If a Tree Falls in the Woods, Would the Hippies Hear It?

As noted, traveling by Weston encourages lots of staring. Some might consider the stares colored with judgment, maybe a dark green for envy. Do these people just want to travel and see our tiny camper van as a representative of childhood vacations? Or do we just look homeless after 2 + weeks on the road and the same number of showers?

In effect, we are homeless for the year, and maybe we're starting to give off that 'vibe.' It could be Rob's tie that I'm using to hold up my pants that are too loose due to not enough vegan cake (though we solved that today). Or maybe it's just the lack of caring that they see, when we pull into a rest stop or a WalMart parking lot to cook & camp for the night in cities. Being tied to one home or workplace can start as comfortable or secure. Forgoing certainty awakens a natural ability to navigate changes without paralysis. Like where to wash your dishes. (The Walmart bathroom, of course. No purchase necessary, don't worry.)

We're pretty darned comfortable in Weston. The only variables in our life are income, Weston's health, and where we're going to sleep at night. Of course there are variables we share with everyone: our own health, happiness, and the probability that I'll finally beat Rob at Gin Rummy and whether or not he'll cry like a baby when this occurs.

The other thing I'm not certain about, but would tell/yell at you a defensive "No freagin' way!" in response, is, "Are we hippies?" I mean, we have the van, and I guess there are some similarities. I have devised a hippy-o-meter to see where we fall.

Yes, Rob and Eleni are Hippies

• Weston
• Love (general)
• Lack of showerage
• Attendant at gas station in Kentucky said "oh yes, you're hippies."
  
• Kleenex box color could be interpreted as 'tie dye'
• College kids in Chapel Hill yelled "hippy!" at Ms. Binge while driving down the road in Tercel. Ms. Binge reasoned it was one of her bumper stickers.
  
• Bumper stickers
• Rob now flashes the 'peace' sign to fellow VW busses. (He says it is a "V" for "VW." Binge says it is a "V" for "Vegan.")
  

No, Rob and Eleni are Punk Rock!

• Avoided purchase of patchouli candle. Scowled upon reading scent.
  
• Don't like people (trying)
• Wear Autumn Breeze deodorant (all seasons)
  
• Rob's hair is too thin and short to dread
• The Grateful Dead evokes a really bad dental visit sustained by Ms. Binge
  
• Wash clothes (in machine)
  
• Only "baking" in van is of vegan cake
  
• They're vegan!
• Turning on and tuning in, but not dropping out
• Anything that reeks of 'new age' upsets their auras

I should explain that my bias/perception of "hippy" is of a space cadet; someone who sits around and half-heartedly complains rather than taking meaningful action. Things like drumming for peace, which seem more of a tool for many people to alleviate grief they are feeling at not being able to take direct action. An individual can feel good that they have taken steps to irradicate war through the plesant experience of drumming, rather than doing more difficult work of striking at the root of violence. I'm not saying that this type of activity or meditation isn't effective - the beginning of many societal changes can be at the hand of a well-grounded activist who is "connected" due to the time they have committed to reflection.

Of course there are worse things/people. Those that take negative action. But as a somewhat-organized activist, the label of "hippy" is still offensive.

What might be more offensive, however, is this stereotype. Just do a little thing, here, for me. Google "hippies" and check out the resulting images that display on top of the page.

Done?

(If you look real close, you'll see me in the far-right picture, hands up.)

If these photos aren't proof of my own bias, they are simply proof of our larger need to compact movements into neat, square storage bins (the kind Americans use to store their extra stuff...stuff that is meaningless, I think, to hippies?). At work, as well, is the age-old comfort in overthrowing past ideals in favor of new, (presumably) improved philosophies.

After all, hippies stood for dissent from mainstream assumptions, encouraged community, and promoted peace, all awesome things I embrace (though do not think they are entirely possible). Maybe it is the commercialization and superficial symbolism of hippies that I'm adverse to: clothes and peace signs have been marketed to the masses ad nauseum and the people who embrace the "look" as if this alone is a statement that will change the world. If we're talking dissent, why do we all have to look the same?

