Artopium's Roving Festival

Boycott Rocco's Pizza in Portland

2009-08-17T14:07:00.000-07:00

What a crime. Rocco's used to be so cool until recent changes in management and employee attitude. I know, I'd been going to Rocco's for over a year. When I first moved to Portland in July of '08, Rocco's was one of the first things I bragged about. The pizza isn't the greatest of quality, but that was quickly made up for by how nice and friendly the staff was to me. Within only a handful of visits I came to know almost the entire staff by first name and they always greeted me warmly. I began to make Rocco's a daily habit of pizza and beer, and anytime I needed to meet someone downtown it would be at Rocco's. I considered listing Rocco's as a sponsor of RovingFestival.com and began having all my business meetings there; inviting upwards of 5 or 6 clients at a time, all paying customers of course. I've celebrated several birthdays there, including my own. We'd buy beer all night long some nights, just hanging out and having fun.

Until Recently.

Just a few days ago I remarked to a friend that I don't meet as many cool people at Rocco's anymore. They just don't come around. Most of the type of people I see now are tourists who have never been there before nor will probably ever go there again. Or simply just the Mom-n-Dad types with their kids. No more artists, musicians, scenesters, skaters, hippies, punks, or any other genre for that matter. At the same time, I'd also noticed those friendly faces behind the counter being replaced by scowly, frowny, pimply faces of the less-than-friendly type who definitely aren't interested in knowing my name. And now Rocco's wants to be a bar, applying for it's liquor license after which everything on the menu went up by 25 to 50 cents.

Then it happened.

Yesterday I walked in to Rocco's to order a pizza and beer as usual. As I stepped up to the counter and placed my order, one of these not-so-friendly types steps up next to the guy taking my order and says "I know you come here a lot, but we can't have you sitting at the tables without buying something more." When I asked what he meant he explained that if I want to sit at Rocco's tables for prolonged periods of time I must buy something more than my original order; in other words I must continue to buy stuff in order to continue hanging out. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Not only is he wrong for the most part, I normally do continue to buy things, but I told him that that was a rather disrespectful thing to say to such a faithfully returning customer who has spent well over a thousand dollars of his hard earned money at this establishment. He just laughed and said he doubted it (pizza + beer = $5 to $20 times 300+ days: you do the math). I said if that's how he feels I'll just take my business elsewhere and he agreed that would be best. As I walked out I spat on the front door quid pro quo.

The Gentrification Bandwagon.

Gentrification is usually something that happens to slum neighborhoods by wealthy landowners who are interested in increasing the value of their land or property. It usually comes with a price as the ever increasing property values tend to drive out less successful businesses, despite whatever cultural value those businesses might have. Or, as it seems, if you're Rocco's, you go along with the gentrification program, increase prices, and kick out the lower class so the middle to upper middle class aren't offended (gentrification literally means to make suitable for gentlemen i.e. the wealthy). You do this first by eliminating troublesome employees (the ones friendly to the lower class), then eliminating the troublesome clients (the artists, musicians, etc.). The problem is this: Rocco's isn't having problems making rent; Rocco's isn't dealing with external gentrification. In fact, they're expanding, adding a bar to an otherwise bar-less block of the city. On that same block we have a coffee shop (plenty of artists there) two artsy and independent book stores (yup, artists there too), and a place called the Independent Publishers Resource Center (you guessed it; artists). Down the street you have New Avenues For Youth, a resource program for wayward teens seeking to get away from drugs and alcohol, Whole Foods (you can guess what types shop there) and a place called Living Room Theater, showing independent and artsy films. Not to mention Powell's Books, the largest used book retailer in the world is across the street.

The point is:

I used to tell people that if you are going to visit Portland, or even move there, you haven't seen Portland until you've been to Rocco's; an epicenter of the city's culture. Now, I'll be sure to tell everyone I know to steer far away from Rocco's lest they get a bad impression of this otherwise very cool and very artsy town. And to those who own Rocco's, perhaps someday you'll realize what you had and maybe by then it won't be too late.

