Weekend Re-Cap Part 4 - or How the Piggy Tried to Kill Me (Or at Least Seriously Maim)
I swear I'm going to finish it this time. Really.
So, we got to the intersection of Bloomington Ave. and 33rd St. and all was going well. I felt something go wrong, but I didn't know what. I couldn't step right, the weight was wrong, my mom was yelling at me that I wasn't walking straight and most of all, I was off-balance. On three and a half foot stilts, being off-balance is a BAD THING. Falling from that far without control of your lower legs can only end badly.
I looked around to figure out what went wrong and saw the crosspiece flopping in the breeze. Well, more it was flopping with my hip movement, since my hips were still tied to the bar with rubber ties. Rubber ties don't come off quickly, at all. When the frame slipped apart, the upward support for the head went as well, which meant that the head was suddenly much closer to my already confined stilting space. The crosspiece had also been holding the shape of the puppet, so when it went it pulled to the right and puffed out which shifted the weight of the puppet from the center of my hips to the right. Towards the right foot that I couldn't move because the head was interfering with my movement.
This is the point at which I get to toot my own horn, because I am a good stilter. I stayed on my feet. Barely. Jason tried to fix the crosspiece, but didn't know how. He ran to go get the other spotter named George. George tried to fix it but put the crosspiece in the wrong spot. Where he put the crosspiece, it was even harder for me to move. The head was pushing my stilt backwards and the backpack was pushing my hips forward. I stood like that for about ten minutes while Janaki came over to help get it together. The entire time they were repairing the pig, they were pulling the crosspiece, and my attached hips, to the right. Towards the side I couldn't adjust my balance on because I still couldn't move my right foot.
As in all of these situations, the thoughts going through my head were how all of this could go horribly wrong and what it was that was going to happen when it did. If I fell, I would take my mother with me. She was stilting the back half of the puppet. She is in her late fifties and would not heal quickly. I would certainly break the puppet on impact, if not on the way down. Puppets collapsing during the parade are considered a bad, bad thing. Because I was on 3 and a half foot stilts and had a puppet extending past my head, I probably would have hit other performers and the audience. None of the puppet was heavy, but it would still hurt. Finally, I would have seriously injured myself. The stilts are tied on, my hips were tied in and I was wearing a backpack. And I had to stand there realizing all of these consequences and do nothing to fix anything besides try my hardest to stay on my feet. It was terrifying.
At some point, Soozin silted by and said "Gaea, what do you need?" And I said, "Groundcrew!" So Soozin got Alison who literally stuck her head in the pig's mouth to ask me what I needed. Once she grabbed the pig's nose and held it still, everything improved. I could lean into my backpack to balance because Alison was stabilizing the front and George and Janaki had more resistance to pull the crosspiece back to where it belonged. We did get the puppet fixed and we finished the last three blocks of the parade. Once we got to the Field of Dead and Resting Puppets, I was so glad to get out of that beast.
My mother and I stayed up on our stilts to watch the rest of the parade, really there is no better view than from stilts. It's like front row seating, only in the back. We walked to the ceremony sight and got off our stilts. Of course, my bag of clothes had disappeared during the course of the parade so I had to wear somebody else's clothing in the ceremony. Yes, I wore a skirt in public. Shocking, I know. The extra pants were a size 4. My butt just isn't that small.
I think the ceremony went well. It was the usual theme of people are inherently good, they are led astray by bad things, they realize it with the help of nature and return to being inherently good. The attempt at stopping the sun from coming across the lake was really neat and worked really well. The sun is still an amazing puppet. And the Tree of Life went up wihtout mishap. This is especially great since one of the main Tree of Life crew leaders died unexpectedly shortly after Mayday last year. He had been with the Tree of Life crew almost since the beginning.
The rest of the day was as spectacular as anyone could hope. The weather remained perfect, the people are amazing. I spent an hour wandering the festival before we went back to start moving puppets back to the theater. Moving the puppets was fun, I love walking the puppets back along 15th Ave. We take up the entire street with these giants floats after dusk and the people in their yards cheer us on and come out to help. It really is an amazing experience.
The food at the theater is always amazing and we at a record early this year. It was such a good day, it was such a good parade. I love it, I'll miss the hubbub and chaos and I'm already looking forward to next year.
