Summer Fest Snapshots: Hippie Mike and the Paint Kids

By Craig Hlavaty Mon., Aug. 10 2009 at 4:15 PM

Categories: Live Shots, Only In Houston

Photos by Craig Hlavaty

If you attended this weekend's Summer Fest in Eleanor Tinsley Park, you may have found yourself as enchanted as Rocks Off was with "Mike." The skinny hippie child of Asian decent could be seen all over the grounds at the most opportune times. Sunday, our day began by meeting him on the hill near the entrance as he glided down the decline with a cup full of grapes.

Rocks Off took one from him as a show of good faith, then subsequently prayed to God it wasn't injected with LSD. "Mike" spent nearly 12 hours on Sunday dancing on the grounds like a lysergic-tinted Fred Astaire, only briefly stopping to giggle sheepishly at the sun, hug a stranger or sit in with the Southern Backtones.

Sometime before Houston's reigning pop wunderkinds the Wild Moccasins hit the stage Sunday afternoon, Rocks Off began seeing Summer Festers of all ages, shapes, and sizes covered in various tints of paint doing their best to blend into the crowd. Instantly, we thought back to Woodstock '94 and the "Mud People" who took to the rainy hillsides and turned into a gritty subspecies of fan.

A slip 'n slide was erected on one section of Eleanor Tinsley Park's massive hillside and was drenched in paint. Even oine member of the Rocks Off team was scene covered in paint and mud herself. We think we may have just given her identity away.) Hearing the Moccs belt out "Fruit Tea" as kids fell belly-first down the purple-hued hill was some sort of cosmic aural set-up, and we dug every second of it.