Rainbow Gathering 2009 Sucked

2009-08-17T12:59:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would say this, but this year's Rainbow Gathering, held near Cuba New Mexico, was truly a sorry state of affairs. This year I decided to go early for seed camp and to help set up. A friend drove me to Redding California where I met up with a very cool girl named Jess Blue who owns a ranch for wayward animals. There I fell in love with a Pit / Lab mix puppy that I adopted and named Siris (myspace.com/doggyhoudini) and Jess drove me the rest of the way to the Gathering. Once I arrived I immediately plugged in to my favorite kitchen; Milliways. Setting up and building the kitchen was a lot of fun and for the most part seed camp was great. It was when the gathering went into full swing, around 2 or 3 days before the 1st of July, that all the madness started to happen. Normally money and alcohol are highly discouraged as they represent the "Babylon" that everyone is trying to get away from when One goes to a gathering. However alcohol was very prevalent at this year's gathering, and some girl actually tried to write me a check for Siris at "Trade Circle." Someone got stabbed and died this year due to alcohol (I heard the fight ensued over a nearly finished bottle of vodka). There was a war of the kitchens in which several kitchens slashed and hacked main supply tent (where all the food is stored) due to internal political conflict. On the 4th it rained all day so there was no Ohm for peace and instead there was a mad dance in the mud (still pretty fun). And at the end, there were numerous fist fights almost all of them related to alcohol (a very good reason it's usually discouraged). Some random guy actually tried to punch me while drunk and when I left that scene for quieter ground I came across two other guys in a fist fight at a kitchen called "Peace Village." One thing that did maintain my faith was the numerous "triple" rainbows that appeared after rainstorms in the main meadow. So beautiful. Maybe the Universe was trying to tell everyone something. After this I decided it was time to leave Rainbow and as I got all my belongings to the parking lot I came across a group of about 15 or so gutter punk kids drinking vodka and cheap beer. That night I awoke to someone screaming at the top of their lungs "Who stole my vodka? Who stole my vodka?" What a mess. So much for the Rainbow of peace and living light. The "Vision Council" decided that the gathering would be best held in Tennessee next year. I don't think I'll be going. Really, if I had to make a guess, I would say that the reason that so much alcohol and violence were present is mostly because main meadow was rather close to the parking lot. It was rather easy for people to leave the Gathering and go back into town for more alcohol. Last year in Wyoming, it was literally a 4 or 5 mile hike to get from the parking lot to the main meadow and once you were in you were staying until you left. Hopefully the "elders" learn something about planning water, food and main meadow setup from this years mistakes. Hopefully. Then again we are talking about the largest "un-organization" in the world.

Seeking Artist Guerilla Urban Campers

2009-03-30T19:48:00.001-07:00

Want to join the Artopium Art Troupe? Want to travel around the world, throwing art and music festivals? Tired of your usual, boring life and want to do something exciting and different? Do you enjoy camping; ever want to do long distance and long term camping? Do you have an artistic craft that you would like to sell? Want to become a gypsy? Want to do something so unorthodox that your Mom will worry about you, your friends will think you've lost your mind (but secredtly admire you), and ultimately feel the satisfaction of doing something worthwhile? Contact me. Let's talk.

Visit RovingFestival.com for more info!

Back in Portland

2009-03-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I've arrived back in portland about a week ago and already an amazing plethora of excitment has already unfolded before me. After being greeted by my friends at the train station, I was whisked away for pizza and beer at rocco's (somewhat of a tradition now) then lead on an adventure to the zoo and then to karaoke at a bar called "Gypsy" (how appropriate).

I've made a new guerilla urban camp in Washington Park, and it's definitely one of my better camps. There is plenty of head room, and the hammock keeps me off the wet ground. It's been raining a lot here in Portland, but I've actually found myself wishing it would rain harder so I can see my camp taken to its limits. There's no better feeling of satisfaction then to build your own temporary home then kick back inside it and watch it protect you from the elements.

I've also made quite a bit of head-way getting the Artopium Art Troupe up and running. I now have keen brochures that explain the function of the Troupe and I will be setting up meetings for the Troupe soon. There are already a few contenders for troupe positions, and it looks like I may be able to have a decent groupe together, at least for booth vending around the city, within a few weeks.

