Just to give you an idea of what this place I'm in is like:
Seward, Alaska
Distance from Anchorage: 125 miles/2ish hours(depending on numbers of tourists)
Access: car (one of the country's most scenic drives), train, cruise ship, ferry, bush plane
Snow-capped mountains: 360 degrees!
Nearby glaciers: more than 8
Accomodations: lots of RV/tentsites; small B&Bs; a hostel; a few small motels/hotels
Population: <3000 year-round
Population on July 4th: over 10,000
Town Size: 2 miles long, 4 streets wide
Pubs per capita: 1837495
Churches per capita: 1384955
Industries: tourism, fishing, coal, tourism, fishing, tourism...
Adventurous opportunities: great hiking, kayaking, ice field exploring, Sea Life Center, Kenai Fjords National Park, dogsledding, plane tours
Fun facts: -Seward hosts one crazy Fourth of July celebration.
-Mt. Marathon looms over the town and, when there's still snow on it, makes a great sledding run if you hike up in rainpants. On the 4th of July, the town holds a big Mt. Marathon race.
-Everyone here has a dog. I swear. It's insane.
-Seward is actually a rainforest! The annual rainfall is pretty substantial, so I'm glad Oregon has trained me before I came here.
I'm currently living in a "development" called Camelot, on King Arthur Rd. Fishermen, mostly, put in roads a few years ago and, since it's outside of the city limits, no building permits are required. This means anyone can throw up a house on whatever affordable property they find, so there are some pretty interesting characters up there. The family I'm staying with, and for whom I will soon be house-sitting, run limited power off a generator and use a rainwater system rather than hooking up to city water and power. I don't even know if you can do that down in Camelot. Anyways, I'm living there and house-sitting once they leave for a kayaking trip into the beginning of July.
Well, the library's closing so I've got to sign off- hope everyone else is doing well! Love to all!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
I love hearing about Sasquatch from all the contributors, and I don't really have much else to add, except for one life changing experience.
Sasquatch: My group had been waking up at 7am nearly every morning and drinking whiskey before breakfast (yes.. just like the Leftover Salmon song). After our whisky-coffee we would begin pouring vodka into ziploc bags and tape them all over our bodies to smuggle into the festival...they never check the inner calf. Once at the festival we would drink drink drink and smoke so many joints and DANCE it all off until the evening when we would vow that tonight was the night to party!! yet we would always stumble into our tents and sleep by 1am.
So the last day of sasquatch i was tired. I decided to take a little stroll by myself when i stumbled upon a group of boys smushed up next to the fence that separates the backstage area from the festival. The boys all were flapping their arms over the fence to a man wearing a neon orange outfit and construction helmet and neon yellow suspenders. I asked a bored looking boy sitting nearby what the commotion was all about. "They're giving out backstage passes.." Hmm.. I knew that Flaming Lips were headlining that night, in fact they were the sole reason to be there that day, and I knew that they liked wacky people in funky costumes on stage.... so I decided to see about this backstage pass business. So i walked to the fence and threw my arm over, dangling my hand obnoxiously in front of the acid tinted construction guard's face like the rest of the boys. he was trying to restore some tranquility, and so he was mumbling something when his eye caught mine. he noticed my gender and glanced away and then back again. He mumbled again, and the last part I caught: "...mgmd...what we really need is three more girls to dance nude for half a song." Bingo. My calling. Little did he know my extensive experience with public nudity, and yet his eyes glanced back to me when he said this as if challenging me. "OOH ME! I"M GOOD AT THAT!" I yelled to his nervous eyes. He handed me this cloth sticker and I glanced down.... does that say FLAMING LIPS???? I would've settled with the Mars Volta, but now that I see i get to meet Wayne Coyne in my skivvies it became a surreal experience.
I left the fence, called Marleta told her to meet me NOW. We were going to have to get some of those $12 coors lights in us before this adventure. one of those, Flight of the Concords, and a $14 margarita later, I returned to the fence with Marleta in tow and met the fellow dancers. The other nakey girls were young, thin (who figured) and excited. we met each other but i cant remember their names....there are a lot of things i cant remember.
We went back stage and all signed releases. Marleta stayed with the teletubby suit-er-uppers and we went to meet WAAAAYNE. I was pretty drunk and no doubt about it sounded pretty annoying as I grasped his hand to shake it and probably yelled "I saw you in Scotland at Indian Summer!!! You were AAAWESOME!!", while an older, prettier girl demurely shook his hand and said, "we met at a bar once..." to which he replied "ohh I actually remember yoU!!" and he looked sincere. He did not look sincere when he responded to me, "oh that was good fun wasn't it?, good fun." Some girl had a polaroid camera and I basically made her take a picture of me, Marleta and Wayne which he signed. He also signed my backstage pass, "Dana-- you are a great naked gal. Love forever, Wayne". (these would be included in the blog if only I had a scanner.)
