grew up and some just disappeared, but I always kind of thought that as long as someone built the Dome, they'd be around, like so many Death Guild Thunderdome action figures.
Now, that doesn't mean I didn't walk into the Dome. I danced on platforms and dangled from conduit. I harnessed combatants (badly; they were new and unfamiliar harnesses and I probably did more harm than help) and cheered Nadya on her hoop and did tricks on the Spanish Web with Ari (watch us dangle from ropes and magically NOT DIE!) and screamed for Marisa's aria until I was hoarse. I sat in the fire garden when the night turned cold and watched a shirtless boy perform acrobatics.
But when I went home, when I crawled under the covers, scratched up and sore, I felt relieved that it was over. Oh Thunderdome, I think I might be done with you.