New Festival in the Works

2009-01-31T11:43:00.000-08:00

OK Folks, the next festival you've all been waiting for is now in the beginning stages. I've definitely decided that it will be in Portland (bet you didn't see that one coming). I have a few ideas about the location, but I won't say exactly where at this stage in the planning. Let's just say I'm shooting for downtown somewhere.

And this one's going to be big! No joke. I've got a great theme in mind and I hope to bring in a lot of different, very cool organizations to help put on something truly grand. If space and funding are available there will be two stages, and a very large area for booths. I'm currently writing up the budget for all of this, so if you, or anyone you know, can give me good estimates for stage, sound and lighting, as well as promotional ad space, it would be appreciated.

It would be nice to think that I can put together the festival I see in my mind by the end of this summer, but for the next Artopium Roving Festival to really be on the next level I'm thinking I may go ahead and set the date for 2010. I know this is really far ahead for most artists to book, so I'm going to wait a little while longer before opening the festival sign up.

As always, the festival is for Artopium.com Artist Members, so if you want to participate in the next festival be sure to sign up and create your Artopium profile page. It's free to join and it's easy to use! To get booked just add your Artopium profie URL to your message when you contact us.

In any case, I'll be heading back to Portland within a month or so and once there I'll begin talking with the city council and various departments to wee what is possible. Once I get the green light We'll all have a lot of work to do, but it's going to be fun! If you are interested in volunteering to help or even to join the Artopium Art Troupe, we are always looking to increase our forces. Just check out RovingFestival.com for more info.

I'm in Glenwood Springs, Colorado!

2008-12-20T15:45:00.001-08:00

Hey folks, I've gone home for the holidays.

My last few weeks in Portland were wet and a bit dreary, but I managed to stay dry by squatting in what I must say is the finest and most pristine squat I have ever had the privilege to squat in. About 8 of us were sleeping in a 5 bedroom, 4 story (including basement) mini-mansion that someone found as an abandoned foreclosure right near the PSU campus. Besides, my tent is on it's way out.

For Thanksgiving I traveled to Seattle with a very good friend, then left Portland via Amtrak to Glenwood. I'll be in Glenwood for a while, then Denver, then hopefully to Austin, Texas for a bit. I'll then be heading back towards Glenwood, then to Portland by sometime near March. Anyway, that's the plan.

It's been snowing a lot here since I've arrived. A good friend told me it snowed in Portland just recently, but I'll bet it's not much compared to the consistent flow of the white fluffy stuff here in Glenwood.

Halloween

2008-11-02T15:44:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm still here in Portland. Things have slowed down a bit in the jewelry department. I attribute this to the change in the season as the plentiful North Western rain not only drives out a lot of the tourists but creates a different, and possibly macabre mindset in the locals. That isn't to say I haven't been having fun. Some of those whom I've met that have lived in Portland for a while have told me that you're not a real Portlander unless you get wet. I personally love the rain, so it isn't getting me down.

For Halloween I had the distinct pleasure of partying with a group of some brilliant musicians and beautiful gypsies that form three of Portland's finer bands; NIAYH (Stands for: Now Is All You Have, check out their music video), Def Kids, and Shelter Kids. They performed at Reed College which is supposedly known for "rich hippies", whatever that means.

Also, in the time since my last entry, I've been hard at work building a more permanent urban camping shelter as packing up all of my gear every morning has become a nuisance. It would be nice to have a place where I could store my belongings instead of carrying them around with me all day. So I've moved out of Washington Park and into the much larger Forest Park. After doing several survey trips through Forest Park, each trip taking two or more days, I found a nice secluded place at the very top of the hill. To give you an idea of what this means, you really need to visit Forest Park as it is almost entirely comprised of hills that would make San Fransico jealous. My entire effort to survey the park was to merely find a flat spot that could hold several people through the night, away from the mainstream trails. Since everything to either side of any trail through the park is at a 45 degree incline or more, the only spot I could find was at the very top. This, however, means a 6 mile hike up one of Portlands highest and steepest hills to find it, with 100 foot drops-to-your-death along most of the trail. You can also get there by car and about a 1 mile hike, so getting supplies and people to the camp isn't necessarily hard. Only if you are coming by bus or streetcar. I hope to get more people up there soon. It's very peaceful and a bit exciting at the same time. It isn't completely city noise free as I can still hear the freight boats loading an unloading cargo along the Willamete River, and a few nights ago a pack of coyote came near my camp and began howling!

