O.C.F. Caretaker's Journal O.C.F. Caretaker's Journal"And we should consider
every day lost
on which we have not danced at least once.
And we should call every truth false
which was not accompanied by at least one laugh."
----Friedrich Nietzsche
Wednesday 31 January On this date in 1945 twenty-four year old Private Eddie Slovik was executed for desertion of duty in France. Eddie was born of immigrant parents and spent much of his troubled youth behind bars. When paroled from reform school he managed to get a job, got married to Antoinette Wisniewski, and looked to be finally getting his life on track. The Army had other plans however, and drafted him about a year later. Slovik, frail and a misfit who hated the Army from the beginning, pleaded to be assigned to non-combat duty. He was ignored and was sent to European Front in 1944. He quickly deserted and turned himself in, signing a confession and refused to fight again. Once found guilty of desertion under fire and standing in front of his firing squad he stated, "They're not shooting me for deserting the United States Army---thousands of guys have done that. They're shooting me for bread I stole when I was twelve years old." General Eisenhower is said to have personally ordered this execution as an example to other potential deserters and in fact although 21,049 U.S. soldiers were court-martialled for desertion during WWII, Pvt Slovik owns the dubious distinction of being the one and only American soldier ever executed for this crime since the Civil War. His wife was not even informed of his death by the US Army at the time. She continuously worked to clear his name until her own death in 1979, unsuccessfully petitioning seven different presidents to have her husband pardoned. In 1987 Eddie's remains were finally exhumed for reburial next to Antoinette in Detroit.
Monday 29 January I think I know how syndicated columnists feel. The pressure is always out there to say something interesting. If I skip more than a day I start to hear about it. Some days I can't find much to write about and then there are other things I can't really blather all over the Internet. Let me just say that it is one of those times when I don't want to say what I want to say, but suffice it to say that I may be around here saying or not saying what I have to say, for say, some time to come. Eryvay oodgay ewsnay. The check, so to speak, could be in the mail.
Saturday 27 January Two days of an intense azure vault overhead, at a time when leadened skies are far more the norm. The Site, which is normally at least partially covered in water this time of year, has only a few puddles scattered about. It looks and feels a lot more like April than January at the moment. Downriver at Fern Ridge Reservoir the mudflats are still far above the water's surface and I am beginning to wonder if it will ever get filled to the desired level by Summer. Power producing reservoirs around the state are also critically low for this time of year, and this at a time when the Californian power crisis is placing additional demands on our electric supply. The California utilities deregulation has been described as bad planning meets Murphy's Law. Bidding for the lowest supply costs (while all the while continuing to charge the consumer a fixed rate) quickly allowed the Evil Bastards to make billions. Their Get Rich Quick scheme soon backfired on them however when the combination of an unsatiable and growing demand for electricity, escalating fuel prices, and well below average rainfall created a situation where demand greatly exceeds supply. Since California is the breadbasket of the nation, look for higher food costs, as well as utilities, this Summer. Now on to a far more weighty matter. Steve and I first encountered this picture at Woodall's a couple weeks ago when we were picking up the Site Truck after a service. Here is then irrevocable proof that you don't have to be a CEO of a utilities company or even the President of the USA to qualify as a complete and utter moron---anyone can do it it they are just willing to go those few extra miles. The main website, Urban Legends Reference Page, is a must have IMHO for everyone's bookmarks to help debunk the hoaxes that constantly float around the Internet.
Thursday 25 January My folks arrived yesterday evening for a brief visit and so naturally prerequisite last-minute housecleaning rites had to take place yesterday as well. This evening we went to see THIRTEEN DAYS ***1/2 , a movie about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Seeing it with my parents was of course interesting from the perspective that I could discuss memories I had with them after the show. My family lived near Madrid, Spain at that time and I was five years old, my sister was three, and my brother was a newborn. One of my distinct early memories is being fitted a this little harness so that I couldn't run away and get lost in the expected thronging multitudes. Our car was packed with food, water, gasoline, and other supplies for an expected evacuation to neutral Portugal and I can remember fearlessly looking forward to it all like it was going to be some kind of grand fun adventure. Of course looking back historically at this crux of the Cold War it is actually very scary to ponder just how close the world came to complete nuclear annihilation. While the Freedom of Information Act of has now shed a lot more light on a scenario that once played itself out behind closed doors in 1962, only those who were there can ever know how it actually really was. No matter what, a movie is but a dramatic interpretation, and as that I think that this film did a pretty good job of conveying some of what some of it may have been like---in as far as that is even possible. But it is that one little fragment of memory that is to me the actual tangible link that somehow relates me, in albeit some very small obtuse way, directly to this extremely pivotal point in time.
