Mountain Festival 2007: Early Planning
by Jason GodeskyWe’re in the early phases of planning the third annual Mountain Festival for Labor Day weekend, at Seneca Rocks, West Virginia. We’re planning the event as a bioregional rewilding unconference and temporary autonomous zone. This isn’t the announcement yet, but we do want to hear your feedback: your interests, questions, concerns, ideas, and all the rest. There’s a lot still to pin down, so we want to hear from you.
Mountain Festival History
Anthropikon MMV
The first Mountain Festival was originally billed as “Anthropikon MMV,” but has since been retconned.
- Anthropikon MMV, the official announcement.
- Anthropikon MMV, a thread on the forums for preperation
- Anthropikon MMV, a Flickr photo set from the event
- Anthropikon MMV: Open Thread, an open thread on this blog with participants’ reactions.
Mountain Festival 2006
The second Mountain Festival was something of a logistical failure. Too little planning and too little interest made it largely fall through.
From that incident, we learned that a little bit of planning can go a long way—and not to be shy about cancelling it altogether if the interest just isn’t there. Hopefully this year, there will be enough interest to make this a success.
The Longhouse
A map of Joel Garreau’s “Foundry,” one of the “Nine Nations of North America.”
We’ve been writing a lot about bioregionalism lately, and with good reason; all rewilding is necessarily local and bioregional. Our bioregion is “The Longhouse,” where the Iroquoian-speaking nations formed complex confederacies that placed an extreme emphasis on personal liberty. If you live outside the Mountain Festival, you’re still welcome to join us, but we’re hoping for a bioregional focus.
Who’s in the Longhouse? Bioregional boundaries don’t follow political boundaries, but generally speaking, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, most of Ontario and parts of West Virginia and Virginia are all inside the Longhouse. We’ll be focusing on plants, animals, and seasons of our bioregion—but of course, to some extent, there are plenty of general principles that you should be able to adapt to other bioregions somewhat readily. And, in the other direction, the Longhouse includes many smaller bioregions that vary, sometimes significantly.
See also:
Open Space Technology
This is an unconference. That means that there is an initial welcome session, and that’s where the agenda for the weekend is set. Everyone has to teach a session; no one simply an idle observer. There may be several sessions going on at each time; if you’re not teaching one of them, you can attend whatever sessions you like.
Open Space works best when the work to be done is complex, the people and ideas involved are diverse, the passion for resolution (and potential for conflict) are high, and the time to get it done was yesterday. It’s been called passion bounded by responsibility, the energy of a good coffee break, intentional self-organization, spirit at work, chaos and creativity, evolution in organization, and a simple, powerful way to get people and organizations moving—when and where it’s needed most.
And, while Open Space is known for its apparent lack of structure and welcoming of surprises, it turns out that the Open Space meeting or organization is actually very structured—but that structure is so perfectly fit to the people and the work at hand, that it goes unnoticed in its proper role of supporting (not blocking) best work. In fact, the stories and workplans woven in Open Space are generally more complex, more robust, more durable—and can move a great deal faster than expert- or management-driven designs.1
See also:
Rewilding
Rewilding is what the Mountain Festival is for. We expect that’s what brings people to the Festival. Rewilding is the process that reverses domestication, and it’s a multi-faceted process, so don’t be intimidated if you think you want to rewild but think you have nothing to offer at the Festival—you probably already have more than you know.
Primitive Skills
The most obvious, of course, is primitive skills: making stone tools, making a friction fire, making cordage, making clothes, so on and so forth. These skills are the foundation of freedom; you can never be free while you’re dependent on others for your needs. If you know how to build a debris shelter, how to use a bow drill, how to make cordage, or any other primitive skill, sharing it makes for an excellent session. You can expect quite a few primitive skills sessions at the Mountain Festival.
