Thank You! Thank You, Seattle!

I just love rest stops! I have been taking photos of them and am going to compile them into a zine.

Dave and I went to Bumbershoot on Labour Day weekend. It is a great festival of music, visual and performance art, and comedy. We drove down to Seattle on Sunday and stayed the night at a beautiful hostel on Vashon Island, which is just 25 min or so by ferry from the center of Seattle. You can sleep in a dorm,a teepee, a covered wagon or bring your own tent. I booked a teepee for Dave and I. It was really cool. Just a bed on a concrete slab in a canvas teepee. But in the teepee next to ours a guy was snoring so loud that neither Dave or I could sleep so at around 2 or 3 in the morning we gathered our sleeping bags and snuck inside into the rec room area and tried to sleep on some couches. We got a couple hours sleep but then people started coming in to make breakfast downstairs and their noises echoed through out the whole place. So we didn't sleep very well that night. I would love to go back and stay there for a week and do some writing or art projects because the place was so beautiful and inspiring. Some photos of Vashon Island and the Hostel:



We originally decided to go to Bumbershoot because we discovered that one of our favorite singers would be performing. Roky Erickson. His story is unbelievable. He was part of a band called the 13th Floor Elevators in the 1960's that is considered to be one of the first psychedelic bands. After getting arrested for pot possession he pleaded insane in order to get out of jail time. He ended up in a mental institution getting shock therapy for 3 years. The combination of drugs, shock treatment and depression has left him schizophrenic. He was unable to make much music or tour for over 2 decades but with the help of his brother and proper medical treatment he has made so much progress and is now touring again.

Just writing about him makes me shiver and brings tears to my eyes. I first heard about him a few years ago at the Big Smash Music-on-Film Festival, where his biographical movie, You're Gonna Miss Me premiered in Vancouver. I had to leave the screening for 5 min because I was crying so much!

His performance at Bumbershoot was awesome. They opened with my favorite song, It's a Cold Night for Alligators, and I cried again! After every song he said Thank You! Thank You! and seemed really proud of himself when he finished a song. You could tell that it was a little bit of a struggle for him, but that he was having a good time and that he knew it meant a lot to the audience that he was there. My emotions are so mixed about the whole situation, but I am so glad that I was able to see him perform.

The set was long and included so many wicked songs. He was signing autographs after the set and I had him sign two cds and Dave had him sign a poster that we has just bought.

If you like Rock & Roll and stories like his I would strongly recommend checking him out. Here is a little montage of photos that I took.