Frozen Dead Guy Days

We, or I should state for the record, Mary, decided to go to the FDGD festival as Mary is intrigued by the whole cryonics subject (but not in the 'I'd like to be a corpsicle' kind of way - more like, what are these people thinking?) and is thinking about a book, TV series, or some 3x4 cards, whatever works. And FDGD is all about an early although apparently not exactly enthusiastic participant in cryonics - Bredo, himself. So we had to go. Plus there was a beer tent. So I was all set.

We went to two of the three days of the festival, just skipping the last day since it was mostly a pancake breakfast and we can do those at home. The first day's festivities are not exactly chock full of activity being limited to one ritual ribbon cutting, and the Ice Blue Ball. Really not a title I need to dwell on.

The ribbon cutting opening the official Frozen Dead Guy Days was held at a traffic circle on the edge of town. I think the traffic circle functions as pretty much the most public space in town. I'm not sure why the ceremony entailed ribbon cutting. They weren't opening a bridge or a highway. Tradition I guess. The centerpiece of the opening ceremony was either the dancing penguins, kids dressed up in costumes that look like they started life as trash bags, but put flippers on the front and voila! Penguins! This was followed by the dancing skeletons, a troupe supplied by the local high school drama club. All four of them. I think it's a pretty small high school. They were cute. Cuter then the dancing or more accurately jumping penguins? Hard to say. I like penguins more than skeletons so they have my vote.

After the opening ceremony we dined on Nepalese food at the Katmandu restaurant. Nepalese food in little Nederland, who'd have thunk it! I guess mountains are pretty much like mountains anywhere and the family running it felt most at home someplace where the air is thin and the winter's near endless. Personally, if I'd spent my formative years in Nepal I might be tempted to migrate to someplace warm and where the oxygen is a few percent higher. By the way the food was pretty decent and the cost/food ratio was very low.

After our repast we sauntered over to the Ice Blue Ball. This was an affair that appeared to be mostly attended by the locals and was held in a large German restaurant. It looks like the locals like themselves a party and a good time was had by all. The highlight of the evening was the judging for the Grandpa Lookalike Contest (Grandpa referring of course to Grandpa Bredo, still lying in the freezer up in the hills) and the coronation of the Ice Queen. Most of the contestants for the Grandpa lookalike went with fanciful concepts of what he might look like after a decade or more in the deep freeze. Except for one young man who apparently went with the Brad Pitt look from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. At least I think that was the concept he was trying for - he could also have been someone who wandered in off the streets looking for warmth and beer. The winner was the gentleman who answered each of the talent show questions with a statement that 'I'm dead, man'. A sentiment that was hard to argue with.

The nominees for the Ice Queen were varied and all deserved to win from what we could see. Although a couple apparently decided to go with a Dead Ice Queen look or perhaps a Vampire Ice Queen look. Hard to tell, really. We liked the contestant that decided the way to the judge's heart was to drop single, double and triple entendres at every opportunity. She got our vote. Both the Grandpa and Ice Queen winners were of course, required to be on hand to participate in the parade that would kick off the festivities the next day.

Part Two: A visit to the mausoleum of Bredo Morstol - spooky! Don't miss it!