So are we hippies? Yes and no.

Did we hear the tree that fell in the woods, due to Hurricane Ike, at an Ohio Rest Stop while playing Gin Rummy? Yes. Did Rob win, again? Yes. Is he cheating? Maybe.

So Ike has rendered us jobless for the past week. My last engagement was on Monday when I spoke to a group of Philosophy students at Ursuline. Our show at the Gypsy Hut, my screening with a veg group at the First Unitarian Church, and our show last night at the Rumba Room were all cancelled due to lack of power.

Other than that, here is a little recap-aroo of our past week or so.

We played at Ray's Monkeyhouse following my screening there. Also on the bill was an Old Tyme/Bluegrass band called Say Darlin' Say. I really enjoyed them as a nice break from the typical rock'n'roll.



















As a kid, we used to go to California every summer in a VW bus with my mom, brother, and grandparents (all classical musicians, not hippies). We were very predictable and only stopped at the same Motel 6 in Eureka, the same restaurant for breakfast (the Oak Tree), the same restaurants in between (Denny's) and even the same reststops. Heck, even my treats were consistent (breakfast bars, V-8 juice, Treetop apple juice). I always ordered the French Dip at Denny's. Ordering the French Dip would not be very vegan of me now, so luckily there is a delicious alternative. I got the idea directly from Cafe Flora, a great veg restaurant in Seattle.


Pictured here are cast-iron-pan sauteed portobellos & red onions, with a sauce of sweet/savory (Bragg's & black strap molasses) as well as a dipping "au jous" of Bragg's diluted with water. It was delicious and didn't need the dip. For even more protein and bulk, I would suggest adding thin strips of seitan.


We also played a house show at the kind Oldham house. They will be ending house shows in October, but have hosted many bands in the past year. It takes a special kinda person to host these continual shows, opening up your house and cooking meals for the bands. They made us some vegan Indianish dish that filled us all up good. And we got our 2nd shower. We played with the band from Indiana, You're a Liar (pictured below).


Due to cancelled shows, Rob and I have had a lot of time to crave soy ice cream. I decided to go all out and get the cones too. We found Soy Delicious in full supply at Whole Foods. We tried a new flavor, Snickerdoodle, which I don't think is as good as Cookie Dough.


Here you can see Weston in action being a cupboard.


He has many roles: kitchen, bedroom, gambling room, etc. We've been feeling kinda bad because Syba isn't necessarily appreciating all of Weston's contributions. Rob said that her last crap was the Chinese character for "Get me outta here!" (I'm not sure how he knows this, but I'm certain it ties in to his cheating at Gin Rummy).


So we went and bought her this fluffy stuffed 'bear' toy. She is in love with it. She even will go into Weston, willingly, to fetch it and bring it out for play. She throws it around and plays keep away with interested passerby. And of course she just rolls around with it, as you see here.




In addition to the shows & screenings, Rob has been engaged in grassroots activism...leafleting at universities. Here he is at Xavier, a nice campus in Cincinnati. He's leafleting as part of the Adopt a College program. Sweet stuff. The brochures given to students describe the conditions food animals endure, and suggest alternatives. Just the facts, with no fluff required. The facts speak for themselves.


Due to Ike, gas in this same area of town was almost non-existent while we were there. For a moment or three, we were wondering if we'd be able to leave as the fuel needle dipped into the red. We waited about 20 minutes to fill up at the one station in town that still had fuel and power.




















Alll of these troubles were washed away with vegan cupcakes, when we came across Pattycakes Vegan Bakery in Columbus. Rob noted that my sweater matched the sign.

Huge thanks to Kim Gray for treating us to this for my birthday.

We soon headed to the Rumba Room, but found this unfortunate message on the door:

We ended up talking to this nice man Adam, who could have applied and been hired for the Dog Whisperer job. Syba would have been happy to stay with him. I thnk she loved Adam more than her anonymous bear toy.