By the same token, don’t be intimidated into not joining us just because your skills are meager and you need practice, or even need to learn. That’s much of the point of the Festival; come practice with us, and learn from those who do know these skills. But these are just the foundation. As Tamarack Song put it:
We come from a technological society, so we naturally think that substituting primitive technology for civilized technology is our doorway. The only problem is that Native people are not into technology. They spend only a couple hours a day providing for their simple needs, and they mostly use simple means. Look at their tools—few and crude, and their craftwork—basic and utilitarian. What a Native person excels at is what I call qualitative skills—how to sit in a circle with your clan mates and speak your truth, how to find your special talent so that you can develop it to serve your people, how to use your intuition, the ways of honor and respect, how to live in balance with elders and women and children, how to speak in the language beyond words, how to befriend fear and live love. Without these skills, you will surely die. Or else you’ll go back to the life that shuns these skills.
- Example: A hands-on demonstration of using a bow drill to start a fire.
- See also: “Learning Primitive Skills“
Gathering & Anarcho-Herbalism
Closely related to primitive skills is how we relate to “the Green Nation”—the plants that provide us with so much food and medicine. The gathering part of hunting and gathering might leave the average rewilder a bit peckish, but wild edibles can easily supply our much more crucial vitamin and mineral needs. Morever, wild plants provide powerful and effective medicine and first aid. The key is an encyclopedic knowledge of the plant persons that inhabit your bioregion, coded into stories that maintain information about medicinal properties, taste, identification and poisonous look-a-likes in a narrative format well-adapted to human memory and recall.
- Example: A demonstration on plantain: how to identify it, its edibility, some tips on preparing it, medicinal uses, and so forth, possibly with a story to help remember it.
- See also: “Herbo-Primitivism and Anarcho-Herbalism“
Tracking & Hunting
Then there’s “the Red Nation,” the other animals around us. There’s much more to this than simply hunting as we usually know it; primitive tracking is a deep exercise in empathy. As David Abram wrote in The Spell of the Sensuous:
Hunting, for an indigenous, oral community, entails abilities and sensitivities very different from those associated with hunting in technological civilization. Without guns or gunpowder, a native hunter must often come much closer to his wild prey if he is to take its life. Closer, that is, not just physically but emotionally, empathically entering into proximity within the other animal’s ways of sensing and experiencing. The native hunter, in effect, must apprentice himself to those animals that he would kill. Though long and careful observation, enhanced at times by ritual identification and mimesis, the hunter gradually develops an instinctive knowledge of the habits of his prey, of its fears and its pleasures, its preferred foods and favored haunts. Nothing is more integral to this practice than learning the communicative signs, gestures, and cries of the local animals. Knowledge of the sounds by which a monkey indicates to the others in its band that it has located a good source of food, or the cries by which a particular bird signals distress, or by which another attacks a mate, enables the hunter to anticipate both the large-scale and small-scale movements of various animals. A familiarity with animal calls and cries provides the hunter, as well, with an expanded set of senses, an awareness of events happening beyond his field of vision, hidden by the forest leaves or obscured by the dark of night. Moreover, the skilled human hunter often can generate and mimic such sounds himself, and it is this that enables him to enter most directly into the society of other animals.
General approaches to tracking would be appropriate, as might be an introduction to a particular animal. Perhaps a session on the American black bear, with its tracks and scat, its behavior, population, where it lives, what it eats, and how it behaves. Perhaps a session on bird songs and how to understand what they mean. Perhaps a session on mimicking animal calls. Or, perhaps you’re more interested in sharing the skills that apply after the kill: how to properly skin, dress, or butcher an animal, how to preserve meat, and so on.
- Example: All about the American black bear; its habits, its diet, its tracks and signs; how and when and where to hunt them, and why one would do so.
- See also: “Alpha Dogs, Wolf Packs & the Wandering Free Families“
Body Skills
A huge part of our domestication has been our alienation from our own senses. We no longer have a direct, synaesthetic experience of the living world around us. Any session or exercise that opens up our senses is very much part of rewilding; reawakening our synaesthetic senses and getting back in touch with our bodies are crucial elements of rewilding.
- Example: T’ai chi forms as a basic form of shamanic shapeshifting.
