Sinister: what are you doing with my fingers

[paisley pants]

Lazy Line Painter David wrote a question and I'm hoping that my hand will go 
up first!

>Doesn't it ever rain in Austin? And does anyone know what's the deal >with 
>Isobel on this tour? Is she ill?

Struan explained Isobel's absence by telling us that the tour schedule was 
hard on her, and she was resting up by skipping some dates. I was sorry not 
to get to see her. At first I wondered if Sarah was her, but she was smiling 
far too much, the cutie. B&S did get a moody cellist to replace Isobel 
though, who was very pretty in a tattered white dress and stylish blonde 
hair. She wandered off to sulk periodically, hee.

Texas weather does whatever it pleases, but lately it's been busy getting 
hot. Enough rain, time for the flowers to bloom. It's Beltane today, kids, 
did you remember? Happy Beltane! I went camping with my Pagan Student 
Alliance friends (our official university organization, yes, we're 
registered and have elections and hold meetings and all that) to celebrate 
the season as it arrived. People from all across the state (and some even 
further away) gathered together on a woodsy piece of land owned by a pagan 
organization.

Well, I came in the trunk because there was no room in the car. We were 
arriving a bit late to the campsite because I'd had to attend class. So I 
missed the crowning of the May King and Queen, as well as the Maypole. But I 
was laying there in the trunk, and it was like a spaceship with the 
taillights blinking, and then the trunk opened up and I was in the woods.

The atmosphere was families, fires burning, workshops, green meditation 
groves, and lots of smiling. It was also clothing optional, so after three 
days some people had sunburn troubles, despite the copious amounts of 
sunscreen. If freckles are kisses, is sunburn like a big ole hickey? Too 
fierce! Now we all know where you've been.

My ride to the B&S concert is a self-described "indie snob." He was very 
annoyed when a girl at the concert asked him about his Pedro the Lion shirt. 
She hadn't heard of them, the blasphemous heathen. He wore his black frames 
glasses specially to the show, the ones without a prescription because his 
eyesight is 20/20.

One of my friends was camping with her family, so I went to meet her family. 
A handshakes just doesn't do for a pagan camp-out. As her bare breasted 
mother gave me a warm embrace, I thought about how people usually think of 
nudism as uncomfortably sexual.

Women keeping their tits tucked away, flirtatiously popping out, or ashamed 
when they discover a button has accidentally come undone. Men walking as 
though they have a concealed weapon, hitching their clandestine pride as 
though it were a weighty theorem shifting in their jeans, or a subtle threat 
that might cause social humilation.

Well, there's push-up bras and thongs, packing and binding. And then there's 
public showers. I was somewhat disappointed to see that nobody else had 
scars quite like mine, so I sudsed my face and hair first. By the time I got 
all the soap away from my eyes, everyone who'd wanted to have a look had 
politely finished it and merely wanted to borrow some of my shampoo.

My ride couldn't believe that there was guy at the show wearing a baseball 
cap backwards on his head. "Baseball is an indie rock sport, at least. But 
BACKWARDS at a Belle and Sebastian show?!?" Football is not an indie rock 
sport, by the way. Golf is tolerable. My ride was undecided about whether or 
not Struan's soccer ball was appropriate.
Pretty complicated to rule the school, ah scenesters. Speaking of 
football/soccer, when Mike Streets talks about "geezers," is he actually 
talk about old people, or is this Brit slang for "guys"?

I kept myself covered up during the camp-out, until the last night. My 
friends crept back to our tents after the main ritual (which was Discordian 
and hilariously apt for a fertility festival). They were burnt to a crisp 
and thus needing rest. Because it was dark, my skin's marks weren't visible. 
In the woods, away from the city lights, the sky was so black you could see 
the stars and a huge halo around the moon. I changed into shorts and an 
undershirt. It was dawn when I finally left the fire dancers' camp, where 
they spun fire in the air and fought with flames, and one of them asked me 
for a kiss before I left. I was wondering he'd still have wanted that kiss 
if he'd seen my arms and legs in the clear honest light. I wonder why it was 
okay for those strangers in the shower to see me completely, but I wouldn't 
let my own friends see me in my shorts. Sometimes I think I am a born liar, 
but it's nice to meet people you'll never meet again.

After the concert, I would have liked to have met the band, as charming and 
friendly and ordinary as they seemed to be. But my ride though we should 
follow the car with the Mogwai bumper sticker. To see what cool place they 
would be headed for. (Fredricksburg.)

It's all good. DECEPTIVELY GOOD.

...

You're nakey right now, aren't you?





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