Thunderdome party on Lake Austin

Thunderdome collage
Originally uploaded by Uncle Mikey.

This was a party on Lake Austin I was lucky enough to get an invite to back in the late '90s. I rented a bad costume (if you view the collage as one big pic, I'm fifth from the right along the top edge), sort of a caveman. Basically a leather loincloth and two big scraps of leather to make into a prehistoric wifebeater. I got a bone necklace and tied little bones into my flattop, and off we went.

The theme was Mad Max beyond Thunderdome. Frankly I didn't remember the movie much but did recognize a number of characters throughout the evening. We were met at the front gate by some nutty sentrylike people, one of whom had a real MG42 (first picture on the left on second row, with Crazy Lew, and a guy shooting paintballs from the wall in the pic right just to the right of him), and they had a real Thunderdome, in which they'd strap people into a bungie rig and give them fake hammers and axes to whack each other with.

During all this there were a number of naked girls running around, and firebreathers, and people walking around with spears sticking through them. Booze everywhere, freaks everywhere, cops that didn't give a crap everywhere, a really great time had by all.

A half a cow and whole pig were roasted and brought under a huge canopy tent with a floor, and rugs and beanbag chairs everywhere. Plates made of bread were provided but no other utensils, so you just grabbed steaming chunks of roast flesh and ripped them off larger chunks and put them on your plate with roasted vegetables and more bread.

The host, who I believe is the top right person in the collage, is a video game designer and local madman about town. He came to the center of the feeding tent about 45 minutes after the initial rush and in the process of introducing himself, took a large piece of roast cow flesh in the sternum that had been launched from across the tent, from an overly boisterous partygoer, and stumbled back as if shot.

That precipitated the largest foodfight I have ever seen, which I enjoyed immensely until I took a corn cob in the side of the head from a guy who fastballed it from about 10 feet away. Had to catch my breath after that.

More, and another pic, later . . .