So these are the types of blog posts where I post them, leave, and then sometime around 3:00 a.m. wonder if I offended anyone. Yeah, I care like that. I don't mean to be rude or insensitive to any one person's lifestyle, but I do think discussion of differing viewpoints is important. So feel free to comment. And if you're rude, I'll delete you! (No, I won't).

We're off to Lakewood tonight to play a DIY space. We haven't eaten a Go Back to Durham cookie yet but I'm thinking the can will be opened soon.

Porch'n - Week 1; Tires & Reststops

So it has officially been a week, calendar-style, and we just made it over the North Carolina state line last night around 11:00 PM. Here is Weston in the parking lot next to the Garage, where we played with the Jew(s) and Catholic(s) and the Winter Sounds.






















This was our first show (our first actual stop was the screening at Guildford) and I kinda felt like we were heading off to our first day of school when two of the Midtown Dickens and two-thirds of the soon to debut Pinhook bar showed up to send us off proper Durham-style. It was comforting to have them out there, and we shared some of Shirle's “nice people” cookies with them after the show.















The cookie tin opened its lid again for the Jew(s) and Catholic(s) later.

No offense to future people we met who did not get offered nice people cookies. I think we ate them all. In fact the cookies are so good that we might even have to dip into our “go back to durham” cookies even though we don't need to go back yet. But so far we've controlled ourselves.

Weston's First Boo-Boo

We were hoping it was the truck driving past us, but it was in fact Weston's rear foot we heard, which got slashed on the road. Here is Rob changing the tire. Lucky we had a spare but it was not in great shape, so we found a tire shop. The tire shop (Goodyear, for gawd sake, the very God of Tires) told us they haven't made that kind of tire in over 20 years (the tire is designed to carry heavy loads). They called the VW dealership, who didn't have them either. We began to worry that we'd have to hitchhike the rest of the tour, when we found TIRE KING (the King of Tires). These folks were able to special order a tire so we had one by the next morning. We drove on the spare over to Snug Harbor where we played with the Future Kings and Charlotte's LA Tool & Die. Here is LA Tool & Die during my favorite song.

And here is one of the Kings, our new shirt model.

Before picking up our tire the next morning, we went to this lake, where Syba begged, swam a bit, and ate tree branches.

I also made a tofu scramble so we could have a picnic.

Here we are ensuring no scramble appears post-picnic.

At this same park we stumbled upon another dog park, where Syba did dog-park things like run, smell, and socially interact with her peers as well as those she considers inferior.

There was a loud cell-phone talker dog-guardian, and, of course, this person's dog was also barky, and if the dog had a cell phone, I'm sure he'd be using up his minutes at the park, too.

I think my next documenary will be about rest stops. I realized somewhere in the past week that I love them. It might have been my insistance that we pop the top and sleep at a rest stop any chance possible, or it might have been this creme-de-la-creme of rest stops that we stopped at on the way to Asheville.

It has recycling.

Biodegradable bags for your dogs.

Even a freagin' fire hydrant in case the dog isn't inspired enough by the trees!

And this here is a picture of the area surrounding the rest stop.

Shangri La, or what?

Then of course there is the fabricated comfort inserted by Rest Stop Authorities. Picnic benches, BBQs for veggie burgers.

Actually, I'd be curious to know whether these rusty BBQs had ever experienced the sizzle of a veggie burger or veggie dog.

Really, what else do you need during your rest? Today's stop even had WiFi.

Well, reststop people, if you are reading my blog, I guess showers would be nice. And vegan cake.

Our first night in Asheville we played at the Rocket Club. Here is a picture of it, blurred and freshly painted in the rocketship color (silver, of course!).

We played with Charlotte's The Houstons and Asheville's Sophisticated Chimps.

One of the owners of the club had a dog who hung out with Syba most of the time. The Rocket Club is huge and the stage is made for a 30 piece orchestra. The lights were bright and unwavering, and we couldn't see a thing. The sound was pretty good though.

