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RICK'S BIG TRIP page 17 Finally,
back in Holland. That picture? That would be a cute little water pipe and a gram
and an half of high grade hash, goes for about 25 guilders – that’s ten
bucks. Any questions? |
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Hey, did
you know that in the bad old days when I was a wild piano playin’ cowboy, I
used to take my piano out on the street and play for tips? Here’s a guy I met
from Barcelona, sitting in Utrecht’s Hoog Catharijne, doing that very same
thing. I said hi to him, told him a little of our common history and gave him
a good tip. Another generation of street pianists. |
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Every
evening, in the neighborhood where I’m staying, homing pigeons circle above.
There they go! |
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I’ve been
painting a little more. Looks like I’m working there on a sort of abstract
composition – I guess all that museum-lookin’ got me thinkin’ about
compositional elements. Hey, this is a business trip. |
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Remember
that State Of Mind store we looked at a few pages ago? Look what you can get
there: Mexican mushrooms and natural ecstasy. Interesting, hunh? |
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Are you
ready for another big adventure? I don’t think anybody could be ready for
this, but here I go! Dance Valley festival 2001! Biggest dance festival in
the world, drew about 90,000 people. See that big crowd at the train station?
That’s way too many people trying to get onto way too few busses, all at once
– and the Dutch never heard of standing on line! It was a
really dangerous, badly managed crowd-(out of)-control situation. Monica (you
remember my friend from Amsterdam) and I barely made it without serious
injury. |
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The event
was held in a great big park with great big sculptures, like those giant
concrete plates, and that (temporary) inflated octopus. Trippy. Noisy.
Crowded. |
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Weird
entertainment? You bet! Here’s a guy with big, bad flame-throwers leading a
modern medieval parade of iron-clad Mad Max troops – completed at the end by
a cage of taunting sex-slave girls. Crazy. |
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Being way
too mellow for the pervading vibe, Monica and I sought refuge in the
“Ambience” tent. That’s a photo she took of me on one end of a hammock. Best
place to be on the whole fair grounds! We had our fun and left early. It
wasn’t really our thing – more crowding than dancing and, well, I guess we’re
just not that young anymore. Good thing we left. People at the end of the
event got stuck in the rain with not enough busses. 700 landed in temporary
shelters, fire and police stations, 60 landed in the hospital. For your
next big party, think “crowd control.” |
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NEXT PAGE….! |