Now i'm going to let you in on a little secret. He told us that if anyone asks to say that we were just so infused with the music that we wandered onstage and RIPPED off our clothes to dance around in a mad frenzy. But we actually planned it. We waited offstage until half way through Race For The Prize (one of my favorite songs too) when we ran on, throwing our clothes around our head. I was wearing my acid glasses and a cape. I looked like this:
I dont remember dancing onstage, but my good friend Sara Fischer said she noticed my background in dance and theater because my movements were huge, incorporated many levels and took up space on stage. The next thing I remember is Wayne pulling us all in for a hug and then going offstage.
I put my dress back on, i had lost my acid glasses, and went to stage right where marleta was chilling like a 'tubby. She gave me her hat and we danced there for another hour or so, and when Realize??? played I just wanted to cry. Please listen to this song. It was Marleta's birthday the day before, we had just had an amazing experience at Sasquatch alone, but to be up on stage to a band we both love and to realize we won't see each other until January, was just euphoric and nostalgic. I still have that song stuck in my head. (here is a really interesting coincidence: The only other time Marleta saw the flaming lips was with her friend Dana Schwab, and they were on mushrooms and got onstage and wore alien and santa claus costumes.)
So with that long winded story that probably wasn't very interesting to those who weren't there, I make just one request: please if you see naked pictures or videos of me on the internet (and there are MANY) do not tag my name or send them to someone witht he message "whoa look at dana". I don't care that they're out there or that people see them, but I do care if people are looking up my name for something arbitrary when HOLY SHIT there I am in full vaginal force.
and if you find any good ones because you are a super perv and you're looking for them, SEND THEM TO ME!!!
The Sticks, from Honeybucket 6
So, I feel like Taylor and Sarah have done a good job describing the actual fest. The only thing I would mention is that Battles was the shit, and Flight of the Conchords was disappointing for me...
So, the web I am going to spin for you today is a story about passion, resilience, music, exploration and the human spirit.
As it goes, festivals generally have a lifespan of several days. In the case of Sasquatch, there were three of them in 2008. Our party did not possess the stuff of admittance to the second day, leaving us with an entire day of smoking pot and drinking beer at the campground... however, one can only consume so much substance before boredom sets in.
My younger brother Hugh decided that he was not going to let the man keep him from the festival; he was determined to sneak in. Sarah, my older brother Ned, and myself did not feel the same conviction to jump the fence for Death Cab and the Cure.... So we formed alternate plans to find beer, and hopefully a swimming hole (I am proud to say that the weekend was an earthy experience in that none of our group members showered).
Thecampground was packed bumper to bumper, and our vehicle was completely "parked in" to the middle of a field of grass... Somehow, when the time came that we were heading out a vacancy opened up in such a way that we were able to squeak out of the campground between pitched tents.
We ventured out for our quest of beer, and victoriously acquired our bounty. Ninety cans of shitty beer + six drop top ambers to ease the pain of the macrobrews.... We also found a local who pointed us to a nearby fishing pond, where we were able to jump in to some ice-cold water. Usually I consider myself to be a "polar bear" of sorts in that I can and do oftentimes swim in extremely cold water... My body was not having it at this Ssaquatchian Fishing Pond. I was in the water for a matter of seconds, however it was long enough to be refreshed!
From here, our adventure brought us home to Honeybucket 6 (when you have 10,000 people camping in about 40 acres of grass field.... it is VERY disorienting. So they number the Honeybuckets [porto-crappers] as landmarks so you can find your way home. Ours was just north of Honeybucket 6... hope that clears things up)
We returned to camp to find Hugh fiddling with his tent poles and a 15 x 30 tarp that served as his ground cloth. "I got tackled two times trying to sneak in" he says to us. He tried to jump over the fence and then also just run through the front gate, both times resulted with his face in the dirt. So it seems his mission was altered from sticking it to the man by sneaking into the fest, to sticking it to nature by creating a rainproof outdoor shelter that McGuyver would appreciate. We were able to help him erect this structure when we returned with the van, using its lifted tailgate as the backbone for the shelter. It was a badass shelter, here are a couple pics.
So, the web I am going to spin for you today is a story about passion, resilience, music, exploration and the human spirit.
As it goes, festivals generally have a lifespan of several days. In the case of Sasquatch, there were three of them in 2008. Our party did not possess the stuff of admittance to the second day, leaving us with an entire day of smoking pot and drinking beer at the campground... however, one can only consume so much substance before boredom sets in.