Tuesday 23 January Since I've been getting more and more into metal work I have been slowly but surely dulling down every drill bit in sight. Trying to sharpen them on the bench grinder has been a bit like trying to type with a sledgehammer. Finally tired of wasting time with dull bits or having to buy a new bit to do a decent job, I convinced Steve of the need for drill bit sharpener around here. We settled on the Drill Doctor Professional 750, made in Ashland OR and costing $109 at Jerry's. As it turns out the ubiquitous drill bit, first patented by Stephen A. Morse in 1863 and now found in practically every toolbox or kitchen junk drawer, is geometrically one of the most complex metal cutting tools in use today. Viewed from the end it has a cone like internal structure, narrow at the center web and gradually increasing in thickness to the outer shank, giving more strength where there is both greater speed and more material to be removed. On the tip itself there is a subtle curve called the relief that starts at the cutting lips and falls away towards the heel. A twist drill bit penetrates the center of the material it is to remove with its chisel point. The material is worn down until the cutting lips begin scooping out chips which are borne away through the flutes. The hole is finally reamed to size by the sharp edge of the land. There are other considerations to a drill bits like point angles and split points that you may thank me not to get into. At any rate I learned all this stuff and more today and then sharpened every drill bit I could find around here. Considering that many drill bits are simply thrown away once they get dull this great little machine has probably just paid for itself on the first use and those same bits can be sharpened again and again. Next on my list along these lines is a good battery charger for QM. I don't really know how many batteries we go through during our little party---but I do know that it is a heck of a lot. Even ordinary batteries can be recharged up to twenty times and yet how many are simply tossed after one use? Sorry---I'm afraid that's a rhetorical question. Recycling everything is part of what the OCF is supposed to be all about and getting ourselves the right toys to do the job right and making sure that they do not grow proverbial legs is part of what I'm going to be all about from now on.
Sunday 21 January Yesterday was Highway Pickup and we had just enough volunteers to do the job. Somehow while folding up the unwieldy LITTER PATROL sign I managed to wonk myself quite a good one right on the jaw with one of the heavy steel legs. I must have slightly cracked my jaw or something because by the Coordinator Potluck last night at Michelle Sharpy's house it was starting to give me trouble. Today I am sporting painful egg-sized goiter on my neck. About all I can say about it now is to watch out carefully for all those seemingly inane inanimate objects---they're out to get you. The first Coordinator Potluck of the year is definitely one of those milestones for the upcoming Fair. Even though it is still six months away, rest assured the wheels are turning. It is kind of difficult to explain but I have a whole different perspective about it all. A lot of coordinators tend to think almost exclusively in terms of those three amazing days at the Event, while for me the Fair seems to be merely the culmination of the year long cycle out here. Don't get me wrong, I look forward to the Fair probably as much or more than anyone else does, but my work revolves more around helping facilitate the set up and take down, as well the year round Stewardship of the Land. After having spent more and more time here alone, I sometimes get the feeling that I become merely a ghost wandering among the thronging thousands of people out here, eerily out of both place and time. One last shot at President Dubya, at least until he helps me out by shooting his ownself in the foot once again---which, come to think of it, probably won't be that long. At any rate Bush recently stated "I'm not pessimistic for the long run. Quite the contrary I'm very optimistic for the long run of the country. I just don't know the definition of short and long run yet." Well what's not to know about this here simple definition George? The short run of you is an unbelievably long four years. The long run is an utterly completely wasted eternity of eight years. Let's all pray really really hard for the short run, shall we? Finally then, GLADIATOR won Best Drama Picture at the Golden Globes tonight, so score one for this critic who always thought it was the most underrated film of the year.
