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Yuri's Night, World Space party
Apr. 14th, 2007 01:54 pmMost of my pictures didn't come out. It was dark and chaotic at the party. This didn't seem like a NASA party to me. It was too wild and crazy. It was very disorganized. Oh well.
The head honcho of NASA opened the party with a very short speech and told us to party like it was 1961! I turned to the couple standing next to me and asked if that meant I'd have to go to bed soon. They laughed. Hey, in 1961 I was six years old! My bedtime was early!
When we first got there, they didn't have our volunteer badges ready. Then they told us the badges were outside the gate. The people at the table refused to give the tickets to us through the fence so we had to walk all the way around to them. They didn't have jobs for us at first. Finally they asked if we'd be willing to exchange drink tickets for energy drinks. Sounded good to us! The other three from my department worked the booth for the first three hours. My shift was from 9PM to 3AM so I wandered around playing, collecting swag and chatting with people. When I got there at 9PM, one was going home and the other two took a break to wander around. I worked the booth with the creator of the energy drink, his girlfriend (pretty blond in a tank top) and another woman I believe works for the company. We had a lot of fun people watching and hawking the energy drink. I had one before I started my shift and another at midnight. They're pretty good and very easy on a person. Heh, I didn't get their pictures. Darn.
At one point the girlfriend got tired of the spiel about amino acids that counter-balance the harsh effects of caffiene on the brain and when someone asked "What's in it?" she put on a sweet little blonde face and said in a cute voice, "Stuff." He said he'd trust her and bought one. LOL
She finally got cold enough to put her jacket on around midnight. By then we didn't need the sex appeal to sell drinks. People were needing energy. Another spike came after 2AM when the beer booth closed. Faten came back for a while then we wandered around to let my hand warm up before she went home. My hand got so cold from dipping into the icewater for drinks that it started dropping them. There was no heat in the hangar other than from the crush of bodies, so it stayed cold.
They were playing thumping new-age type music all night, sometimes getting into the feedback crap that Eric likes. There were screens all around displaying different things, some things were projected on the aircraft and some on walls. Some were videos and art, some were computer programs creating abstract evolving art. There was an artist who painted all night. There were several music sources inside and outside the hangar. Outside there was a circle of speakers with a huge round cushion that was quickly filled with costumed people who looked out of it. I stood inside the circle and it was 3D music. Cool. It reminded me of quadriphonic sound from the 70's only there were five or six speakers with this.
I could have gotten a photo of a group of elaborately costumed people but there was suddenly a strong odor of marijuana and I didn't want to photograph anyone in an illegal act. I couldn't believe how much I smelled all night. Were these people insane? Didn't they realize where they were? They were on a military base with MP's for police. Even though there were HUGE no smoking symbols on the hangar, people were smoking cigarettes both inside and outside the hangar. People inside were quickly ushered out but there were so many, it was hard for the MP's to get them out fast enough. My throat got sore from it and my nose is still all sore and swollen.
Again, were these people insane? They were smoking next to functional aircraft full of fuel! Luckily there were no explosions while I was there.
One of my breaks came as they were showing one of the Apollo launches on the stage screens. It was so weird to be surrounded by odd space creatures and regular people and astronauts and such watching it. The crowd was so hyped up that when it got down to the last 10 seconds, they were chanting each second before it arrived. They roared with triumph as liftoff happened. The audio was from the spacecraft and was played real time until it reached space. The video was static, just as I remembered it. The volume was turned up so loud that my chest was vibrating. When they finally did reach outerspace, the crowd went wild again! Wheee! I told the couple next to me that this was almost as good as an actual launch party. They didn't know about launch parties so I told them. I'll bet they'll be at the visitor center when the next shuttle launches.
I wish my photos from that turned out. I was near a group of people on stilts wearing silver outfits that had glowing strings outlining parts of them. Being on stilts, they had to keep moving and the glowing parts wouldn't have turned out at all if I'd used flash. They constantly dropped glow sticks and glow necklaces and had two gowned and hooded "slaves" picking up after them.
There was also a space cowboy who used blinking glow strings to outline parts of his costume. He had a holster and a toy gun with glowing parts. I couldn't get a picture of him because he moved too fast.
When 3AM got there, I was ready to go home. I bought five of the energy drinks to take home since they're not available locally yet. Eric and I like energy drinks so I wanted him to try these. The creator put a couple more into the box for me and told me how to order them online for home delivery. :)
Here's the first of my photos. Click on it to enter the gallery.
