Moab is the town nearest the entrances to Arches and Canyonlands. It is full of three kinds of things: hippies, Germans with funny pants, and people who take decorating with Kokopelli seriously. Ach, this Kokopelli. I used to work with this really hateful woman (Suzy and Chris, it's Kelly) who got a tattoo of Kokopelli on her ankle. When I saw it, I said SARCASTICALLY "hey, where'd you get that idea?" and she said "oooo DG, the image came to me in a dream. I got up and drew it; it's my own design." And I said, "really? Because I think you can buy a leather sofa embossed with that very same image from the Sundance catalog..." and then for months I tortured her by digging up other versions of her "original" design, all of them identical to the tiny smudge on her ankle. I even started calling her Koko for a little while but it didn't stick. I don't know who she was trying to fool. I mean, it was like me getting a cross tattooed on me and saying "I had this dream about a telephone pole...."
ANYWAY. Moab is full of those Kokopelli people. The same way Sedona, Arizona is, though it's maybe less New Age-y and more mountain bike-y. There are no fat people here, even though I know for a fact that you can get a stack of Kokopancakes.
Moab is also the home of Negro Bill Canyon, which I hiked a little bit of late this afternoon. Not much, just enough so I could say "Negro Bill" in conversation just to see what people do. NEGRO BILL NEGRO BILL NEGRO BILL. I HIKED it so I can SAY it.
3 comments:
Heh, "hippies, Germans with funny pants" -- sounds like Texas without the hippies who all are in Austin mostly.
Seriously, buddy, I'm worried about that sunburn. They say, you know, aloe with a touch of vodka is good for that.
Dreams -- NOOOOO IXNAY or whatever. And, if you can't spell that, NOT. Why, thank you.
It's not sunburn. I'm red all the time.
It's very possible that there is no more annoying image on the planet (or on other planets) than kokopelli. I'm sorry you had to have all that kokopelli around you. The woman you work with should have been smacked. Up near Stonington, Maine, there's a little art gallery (ok, there's nothing but little art galleries) that has a giant metal kokopelli out in front of it. I'm not sure why they thought that was a draw. I mean, for freak's sake -- kokopelli is bad enough out west but...in Maine?
And when Chicago Meg (well, Margaret to me) and I rented a house in NM, there was a kokopelli on the bathroom wall. I wanted to take it down but thought that would seem obsessive so I didn't. I should have.
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