Saturday 20 January The Clown Prince has finally been crowned but I just cannot find it in myself to accept the legitimacy of this Presidency. Not that I'm blaming Dubya at tall about how he got in there, heck it's just about what every blue blooded Texan ever dreamed of--- but the one thing that just plain old worries me the most is why apparently millions of people, from your average schmo right up to the five Supreme Court Justices, ever even voted for the Bozo. Now that is mind boggling for me. Hard as I try I can't understand how it happened. It's a bitter pill and I ain't swallowing.
Friday 19 January While the world has been madly spinning out of control out there, I spent the week resurrecting three old cannibalized Peach Carts. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I have to say that in this throw away society of ours there are not many people besides myself who would even bother to spend a week of their lives on a project like this. New carts run upwards of one hundred and fifty dollars a copy however so it was actually well worth the effort and these carts are bomber. I've also been hitting the gym each night lately as staying fit anymore means a little bit more than just breathing in the good air. I have always looked down my nose at treadmills, thinking them a dull substitute for the real thing---but don't knock something until you've tried it. It's actually great fun to pounding away on a perfectly straight line on a perfectly resilient surface in a perfectly cadenced rhythm while all the while looking into the mirror and seeing some kind of big fantastic glowing orange futuristic cyborg looking gloweringly back at me---sweating, running hard, and not getting anywhere at all. I wish I could call myself a runner but unfortunately I don't do it enough, but it is something which I can do quite naturally. Weightlifting is another story however, and although I can definitely see and feel the difference I can never seem to put on the mass. About as high as I can get anymore is with this one device called the Roman Chair. Basically what you have to do are these upside-down and backwards situps and after a set the world spins quite madly out of control.
Wednesday 17 January BM tix are now on sale. The bottom end of the scale starts at one hundred and twenty five bucks and works it way on up to two hundred. The Fair is a deal compared to this---but then where else do you get to have so many piping hot JOHNNY ON THE SPOT port-a-potty saunas all in one place. Lately my favorite TV show is JUNKYARD WARS, which gives two teams of four ten hours to create a dragster, hovercraft, catapult, or what have you out of piles of junk and then compete for the next round the next day. The process and the resulting contraptions are so very competely Burningman-esque that it is scary. It plays Wednesday at nine on TLC. I have my junkyard war plans going on as I am recycling some of those little doughnut spare tires with old Peach Cart carcasses to create extra heavy duty carts that can stand up to brutal third world conditions out here at the OCF. And speaking of RECYCLING check out the new Waste Warriors Manifesto if you have not seen it already.
Tuesday 16 January Do you believe in giant beavers, other than the ones found attending the football games up in Corvallis? Until about 10,000 years ago really gigantic beavers did in fact roam the earth. They were over eight feet tall and weighed some 700 pounds, as fossils found in California prove. You probably wouldn't want to meet up with one of those on some dark and stormy night down by the old six pack. Fortunately the average beaver today only weighs about 50 pounds and is a very shy creature indeed. For the most part they are nocturnal animals with a keen sense of smell and for this reason they are rarely seen. Tell tale signs of their activity is always very much in evidence here at the Oregon Country Fair however. Most of the time this takes the form of chewed trees, dams, and sticks. Beavers are herbivores and during the Summer feast on leaves, ferns, grasses and algae but in the Winter they have to feed on the bark and cambium of trees. Wood has no nutritional value whatsoever for the beaver but they are able to quickly fall trees with their sharp teeth to get at the tender upper shoots. Here at the Fair Site the beavers have no need to construct lodges as they do in the frozen ponds of colder climates, preferring instead to burrow into the banks. They do however still create dams for protection and habitat. This year the the lack of flooding has kept the Mister Beaver close to home but we see that he has been keeping busy just the same by girdling several large trees by the Long Tom River.