So, we got to the intersection of Bloomington Ave. and 33rd St. and all was going well. I felt something go wrong, but I didn't know what. I couldn't step right, the weight was wrong, my mom was yelling at me that I wasn't walking straight and most of all, I was off-balance. On three and a half foot stilts, being off-balance is a BAD THING. Falling from that far without control of your lower legs can only end badly.
I looked around to figure out what went wrong and saw the crosspiece flopping in the breeze. Well, more it was flopping with my hip movement, since my hips were still tied to the bar with rubber ties. Rubber ties don't come off quickly, at all. When the frame slipped apart, the upward support for the head went as well, which meant that the head was suddenly much closer to my already confined stilting space. The crosspiece had also been holding the shape of the puppet, so when it went it pulled to the right and puffed out which shifted the weight of the puppet from the center of my hips to the right. Towards the right foot that I couldn't move because the head was interfering with my movement.
This is the point at which I get to toot my own horn, because I am a good stilter. I stayed on my feet. Barely. Jason tried to fix the crosspiece, but didn't know how. He ran to go get the other spotter named George. George tried to fix it but put the crosspiece in the wrong spot. Where he put the crosspiece, it was even harder for me to move. The head was pushing my stilt backwards and the backpack was pushing my hips forward. I stood like that for about ten minutes while Janaki came over to help get it together. The entire time they were repairing the pig, they were pulling the crosspiece, and my attached hips, to the right. Towards the side I couldn't adjust my balance on because I still couldn't move my right foot.
As in all of these situations, the thoughts going through my head were how all of this could go horribly wrong and what it was that was going to happen when it did. If I fell, I would take my mother with me. She was stilting the back half of the puppet. She is in her late fifties and would not heal quickly. I would certainly break the puppet on impact, if not on the way down. Puppets collapsing during the parade are considered a bad, bad thing. Because I was on 3 and a half foot stilts and had a puppet extending past my head, I probably would have hit other performers and the audience. None of the puppet was heavy, but it would still hurt. Finally, I would have seriously injured myself. The stilts are tied on, my hips were tied in and I was wearing a backpack. And I had to stand there realizing all of these consequences and do nothing to fix anything besides try my hardest to stay on my feet. It was terrifying.
At some point, Soozin silted by and said "Gaea, what do you need?" And I said, "Groundcrew!" So Soozin got Alison who literally stuck her head in the pig's mouth to ask me what I needed. Once she grabbed the pig's nose and held it still, everything improved. I could lean into my backpack to balance because Alison was stabilizing the front and George and Janaki had more resistance to pull the crosspiece back to where it belonged. We did get the puppet fixed and we finished the last three blocks of the parade. Once we got to the Field of Dead and Resting Puppets, I was so glad to get out of that beast.
My mother and I stayed up on our stilts to watch the rest of the parade, really there is no better view than from stilts. It's like front row seating, only in the back. We walked to the ceremony sight and got off our stilts. Of course, my bag of clothes had disappeared during the course of the parade so I had to wear somebody else's clothing in the ceremony. Yes, I wore a skirt in public. Shocking, I know. The extra pants were a size 4. My butt just isn't that small.
I think the ceremony went well. It was the usual theme of people are inherently good, they are led astray by bad things, they realize it with the help of nature and return to being inherently good. The attempt at stopping the sun from coming across the lake was really neat and worked really well. The sun is still an amazing puppet. And the Tree of Life went up wihtout mishap. This is especially great since one of the main Tree of Life crew leaders died unexpectedly shortly after Mayday last year. He had been with the Tree of Life crew almost since the beginning.
The rest of the day was as spectacular as anyone could hope. The weather remained perfect, the people are amazing. I spent an hour wandering the festival before we went back to start moving puppets back to the theater. Moving the puppets was fun, I love walking the puppets back along 15th Ave. We take up the entire street with these giants floats after dusk and the people in their yards cheer us on and come out to help. It really is an amazing experience.
The food at the theater is always amazing and we at a record early this year. It was such a good day, it was such a good parade. I love it, I'll miss the hubbub and chaos and I'm already looking forward to next year.