I had this great beginning for a story while sitting around the poker table Friday night.

While we may not be the center of the universe we certainly seem to be the center of coincidence. Example = a group of campers come to see the art garden in the morning, they take the tour and ask if they can come back later after dark when we turn on the lights. Our weekend guests arrive to shoot a music video at locations around the Salton Sea but their special effects make-up person can’t make the scene. Cut to later scene around living room table when the two groups have a chance to interact and no surprise that there is a make-up artist with pictures of her recent zombies. Of course she would love to get up early the next day and work on the shoot, they’re leaving on Sunday and what a great vacation experience.
But then she didn’t show for the shoot and it became another example of people talking more than working. Which was probably best as this was one hard working crew. The Haun Solo Project (http://haunsolo.com/ ) fronted by singer/actress Lindsey Haun (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0369424/ ) displayed something rare for musicians at East Jesus when they were all awake and active before 8 am. With two 12 hour days of filming we understood that we wouldn’t get a set in the music room but it was even more fun to sit around the table and converse with exhausted people. Because when you spend your days creating your vision of art to share with the world it leaves you tired but also enthusiastic and moderately buzzed. Even better was the group that hung around til Monday and added some art to the Tower of Barbarella. We should probably thank Phil Holland for introducing our groups and look forward to seeing their video as they generously left a few pieces from the set to commemorate the weekend.
Since the group was gone all day this left us to devote more time to giving tours of the sculpture garden and entertaining various groups that came to visit. Seems there were quite a few college students on spring break (woohoo) for whatever reason brings people to a waterless desert with no bars for spring break. Amazing was how many of them wanted to come back and live and work at East Jesus. Also amazing was how many of them were females, (poor Charlie would be pissed to miss this).
Thinking of Charlie when I started a tour from the backside of the area and no sooner had I mentioned the clothing optional gun range then our guest asked if she could shoot a gun and started to disrobe. Well she was a nice looking girl so what could I do but ask Ken if it was O.K. to use the range. He brought out the .22 handgun and gave her his full attention as range master. She fired her first round and actually hit near the target before throwing her hands up and screaming “THAT’S LOUD!” After settling her back down and into position she disdained the use of earplugs and squeezed off the rest in true style but remained deaf for the next hour. They moved higher up the list of fun guests when asked what they did for a living and they answered “making puppets for Robot Chicken”.
We also had visitors from across the seas in an Austrian/German couple who were on assignment from a women’s magazine in Germany. An editor read the Time magazine piece and dispatched them to get the feminine view of Slab City. Luckily they were brought to us and we could provide quarters for the night. It becomes a funny conversation after a few times, Them “We have a tent.”, Us “We have a 3 man tent set up next to a couch and a fire-pit and you can come over here and use the bathrooms and internet.”, Them “Amazing and Thank you.”. Now you have to realize we can’t do this for everyone but when 4 girls on a vacation explain how they didn’t bring anything to heat water for their cup of noodles, it’s just easier to invite them for dinner. Then while they explain that the next part of their plan is to head to San Diego and sleep on the beach you can help with better suggestions.
On the physical side of the program we got some more donations of things that we didn’t have before like a couple of gas pump nozzles and a small metal sink (no rust yet:( and a pile of wood scraps that looks just perfect for building a bonfire. Strung up some Styrofoam bones on the outside fence, only one person got my whole use of the ‘humerus’ bones but that’s the price of being a misunderstood artist. Phil has been working overtime to keep the ladies happy with the bathroom facilities while cleaning the solar panels to allow maximum energy and secretly working on another assemblage piece. He’s been taken with a bit of the writing bug lately and churning out his brand of entertaining craziness
(http://submetropolitan.com/ ). As always there is the constant battle with the spiders and their webs that look great on some pieces but don’t feel so good on others, repairing of wind damage, replacing of the badly broken with less broken and stirring of the dust.
With the end of the fund raising campaign we are looking to begin work on purchasing, transporting and erecting the straw bale wall for the battery container to provide insulation and sun shade. Supports, rafters and decking is in the works for the bridging between the two containers and to provide for more solar panels in the future. Big thanks to Sue for hiding jelly bean filled Easter eggs around the place for us to find.
Oh, and the tomatos are looking good.