Camp Tipsy was fun… and other news…
August 24, 2009
OK. So I floated a camping trailer to the middle of Lake Ladoga.
It was pretty funny. Camp Tipsy was super fun. The lovely and talented Anja took photos.
http://anja-ulfeldt-photography.smugmug.com/gallery/9342935_9uTNm#P-1-30
There was 140 people all told. The contest was awesome. The idiocy abounded.
A little sad without the small dog… but a fair amount of work. If you went and have no AS YET made a donation, please allow your generosity to be your guide. It cost real money to throw that event and life has been expensive of late…
Here is a video:
http://vimeo.com/6177803
I’m gonna build this next:http://ephemerisle.org/
You can just use a dumpster as a pool too…. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111624469
Anybody live or know anyone in the Delta? By Paradise Point? I need some space out there to build. Anyone got any connections in or around Stockton? Gimme a shout…
Good coffee at Camp Tipsy?
August 12, 2009
Behold the trailer that I am going to float to the middle of Lake Lodoga using barrels from the maraschino cherry company.
It’s a swim up cafe. And the coffee is free….
Can a guy try any harder?
chicken
Camp Tipsy this weekend (or anytime you wanna come, actually)
August 11, 2009
Camp Tipsy has some Olympic contestants. Special Olympics, that is…
Here are a few of the boats you will see floating around….
Kezia and her catfish boat (notice the floatation she uses) with the top off. Yes, there are a few bike helmets in there:
Here is Team Fandango:
Their entry blurb:
Our UFO-themed “boat” is made from a bathtub and some incredibly flimsy bits of found-lumber that we used for an outriggger/sun-deck. If this deck holds up through the weekend without somebody snapping it in half trying to “come aboard”, I’ll eat my tricorn pirate hat. We still need to affix our “floatation” sacks, as I’m betting our duct-tape latticework won’t stand up to three weeks in the sun of the NIMBY parking lot, much less immersion in water. (We have alternate plans involving the plastic mesh from hay-bales.) We are aiming roundly at a Third Place prize (worst design) since we just made it out of whatever was handy, and then painted it silver. We’re not even sure if we’ll be able to reach the water with a paddle. But it’s totally gonna work.
The amazing Scott built a Hovercraft out of leafblowers. Yes, he did…
And yes, that is a model airplane prop and a weed wacker engine….
Here are the barells for the Ritual location nearest to Camp Tipsy:
Directions to Camp Tipsy:
Take I-5 North to the Maxwell exit. Take Maxwell Sites road west. Take it for like 12 miles or so, over the big hill. The ONLY thing you will see is the Lodoga Store which is also Lodoga Storage. 300 feet after the store is a brown sign for East Park Reserviur, but they probably spelled it more better. There will be Camp Tipsy signs everywhere. It is impossible to get lost. If you do a Google search for Lodoga, California, you will see the lake. The store is at the crossroads. The store is actually the entire town of Lodoga. And it’s for sale.
It’s free camping. If you wanna give me some money to defer costs that’s great. It’s expensive to get all that shit up there and takes tons of time. But it’s a donation thing. There is no gate, no ranger ect…
chicken
Sigh… here we go……..
August 4, 2009
“I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?” -Sir Walter Scott
2 weeks has elapsed since the passing of our beloved Dammit and boy is it hard. There is a photo pool, if you have pictures please post them. And anyone who didn’t go to the service can see photos of her here. Her casket, made by Pete Goldie, was beautiful. Laid to rest now, the show must go on… somehow.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1051412@N24/pool/
So we built all this bullshit for Camp Tipsy. I’m gonna leave next Tuesday, the 11th and head up there. We’ll do the competition at 4:00 in the afternoon on Saturday the 15th. Sunday the 16th will be a day for all the boats to just be in the water. Camp Tipsy is super fun. It’s a great spot and there are a ton of great people going.
