The way the road twists... Prt.1

Let's see if I can get my wits about me and start knocking out this piece. It's a lot and I've finally settled in from all my travels. I believe that song said it best...

"Lord I was born a rambling man."

...Rambling as in traveling and also rambling as in I just don't know when to shut my fucking mouth. As you'll soon read, if you read, I think I need, to keep those lips closed from time to time and just let the events of my life play out. Really though, I'm just being me, but I guess sometimes I don't realize the effect that I have on those around me. My recent decision to enter into a committed relationship has been teaching me a great deal on who the hell it is I am. So, will start these series of posts and stories there. My great adventure into the dirty D with Ms. Ortiz.

Sweety, cover your eyes, because this gets biased, and really real :)

It's Friday...

I'm at the grill, doing the damn thing, it's a gorgeous day out and I walk away with some loot. I get cut, rush home, and change into what it is I need for this evening. Kyle Terry has invited me out to perform for his fundraiser this evening. Some of you may have seen my puppets piece on youtube and have heard that I'm attempting to present it out in public as much as possible. My hope is to get it looking as flawless as possible and shoot the thing for Slug himself. I get to the venue right on time but a conversation that I'm having with my "missile crisis" has spilled over and a round we go. I get off the phone with her eventually and head into "The Spot", grab a drink, and begin mingling with Kyle and his friends. This man truly pushes for the arts and it's not the first time he's given me an opportunity to showcase my talents. I feel pretty shitty this time around though, most of my friends have already left for DEMF and I don't have anyone showing up to this gig to support me. I watch a performance Kyle has been choreographing for sometime now, get down to all types of great soul music, and wait for my lovely assistant to arrive. She gets there and I'm a few drinks in (OPEN BAR!!!), we flirt, and I feel no nerves what so ever. I think that's what a good women can do for a man, really help bring down the tension, but I'm sure a lot of fella's can agree...They sure can add a brick load of stress to whatever is going on if they so choose. She strings me up, gives me a peck on the cheek, and I go about my piece. I feel to drunk and overall am not thrilled with how I performed. I get lot's of recognition after the fact and I'm told by a few people that have seen both the other times I've performed this that tonight was the best one....Meh, not sure, the tape will tell all. She leaves to finish packing, I stay to continue mingling and share some love with this extremely nice party. I normally tend to not get a long with the "artsy" types but Kyle seems to keep good company and I'm honored to be amongst them.

I step out into that crisp Chicago air and begin driving to her place. We're suppose to be leaving in less then 12 hours so I'm getting mighty anxious. It's a big weekend for "us", three days, we have our own hotel, and it's going to be about as up close and personal as it can get. She loves electronic music and it will be cool to bring her to a festival shes never been to before. I'm attempting to park my car outside her place (Try to find parking in Lincoln Park...I dare you), I find a spot, it's sort of tight, and I begin to kiss the shit out of these two cars. I look to the left and she's standing outside my car cracking up. Turns out that she just found parking, so I get out of my car, and journey with her up into her pad. TURNS OUT, she still has to do laundry, and is no where near being ready to go. The waiting begins, my patience starts leaking, and the worst part is there is nothing I can do to improve this situation.

Finally we get out the door at a ridiculous time, food still hasn't been purchased, showers still need to be had, and we're journeying to my place in the burbs. We get there and realize that she left her jackets @ home and this sends whats left of the evening into an uncomfortable mess. We pass out on opposite sides of the bed, just how I pictured us always sleeping together for the first time at my place, and this seems much better then us fighting.

Morning comes, we hop up, I finish what little packing I have left to do, while she goes about her extremely long cleansing ritual. Once again I can hear the tic-toc, we still haven't filled up our cooler, the rental car needs to get picked up, and it's 10 o'clock. So I head out the door to at least get the car and pick us up some breakfast. Make some jokes with the rental car guys about relationships, sign over some money, and get a cherry red Chevy Cobalt. It has a jack inside of it so we can play our Ipod's and this makes me SOOOOOOO happy :) I stop off at this wonderful greek diner on the way back to my place, pick up some bagels, and fruit. I get back and she's almost ready to go. I have to do the thing I don't like doing and start to lay pressure on the situation because by my timing we can still maybe make "DZ". The jackets come back up, some snacks at least need to be purchased for the ride, and we make a stop off at Target. Things are purchased and finally at about 12:30 we get on the road to Detroit. Needless to say I'm more then a little upset, so I pop in this comedy CD I made and begin to laugh it all off. Will be there soon and can start enjoying the entire experience.

