“Welcome to what’s happening,” says a man at the door of a Pilsen four-flat. He’s a greeter at the annual Third of July Fire Dance, and as partygoers enter he puts a purple glow tube around their necks (or heads or wrists or thighs) and hands them a tarot card. “You’ll need this for later,” he says mysteriously.
“No,” says the greeter. “I’m a friend of the host.”
No one’s exactly sure when the Pilsen fire dance started, and since it’s well attended by merry pranksters like the Ever-So-Secret Order of the Lamprey and members of the performance group Love Chaos, the reports differ depending on whom you ask. The host says it all began as a much smaller shindig in Pilsen back in the late 80s. Jim, one of the supposed originators of the fire dance, says the party first started in Beverly eight or nine years ago. And now, he says, “it’s really more of a performance than a party.”
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“Where’s [the host]?” somebody asks.
“I heard it’s his dead cat,” somebody replies.
“It’s peace paint,” replies one of the body artists.