- See also: “Learning to Walk“
Rewilding Relationships
Actual wild peoples rarely speak of their technologies in the glowing terms we do; rather, it’s their modes of relating to one another that they invariably cite as the source of their wealth and prosperity. The major work of rewilding lies less in the perfection of skills than in developing rewilded relationships. Tribal, band and clan societies have a great deal to teach us about how to organize our society. How do you form a rewilded society? How do you raise your child as you yourself are trying to rewild? Jean Liedloff’s work is absolutely in rewilding.
- Example: A review of the Continuum Concept and “attachment parenting”
- See also: “Dysfunctional Culture“
Animism
What do you call a rewilded person who refuses to become an animist? Hungry. Animism isn’t a religion one believes in, at least not in the traditional sense; neither is it a belief that occult ghosts lurk behind everything. Rather, it’s the simple and radical acceptance of your experience of the world as true. Your direct experience of the world around you is that of a living world. We are trained to deny that; the animist simply accepts as persons everything in his world that acts like a person. Even our ability to percieve one another as persons is an exercise in empathy; animists simply aren’t as miserly with theirs.
- Example: A story about a particular plant, animal or mineral that encodes vital information about it into a narrative context, or the story of a particular place.
- See also: “A Brief Summary of Animism“
Rewilding Language
How we speak is a huge part of our problem, but it’s also a powerful tool to reconcile us with the living world. Working with language is an enormous part of rewilding. You could share some basic grammar and vocabulary from local native languages or pidgins, or perhaps lead an exercise in E-Prime, or begin a discussion on verb-centric speech.
- Example: Teach some basic grammar and vocabulary in Seneca
- See also: “The Ecology of Language“
Coping with Civilization
Trying to rewild in a thoroughly domesticated world can cause no end of problems. How do you relate to friends and family who don’t share your outlook? How do you deal with hunting regulations and camping laws that so often make rewilding more difficult? How do you account for the fact that you as a feral human need to worry about things no wild human ever did—like mercury in your fish or dioxin in your water? We face new challenges, and sometimes just a good understanding of the problem is enough to get a start. This is part of rewilding, too.
- Example: Overview and demonstration of primitive means of making water safe to drink.
- See also: “The Face of Anarchy“
Other Attractions
- A week before the Mountain Festival, T.S. Bennett and Sally Erickson, producers of “What a Way to Go,” will be coming through Pittsburgh on the “Get Tim and Sally Out of Debt Tour.” The Pittsburgh stop is sponsored by the Tribe of Anthropik. We’d like to expand this; perhaps a Pittsburgh unconference leading into the movie, and maybe even extending the Mountain Festival to begin on Wednesday, and end on Labor Day, but we need to know if there’s sufficient interest to pursue that.
- If there’s sufficient interest, I’m also fairly confident that I could have the new Fifth World roleplaying game up to speed for a good playtest at the Mountain Festival, but again, I need to know if there’s sufficient interest to warrant the effort.
What Now?
Those are the ideas floating about. Now comes the part where we need your feedback….
- Are you interested in coming? This isn’t for an official head-count, just to get an idea of how much interest is out there so we don’t spend a lot of effort only to have the whole thing fall flat. We want to know if there will be enough people interested to move forward.
- Any initial ideas on what kind of sessions you’d be interested in leading? Again, nothing to tie you down with, just to get an idea. You can always change your mind, but start thinking about it. You should have an idea of what you want to do when you arrive at the Festival, and any materials you might need for it. If enough people want or need it, we’ll even see what kind of technological goodies we can set up as far as WiFi networks, computers and projectors go.
- What do you think of the time? Would you like to see a longer Festival that starts on Wednesday, or just a weekend Festival as we’ve done in the past?
- What do you think of the venue? We’ve traditionally done this at Seneca Rocks, WV, which is centrally located along the Longhouse’s primary east-west axis, but pretty far south. Even if it stays there, we’ll need to narrow down a specific campsite.
And of course, any other comments, questions, concerns, exclamations, ringing endorsements or furious denouncements are welcome, wanted, and appreciated.