We found a local park by the French Broad River and popped the top there. We were not disburbed at all, and even made breakfast (pancakes and hash browns) & washed our dishes the next morning.

I must admit that Weston gets a lot of stares. Many people stop to talk of us simply because of him. If I might borrow/paraphrase a line from Katherine Dunn's book Geek Love, Weston is like a confession.

Driving around in him is an open invite for people to relate to us through their own history with a similar van, their own past travels, or their natural curiosity about what the heck we might be up to.

Especially with that container of literature bungy-corded down on top (BTW – don't try to park in a garage with 7'2” limit with such a container attached. A big bumpy noise will happen and you might break your container).

We spent some time driving around trying to find a spot to park. Weston is very handy for naps, as evidenced here on the sidewalk.

Check out our compadre behind us...this person had a dog as well. Seems to go along with the whole thing.

Post-nap we went on the air on WPVM...big thanks to Kym of Midtown & Pinhook for recommending the Siren's Muse show. You can hear the broadcast here (for a little while).

The next day we were gig- and screening-free. Rob leafleted, and also found another dog park for Syba. I spent about 10 hours in the public library booking & promo-ing. If this were really a job, this touring thing, I'd be accummulating a wealth of overtime dollarage. I'd have to sue myself for making me work without pay/recognition.

There was a storm that night, but Weston stayed pretty dry. I'm still not sure how he'll be in the snow blizzards. I do know I'll make snow soup.

Last night we played for Warren-Wilson in Swannanoa, NC. Amazing place where it seems like you have entered an alternate reality. The emphasis of the school is on service, and students are required to work 15 hours a week. This includes farming, gardening, cooking, and helping BB set up and making the documentary happen. The students were very kind and thanked us for coming out to play there. I was told the school was founded long ago as a way to empower the surrounding empoverished community through local farming. After we played, I screened my film.

Then we set off toward Kentucky. After about four hours of driving, we finally made it to our temporary destination, a rest stop! Yeah! Here is Weston the next morning. As a tip, if your refridgerator is on the kabootz, tempeh and Silk Soy Creamer keeps for days.

As another tip, don't look yonder while Syba is one foot away on her new extendo-leash. She might chew it in two. After you knot it back together, she might bite it in 1/2 two more times until you realize that maybe she isn't through with this thing yet.

Jumping Off the Porch: Issue 1

You kinda get all worked up about whether or not everything will go like you'd planned it. Only you'd just planned it in the sort of ¼ arsed way you always planned things. Because you can. Somewhere along the way you realized that you were able to get by with what you consider to be less effort than what should be expended. It may be obvious to analyze this and say you secretly assume that were you to really try and give this thing 100% instead of 60 the results of your extra 40 would be astoundingly improved. But no, this is not your real fear. Your real fear is if you give it that additional percentage it will yield absolutely no significant results.

--Syba, after packing her doggy care pack, post ant-invasion

Of course Rob and I made some preparations too. Here I am sending out posters, DVDs, and CDs pre-trip.

What to bring with you when you leave your home and create another, smaller, moving one for a year? Well, there are the obvious choices, being in a band and all.

Mostly, as I told a few of you, this process is almost like preparing for your death. Every object or momento we own was given a harsh interrogation. "What is your purpose?" and "Who sent you here?" etc. I can't bring myself to get rid of certain things (they pleaded their case well) but ultimately, someday, this won't matter a bit. Here are some things we thought we'd need for the next year:

• I opted to leave behind the tv tray that my keyboard was going to sit on instead of my floor tom. Otherwise, we brought everything, down to the gig rug with dog hair;

• Rob's two guitars, the one handmade by my cousin/uncle Steve – he's amazingly creative and precise, difficult qualities to balance. See this picture for a glance at the guitar...with “Beloved Binge” etched on it;

• My screening pack stuff...DVDs, literature, mailing list.