My younger brother Hugh decided that he was not going to let the man keep him from the festival; he was determined to sneak in. Sarah, my older brother Ned, and myself did not feel the same conviction to jump the fence for Death Cab and the Cure.... So we formed alternate plans to find beer, and hopefully a swimming hole (I am proud to say that the weekend was an earthy experience in that none of our group members showered).
Thecampground was packed bumper to bumper, and our vehicle was completely "parked in" to the middle of a field of grass... Somehow, when the time came that we were heading out a vacancy opened up in such a way that we were able to squeak out of the campground between pitched tents.We ventured out for our quest of beer, and victoriously acquired our bounty. Ninety cans of shitty beer + six drop top ambers to ease the pain of the macrobrews.... We also found a local who pointed us to a nearby fishing pond, where we were able to jump in to some ice-cold water. Usually I consider myself to be a "polar bear" of sorts in that I can and do oftentimes swim in extremely cold water... My body was not having it at this Ssaquatchian Fishing Pond. I was in the water for a matter of seconds, however it was long enough to be refreshed!
From here, our adventure brought us home to Honeybucket 6 (when you have 10,000 people camping in about 40 acres of grass field.... it is VERY disorienting. So they number the Honeybuckets [porto-crappers] as landmarks so you can find your way home. Ours was just north of Honeybucket 6... hope that clears things up)
We returned to camp to find Hugh fiddling with his tent poles and a 15 x 30 tarp that served as his ground cloth. "I got tackled two times trying to sneak in" he says to us. He tried to jump over the fence and then also just run through the front gate, both times resulted with his face in the dirt. So it seems his mission was altered from sticking it to the man by sneaking into the fest, to sticking it to nature by creating a rainproof outdoor shelter that McGuyver would appreciate. We were able to help him erect this structure when we returned with the van, using its lifted tailgate as the backbone for the shelter. It was a badass shelter, here are a couple pics.
So, the shelter was a complete success... After a while of removing ourselves from the sun under Hugh's new shelter, we decided we wanted to explore the campground. Hugh opted out, so Ned Sarah and I embarked on our journey brandishing my Cool Keys Keytar, the Strumstick and for percussion my Glockenspiel. We started a band called The Sticks (completely different from Mr Roboto or the river of the dead according to the Greeks.... Anyway, five minutes after forming the band we headed out on our first tour. Let me say, I have been in my fair share of bands... Metallicaholix, Bo-Job, Samuel and the Semites, Los Zombis, and Bo.Monro... and I have NEVER seen a band get their shit together so quickly as to go on tour five minutes after formation... that is simply attributed to our will and passion to bring music into the hearts and minds of our inebriated fellow campers.
We walked and we walked... One of the first groups of people we ran into shouted from a distance, "That's a StrumStick!" he proceeded to tell me that he never thought he would see another one... BUT HE WAS WRONG!
Generally how the tour went was, we would walk around until we found people, then we would join their group and pass around our instruments to them so they could make some music. I don't think that I have been told "You made my day!" so many times in such a short period of time. Everyone we encountered was extremely nice, although there was one Colombian who had transplanted to Seattle who was trying to convince me that the war on Iraq was necessary, and that Bush and McCain had a grandeoise plan for the world that would allow our economic prosperity to flourish... I had to hold myself back from interrupting / shouting at him exposing all of the flaws to this grand plan that he spoke of, but we quickly moved on to the next group who were completely into the idea of trying our instruments and clapping along.
One of our audiences was getting an update from his friend who was in the festival on his cellular telephone and he told his friend "Sorry, I need to go, I have my own concert here... The Sticks are performing for us." Ha, he was definitely drunk, and definitely into our music.
The tour continued for a total of some two or three hours, do not really know because time does not matter when you are camping. At the end of our tour, Sarah had gone ahead while Ned and I dropped our drawers and Honeybucketed it up. As Ned and I rounded the bend nearing Honeybucket 6, I was strumming away to my hearts content filling the air with some twangy bluesy Strumstick action as six individuals wearing yellow festival staff shirts approached.
As we were walking by, one of the staffers (who was not really sure of himself...) broke formation and asked me to put away my instrument because saying, "It causes people to gather, You must either put it back in your campsite, or I will take it." This really steamed me up... I wanted to come back at him and tell him cramming 10,000 people into 40 acres of field is actually what forces folks to gather, but I held my tongue.
The Sticks were strummed out... as we were walking back to Honeybucket Six a couple of Joes who were tripping on shrooms joined us, and we all went and sat under Hugh's shelter returning to the indulgence of substances.
I kids you not, even though we were not participating in the festivity itself, it was a remarkable day.
