These quiet lazy(ish) days allow me to reflect on the last couple months…

After a few little bumps in the road, January passed in a haze of glory and East Jesus officially turned 10 years old. As was so fitting, the celebrations occurred on the same day as the Niland Tomato Festival and Art Car Regatta. In true EJ fashion we made our appearance known. Along with our flagship art car, The Dusty Junk (Best Float, again) -featuring some rusty, dusty, and a little crusty, folk musicians- we also brought Scott’s Space Bug and Brian’s Crybaby Buick (Most Creative Car).

After a quick stay for the festival (and some delicious tacos) and a few hours rest back at EJ, it was time to celebrate our big day. We tried to celebrate just as we imagine Charlie would have wanted to. There was a fantastic taco bar (More tacos? I know, right?) courtesy of GirlBob, JP, Ed, and Victoria. Chocolate martinis, courtesy of Sue. Fire spinners and a 10 year Car-B-Que for the ages.

Then Aaron fired up the music room and, joined by Jenna, Johnny, and Nic, had us moving to the outlaw folk sounds of Blasphemous Gods. Then Chris Caplan made his grand return to the East Jesus music room and reminded us all what we were missing.

All in all a great way to ring in a decade. Here’s to another 10.

Taking a quick second to acknowledge the birthdays of Tray, Liz, and Greg, we continued to exist through the month of February. Newest resident, Coco, completely renovated the Brothel. Also, he and Liz have perfectly filled the void left by Marty’s departure and keep us fed very well; including a homemade pasta-off(pastoff?). Kit and Kaos cleaned and organized our library and Boneyard. (We have a library?) Royce and several others started the erection of Amphibia. Aaron built new HUGE compost boxes. And, old friend of Charlie’s, Brian(Buster) did a lot of work getting our solar system to give us the power we need to keep the lights on, the fridges cool, the music room humming, and the modem working so we can sit around and look through the internet all day instead of working on projects like we should.

And, through all that we still found time to reflect on our role here on planet Earth and what we’re here to do and what it means to be an East Jesuit…and then the Stoopids came.

For the third year running Stoopidity chose our borders as the place for them to indulge in a weekend of substance-induced frivolity. There was fire, there were explosions, there were stoopid happenings galore. This year we decided to open our questionably constructed doors to these wonderful yet stoopid folks. Night 1 involved a chili cookoff. There were three winners (including Tray with second place) but, really, everyone who was able to enjoy the chili, was a winner. Greg, in his usual fashion, brought a delicious cut of prime rib as well as some hog jowl bacon; keeping the spirit, of the first time he met Charlie, alive and well. Some campfire tunes capped off the night with good friends and family. Then Night 2: the main event. Ed, and JP grilled us up some burgers and dogs (Murika!)  Sue added to our already bulging waistlines with a quadruple threat helping of flaming piecaken. (Pur-dee as a Peach, Bumblefuck Blueberry, Redneck Raspberry, and Trailer Park Cherry) Then, as the stoopids are wont to do, the celebrations commenced with a beautiful burning of the effigy (a giant Jack Daniels bottle) several rousing games of redneck soccer (Aaron’s beard hasn’t been the same since) and lots of loud bass-y music. The stoopids then migrated to the front to play a few games of fire volleyball and then burn the Car-B-Que. Due to circumstances beyond our control (damn desert) the BEAUTIFULLY STOOPID wood structure, Coco built on the Car-B-Que, needed to be taken down. But we were still able to have a proper burning as we are wont to do. Through all of this, Addy flew her drone around and captured some AMAZING footage of all the crazy and stoopid and crazy stoopid. Add to all that meeting some great new people and seeing old friends return and we can call this a successfully stoopid event (Have I used the word ‘stoopid’ enough yet?) and we’ll be more than happy to have them back again.

Art Slam is coming in a couple weeks and the season is coming to a close. Those of us staying the summer are getting ready for the sun to finally remember what climate this is and start reminding us why insanity is so prevalent around these parts. Hopefully before that, we’ll be graced with the presence, once again, of the Morton Salt Children’s Religious Revival, for another great weekend of the kind of art that we’ve grown accustomed to here in East Jesus.

I’ll just say that we’ll still be here no matter what crazy is going on in the world. Through all the crazy that happened after Charlie’s passing. Through all the crazy that has happened in the last 6 years. Through all the crazy from the last few months, we’re still here. We made it a whole decade We plan to exist for many more than that and whatever happens we intend to go down swinging. With a gun in one hand and bottle of bourbon in the other. (Hold my Merlot and watch this!) So stick around to see how that develops…

Make Good Thing – Do Big Fun – Get More Laid – Rise and Infect