Sunday 14 January This weekend Hilary and I went on a sort of fact finding mission to Mount Hood and stayed a couple of nights at the Reed College Ski Cabin in Government Camp, avalible to Reed affiliates and their guests, at the invitation of Bear Wilner. We arrived as the snow was beginning to fall and it rarely ever stopped the whole time we were there. Although we never caught a glimpse of the mountain itself, its hulking presence was always felt and the forested slopes were quite beautiful in the snowy mists. It also so happened that our own Ashbury Park were playing at a local bar, the Ratskeller, but the place was so smoky that we only stayed for one set. The entire entourage stayed at the cabin that night. The next day we chained up and headed the mountain and I skied in near whiteout conditions and stinging sidewise blowing snow. Later we explored the architecture of Timberline Lodge with a eye towards the possible design of our own building. While we can never even hope to approach the overwhelming grandeur of the soaring space with its massive timber framing, we could very easily be inspired by the integrated pioneer style details such as wood carving, stonework, ironwork, tilework, applique, furniture, and artwork. We can also be encouraged by the fact that this entire monumental undertaking took only eighteen months to build.
Thursday 11 January Despite the best predictions of mice and weathermen, today was yet another gourgeous day in the middle of Winter. Artist Kari Johnston was out for the day and we got the Revolutionary Oracle back from the dead and ready to go. I would like to think that the Fair will become a repository for many more quality art pieces such as this as time goes by. It was Hilary's birthday and around a dozen people met at the House of Thai for dinner. Following the meal about half of us went to see TRAFFIC**** a gritty film about the present day drug wars by director Steven Soderbergh. This is a story without a clear beginning or end and, as in real life, there are no clear winners or losers. Three main plotlines are separated stylisticly but interweave and intersect nevertheless as the film hopscotches back and forth in between. In a star studded cast the brightest shining of all is Benicio Del Toro who brilliantly plays an almost never heard of movie role---that of an honest Mexican cop.
01 / 10 / 01 Gee whiz, it's only ten more days until Gee Dubya takes office. Now is the time to focus on Attorney General nominee ex-senator John Ashcroft, whose right-wing Christian alliances, anti-abortion and anti-gay beliefs are well documented. Is this powerful position really going to be handed over to a man who opposed school desegregation, affirmative action, and civil rights legislation? On the environmental front Bush is planning to overturn Clinton's recent protection acts---as a private letter from Representative James Hansen (R-Utah) shows. On defense GW wants to spend billions on a completely unnecessary missle defense system---while all the while giving all his oil buddies fat tax cuts. "I would have to ask the questioner. I haven't had a chance to ask the questioners the question they've been questioning." This is but the most recent Bushism. Maybe if we just ask enough questions we can keep him so addled that he won't be able to do much of anything for the next four years. No stilts or giant puppets will be allowed at the Inauguration though, but us old hippie spirits still do not intend to go away quietly.
Tuesday 9 January The rain has apparently returned for the time being although it is not as of yet making up for lost time. We usually receive most of our precipitation between the winter months of December and February when averages for the Eugene area are about eight inches a month. This Winter the averages are far below average. Between October 1st and December 31st only 10.15 inches of precipitation has fallen, representing just 57% of the 1961-90 normal of 17.65 for that three-month period. In fact the rainfall average has been well below average for the entire past year. Typically the Willamette Valley receives between 40 and 50 inches a year while the western slopes of the Coastal and Cascade ranges receive more than 100 inches of precipitation due to the condensation of marine air as it moves inward from the Pacific Ocean. Climatoligists are predicting a return to a more familiar pattern in the near future however and the forecast for January calls for above-average precipitation and normal temperatures. A snow event or ice storm is given a 50/50 chance for the end of this month. For the three-month period ending in March normal temperatures and precipitation are predicted. Check out precipitation averages and lots of other cool maps besides at the University of Oregon Geography Department's Atlas of Lane County.
Monday 8 January When I sit down to write my daily entry the easiest thing to do is to describe events in personal my day, and that in fact was the original intent in the keeping of this Journal---however I like to believe that this has now begun to evolve beyond that original scope. The reality of it is that although there are probably not all that many people who are extremely fascinated in exactly what I am doing day to day around here, it is safe to say that everybody who reads these entries regularly do so because they are interested in what is happening at the Fair Site on a year-round basis. Therefore I have decided to shift the focus of this website away from my daily activities and more onto the Site itself, something that will actually take a bit more forethought than I did today---but I do have a picture of the cover we fabricated for Jill's Crossing in December, a belated attempt to keep the ever advancing forces of rot and decay at bay. Special thanks to Clif, Bucket, Hilary, and Travis for their help on this project.