Well, you know I’m going… I’m thinking of jumpstarting my soon-to-debut new blog, The Fabulous Forager, with a live demonstration that teaches everyone how to make bug repellent/perfume/hair gel/skin softening lotion using the magic of olive oil and essential herb oils.
Comment by Giulianna Lamanna — 11 July 2007 @ 3:57 PM
Just out of curiosity, what permits are required to hold a temporary autonomous zone and how do you explain the concept to the clerk who issues them?
Comment by Peter — 11 July 2007 @ 4:31 PM
Funny guy, eh?
Comment by Jason Godesky — 11 July 2007 @ 4:37 PM
I’m half serious. In today’s world you need a permit for almost everything.
Comment by Peter — 11 July 2007 @ 4:50 PM
That’s true, and that’s the beauty of a good TAZ. It does what it likes.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 11 July 2007 @ 4:58 PM
One “Aries” on the REWILD.info forums says he’ll be joining us with plenty of yucca and a session on making cordage.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 11 July 2007 @ 4:59 PM
IIRC, the first one was held in a state park. This means permits had to be obtained. Said permits then triggered monitoring by the park rangers.
Comment by Peter — 11 July 2007 @ 5:02 PM
It was actually a campsite run by the Forest Service, I believe, called “Seneca Shadows,” not a state park. We didn’t get a permit for a TAZ, we got a group campground. There wasn’t any monitoring by rangers, just a grumpy old lady who asked us to stop the drum circle. Now yes, technically, all laws still applied there. That’s not what a TAZ is. A TAZ happens when effective control dissolves. The laws are still all there, they just cease to be relevant. More importantly than that, a TAZ happens when you break down the much more restrictive civilized codes of behavior and, for some brief moment, experience tribal life. It is to tribalism what a “peak experience” is to a good life: a fleeting glimpse of where you’re going. That glimpse is crucial. That’s what a TAZ is.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 11 July 2007 @ 5:07 PM
Most particularly when you remove judgment, and fear of being.
Which is definitely my experience with the tribe Anthropik and their gatherings.
—–
Regarding attendance: under the best of circumstances, it’ll have to be game-time decision for me. But, realistically, no. Too many obligations or commitments, at the moment…
Looks like it’ll be excellent, with great people - and a shame to miss.
-Jim
Comment by JCamasto — 12 July 2007 @ 12:48 AM
Well, as it’s in my bioregion, I would love to attend. But it’s too far south for me. I’m in Toronto, so it would be technically feasible, but I doubt it will happen. Perhaps next year. It would be great if you could put up some of the lesson “material” that occurs online, but I’m sure that’s asking a lot.
Comment by Jordan Mechano — 12 July 2007 @ 1:12 AM
Is it late August that’s the problem? Is that why everybody’s so busy?
Comment by Giulianna Lamanna — 12 July 2007 @ 9:15 AM
For my wife and I, the summer months tend to involve a lot of family functions (seems like something is always happening!). It’s a good thing, but it does bite pretty deeply into our free time.
Comment by jhereg — 12 July 2007 @ 9:26 AM
Well, we could definitely push it further back into autumn, if that’ll mean more people are able to attend. How many of you would be able to come if it were September, or even October?
And is the southerly-ness causing problems for a lot of people besides Jordan? What if we pushed it more north, say to the Allegheny National Forest or Cook Forest? How would that change peoples’ plans?
Comment by Jason Godesky — 12 July 2007 @ 9:40 AM
You did a really nice job of laying out the framework of possible topics, Jason. I may take this to build on an Ozark rewilding festival sometime.
And thank you, Giuli, for pushing Jason to lay it all out.
It reminds me of how the Hebrew language has a causative tense for verbs that is often used to show how God/mothers/wives shaped the things that kings/heroes/prophets did.
Comment by Rix — 12 July 2007 @ 12:14 PM
Behind every great man, there’s a woman.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 12 July 2007 @ 12:18 PM
This is quite helpful, thanks for compiling this all together. I was misunderstanding how it was being organized (or, unorganized, as the case may be).
here’s a question –I would like to think about swinging by but the most I could possibly manage would be a few hours for one afternoon. That week is our post-WAWTG week and we are anticipating being quite busy. Is it possible to just drop in for a few hours?