We walked and we walked... One of the first groups of people we ran into shouted from a distance, "That's a StrumStick!" he proceeded to tell me that he never thought he would see another one... BUT HE WAS WRONG!
Generally how the tour went was, we would walk around until we found people, then we would join their group and pass around our instruments to them so they could make some music. I don't think that I have been told "You made my day!" so many times in such a short period of time. Everyone we encountered was extremely nice, although there was one Colombian who had transplanted to Seattle who was trying to convince me that the war on Iraq was necessary, and that Bush and McCain had a grandeoise plan for the world that would allow our economic prosperity to flourish... I had to hold myself back from interrupting / shouting at him exposing all of the flaws to this grand plan that he spoke of, but we quickly moved on to the next group who were completely into the idea of trying our instruments and clapping along.
One of our audiences was getting an update from his friend who was in the festival on his cellular telephone and he told his friend "Sorry, I need to go, I have my own concert here... The Sticks are performing for us." Ha, he was definitely drunk, and definitely into our music.
The tour continued for a total of some two or three hours, do not really know because time does not matter when you are camping. At the end of our tour, Sarah had gone ahead while Ned and I dropped our drawers and Honeybucketed it up. As Ned and I rounded the bend nearing Honeybucket 6, I was strumming away to my hearts content filling the air with some twangy bluesy Strumstick action as six individuals wearing yellow festival staff shirts approached.
As we were walking by, one of the staffers (who was not really sure of himself...) broke formation and asked me to put away my instrument because saying, "It causes people to gather, You must either put it back in your campsite, or I will take it." This really steamed me up... I wanted to come back at him and tell him cramming 10,000 people into 40 acres of field is actually what forces folks to gather, but I held my tongue.
The Sticks were strummed out... as we were walking back to Honeybucket Six a couple of Joes who were tripping on shrooms joined us, and we all went and sat under Hugh's shelter returning to the indulgence of substances.
I kids you not, even though we were not participating in the festivity itself, it was a remarkable day.
Salut d'Aix en Provence!
I've just began my month long adventure in this small southern French town, and I love it already. The tiny streets crowded with people, the countless fountains, and the French wine have forced me to immediately fall in love with France once again.
I arrived in Marseille on Wednesday and took a short bus ride to Aix. After settling into my very small, but very cozy apartment, I took a stroll down the street to meet a few of the other students in my program and have a café. Thinking I was getting a regular coffee, the waiter instead brought me a tiny, and very very strong, espresso. I sipped the bitter drink and go to know the other students in my group. They are all very nice, and after finishing my drink, I retreated to the apartment for a quick rest before heading out to dinner with two of the other students who live in the apartment next to mine.
After dinner we walked up and down the cours mirabeau, the main street in Aix, checking out the restaurants, cafés, and bars. Ironically, one of the clubs we went into was featuring 5 euro beer pong, possibly the most discouraging thing I could find on my first night in France. But we quickly bounced back and went out to a bar last night with some students. O'Shannons was a lot of fun. Besides talking with the other American students, I had my first, may be it very short, conversation with a native. It was great. Feeling motivated and excited, as well as a bit tipsy, my roommate and I headed back to the apartment for a good nights sleep.
I'll be sure to put up some pictures soon.
t
I arrived in Marseille on Wednesday and took a short bus ride to Aix. After settling into my very small, but very cozy apartment, I took a stroll down the street to meet a few of the other students in my program and have a café. Thinking I was getting a regular coffee, the waiter instead brought me a tiny, and very very strong, espresso. I sipped the bitter drink and go to know the other students in my group. They are all very nice, and after finishing my drink, I retreated to the apartment for a quick rest before heading out to dinner with two of the other students who live in the apartment next to mine.
After dinner we walked up and down the cours mirabeau, the main street in Aix, checking out the restaurants, cafés, and bars. Ironically, one of the clubs we went into was featuring 5 euro beer pong, possibly the most discouraging thing I could find on my first night in France. But we quickly bounced back and went out to a bar last night with some students. O'Shannons was a lot of fun. Besides talking with the other American students, I had my first, may be it very short, conversation with a native. It was great. Feeling motivated and excited, as well as a bit tipsy, my roommate and I headed back to the apartment for a good nights sleep.
I'll be sure to put up some pictures soon.
t
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Tallinn is a unique place
...as to how small (300 000) yet cosmopolitan it really is. Realized this today as 'Sex and the City' premiered here before major capitols. Not probably a good movie if you liked the series, is my guess, but then again, what do I know.
Arrived last night 1am - still not reverted to the 24-hr format - at my sister's door in Tallinn.
Thank you all for giving me the chance of knowing you, to the extent it happened! There may be a few more posts from me here still.
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