Monday, April 13, 2009

From Little Rock to Venice Beach

























By Restless [Originally on goofyblog 5.16.07]

The first year I attended Burning Man (1998), I rented a huge RV and drove to my friends’ camp to the far north of city center arriving just after midnight on Wednesday. What an astonishing sight! I will never forget those first hours, listening to Bolero waft out from one camp, while from another I could see a small area well-stocked with beat up sofas full of a crowd eagerly watching old black and white television.

I didn’t know where my friends were exactly located so I parked the rv and used my bike to get to the message boards, found their note and pulled into their camp at about 1. My friends had been going to BM for a few years, but they were with their friends who had been going since the early 90s. When I told them I was going to rent an RV, they hooked me up with 2 of their friends who they had persuaded to attend for the first time as my roommates. Robin and Eric were from LA and the 3 of us newbies became instant companions for the next 5 days.

After it was over, the 3 of us drove in caravan (E & R in Eric’s car, me in the RV) to an RV park in Reno and slept for like 10 hours, then they split south and I split west.

Almost instantly after leaving, the thing that is Burning Man hit me and hit me hard. I missed it. By January I was missing my new friends as well and I persuaded Galen to drive down to Los Angeles and hang out with them. Galen, the friend that had originally got me into BM, had grown up in Los Angeles and still had many friends there.

We drove to Robin’s apartment in Venice and almost immediately she took us on a tour of the boardwalk. It was exotic, bizarre and I fell in love with this part of Los Angeles on first sight.

As we were walking up the boardwalk, the couple above jumped out of a store, dressed just like they are in the picture above, and started dancing and singing. Tres bizarre to say the least, but also very endearing.

This is why it’s a real treat to read about them and find out more about who they are. Elton and Betty came from Little Rock, where it seems Betty may have been a secretary to Hillary Clinton at one time. She had psych problems and was taking medication, but then decided to heave the meds and just be herself.

Somehow they found their way to L.A. and Venice. If you visit their myspace site you will be treated to Betty’s rendition of Paranoid Schizophrenia and Menopause Mama among other sterling dittys.

I’m so glad they are still doing their thing in the City of Angels.

Link.

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