Also… is it necessary to teach something? I have absolutely no idea wtf I could possibly teach. (I’m tempted to be embarassed about even showing up, I feel so far behind.)
Comment by Paula — 12 July 2007 @ 9:31 PM
Well, there seems to be some general problems with the timing, so that might change.
Normally, at BarCamp the initial session is mandatory, since that’s when everything gets planned out, but I think we can work out some kind of online sign-up for people who can’t make the introductory session, particularly if it starts sometime in the middle of the week, we’ll definitely have to at least work out something for people who can only make the weekend.
Not teaching something starts to really break what an unconference is, though. But I figured a lot of people would react like you, Paula. There’s a lot more for you to teach than you might realize. Bring some illustrative slides and present your “Mythology of Collapse” series, or “Astrology of Peak Oil”—that right there would make an absolutely incredible session for the Festival.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 13 July 2007 @ 9:56 AM
Yeah, I was thinking about this yesterday. There are a lot of things that we haven’t even begun to think about yet. For example: if you’re familiar with American Sign Language, you could go over effective gesturing (useful for group communication esp at a distance, hunting, etc); musically inclined? go over some simple “primitive” instruments, or try to teach people how to whistle effectively (maybe whistle bird songs???); got a penchant for cooking? how ’bout teaching some recipes using wild/semi-wild foods?; artistic? what about researching natural dyes? or weaving patterns? or carving?; work w/ string/yarn/etc a lot? that subject is rife with material….
Whatever skills you have, see how they could translate primitively, maybe do a little research, then present it. I really think you’ll be amazed. Also keep in mind, nothing has to be real formal or polished or anything (I think; it doesn’t does it?).
Comment by jhereg — 13 July 2007 @ 10:22 AM
Jason, This and your hackers and trackers post have collided with a book I’m reading at the moment about how to create genuine community. One of the things it says is that too much structure destroys community so I’m really interested to see how the open space approach works out for you - especially in light of that quote from Tamarack Song (where did you get that from incidently?).
It could be that it is the most important aspect of the festival/unconference whereby the skill sharing classes become a vehicle to serve a greater aim of experimenting with building community.
I’m wondering if you or anyone else has operated under this system before and can comment about whether one of the effects is to build cohesiveness and increase enjoyment amongst the group?
Comment by Aaron — 13 July 2007 @ 5:56 PM
Oh right, I haven’t thought about those articles in a while. There’s a ton of relevant stuff to be pulled from astrology, and Chiron is still super fascinating.
How many people usually attend? Also, I’m a little surprised to hear that there are slideshow capabilities at a campground?
Comment by Paula — 14 July 2007 @ 12:26 PM
Isn’t most of Wisconsin part of the plains/breadbasket bioregion?
WI seems to be split into three parts — the SE populous region, the northern 1/3 as northern forest, and the remainder as plains/breadbasket.
MN shares a similar dividing line about at around the 3/5ths point, where the climate shifts from plains to Northern forest (shown on any USDA hardiness map). It’s a distinct change.
Intensive monoculture farming has never been viable North of this line, it used to serve as a break between plains and northern forest.
I’m sorry to digress, I’m simply curious
I grew up in Southern MN, and am now living in Northern WI. The two areas are quite different.
Comment by Erik Schimek — 14 July 2007 @ 2:18 PM
great idea–i didn’t know you’d done this before!
# Are you interested in coming?
absolutely.
# Any initial ideas on what kind of sessions you’d be interested in leading?
i’ve got one or two ideas…do you think folks would be interested in something on the use of games to preserve, teach, pass on, or change a culture? many games help us to practice or acquire useful skills, but what we don’t normally notice is what *else* they impart (notions of what it means to “win” for instance, or placing competition above all other considerations–not to mention the entire concept of iron-clad RULES.)
what i have in mind is taking one example of a very old game that can be played using items easily found almost anywhere–teaching it as it is most widely known to us today, talking about *how* that play teaches certain assumptions which a tribe might want to question, and then changing the game so that it teaches whatever the group feels would be more useful for them (this is a terribly vague outline, there’s really a lot more behind this.)
as a short-term strategy, this would fall under culture-jamming or something like that. medium term it’s about teaching practical and interpersonal/group skills, and long term it’s about passing on stories about how we got to be where we are, and where we want to go.
sounds like a lot for a simple children’s game, huh?
