For those of you who don’t know, I don’t just wear the stencil hat. I also wear the eco-carny hat. Over the past two years, I’ve been on the road with Jonathan Youtt and the Sustainable Living Roadshow, doing the carny bit with some great themed games up and down the West Coast. Well, the big SLR tour is happening this fall, starting in Denver, going Southeast, and then heading west for a huge LA Halloween ending. I had to joing the circus this year, and had committed about the time the book deal came around. So expect to see posts about the SLR for the rest of the year, now in the new category I made for it: “SLR 2008″
Some final shots of the Stencil Nation June Tour: Fun at Camas Books, with a final ferry shot of Victoria, BC
Woah. Was I in Victoria, BC just four days ago? Looking for stencils and only finding one? Riding bikes down to the touristy downtown area and then being totally exhausted after all the biking on the trip? Looking for a pint at a pub and finding the pubs full up with Canada Day holiday goers? Did Camas really roll out the red carpet for me and Chris, giving us a great event, buying our books, and then letting me hang out the next day doing stencils (thanks for the cans PESTO. I’m glad Vic has a few more stencils now!)? Man, Peter was nothing but nice as our host, telling stories about Reclaim the Streets in the 1990s, pulling out a 1990s stencils, and feeding us/biking us around.
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Daytime goes away late at night here in Vancouver. Tonight, Chris acknowledged the blue sky at around 10 PM. We had biked to Tanya, Mia, and Gwendal’s house after my Spartacus Books event, and were having beers while conversing in their front yard. The women worked for Momentum Magazine and Chris and I had met them earlier today in their offices. We’d been in the city for about a day now, arriving via Seattle with no problems the day before.
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The first full day in Seattle started with the usual: coffee and fruit-laden cereal. This morning, Ruth’s daughter Gracie entertained us for all the attention we could give her. She’s quite a character at 6 years old, so she jumped rope for us, pulled out a big bucket and got goofy with it. She also had a great time jumping around on the futon with my packed sleeping bag. After the logistics and routes got worked out, Chris and I strapped on the bike bags and hit the road for Elliott Bay Books on 1st Ave downtown.
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Arrived to Olympia (Oly as the locals say), driving by Washington’s capital building and grounds to get to Last Word books on 4th Ave. We had to get into the city before 5 PM, because Chris had a call-in interview with two DJs on the East Coast. Chris does a great job getting radio interviews! We showed up to Last Word books to drop our gear off and meet the people working there. Nice fellows excited to have us. They’d spent a month looking for a projector and had no idea that Chris brought his own. They didn’t ask. Last Word had a comfy feel and would maybe allow about 20-30 people to fit in the space. They told us about the free graffiti wall behind the store and also gave us a tip on a place where we could get a salad.
Chris ended up in a park in front of City Hall for his interview and I went stencil hunting. Found about half a dozen. Kim called and her family had gotten into town via Seattle. She was going to start getting up on the free wall behind Last Word. So I walked back, grabbed my own stencils, and joined in on the fun. One of the book store people had painted “Stencil Nation” in a scrawl on part of the wall. I added two stencils above it for fun. Kim started knocking out a great mural, using her skull stencil first to make a pile of them. Chris showed up and noticed a great gold tooth high up on the wall. I walked up steps to photograph it and then we headed to the place to eat.
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Just landed in Seattle and am getting behind on the blog postings. I will wrap up the Portland musings today. No internet here at my host Ruth’s place but hope to find a connection tomorrow and post this up.
Thursday morning was filled with getting stuff together for Friday’s departure. Did some laundry, made some phone calls, checked email, packed some things up, refilled my markers with ink, and didn’t drink a morning coffee for the first time in a week. Also chilled a bit and tried to stay cool during a hot day.
Klutch came by around 1 PM and picked me and my bike up. He was in a great mood because he had just sold some art to a Texan. Klutch could now pay up some bills and catch up a bit on being behind. We drove downtown and had a great Indian meal (a huge bowl of rice and veggies for about $7) out of a food cart on Yamhill.
We then walked over to Powell’s City of Books and hooked up one last time with Kevin. We worked out a time to take the window display down and Kevin also gave me the buttons that were in the display. Klutch looked for a book and ended up in a conversation with an employee about the hardcore punk days. I pulled him out of that situation and ended up on an adventure wandering through the store while trying to find Derrick Jensen’s As the World Burns comic book.
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Spent Wednesday driving around in the Columbia River Gorge area with Chris, Kristie, and Michael. Michael is staying up that way visiting his family. He and Chris are best friends and I’ve known Micheal since the 1999 WTO Seattle experience. He gave us the full tour, showing us things that only a local could show. We watched kite surfers catch waves on the Columbia, walked around in the Elementary School that was named after Michael’s father. Michael took us to his teenage hang out, a bridge down a trail off a dirt road. After trudging through briars and mud, we came up to a burned out bridge. We drove through BZ Corners, and I had to take a photo to prove the village existed. We visited White Salmon. We ended the day in Pucker Huddle, the street where Michael’s mother still lives. She had a nice house with a beautiful view of Mt. Hood.
from left to right: Great shot of Mt. Hood out of the car; Don’t blink or you’ll miss BZ Corners, WA; Yep, Pucker Huddle does exist; Mt. Hood from Michael’s Mom’s backyard; Chris sips lemonade and chills on Michael’s mom’s porch
Michael told the story that Pucker Huddle got its name from the settlers who wintered huddled under tents with nothing but pickles to eat. His mom told him his story was a lie and told a different one where a settler decided to have a party in his small house one night. The party got big and a man was overheard by a local newspaperman saying “there isn’t any room to pucker or huddle in there!” When the settlers were trying to find a name of the small village, Pucker Huddle stuck.
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