• Merch – CDs, DVDs, stickers. Most of this fit handily under the back seat, in a cupboard I call the 'toybox' because I don't know why.

• Literature from Vegan Outreach that mostly Rob will be handing out at colleges;

• Clothes. Rob said I brought way more than he did, but a quick comparison yields this assessment...........false! Though I did bring way more many pairs of undies than he did boxers.

• My favorite cast iron frying pan. I love this thing. It's heavy, and I'm not certain how I'll lift it in a few decades, but that's why I do push ups and pull ups on neighborhood monkey bars, pushing aside small children;
  

• A large sauce pan for making things like seitan, boiling noodles, and steamin the veggies.

• A screen kindly prepared by Kim of Subdivision 67 so we can make shirts. I really like it – I drew our heart logo with “i don't like people...but I'm tryin'” on it. We're going to go to thrift stores and buy stuff to print onto.

• An “office” bag with CDs, DVDs, envelopes, and a small case with stamps, one-sheets, etc.

• Tennis rackets, a hacky sack, and a deck-o-cards so we can exercise our limbs and minds.
  

My favorite things are those that make Weston feel like home: art and care packages from our friends. People were so kind to us. Yes, you. And you, too. Can't believe what nice folks we know.

Things we brought but shouldn't have:

• Toaster oven. I mean, sure, I might make biscuits in it, or maybe heat up a burrito, but not often enough to warrant carrying the thing around.
  

• An extra sweater (eleni).
• Too many t-shirts (rob).
• Three too many boxes of dog treats (Syba).
  

That's not too bad. After several people made fun of me after saying the blender was a necessity (particularly as we're touring for Blender Theory) we left it at home. No smoothies for Rob. Just smashies. (This is what you get when you take a potato moosher and pound blueberries and bananas with Silk Soy Yogurt.)

Our 2^nd night we spent in a park, “Country Park.” This is right in Greensboro, and even better than free camping is that it has a dog park attached. Syba got to hang out with her kind and smell things.

Weston's Vegan Cafe
For breakfast, I made hash browns and we ate plums. I spinkle a little nutritional yeast to cheeze em up. Real good.

Don't let the picture fool you, I made them. I needed to offset my domestic tour promo shot with this one of Rob mindin' the taters.

For dessert, I ate more of Chef Shirle's amazing vegan cookies she sent along with us for different themes. This one was 'spreadin the werd about the bird' since we both did this. Syba also got a homemade dog cookie made by Chef Shirle.

For lunch/dinner, I went to Earth Fare and bought a bunch of stuff, and then we headed to aforementioned Country Park and I made a Mango-Chile stir fry using the sauce of same name, tofu, broccoli, portobellos, and garlic-parsley noodles. Then I ate more cookies. But only those of the correct theme.

Pre-Porch'n...

8/30: Ponchos = We Love Them

In a silly flurry of not-enough-time-ness, we still headed across to the right to Wilmington to play Ponchos from Peru's CD release party.

As I said in my email to the list, I feel like we knew them when they were eating mashed peas and now they have PhDs and we're helping them with their research.

These guys put out an amazing album, and I want you to buy it, once they get it all online-setup. For now, listen here.

These silly Ponchos were still assembling their CDs a couple hours before the release.















They made us vegan pizza (pictured here is Chef Matt Poncho) and we brought vegan cake.

8/27: 506 Networking Night
This turned out to be amazingly well attended considering the downpour and that it was the first of a series. Standing room only.

The panel went over about an hour, and next time they will most likely take more time for questions from the audience, because there was a lot of interest in booking strategies. Stay tuned for another event in October, most likely. I was happy to be a part of the first.

We had food too - all vegan 'cept the Reesees: 'chicken' salad & nuggets w/crackers/chips, apple pie, cookies, and creamy onion dip.

Alla the time: Amazing Friends
Leaving Durham for about a year was hard, and we're certainly going to miss people. Thanks to everyone who has been kind to us and supported what we are doing.