# What do you think of the time? Would you like to see a longer Festival that starts on Wednesday, or just a weekend Festival as we’ve done in the past?
the currently proposed time is perfect for me. any further into September, and i will probably be limited to only the weekend (with at least one of those being out already–the weekend of Sep. 8/9 is spoken for.) but i’m cool with a weekend later in the year, if that is the consensus.
# What do you think of the venue?
looks good to me. but other places would be fine, as well.
Comment by patricia — 16 July 2007 @ 11:19 AM
Proximately, a thread on IshCon, but I think it ultimately started on the Teaching Drum email list.
First time was something around 30-40 people, I think.
There’s usually not, but if people tell me they want/need that, I have ways of making it happen. Could go as far as setting up a wifi in the woods, if that’s something people want.
Joel Garreau classified it as Foundry, adn I think it tends to fit in with the Longhouse more than the Breadbasket, but obviously as a borderland, it will have some elements of both.
Hellz yeah.
Not at all. I’m more worried if you’ll have enough time to more than scratch the surface.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 16 July 2007 @ 5:53 PM
thanks, Jason! but,
“I’m more worried if you’ll have enough time to more than scratch the surface.”
well, that’s totally fine! i do a lot of teaching in the library, and i’m always covering WAY more than the time really allows for, so i’m used to setting things up so that “scratching the surface” is really all that needs to be done, and the rest is all DIY from there!
anyway, scratching the surface is all you really need to do, to show people what is underneath, so they can get to work on their own.
: )
Comment by patricia — 16 July 2007 @ 9:07 PM
Exactly.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 16 July 2007 @ 9:18 PM
i’m actually hoping that, if i get to really do this, you other people will teach ME about ways to think about gaming, that i had not even considered yet. that’s kind of the whole point.
and then, we can play hand-ball with some kind of grass-woven thingy filled with ground up dead leaves later! (it’s like hacky-sack for the less co-ordinated.)
the only other “skills” i’ve come up with so far are crochet and making sour-dough bread/biscuit/pancake stuff in cast-irons over a fire…or maybe some *very* elementary yoga. and i can sit really quietly for a very long time up in a tree for no good reason!
too bad it will be too early in the year, and Ran can’t come…he’d be SUPER into this–he called from the land tonight and i was telling him, and he is already wishing he could come play. i’ll just have to pick his brain when i’m planning, so he’ll be there in spirit.
he and i did a really fun re-make of “Monopoly” one snow-bound evening here in the ‘burgh–we started it out with random houses and hotels on all the “properties” and the “bank” having almost ALL the money (of course!) and everything, and the goal was to co-operatively squat the spaces, tear the buildings down, and eventually liberate the blocks, and break the bank! i think we settled on “Squatteropolis” as one likely name for it.
i’ve still got our new “rules” written down someplace, it was surprisingly easy to do! amazing how that can change the entire nature of the game. it made it more fun, too.
that’s what it means to “scratch the surface”–you can take ANY thing, and change it, once you get the idea that this is something that is a good thing to do, and more importantly that you CAN do it! it’s easier to *change* a thing, than it is to bury it, or even to make something totally “new”! (lessons learned from the Roman Catholic Empire, i suppose.)
but really my old Pawpaw gets the credit for my being able to think in these directions when it comes to games–when he taught me “checkers” he *started* by teaching me to play them “give away” style–where you try to be the one who “loses” first! then he taught me how to play so that the game would last as long as possible! who the fuck plays checkers like that?! and Pawpaw was just a plain old Presby steel worker dude–he just liked to play for as long as possible, and he didn’t want *me* to ever “lose” just cause he loved me…if i was going to inevitably lose, he’d quit and make sandwiches!