Back in the City of Roses

2008-09-28T14:32:00.000-07:00

Hello all! I just returned from the Oregon regional rainbow gathering held this year in the Ochoco National Forest just outside of Prineville. I got there near the end of the gathering and there were maybe 60 or 70 brothers and sisters present. It was nice, as it created a real sense of intimacy and closeness. I have to admit that there were no elders there and that there was a bit more drinking than you would normally see at a rainbow gathering, but it was made up for by the mad pirate "space bag" play on the last day, and the family vibe that was felt by everyone.

At the end of the gathering, we spent a day cleaning up the campgrounds, then 19 of us carrying our own packs packed up on to a blue bus (also referred to as the blue pirate bus) and headed back into Portland. When we arrived, there were many brothers who had never been to Portland before and I offered to give them a tour of the city and show them a kosher place to sleep. After terrorizing Old Town / Chinatown with our crazy hippie ways and meandering through Pioneer Square, we rode the MAX to Washington Park and slept in the bushes. It was great having family with me in Wash. Park, sharing food and good times.

The next morning was Saturday, so naturally we went to Saturday Market at the Skidmore Fountain MAX stop. Our group split up as a brother and myself stayed in the market to sell jewelry on the sidewalk and the rest went to go check out the city. We agreed to meet back at Pioneer Square at 5 PM. However, it wasn't long before this brother and I found ourselves on another journey entirely, say, through the looking glass, as a very kind brother in the market traded some l for one of my pendants. I packed up my jewelry and decided to see the City of Roses in a new light. I have been here a while. Why not follow this new brother through the city and see it through his eyes? So I did. And we both wandered through downtown, a bit aimlessly, as I was following him, you see? And our trip through downtown led us right to Pioneer Square, and just as we arrive, there's everyone else from camp, standing at the MAX stop, yelling at us to hurry over to them. As we dash up to the stop, MAX tickets are thrust into our hands, a MAX train arrives, and we tossed onto the train, almost all in one motion.

We're told "You're going to a party," although I'm still reeling from the fact that if we hadn't arrived precisely when we did we would not have seen anyone this evening, so it was meant to be that we should be going. An hour and a half MAX-plus-bus ride later we arrived in Forrest Grove to find ourselves at the McMenamins Grand Lodge. This has to be the grandest, largest, manor of an estate-mansion I have ever seen. It's three stories tall and hundreds of rooms big with an east and west wing, and sits on a many acre garden. As we begin to walk through we quickly notice the tent areas for the stage and band and all of the incredibly rich looking white folk everywhere. Then someone points out to me the compass the square and the G symbol over the main entrance and I quickly realize this is a Freemasonic lodge, a Freemasonic party. And here we are, standing on the outskirts of this very rich place and very rich party looking very dire, tired, dirty, worn down and very hippie. I mean, we just cam back from the regional, slept in the park, wandered downtown, and now we're here.

However, when the blue bus finally arrived, it was explained to me that the lodge used to be a Freemasonic "old people's home", but is now leased by the McMenamins as a hotel of sorts, with a spa, hot-tub area, and a bar called "The Doctors Office" in the basement hall.
Also in the basement were a series of restrooms with showers in them, so some of us naturally jumped in and got clean, and although our garb didn't fit in with the slacks and collard shirts of most of the others at the party, we quickly fixed that by stripping to our undies and sitting in the hot tub singing gypsy songs. We danced and rocked out to the band playing, and although I was a bit apprehensive about the type of people at the party, I found everyone to be accepting and kind.

Speaking of Freemasonic buildings, the Mcmenamins Grand Lodge isn't the only Freemasonic building near Portland no longer used by the Freemasons. A few blocks away from the Central Public Library is the largest Masonic Temple in Portland, built in 1921 as a recreation of King Soloman's Temple and for the purposed of housing all the branches of Freemasonry, including the Eastern Star, Kinghts Templer, et. al. it is now called the Mark Building and is used as the Portland Art Museum administrative offices. Noticing that Portland has many curiously no-longer-used freemasonic buildings, and that the predominant symbol of the city is the rose, I began to think of another secret society I know of that uses the rose as it's symbol: the Rosicrucians. Hmmmm.