The drive is pretty smooth sailing, only catch one little bit of traffic, and I could've sworn I saw SeaBass getting removed from his vehicle by police. Then again I was going 80 mph but later I would come to find that it was definitely him...sooo sorry dude, hope all works out for you. About half way into the drive hunger definitely sets in and we decide to pull over for some subway. She goes into her usual thing with the guy, about changing his gloves, and I get it at this point...however this older gentlemen at the end of the line doesn't.

"Hey, maybe you should ask him to clean the knives too." He snickers a bit and I can't help but chuckle too.

I get it, especially after the last couple days, but sometimes the extremes get to be pretty heavy for me. I really can't express how it makes me feel all the time, so it was sort of interesting to see/hear someone else share my sentiment. I purchase some Jamie for a flask, play with some dog locked in a hot car, and jump back into my cherry thunderbolt Detroit bound. Eating while driving, singing, laughing, and imagining how great this fest is going to be.

Last year it was an amazing weekend, I bonded with so many new dancers, and really it inspired me to do what I'm doing this year. The roster this year is just insane, bonkers, and I can't wait to pass the flow. Floasis, to me, is what I had been searching for as a dancer for all these years, and it's amazing to keep meeting new dancers. The secret cynic hiding somewhere in the deep cracks of my mind, keeps thinking I'll meet one of these dancers that isn't, humble, down to earth, or a super Nerdy dude such as myself.

We arrive...
Just in time for Excision and so it begins! A lot of liquid dancers, some familiar others from the year before, an extremely nice sound guy, nene, and miss Vanessa. Everything goes by extremely fast the first night. The bad MC's start during DJ Hypes set (last set of the night) and for some reason follow us to the afters.

We try to check into our hotel room but for some reason it's over booked and we get put up 20 minutes out of the D at this really nice hotel room FO FREE!!! yesssssssssssss! We head to an afters to see Vaski and a grip of other great talent. However, it all goes south because there are to many wack MC's!!! Put down the mic and let the party be...this coming from an MC! Her and I bounce and trek back to our very nice room. Pass out time comes shortly after and I awake to an amazing breakfast downstairs. So many yummy delicious choices and once again FREE!!! hahahaha

From here on out I won't be boring you with the waiting or the other conflicts that were formed due to my company. Things have tanked in a big way and I won't slander her, myself, or us for that matter. Just know...there was a lot of waiting and not a lot of compromising.

Get into the fest on the second day sometime early evening...meet up with Lucy and walk about the place. I come up, break through, and bump into RIO (use to be known as CrazyTutts, now known as RioMcfly...I just call him BROoOOooOH!) get up with the get down and then peace out. Eventually I meet up with some of my floasis friends and we begin to do our thing. Funny thing is, after a few minutes of doing our thing, poppers, bboys, and all other forms of wacktastic dancing start moving in on our good time. So we shift to the right, like 15ft and let them have the space. Another circle is formed and we splash about with our liquids on a hot spring day.

Krack n Smack...WHEN YA HOLD N A SQUEEZE ME TIGHT!!! Such a great performance, amazing tunes, and just a shit done of dope dancing! Lucas Lock and Tiny Love just continually melted my face, with follow up performances by my good friend TMY! I didn't know where to look or what would be coming next but I knew that it was for sure going to be dope.

I end up heading back to the car BY MYSELF at some point, missing most of Mr. Scruffs set and I can't tell but I think almost getting mugged for my wrist band. The near mugging puts me in the middle of the street where I'm not suppose to be and traffic just FLYING by. It was an amazing site to see and I loved the way the breeze licked my cheeks. I catch a fresh change of clothes, some eats, and head back to the festival.

I meet back up with my co-pilot for the weekend and do the damn thing. Some crazy electro act with a dude, the filtered his voice to sound like a girl, but really looked like a girl rocked it out hard. Lazers, bass, and this amazing view of Ontario wrapped up my sunday night at the fest. I had left our plans up to my friend and she came up with nothing through out the day. So we headed to Aliens & Androids and met up with the floasis family.

Once inside I was amazed, the place had a real life rave vibe but you could tell it was some sort of regular club/indy show venue. SICK ass DARK SLAMMING tunes all night, plus an outdoor area with some dank house chunes. So many great dancers trapped in this bass pounding box. Danny the Wild Child through down and amazing set, HULK SMASH, and yes TINY LOVE!!!