www.camptipsy.wordpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=104270274993&ref=ts
We have like 16 boats built as of now. And a build weekend this weekend at NIMBY if ya wanna put something together. Just call me if you wanna do something… 415-215-1632
Please pardon me if I sound a little lack luster. I’m doing the best I can…
chicken
RIP Dammitina Dawoo (posted 7-19-09)
August 4, 2009
RIP Dammitina Dawoo
How long can I sit here in front of this blank screen with the title above and a blank white page mocking me? How could I ever reduce the joy that Dammit bestowed on me to mere words? …The same devices that used car salesmen and politicians use. The same feeble and obvious combinations used over and over again in different combinations to elicit unique and special meanings but always within limits of convention and always said before better. I would be the most talented writer on Earth if I could convey a morsel of the grief I am about to endure by telling you that the burden of Dammit’s death is on my shoulders. That I am going to pay, fucking pay someone to end her life. And why? Why? Because kidneys don’t last forever. Because a test tells me to. Because she can no longer either leap into the air as if gravity didn’t notice her or lap water out of a bowl. Because not only blindness or deafness or creaky limbs and now failing organs should dictate the comings and goings of
spirits like this… Nay. Because she demands it. She has used up the vessel that contains her spirit. She used every drop. The last few years were her golden ones and now bored of her retirement she demands to continue to push on… on to the next thing for her. Greedy, I beg her to hold on. For another week. Maybe the steroids? Maybe more acupuncture? Maybe it would be easier if the freak accident that came for me a thousand times came now? But there is no shortcut. The lives of Elves and humans and dogs and fleas are out of calibration. And this is the way of a show, after all. A beginning, a middle and an end. With the reveals, the conflicts, the resolutions. The dramas, the tragedy, the experimentation. The fun. The passion. And finally, the conclusion.
Dammitina was a Showdog. The dog of a Showman. We did it together. All of it. This is her curtain.
I looked for her today. She’s not here. Will I look for her forever? Will I always see her at my feet when I’m typing my pitches to get people to support the plight of the underdog? Will I forever be the guy with a pick-up truck and a dog loading junk and throwing the stick? Will I stand at the front of my bus and tell 40 people that we are going on an adventure and don’t give the dog chocolate? Who’s gonna pee on the couch now? There are so many questions I have. The biggest one is what the fuck am I going to do now? How can I still be Chicken John without Dammit Dog? Will the spell be broken now?
My heart is shrouded in grief. But how could it be any different? Chaos brought her to me, and through me… to you. We were all fortunate to have met this animal who I watched people CHEER for. CHEER! Like it was your kid in the fucking Olympics. I’ve watched people’s faith restored in the show watching this animal do her tricks with no script and no training. She was a natural. Dammit has graced the covers of magazines dozens of times. Posters. Thousands of t-shirts. She had a friggin’ theme song. People fawned over her like a newborn. An entire language crafted to like baby-talk with the entire circus reciting it. “Da da da da woo woo woo.” Her last name is what we called that language: Dawoo. A bizarre Steve Miller referene from the song Go On Take The Money And Run. Her original name she ignored, finally responding to the curse that would escape my lips when I would catch her being bad as a teenager. “Dammit dog!!!” I would say looking at the garbage can knocked over. “Dam
mit dog!!!!” I would shout as I would chase her down when she escaped from the yard. “Dammit dog!!!” I said one day as she was eating a pair of Danny’s panties. And she came to me like I called her. And came to me every time after that. Named herself, basically. She was put on the Earth to make your day. And she did just that, over and over again. Every day. She was an enchanted creature. Her passing leaves us poorer. Impoverished. Destitute. And will leave in me a hollowness that I will never be able to fill.
Camp Tipsy is re-scheduled to August 15th and 16th. I’m gonna need a minute.
Services for Dammitina will be held at the warehouse Monday, July 20th from 7-10. Her final resting place Tracey and Don’s backyard in Richmond.
Of all the things that have made me feel like a lucky guy… the luckiest guy… being Dammit’s steward has to be all 10 of the top 10. Rest in peace, small dog. And know that not only was your 19 ½ years amazing in length… but also in depth. She had the best life a dog could have. I can’t even begin to describe it. But I don’t need to. You already know.
My world stopped today. My heart shattered into a million pieces and my grief and gratitude forever confused together in a maelstrom of smithereens of the true love and understanding of 1 small dog. Life is a messy, fucked shenanigan. My life; a caper that I pulled off largely because of the great spirits that I surrounded myself with. A trick that I pulled off with ease. Because of Dammit, I got away with so much. I know it. And now, life seems blurry and less sharp. A smudge of what it was. A testament to love felt so deeply. So easy. A partnership divided. I can’t believe she’s gone. But this is no fiction. She was always the realest thing. Her passing a testament to reality itself.
I’ll miss you, Dammit Dog. Nothing will be the same without you.
There is a Flickr thing if you have photos you would like to share of Dammit:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1051412@N24/pool/
Chicken 7-19-09