Hempfest in Seattle

2008-08-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

I just spent the last week in Seattle, Washington. The first weekend of which I spent at Hempfest, an amazingly huge festival of music, art and products for the purpose of marijuana anti-prohibition, and pro-legalization. I would have to say at least 30 to 40 thousand people attended throughout the day and witnessed the 3 stages of great, live bands, and the many booth vendors along the Seattle beach a few blocks down from Pike's Market.

To get to Seattle, my friends and I caught a ride using Craig's List ride-share category. We arrived at 2am and caught up with some friends who were dancing at a club party in Pioneer Square. Yes, both Seattle and Portland have a Pioneer Square, but they are quite different places to visit. We followed our friends directions, but alas we couldn't tell if anyone was home, so after crashing on the sidewalk in front of a "friend of a friend's" place, with a mild hangover the lot of us made our way to the festival.

Synchronistically, at the festival, I ran into several rainbow brothers and sisters whom I worked with at Milliways Kitchen during the Rainbow National, one of which let me stay in her backyard. Expecting to only stay for the weekend of the festival I missed my rideshare back to Portland and ended up staying an entire week. Luckily my friend Paul was there on business and let me stay in his hotel room. I'm lucky because Seattle is not as comfortable of a place to do urban camping as Portland. There aren't convenient parks to camp in, and even if there were the police don't seem as friendly about the idea.

One very cool place to go if you're ever in Seattle is Ballard. If there is anywhere I would try to urban camp in Seattle it would be the Ballard district, although I never did have to urban camp in Ballard as I met many people who were willing to let me stay at their place on their couch. You can meet lots of cool people at the Bergen Triangle Plaza at the center of Ballard, or at Mr. Spot's Chai House right next to the Triangle.

Selling jewelry in Portland

2008-08-11T12:04:00.000-07:00

I've been doing very well selling my necklaces, bracelets, anklets, earrings, etc. at the many fairs, festivals and markets available throughout the city. Every Saturday and Sunday is "Saturday Market", situated at the Skidmore Fountain MAX stop. This market is huge, with over a hundred painters, sculptors, buskers, from all over the world. Although it is an official city art market, it has a real renegade, "gypsy" feel.

However, on the last Thursday of every month, on Alberta Street (that's on the East side of the river), there is a great and wonderful thing, simply called "Last Thursday". This is truly where the renegade, "blanket" vendors and gypsies go to set up all along Alberta Street's sidewalks and nearly three to five thousand people flow through the streets to peruse and make purchases. There is also "First Thrusday" which is a gallery crawl throughout downtown, but it doesn't lend nearly as much attraction as Last Thursday.

There are also four (count them, four!) Farmer's Markets throughout the week in various places downtown, the two most prominent being in the South Park Blocks and PSU campus.

Not to mention the nearly weekly waterfront festivals two of which were the Oregon's Brewers Festival and A Bite of Oregon.

With so much going on there are plenty of places to set up and sell "on the sidelines". And if all else fails, there are a few spots near Pioneer Square where you can throw down a blanket on "off" days.

My first experiences with urban camping in Portland

2008-07-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

So far, it's been a very interesting "mixed bag" of experiences trying to urban camp in downtown Portland. First, let me say that for all of the cities I could try and do this in, Portland is setup for it like an urban camping paradise. There are numerous parks to sleep in, and certain doorways seem to be acceptable sleeping places, although the idea of sleeping directly on the sidewalk seems silly in lieu of the fact that Washington Park is just a train ride away. At Washington Park, if you go far enough in, and it is indeed a large park, you will find many others who have zipped up into their sleeping bags and taken up a nice, quiet, and mostly peaceful plot of park to sleep in. My first several days in this town have been camping out with other rainbow brothers and sisters in the park. The weather has been very nice and temperate throughout the day, but it does get a bit chilly at night and I would recommend a sleeping bag rated to at least 30. It rains a bit in the spring and a lot through the fall and winter, but in the summer it's not anything you couldn't handle with a tarp, so I haven't need to pitch a tent yet.