(i’ve pissed off more “serious” Chess players using that as my strategy, and it kills me with ironic joy every time because they totally don’t get it! on a first-ever match, i can either beat them or stale-mate them nearly every time–and i SUCK at Chess– because they can’t figure out WHY they aren’t “winning”–they can’t “win” because i’m not trying to “beat” them! i’m just trying to extend the game for as long as i can and it totally screws up all the “official strategies” and “gambits” they normally employ!)
damn–i miss that man all the time! most awesome fellow ever.
oh–i can bring food, too, if people are okay with venison, and maybe some garden veggies. and i’ve got drums enough to share, and i don’t mind embarrassing myself singing. in fact, here are two bands i saw this weekend on my trip down south:
http://www.albannachonline.com
http://www.theblessedblend.com
and…while i do NOT wish to step on anyone’s toes, and i AM NOT any manner of shaman-woman or anything like that in any way whatsoever, i do have some words that i like to offer when setting up my own personal camp-site, which i would be more than willing to share as a lead-in for a group sort of, well, just…way of saying Hello, Here is Where We Are Now, and Here is What We Hope To Do sort of thing…if that is anything people might like, and no one else feels a stronger desire to step up.
if you keep your original dates, the last quarter waning Moon will be on 3 September at 10:33 p.m. (New Moon on the 11th,) with the next Full Moon being the Harvest Moon (the 26th) and i can see that as being very auspicious, given that we are thinking of ourselves as being in the later stages of one “age” that is ending, and making some kind of plans or hopes or planting of something for a future “harvest” (of course, i’m no “druid” so this is just intuitive, not “official” in any way…i have no special knowledge or power, i only look at the moons and shit and sometimes think about them, is all.)
of course, all of this assumes i do not get eaten by a Black Bear within the next five weeks…Ran tells me he has a new visitor out there…and i’m fairly sure that the planes will not allow me to take any weapons along on Wednesday! what is that rule–play “dead” for Grizzlies, but act all big and nasty and tough with Black Bears???
Comment by patricia — 17 July 2007 @ 3:29 AM
That’s the idea, yup.
How much later in the year would it be? As you can see, we have some others who are having some trouble with the timing here, so we may need to change the time.
You should post them, that sounds awesome!
Comment by Jason Godesky — 17 July 2007 @ 9:47 AM
Ran probably won’t be in town again here until December. that’s much too late in the year i’m sure!
he may have posted the Squatteropoly stuff on his site at the time…i’m not sure, i’ll have to check his archives.
Comment by patricia — 17 July 2007 @ 1:02 PM
Yeah, December’s much too late for this. But it may be just right for a winter unconference.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 17 July 2007 @ 1:59 PM
OK, how does the picture change for everybody if we plan for September 22-23 or 29-30?
How does the picture change if it’s Allegheny National Forest rather than Monongahela National Forest?
Comment by Jason Godesky — 17 July 2007 @ 3:48 PM
Unfortunately, the restrictions I face are on my end. A dying cat (pet prisoner) that I’m committed to see through to the end… that, and digging out from a period of strapped cash-flow. Both have combined to severely restrict my summer travel.
Hence, it’s a game-time decision (at best) for me. Dori may pass by then (or stabilize enough for a sitter) - and my finances may be in order by then. Else, I’m stuck…
You know me - when I make a commitment , I see it through. Alas, I’m honoring a commitment made some 14 years ago…
—–
Say, isn’t there an anniversary coming up?
-Jim
Comment by JCamasto — 17 July 2007 @ 4:28 PM
Understood. Good luck!
Yup
Comment by Jason Godesky — 17 July 2007 @ 4:38 PM
i could probably make Sep. 29/30, and *maybe* get a day or two off work on one side and/or the other of that for travel etc. , at least that Friday i think.
