When I'd first heard of Lonnie, about 7 or 8 years ago, the tomb was usually one of the first things that got mentioned.
Part of my first thought was "How do you put a tomb in your basement?"
And I quickly found out how. You just put it inside your underground garage.
I mean, chances are that's where you've already got your other big Egyptian stuff stored, right?
So, you've made it this far, here it is. The tomb, complete with sarcophagus.
Now, that's not actually Lonnie in there, yet.
In order to make sure he looked good in there, Lonnie stuffed a mannequin in there, complete with a lifelike bust of himself.
Now, you'll also notice that there's an Iron Lung in the sarcophagus. I didn't really get the full explanation on that one.
Now, let's examine some of the accoutrements in the tomb, shall we?
A tomb just isn't a tomb without one of these.
And even King Tut had a wine rack.
No idea if that authentic, or just cool looking.
And really, that's it. But the magic is really in the video.
Click below for the complete burial ceremony, including hymns and the closing of the tomb.
After the burial (I'm not sure that's the right word, but I'm stickin' with it), Lonnie's wife Sandy contented herself with the fact that even if Lonnie failed to emerge, she at least had a lifelike facsimile of his head.
And with that, it was over.
We caught a ride back to our dingy little hotel on the strip (many thanks to Alan Vaughn for a pleasant ride back), and Lonnie stayed in there for an hour.
Alan told us that Lonnie's grand plan was to announce his candidacy for the 2008 presidential race immediately upon his emergence from the tomb...at 12:01 AM on April 1st.
Many thanks to Lonnie and Sandy for letting us into their truly bizarre world for a wonderful day. Lord knows these web pages can't convey the full experience. But at least I've now got a good template for how I want to do it when I go...
I've also found some other interesting stuff re: the Awake Wake online, and this seemed as good a place to put it as any.
Some folks are making a documentary about Lonnie and the Awake Wake. You can see the preview here:
Remember the guy dressed like Indiana Jones? He's also one of the
Stormtroopers.
And here he is singing Chantilly Lace.