I'd seen his clips, read his words on the forum, even heard stories from friends, but nothing could prepare me for the up close and personal experience. The dude bugged me out more then any dancer ever has and really has me re-thinking my plans as a dancer. So much diversity, energy, and just an all around friendly guy. At the afters he talked to me for a bit and dropped a pretty sizable compliment in my lap. Floating along, I end up getting pulled out of there a bit earlier then I wanted to but at this point I'm all about getting through the weekend with out arguing. So we head back to the dank hotel room and I end up tripping my face off till 11 in the AM...yikes.

Not really sure how that happened but it was intense. Thought the cops were coming for me at one point. Waited till the pool opened up in the morning and swam about. Soaked in the hot tub and then swam about some more, ate some foods, and then crawled into bed. I wake up and start packing things, let her sleep till she's ready to get up, and then busy myself through out the beautification process.

We leave the hotel, car packed up, and head next door to the worlds worst mini golf place EVER!!! Hahahahaha....so ghetto fab and just nothing fun about it at all. At least they had Go-karts, right? Uhhh WRONG?!?!? I see this couple putting around the track at like 8mph and ask them if they are having fun. The scowl on the young mans face gives me a pretty good idea of the fun level. So we head to our car and off to the Dirty D for the last night of the festival.

We park the car, eat some shrooms, and head to the Casino. We get denied at the casino because I have a backpack...WTF!!!...how about a coat check yo! No worries, we head across the street to eat some tasty tex mex, salsa dance in the diner, and eventually head to Bazooka's. The strip club is really empty, I guess they just had opened, and we get a drink. Then take our seats and I begin to teach my friend about the inner workings of a strip club. I'm not a pro but I've been enough times to know, this would be her first time, and it was just chalked with hilarity!!!

The first stripper up MOLESTS my friend, we give her dollars, and I show her how the more uniquely you hand over the money the more fun it is. The next dancers name is Beauty and is she ever. Tiny petite african girl who teases the imagination with every swivel of her hips. I buy a dance for my friend from Beauty and we end up getting a two for one deal. It's hilarious!!! In the back of the club, caked in darkness she grinds on my friend, then on me, and towards the end I ask her...

"What's your favorite part about being a human being."

She pauses and says...

"I can't think about that when I'm grinding!!!"

and then goes back to it. I prod and insist and with a little more hesitation she says...

"MONEY"

Typical!!! Here I thought I had found myself a stripper with some depth. I mean she does childcare by day and was finishing up a physical therapy degree. I guess in the end it's what makes the world go round and coming from an extremely economically depressed city as Detroit it seems natural.

We leave the strip club cracking up and spring through the rain to the festival. Once in side, hugs are given, and PRETTY LIGHTS GOES ON!!! HOORAY! It seemed a lot shorter then an hour set but whatevers. We slam around and after they are done my Chicago fam peaces out. I walk them out, slam with a few more dancers, and learn that the Blackhawks have just taken another game in their series. This prompts me to climb the steal beams at the RedBull stage and wave my jersey about like mad. I climb down and enjoy the final 45 minutes of the festival with my friend. After about 4 encore tracks Booka ends and we make our way back to that lovely cherry chevy.

Two dudes are stranded in the parking garage. So I let them use my cellphone, smoke them down, and give them some rations to tide them over till there party doubles back for them. Then we hop in and head back towards the greatest city on this earth. I wait till were about 15 minutes outside the city and engage in a nasty conversation with her. Things that I needed to say and it's really the beginning of the end.

Relationships are intense!!! So much work, compromise, and all with no guarantee's. We're both amazing peoples but sometimes people just don't work together. No fingers being pointed here but that weekend I feel showed me a lot of who we are in a relationship setting. It will be an extremely long time before I go attaching myself to one human being. I've always been the one pursuing someone and I think it's time for me to just solely pursue my dreams. If companionship is in the cards for me I'm pretty sure it'll slap me in the face at some point. For now, it's all about TINY LOVE!!! learning from him and then running around the world to learn all I can from others.

The list of amazing liquid dancers I've met continues to grow. This year at DEMF was by far the best one I've ever had. I missed the time that I had with my dancer friends last year, the mid fest picnics, the morning breakfast, Kev's cat, and all the cheeky shinanagins but there is always next year ;)