Sea of Dreams

Stina and I decided to bring in the new year with two nights at the Sea of Dreams. Its a festival where Burning Man and Hippies collide like peanut butter and chocolate. There were three stages for music and performance, and tons of art filling the rest of the space, both kinetic and stationary.

Night one (the 30th) was spent with DaveP and new New Yorkian girl friend Keri. We met up at the Last Supper Club for a tasty meal. We headed over to the venue where we were met with rock star parking. Even though there were a number of musical acts and I do enjoy musical variety, I was fully focused on the String Cheese set on the main stage as it may be the last time we see them. The hippies and the burners were out in full force, both garbed appropriately (dreadlocks vs. serious costumes). The venue was absolutely gorgeous. A definite improvement over last year, and that was pretty spectacular.





SCI set one was ok, nothing special. Mostly songs I didn't know, and not a lot of energy radiating from the stage. Stina disappeared for a while to talk to her friend Tia, who is half of Peak Experience Productions, one of the organizers of the event. I imagined that she was getting a whirlwind tour of the event - and it turns out I was totally right. She went everywhere, including in front of the stage where the security was. Apparently it was an amazing experience that left a lasting impression. She was simply awestruck, and I was totally psyched for her. Then I was psyched for me when Tia kicked down a backstage pass for Jimmy. Backstage = good views, clean no-line bathrooms, place to stash my backpack, and top shelf bar. Nice! Then set 2 kicked in, we went back to party with Dave and Keri, and it was ON. SCI kicked it off with "Come As You Are", and smiles were everywhere. THERE was the energy I've been craving. Then song two was winner. Followed by song three. Just raging. Then I got suspicious. If song four was what I thought it would be, and it was, they were covering our favorite SCI album "'Round the Wheel". Which they did in its entirety. Holy shit. I couldn't believe it. It was absolutely the best SCI set I've ever seen. Both Stina and I were in ecstasy.

After maybe 5 hrs of sleep, our door bell rang. Old obie friend Sarah W-R and Steve came by for some breakfast. We lumbered our way through Brunch, crashed for an hour, and began setting up for NYE dinner. We invited some peeps who were coming to Sea of Dreams night 2 over for some pre-party dindin. It was a blast. Then we motivated to get back early to catch the ALO opening set. Rockstar parking again. We were definetly in a great karmic bubble.

ALO was fun as always. Its hard not to feel happy when ALO is playing. Then I noticed we were dancing right behind Bill Nereshi. Bonus. Then he left to get up and stage and play a couple tunes with ALO.

SCI was clearly fired up for NYE. They played a solid first set after which I had to sit down. Somehow most of our party managed to meet up right before set 2, and SCI came back in force. They built it up solidly until midnight, and then the ultimate NYE spectacular launched. Sure there were balloons. There were also dancing sumo wrestlers, fairies on stilts carrying huge balloon creatures, and dancers suspended from the ceiling inside of giant spheres and cylinders. It was epic. Tia told us right where to be, and there we were, soaking it in. SCI launched into "Rollover" and I was in heaven.

We lasted till 2. On the way out Stina was captivated by the amazing flower murals. I was more focused on the topless mermaid trapped in the plastic bubble. Each to their own.

Happy Freakin NEW YEAR!!