Blogging the Hunt '05: Post 2. Thru THURS. 1:30 PM.

CONCEPT

I'm utterly exhausted already, so I'm going to try to blast through the last 12 hours so I can take a nap before I have to race to set up our next event.

THE HOOTENANNY

We woke up around 7:30 this morning. Much had happened during the night: fireworks had exploded, pies had been baked, and Funky Monkeys had been watched. Now we had to hurry around, a mess of pajamas and Hawai'ian shirts, to get to the Reynolds Club in preparation for the Hootenanny.

Since 2002, there's been a tradition of judges having a perpetual slumber party. Since we're spending all of our waking time together this week, we might as well also spend all of our non-waking time together. Right?

Anyway, it's typically necessary to have a meeting between the Judges and Team Captains on the first morning of the Hunt, to accept questions (or not), clarify ambiguities (or not), correct typos (or not), and most importantly, distribute tasks, and most importantly, verify participation in the road trip by each team. This meeting usually has a sort of undeveloped theme. Last year, for example, it was The Conclave of the Captains, in reference to Mel Gibson's flick. This year, we went for simple and opted for Hootenanny.

The Hootenanny began at 8:30 AM in the conference room of the Reynolds Club, and consisted of donuts, OJ, and some exhausted conversation. Most of the teams had been up late working on their road trip costumes and vehicles.

THE COLLODI CREW

Verifying the road trip is important for several reasons. First, for liability reasons, we must verify the drivers of each vehicle and make sure that they understand rules regarding how long each person can drive per day, etc. It's not really for us to tell if they follow these rules of course (and some of us find the rules a little inflexible for the tasks they're being asked to pull off), but anytime you run an event of this size, some amount of autoasscovering taskes place. Furthermore, verification prevents teams from prepping road trip items in advance (unlikely) or completing them via the internet (likely). This is because verification takes the shape of costumes which are required in the completion of most items and which must therefore be present on site.

This year's costume is possibly my favorite to date:

196. Monstro's migrating north in search of smelt, but first he has to stop in Chicago for a quick bite to eat. At 9:00 AM on Thursday, Monstro must swallow the four members of your roadtrip team. Naturally, those members are Pinocchio, Jiminy Crickey, Lampwick, and the Blue Fairy. Lampwick should be at least halfway through his transformation. While this character is half ass, this in no way permits you to make your Monstro half-assed. We want a vehicular leviathan worthy of plowing the asphalt oceans. By the end of the journey, Pinocchio must be a real boy, and Lampwick should be a total ass.

Most often the costumes are vamped off obscure and not-so-obscure pop culture: Chunk and Chenguin, Stongbad, etc. This year was in some ways, more out of left field due to its normalcy (by costume standards). Still, I don't think most of us expected the cracked stovetop hats and marionette strings dangling from horizontal suspended crosses that crowded into the basement of the Reynolds Club this morning. And if we were surprised by the quality of the costumes, that was nothing compared to the cars themselves. Each was completely different, and most were extraordinary.

The Snell-Hitchcock car had an opening trunk that was designed like the whale's mouth, with a massive tail mounted on the hood. The hatch had been dropped on the trunk enabling the team to crawl in through the mouth and appear inside the car. They also had a blowhole that spat water.

The F.I.S.T. Monstro featured impressive teeth built out of a shredded shoe holder, while Pierce's whale had very convincing eyes and clean cut styrofoam teeth that will probably hold up well along any interstate.

These are just a couple highlights. The Monstros are one of the most pleasing and astonishing moments of the Hunt so far.

After we photographed each team and noted their documentation, we sent them on our way, and proceded to the next set of events.

THE SALONS

Le Salon en Plein Air, aux Quads, Jeudi et Vendredi, 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM. Mes cheries, your locks are in terrible shape! Et mon Dieu! Who let you out of the house with the outrè mascara? Coral and taupe are très 2004. And toes without a manicure française are simbly dégoutante. Un bouffant charmant, s'il vous plait. Aussi, those pauvre éstudiants deserve une masseuse to rub away the stress of their day. Voilà, la haute école le beauté! [Gamma points]

One thing we try to do each year is plan at least a couple events that interact directly with the activity on campus, and midday Thursday and Friday are perfect. Sometimes these items take the shape of public nuisances (ie. one year we had Town Criers and another, Scaresquirrels) or public services (ie. other years we had Hot Dog stands and free Rickshaw rides). The latter most often seem to come off better, and the duration of the items and its versatility has a lot to do with its success. This year seems to be going particularly well in this regard.

Essentially, the item is "in play" from 11:30 to 1:30 both today and tomorrow, when the main quads are at their most active. As Lisa, who thought of this item, pointed out, "I had no idea that if we put a bunch of bad French in the item, we'd get a bunch of France references." The salons were comprehensive. We were offered haircuts (I got my hair cut), pedicures, manicures, massages, French literature, shaves, waxing, and even a foot batch in French sparkling water. Two hours didn't seem like enough, and many teams have talked of expanding their participation before they return for this item tomorrow.

A personal highlight was having a Palevsky team member give me an impromptu shave, granted to cold water and a (presumably fresh) leg razor. The work was a little uneven, but an improvement over my scraggliness that morning, and free of nicks and cuts.

A overall highlight was a high ranking dean of the college who received a massage, and a busload of foreign tourists who stumbled through, shocked and confused, and snapping a hundred pictures a minute.

I'm going to have to cut this installment a little short, because I really don't want to keep going on current sleep. I'll try to write again later today. Next up: Scav All-Star Olympics. And later tonight: Wacky Races.