Three Inches to the Right

Originally posted on FB. My first Larry moment was also my first Marian Goodell moment; 25 feet in the air, on top a cobbled together refrigeration unit, a couple days into the 1997 event. These were the days when the art was made on site, rather than fabricated off-site and shipped in. Our group, The Temporal Decomposition group, or Team Jim, had a months worth of set-backs; from busted weather balloons, broken freezer fan-belts, water with an unusually high mineral content not freezing, to name a few- making frozen high-desert art a tad harder than originally anticipated. This was month 3 on playa for us. We were tapped out. Emotionally, physically and even existentially void of pliable (aka playable) human essence. Yet, everyone had been working around the clock even harder, to get ‘er done, as the event was several days in. Larry knew that. He knew we’d been there for months, that we were working hard and non-stop. One day, I was left to manage the project as Jim was somewhere to or fro Reno, or sleeping. Joanna Schneier Lola, Colin Starger and Adrian Chanwere off doing playa things, and Jewelz Cody, Larry Breed and a crew of freshies were assisting in and around the Ice Ball zone. This was one of those playa days for me, where unexplained emotions come quickly and often without reason, or supporting words. I was on top of the mold, most likely oscillating between barking orders and or crying from pure exhaustion; and out of nowhere, after climbing-up a wobbly ladder, popped this clean, somewhat fairy like, happy and energetic creature, who said, “Hi, I’m Marian”! Simultaneously, as Marian introduced herself, a hat appeared over the horizon, then two piercing yet gentle eyes, and then a crooked smile, and I heard, “I’m Larry”. We chatted a bit, as much as I could make sense of & translate my playa word-salad depleted and myopic mind, and they politely inquired about the status of the “reveal”of the art that lay inside, then went on their way. Alas, this moment with Larry and Marian engendered an ongoing joke (and me also meeting) Allen Denault & Michael Vav from a prank I played on them at first introduction. Sitting down in their camp later that day, around sunset-thirty, with Jewelz Cody and others from their camp, I blurted out that Larry and Marian had climbed up to the top of the ice-mold, and Larry wanted the entire structure moved 3”- yes, three inches- to the right, “because it was blocking his view of The Man from the comfort of First Camp”! Granted, the structure was a 13+ ft spherical ice cube, inside a mold, inside a freezer unit, inside bales of, oh shit…yup… hay. Yet, in true old-school BM fashion, Allen and Michael jumped up and onto their bikes, and road out to round-up enough people to move the entire 50k+ lbs mold 3″ to the right, so Larry could see The Man from his camp! Later-on, years maybe, when I told Larry that story, how I used him and his alleged indolence as the base of my prank, he laughed, loudly, then smiled his former quirky smile, then pontificated about community. **** The rest of the story here: https://tinyurl.com/y7hq6yhp

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