She talks to Rainbows...

First we start with a random concert in the midst of town, attended by a veritable plethora of punk kids recently let loose from the suspected punk-kid factory in the woods. Think rebellious shirts, pants stitched together to hug every skeletal angle of their lower body, and the required skater shoes. Add in a few sketchy older fellas who alternate between bar and concert and quite possibly a van in the back…  And of course, assume the presence of quite a few substances of varied legality. This is a small drinking town with a farming problem after all.  So far, pretty exciting, but still low key.

Then we add in a little drama with a water main breakage which spews forth creating large cracks and buckles in the main street directly in front of the concert.

And voila, a hole hour of excitement ensues.  Everybody driving a car within a quarter mile, and even a few people who previously had been sitting on their couches a few miles away, had to drive over the cracks, giving a little extra energy to the gush.  A few intoxicated punk kids entertained themselves by standing on the small hydrovolcano building in the center of the street while others had leaf races and pretended to throw each other into the muddy flood.  Meanwhile, the cops and deputy fire chief observed.  After 45 mins the street was finally blocked off and a little while after that the water was shut down.

During the mop up, the concert was still going (such as it was).  An intoxicated sketchy older concertgoer was overcome with excitement and inner conflict and decided to punch out a window on the water-main-gushing, cop-occupied side of the building. The evening was then topped off when the troubled man was cuffed and carted away in the cop car in the middle of the concert, while a guitar playing young woman with pink hair croaked melodically “f*ck you cops”.

It remains to be seen which of these events will make the tri-weekly paper. Last week the front page contained the removal of a bronco from the river when a bunch of thoughtless teenage girls decided to drive through it.  I’m putting my money on the water main, with a very interesting police blotter on page 6.