No Grayling Left Behind

Evel Knievel Days - Part Deux

Evel Knievel Days 2007 burned out like a flame a fire during the fireworks show Saturday night. With two of the most spectacular events slated for Saturday evening, the crowd swelled in the streets of Uptown Butte. First up - the fire wall break by some guy whose nick name is "Rocket."
He drove through 12 burning walls that looked like they were about an inch thick. After some good acting before the stunt, the stuntman jumped up and down like he won the lottery. After watching this twice last weekend, I don't really think he was in as much danger as they were saying, but I sure as hell wouldn't have the ball to do that.


Luckily on Saturday night I picked a spot right next to where Evel Knievel was parked for most of the big jump. Trigger jumped only 19 cars after Evel Days advertised a 39-car jump. Of course the festival had the rights to change or back out of any stunt during the weekend.


Evel wasn't in the best shape as seen here in this photograph with some of his relatives (I think). The long-haired hippy looking guy in the doo-rag is Matt Vincent. I used to work with him.



Finally - the jump.


Andy Larson sang some patriotic songs before the big jump.

Some people tried to get a good shot by getting on this thingy. To the far right is John Emeigh and with the camera second from the left is Lisa Kunkel. Both work for the Montana Standard.

Over The Top - After the jump the Party Palace held an arm-wrestling competition and a band named Speculator Fire played AC/DC up the street with a 10-year old guitarist.
Earlier in the day the Party Palace had karaoke in the street. Call it amateur hour or whatever - it's still entertaining.
Some of the crowd
This little girl was listening to Journey on a motorbike in front of the Party Palace. What a great way to babysit your kid.
The streets and alleys filled with people after Trigger's jump. This black and white photo probably looks reminiscent of old Butte - aside from the people on cell phones of course.
Someone had written on a light pole on East Park Street. Jesus vandalized?
Later I spotted the culprits. Dean ambushed them from the back while I took a fauxto of them.
More on the religiousness of Evel Days in a second. This poor guy was dancing with his sticks and couldn't get anyone's attention. Maybe because he kept dropping them.


commentary:

The religiousness of Evel Days seems quite ironic. Why would all the Jesus freaks show up at a motorbike festival? Maybe among the bikers are some born-agains that just got out of the slammer in time for Evel Days.

The two missionary guys in the photo I posted earlier were spotted by numerous people during the weekend. My friend Melissa called them "those poor guys." Later we came up with a brilliant idea for a film about two missionaries at Evel Days. One of them would be a midget. Who knows?

It's not the first time I've spotted spreaders of the Word in a situation where they seemed out of place. Sometimes they bother patrons in bars around Butte. Could they really find reliable Christians in the bars? The other church members must be in a sad state.

By the time Saturday rolled around though, I had had it with Evel Days. Sick of the motorbikes, sick of all the out-of-towners and sick of all the underage kids with irresponsible parents.

I did start to notice the yuppies in the crowd by Saturday. It looked more like the crowd that will probably be at the Folk Festival next year. Either the yuppies were outnumbering the bikers temporarily, or the bikers had holed up at a bar after two straight nights of drinking.

On Friday night I helped close down the watering hole I frequent and two policemen were outside screaming at three drunk bikers to get on their bikes and leave. Drunk driving is A-OK.

Last night some idiot kids were kicking the orange safety barrels down the hill. People would scream at them only to have the kids continue to kick the can. Finally, a policeman spotted them and told them to go home.

Finally, you would be amazed at how cheap people are. I worked the door last night and people wouldn't pay a $2 cover charge. Two freaking dollars. That's less than a gallon of gas.

I'll be around these next few weeks with more reporting.

I'll post on the An Ri Ra Festival for sure.

God bless you from the missionaries who didn't get anything done this weekend,
~meatballs~

Evel Knievel Days - Part I

Evel Knievel Days in Uptown Butte - July 2007


Thursday had to be one of the busiest nights I've seen in Uptown Butte in my time here. It seems like each year the festival rivals St. Patrick's Day more and more.

Here is my good friend Nick posing in a generic tourist photograph on Friday:Bikes were parked in front of the legendary M and M early on Thursday.
The ladies of She Saws it (Hamilton, Montana) made some interesting art work chainsaw style.


Friday's Biker Rally
Here's Trent rocking it out during the rally:


Cory Grace cruisin down the street
Meredith gave me a little cheer as she went by (my apologies for missing Cody)
I know this guy but I always forget his name. My friend's cousin is on the back.
Lenny hucks it up while Kala holds on for her life.
The bikers rode towards the sunset, but took a turn down Montana Street.
Yes, even pink moto scooters ride amongst the Harley's in the rally.
Psychedelic Easy Rider
I caught the freestyle dirtbike show on Thursday. Big crowd, not that there were many nice people there though.
A Butte rider in mid backflip
Arms in the air, while you're in the air
Some more nifty tricks:


I like this shot. That's a balloon in the sky behind him.
seat grab
kiss of death I think
Meanwhile, near the coffee shop on Main St. and Galena a window mysteriously shatters in the heat. A mystery yet to be solved. Where's Sherlock when you need him? Probably tossing back a cheap can of beer with all the other bikers in Uptown Butte.



Stay tuned for my next post, I'm heading back now for the big jump tonight. Trigger, I think, is going for a world record 39 cars in a long motorcycle jump on Park Street. I also have some photos of the 'Rocket's" world-record motorcycle drive through 12 flaming walls.

commentary:
Interesting conversation with Ed Shaw about the baby-boomers who become motorbikers upon retirement. One of my favorite comments of the weekend "Christ, if they even see people smoking grass they get so freaked out they call the police right away."

Justin Ringsak threw in a funny one-liner after I told him about someone hearing gun shots Uptown on Thursday night: "You can't have a family event without firearms."

In all seriousness, as much as I can be a geek and make fun of all these 350-pound bikers who would pummel me if they could read online, the Butte area always had more than a sprinkle of cheapness to it. Growing up in nearby Anaconda I always thought some perspectives of my life were "White trash." It's not really anything to be ashamed of though, in some ways it gives better philosophical ideas than a spoiled young adult in Beverly Hills might ever come across. And of course, it's much more primal.

Wish me luck on catching Evel.

~Spaghetti~

Zydeco in Butte

A couple of weeks ago a zydeco band visited Butte. Curley Taylor and the Trouble put on a great show with some unique music to this part of the country. Zydeco is a form of American roots music played mostly by Creole (Louisiana) people. The music is noted for its use of the washboard.

I'm currently collaborating on an art piece with the photos seen here from the Curley Taylor show:










A truly unique Cajun experience far away in the Rocky Mountains. On Monday I witnessed Lil Dave Thompson, a great blues band from Mississippi. Of course I kept the camera at home though.

Stay tuned for a great blog next week. I'll be putting together a photographic scrapbook of Evel Knievel Days including the world-record motorbike jump this weekend.