The people in Portland are amazingly friendly and actually, quite a few of them are travelers from many other places. It is a port town, I guess. But, just about everywhere you go downtown you will see others with travelers packs, walking around, taking in the culture, being the culture.

There are so many free meal programs throughout the city that no one could possibly go hungry in this town. Going to them kind of makes me feel like I'm at Rainbow again, walking from kitchen to kitchen around the meadow. The biggest differences being that at rainbow I got fed wonderful, nutritious, vegan food that gave me much energy, even if I didn't eat very much, and Portland's free meal programs make me feel like I've been poisoned. Not to mention the fact that most of the free meal programs are visited by the mentally disabled or drug (heroin) addicts. Well, OK, so are rainbow kitchens, but at rainbow there's so much more love and consciousness present, and definitely no heroin, or most other powders. And alcohol is discouraged greatly.

Portland is Amazing!

2008-07-20T01:09:00.000-07:00

I've been traveling with my new friend Heather through the metro areas of downtown Portland, Oregon, and I must say this town rocks! The town is setup neatly and is easy to understand how to get around once you understand the light rail (called the MAX) and the position of the Willamette and Columbia rivers.

So far, one of my favorite places to hang out is at Pioneer Courthouse Square, located at the center of Portland's downtown. All the MAX trains intersect at what Portland calls it's "living room", where they show movies on a giant inflatable screen in the evenings and have something called Noon Tunes during the day where awesome bands play live.

My other favorite place to hang out is at Rocco's Pizza, located right across the street from Powell's Books at the intersection of Burnside and 10th, this local pizza pub has been around for a while. There's a very eclectic crowd of students, homeless, white collar workers, bike enthusiasts, etc. that hang out front, who come for the gigantic slices of pizza and cheap beer.

Left for Rainbow

2008-07-18T15:36:00.000-07:00

I left Austin, Texas with a purpose: to "rove". The festival had become stagnant and I knew that in order for me to achieve my purposes with it I needed to rove. So I teamed up with the one and only Freeman from the Freeman Perspective along with two close friends and headed out for this year's National Rainbow Gathering in the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming. On our way there we stopped in Colorado to visit the Garden of the Gods, near Colorado Springs and to stay and visit with some fantastic glass blowing brothers.

When I reached the National Forest I was promptly welcomed home, and after spending one night in the parking lot, we made the 4 to 5 mile hike into "Main Meadow". Mostly we "plugged in" to Milliway's kitchen, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" where "Tea starts wars!" There I met so many numerous, wonderfully lovely brothers and sisters and we worked hard to feed the masses with so many varieties of pizza and zoo-zoos.

On the 4th of July all 20,000 of those naked hippies in the forest remained totally silent in contemplation of world peace. This has got to be one of the most profound experiences of my life. To think of this many peace loving brothers and sisters coming together in the middle of one of the most scenic and aesthetically beautiful forests I've ever seen to remain totally silent through an entire morning, contemplating. Of course everybody still meandered, looking for breakfast or that morning bowl, but without saying a word.

At noon, the children from Kiddie Village paraded down to the peace pole in the middle of Main Meadow while all 20,000 present held hands and ohm'ed at the perimeter of the meadow. Once all the children reached the pole, everyone at the gathering broke their silence in an eruption of cheers. And the party went on all through the night.

I've since met a beautiful rainbow sister who has encouraged my friend and I to come visit the Great Northwest. So I'm in Portland, Oregon. I've already been whisked away to Siuslaw National Forest to see the beautiful Oregon coast line and to somewhere near Hood River to venture into a rock-built hot springs on the Washington side of the border. It's amazing to me already that I've gone from about 8,000 ft in elevation in the Wyoming mountians to be at the Oregon coastline three days later.

And the light and life of the Rainbow Gathering continues as I've run into many brothers and sisters from the gathering here in Portland, and the general attitude of the town seems to be of the same spirit. I think I'm going to check this place out for a while.

Again?

2008-05-06T12:45:00.001-07:00

This is my first blog, so not sure where to start. There's so much going on with the festival, and I don't feel like catching you up. just visit rovingfestival.com for a complete description of what I do. Let's just start by saying that I intend this blog to be a journal or record of the travels of the Roving festival and the Artopium Art Troupe. look forward to pics and videos of our travels and festivals soon!