Sunday 7 January The Whitebranch gathering, which is organized by Laura Stuart and has been held for the last five years, took place this weekend with about seventy odd people attending. A religious camp located on land leased from the Forest Service, it includes two lodges and numerous other facilities, and is available for rent to groups such as ours. I drove up with norma and Hilary and we stayed in one of the many small cabins there. Although there was almost no snow the year, walks to waterfalls in the old-growth forest more than made up for it. Games of all kinds, music, and a campfire filled the night. The huge functional kitchen easily accommodated everyone's needs. The appeal of our own lodge becomes readily apparent while experiencing the sense of community that instantly happens when a large group of people share a space such as this. Today we visited Belknap Springs on the way home to explore the possibility of having a retreat there and deemed it a worthwhile option.
Friday 5 January The last two days seem to have been borrowed from Springtime but undoubtably we will find the two AWOL Winter days in hiding out in April somewhere. Tommy and Bucket stopped by yesterday and help me install the new base on the Oracle, Rivka and her mom were out here introducing their brand new puppy to the Fair, and there were a few other folks visiting the Site as people seem to once again be looking forward to the Fair. Today was usual stuff like taking a truck tire to Max's and general puttering around the Ware House, and it is quite amazing (or not) how much time I spend doing just whatever that is. Leslie and norma came out in the afternoon for a staff meeting and the four of us walked the Labyrinth just after sunset as four other celestial bodies shone down upon us from a relatively narrow swath of the Sky---the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus. I applaud Bill Clinton for doing what he did today to try and lock up as much of the nation's remaining wilderness as he possibly can before Dubya gets there.
Wednesday 3 January Just me, myself, and I at the Fair today, so unless I was talking to myself it was all and all pretty quiet out here for me. The Revolutionary Oracle is back together and mechanically sound again and so I directed myself to the base of the sculpture, which is all warpy and tippy. Thinking to myself that a wire spool rim might be employed, I went around to some of the known hulks lurking out in the woods. All were deemed to be too rotten to use by me so it was not to be however, a case in point that is an altogether different can of worms that I may have touched upon in previous entries that were written by myself. So with that I will have to build me a circular wooden sandwich base all by myself. Later we all three headed over to the gym to give the old body a workout. Being physically fit, we are told, is very good for mental health.
Tuesday 2 January This is always traditionally one of my favorite days of the entire year. The holidays are finally over and things can get back to normal. People come out of their cocoons and date books start filling up again. My inner Grinch is turning cartwheels. Today I opened the Revolutionary Oracle, which has been broken for two years and is in need of an overhaul. The artist Kari Johnson will come out and touch it back up once I get it back together. Tonight was the Board Meeting and it really was nice to see old familiar faces again and not to see other old familiar faces---suffice it to say that the meeting was much more mellow that it has been in the last several months. On the drive back the fog was like the proverbial pea soup that you could cut with a knife---but strangely enough visible straight above were the stars. A Transylvanian atmosphere has prevailed here for the last two days in fact, although it has been crystal clear sunny outside the valley.
New Year's Day Other than the fact that a picture gets beamed into my idiot box from outer space through some miracle of modern technology, there isn't much in common between the Fair and Football---but recent bowl games have been a welcome diversion for yours truly during the long Winter nights. The University of Oregon of course beat the University of Texas the other night in what has seemingly become classic Oregon style, right down to the very last play. It was a little more than strange to be rooting for the Duck's two arch-rivals today, the Huskies and Beavers, but each won convincingly. Out of the four games that these three teams lost this year, three came from bumping each other off, proving fairly conclusively that all three of the PAC-10 co-champions belong in the Top Ten. The best bowl game I've seen by far this season though had to be the Independence Bowl in Shrevesport, Louisiana---between Mississippi State and Texas A&M. A freak snowstorm blanketed the field and raged throughout the game. Most of the players had never played in the snow and were forced to battle the elements as well as the opposing team while the lead changed hands several times before the game eventually reached an exciting conclusion in overtime. The only snow sweeper that they had quickly froze solid. Clearly they were not ready for something like that in the Deep South. Football is a game not often called because of weather and in the form of mud, wind, snow, fog, rain, sleet, and snow it becomes an interesting and intregal part of this metaphorical battle for supremacy.