As I am recounting the numerous stories from this year's Coachella and Dark Lord trip, I started getting all nostalgic about the previous 4 years and how much everything has changed since 2006.  I do a "7 Day Countdown" each year focusing on favorite performances from years past leading up to Coachella, but I haven't paid homage to the social side of the trip.  So while I am still putting together recaps from the vacation, here is a tribute to the past four years of California love!

2006 - No school, got work, need vacation

My best friend Jessica and I had graduated from college and both obtained fulltime positions immediately after.  We had taken short trips together before, but were looking for something bigger and better.  Our friend Andrea had just moved to San Francisco the year prior and brought to our attention this 2 day festival in SoCal, Coachella.  It took all of 10 minutes to decide this was our fate, Depeche Mode and Tool were headlining and Daft Punk was playing as well, possibly the first/last show in the US in years.  We flew into Ontario Aiport, as did Andrea, rented our car and made East to Indio.  Our good friend Paul moved to LA from CT a couple years prior and also met us out there.  It was a grand weekend of CT peeps, sun, and Daft Punk's pyramid.  I literally cried when driving back on I-10 through the wind turbine fields, I knew I would be back next year.  We didn't have time or money that year to explore the area beyond walking around Palm Springs, we arrived Friday morning and left Monday afternoon.

2007 - Begining of the +1's

You may think that there is too much camo in that picture, but on the day Rage Against the Machine reuintes to kick your capitalist ass 4/6 guerillas prefer the camo.  2007 saw the addition to our group of Steve, Jessica's boyfriend (now husband) on the right.  The kid to the far left was a single traveler from AZ camping next to us, who we adopted pretty fast, and Paul in the middle that year was a bit emo goth.  Coachella expanded the fest to 3 days that year which was absolutely the best idea ever.  Jess, Steve, and I extended our vacation that year as well, camping at Joshua Tree and exploring Temecula, Newport Beach, and Palm Springs (PS has become a shitty tradition, but tradition none the less).  I was a year older and wiser to the fest and spent the majority of my time solo, seeing the bands I wanted and partying with "festival friends" all weekend.  This might be my favorite year, it is a hard competition with 2008.

2008 - The Begining of the End

Another addition to our group came in 2008 when Andrea brought her beau Sean.  Quite the character, laid back, a perfect fit.  Other relationships, namely mine and Jessica's, were unfortunately faultering due to differences in lifestyles and relationships.  Her and Steve we moving in together, I continued to be single since late 2005, and we butted heads more than once before coming out and afterwards, making a rift that would last until this year.  As with 2007 I spent 90% of my time alone, making new friends and making Coachella mine, living it up in the Do Lab and Sahara Tent.  Paul scraped the emo goth look for natural color and a beard, and an army supply of SPF 100.  This would be the last year our group attended Coachella, Paul and I would be the only two who continued to go.  I did continue the post-Coachella trip this year, driving back with Andrea and Sean to San Fran for a few days including a beer trip to Russian River, then hit Las Vegas for 2 nights (yes, solo!) on my way back home.

2009 - Rolling into new territory

  Because I'm free, to do what I want, any old time.  Jess and Steve were on the fence up until February on wether they could afford to go with their wedding coming up the year after.  Andrea and Sean were out as well for money issues, and Paul drives from LA early Friday morning so he was out for picking me up as well. I'm extremely comfortable with traveling alone and have many times for business and pleasure, and with my intensive post-Coachella plans I knew my only worries would be saving money at every turn to make this happen. I put it to the Coachella boards, a commmunity I had become pretty active with the year prior.  Coachella is interesting in that so many people travel from all over the world to get there, and most are just figuring out their shit as they go (hitchhiking, bus rides, etc).  I hooked up a ride with Reza, a SoCal kid, who offered to give me a ride from the airport and was picking up 3 kids flying in from Mexico.  I also had a ride setup with the "Camping All Alone" group I was part of, from Indio to Vegas on Monday morning, where I would be meeting up with my Brother and Dad for some Bailey's in Vegas shenanigans.  Everything fell right into place for my only year to do Coachella solo.  I pulled Reza, Antonio, Myra, and Jackie into my camping group when we arrived Thursday and we were an international family for the weekend.  Reza and I kept in touch, hitting up Electric Zoo in NYC on labor day weekend.  Even better, he picked up Antonio again this year and they joined our 2010 group.

This is the face of California bliss, Venice Beach 2009

I didn't even notice how comfy and cute my feet were this morning until walking down the stairs to the front door:

Why? My mind is in California, in the desert on a polo field partying til 5 AM.

This will be my 5th consecutive year going to Coachella.  What started as a girls reunion weekend back in '06 has turned into a yearly pilgrimage for me.  It is more than just the performances.  Camping in itself is a constant playground party from Thursday til Monday morning (a roller derby and pinball challenge are new this year), I will be dancing in the Do Lab at any given point of the day, and the art installations that come are on par with Burning Man (never been). 

Coachella has heard the cries of the inebriated this year, we can bring in beer and wine!!  Canned and boxed of course, so goodbye vodka filled water bottles.  I already stashed 6 cans of New England Brewing's Sea Hag, might be getting some new Ghandi Bot early to bring, and will stock up on Oskar Blues and Maui brewing at a Bev Mo. 

Back to camping, as the grounds open Thursday only for those camping for the weekend.  It has been a tradition of almost everyone to decorate their camp sites.  It is not just for fun, it provide function as well (locating your site at 3 AM while coming down from whatever, not easy).  This year I opted to represent CT the best way I can:

For $8 at Ocean State Job Lot, I got a Martha Stewart white canvas shower curtain, fabric paint, brushes, 2 other print shower curtains for side-shade on the canopy, and glow in the dark sticky stars.  I printed out a guide for myself for the logo and in the end I'll be flying this bad boy loud and proud:

I'm not sure what else I'll add to the flag, sometimes simplicity just looks better, but I'm open to suggestion.  I'm not even going balls to the wall here, there is one group that has made a teepee volcano, complete with fog machine for smoke, every year.  Hell last year to honor Sir Paul the group I camped with and I went all out with a Yellow Submarine theme:

The only thing that sucks, is that a week from now it will all be done for another year :(

HOWEVER.... the adventure does not end there.

San Diego will meet its match for a few days while I drink all the beer I can, Minneapolis gets to hang with us for a night, and then Dark Lord Day. 

Detox?  Rehab?  GTFO.

Until I lost $12.99 in a weird internet scam, I hated on blogs/bloggers/Candyass for being so caught up in themselves they actually believed others cared what they ate for breakfast.  Not no more people, now that a blog comes free with this subscription I'm all over this.

With all the traveling I do, festivals I attend, and trouble I make I might as well document it once so I don't have to repeat my BAMF stories to everyone.  Or, more realistically, this will only serve as a warning to others.

All this just in time for the most wonderful time of the year, Coachella and Dark Lord Day 2010.

I still hate C-you-next-tuesday.

Edit:  Names have been altered above to protect TBS ;-)