The head honcho of NASA opened the party with a very short speech and told us to party like it was 1961! I turned to the couple standing next to me and asked if that meant I'd have to go to bed soon. They laughed. Hey, in 1961 I was six years old! My bedtime was early!
When we first got there, they didn't have our volunteer badges ready. Then they told us the badges were outside the gate. The people at the table refused to give the tickets to us through the fence so we had to walk all the way around to them. They didn't have jobs for us at first. Finally they asked if we'd be willing to exchange drink tickets for energy drinks. Sounded good to us! The other three from my department worked the booth for the first three hours. My shift was from 9PM to 3AM so I wandered around playing, collecting swag and chatting with people. When I got there at 9PM, one was going home and the other two took a break to wander around. I worked the booth with the creator of the energy drink, his girlfriend (pretty blond in a tank top) and another woman I believe works for the company. We had a lot of fun people watching and hawking the energy drink. I had one before I started my shift and another at midnight. They're pretty good and very easy on a person. Heh, I didn't get their pictures. Darn.
At one point the girlfriend got tired of the spiel about amino acids that counter-balance the harsh effects of caffiene on the brain and when someone asked "What's in it?" she put on a sweet little blonde face and said in a cute voice, "Stuff." He said he'd trust her and bought one. LOL
She finally got cold enough to put her jacket on around midnight. By then we didn't need the sex appeal to sell drinks. People were needing energy. Another spike came after 2AM when the beer booth closed. Faten came back for a while then we wandered around to let my hand warm up before she went home. My hand got so cold from dipping into the icewater for drinks that it started dropping them. There was no heat in the hangar other than from the crush of bodies, so it stayed cold.
They were playing thumping new-age type music all night, sometimes getting into the feedback crap that Eric likes. There were screens all around displaying different things, some things were projected on the aircraft and some on walls. Some were videos and art, some were computer programs creating abstract evolving art. There was an artist who painted all night. There were several music sources inside and outside the hangar. Outside there was a circle of speakers with a huge round cushion that was quickly filled with costumed people who looked out of it. I stood inside the circle and it was 3D music. Cool. It reminded me of quadriphonic sound from the 70's only there were five or six speakers with this.
I could have gotten a photo of a group of elaborately costumed people but there was suddenly a strong odor of marijuana and I didn't want to photograph anyone in an illegal act. I couldn't believe how much I smelled all night. Were these people insane? Didn't they realize where they were? They were on a military base with MP's for police. Even though there were HUGE no smoking symbols on the hangar, people were smoking cigarettes both inside and outside the hangar. People inside were quickly ushered out but there were so many, it was hard for the MP's to get them out fast enough. My throat got sore from it and my nose is still all sore and swollen.
Again, were these people insane? They were smoking next to functional aircraft full of fuel! Luckily there were no explosions while I was there.
One of my breaks came as they were showing one of the Apollo launches on the stage screens. It was so weird to be surrounded by odd space creatures and regular people and astronauts and such watching it. The crowd was so hyped up that when it got down to the last 10 seconds, they were chanting each second before it arrived. They roared with triumph as liftoff happened. The audio was from the spacecraft and was played real time until it reached space. The video was static, just as I remembered it. The volume was turned up so loud that my chest was vibrating. When they finally did reach outerspace, the crowd went wild again! Wheee! I told the couple next to me that this was almost as good as an actual launch party. They didn't know about launch parties so I told them. I'll bet they'll be at the visitor center when the next shuttle launches.
I wish my photos from that turned out. I was near a group of people on stilts wearing silver outfits that had glowing strings outlining parts of them. Being on stilts, they had to keep moving and the glowing parts wouldn't have turned out at all if I'd used flash. They constantly dropped glow sticks and glow necklaces and had two gowned and hooded "slaves" picking up after them.
There was also a space cowboy who used blinking glow strings to outline parts of his costume. He had a holster and a toy gun with glowing parts. I couldn't get a picture of him because he moved too fast.
When 3AM got there, I was ready to go home. I bought five of the energy drinks to take home since they're not available locally yet. Eric and I like energy drinks so I wanted him to try these. The creator put a couple more into the box for me and told me how to order them online for home delivery. :)
Here's the first of my photos. Click on it to enter the gallery.
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Space Cowboys party truck |
