Spanish Fork... Mumbai... you decide

I'm not going to be the first and most certainly not the last to create a facebook album specifically dedicated to this weekends Festival Of Colors in Spanish Fork. I'm anticipating by Monday afternoon that I'll recieve a notice on my homepage that at least 15 of my friends have been tagged in someones album or have changed their profile picture to something involving the festival of colors. I'm going to be no exception.

The picture below was taken while waiting for the festival to begin. I couldn't help myself while sitting on the lawn in an 'ever-so-in-touch-with-my-inner-hindu-criss-cross-applesauce fashion' from poking my little finger into a plastic baggy of chalk and get my face prepped for the excitement (notice the pink stripe going under the eyes and across the nose, grr baby).



Here is a brief explanation of the festival:

A bunch of BYU students in EFY t-shirts and jeans mingling with one another about how "fetching awesome" the event is. Sprinkled in are a few token actual hindus and a smattering of dreadlocked barefootees keeping themselves far more composed. When time came to begin throwing the color a prominent member of the local Hindu community stepped on stage to explain the historical and religious influence of the ceremony while no one even made a semblance of an attempt to be polite and listen to the background story. The colors soon began to fly with such intensity that within seconds all involved were speckled head to toe with vivid blues, violets, pinks, oranges, greens, yellows, and reds. Random strangers would throw handfulls directly into the face of anyother, to which the reciever would smile widely and exlaim "Hey thanks!" This ensued for nearly 15 minutes while a Rock Band played fast paced music and chanted the Hare Krishna chant over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Soon a mosh pit had developed and sometimes 5 to 6 people at a time would be crowd surfing atop the chalk caked audience. This level of excitement lasted for well over an hour as more and more students poured into the venue, anxious to get in on all the action. Most people had a walk to the temple upwards of 20 minutes. Cars lined country roads in all directions for about two miles.

All in all, it was gernerally exciting and actually quite a blast. Here are some of the photos to prove it.

Skype... all that is skypey

Skype... A combination of the words "Sweet", "Kool", "Yeah Baby", "Pimp", and "Electricity". Soon to replace facebook is the oddly entertaining, semi-neat-o, slightly inching towards 'dirty' video chat. I say bordering on dirty because there is just some slimey connotation to the phrase 'cyber web cam video chat', although there's hardly anything gross about the service. That is of course unless you're using the term gross like those contemporary youngsters do as synonymous with more outdated terms like phat, tight, dope etc,. NEVERTHELESS..... I got to talk for FREE with a really good friend all the way down in CHILE for about 45 minutes with little or no technical problems. I hadn't talked to that guy since my mission and it was a blast to catch up. All my friends had been like Skype this, skype that, skype walks my dog and does my oChem homework. Poppycock you say? Not so fast my friend. I have friends studying abroad and family all over the place that I CANNOT wait to stalk down on skype and have a 'cyber web cam video chat' with. I'll put the water on now...

The etymology of the title

The term "six foot lobster" has been in use since antiquity. Josephus is quoted as describing the Roman Army during their seige of Jerusalem as "A fire army of Six Foot Lobsters". More resently it was used to dub the stellar stage prescence held by a childhood friend named Brett Young.

It was the Cedar Heights Junior High talent show during 9th grade and the hit band F.A.P. was slated to headline the star studded event (Oprah politely declined attending). During F.A.P's set the hit number "Brain Stew" by Greenday was reverberating through the commons as an unassuming Lobster made his way toward the stage. The Lobster climbed on stage, danced around, jumped off the drumstand, and proceeded to make godzilla-esque noises into the microphone amidst luscious powerchords and wailing. He was forever dubbed the Six Foot Lobster.

There you have it. Hopefully whatever ends up in this micro-universe is as interesting as 14 year old 130lb weight class all-star trouncing around on stage in a lobster costume. Enjoy.