Sep. 22-23 is less likely to work out for me.
my work ebbs and flows with the academic yearly tides, so September is usually a big ole’ nasty mess all around!
personally i’d have more time, enthusiasm & energy if we do it over the labor day week/end, but on the other hand, if it happens later on in September/October i will probably NEED it more, for my own sanity! so i can see the benefits of either option.
location makes no difference to me.
and certainly we should do a little local unconference in the Burgh-Land here while Ran’s in town (usually from sometime after Thanksgiving until the Spring thaw hits back in Spokane–late Marchish–and his land calls him home!) he & i meant to make the Maple Sugar/Acorn Flour thing at Raccoon last Spring but missed it to go hang on my dad’s buddy’s farm, so we might make that this time around…have you done that one? any good? if he stays in town long enough, we may do the two-day Herbal Meds one, too.
i’m still waiting for that clarification on what to do when confronted by Black Bears vs. Grizzlies, by the way! although i suspect that young Mr. B. Bear was just passing through on his annual circuit, as they sometimes will.
i may not be around much for a while over the next five weeks–i get on the Super Fascist Airways tomorrow at 4:35PM (assuming i don’t discover i’ve made “the list” and suddenly find myself Gitmo-bound.) Ran & i expect to be up on the land for a number of pretty long stays this summer: no phone, no lights, no motor cars, not a single luxury (and now everyone knows how OLD *I* am!)
anyway, the only weekend that is absolutely out for me in Sep. is 8/9.
Comment by patricia — 18 July 2007 @ 12:49 AM
We haven’t done the maple sugaring course, but we have done the herbal medicines one - and THAT is AWESOME!!!
This is really sad… I read that and thought, “Old? Isn’t that a line from Weird Al’s song ‘Amish Paradise’? How does that make you old? That song came out, like, ten years ago…” Then I Googled it and found out that you and Weird Al were both referencing Gilligan’s Island. Now I feel all ignorant and uncultured…
Comment by Giulianna Lamanna — 18 July 2007 @ 8:01 AM
No, just younger than Patricia & I
geez, Patricia and I look like we have opposite schedules, which blows chunks. I can arrange for either the 22-23 or 29-30 and location has no impact.
Comment by jhereg — 18 July 2007 @ 8:56 AM
Sounds like 29-30 might work better for people?
Giuli … you don’t know Gilligan’s Island? Oh, your education has been sorely neglected….
Don’t take my word for it, but I think that’s backwards. Black bears usually stick to nuts, berries and other vegetable matter, so if they attack you, it’s usually because you managed to put yourself between mama and her cubs. In that case, playing dead might convince her you’re not a threat, leave you there, take her cubs and leave. Then again, she might throw you around like a rag doll ’till you’re really dead, too. Now I’ve heard of the same technique working with grizzly attacks under the same circumstances, too, but with grizzlies, you’re dealing with carnivores. Especially if you meet them at night, they’re probably hunting, and that means you’re probably dead. Making a big scene in that case might be your best hope, because then he might decide you’re not worth the trouble. Depends on how hungry he is.
But I’ve also heard of black bears that will follow people in, say, Great Smokey Mountains. If the black bear is following you, he’s sizing you up for dinner. In that case especially, throw things, scream, jump up and down, and make yourself look as big and mean as you can. That will either convince the bear that you’re not worth eating, or it will prompt him to kill you on the spot.
In any of these cases, you’re in serious danger. Context is everything, and all of these are just about improving your odds. If the bear does decide to come after you, you’re probably dead already.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 18 July 2007 @ 10:14 AM
patricia,
I couldn’t find Squatteropolis in Ran’s archives. If you have the time, would you mind posting the rules here or possibly emailing them to me (wilderix at gmail dot com)? I would love to put them up on the REWILD.info wiki.
Thanks.
Comment by Rix — 18 July 2007 @ 10:42 AM
I’m not sure about getting there regardless of the date… working at a college, it’s the absolute busiest time of the year, plus my boss will be out on maternity leave, so things will be pretty crazy. Anyways, I’m not in the bioregion, so plan it without me and if I can make it, I can make it!
Comment by raku — 18 July 2007 @ 4:59 PM
Erik,
You wrote: “I grew up in Southern MN, and am now living in Northern WI. The two areas are quite different.”
What part of Northern Wisconsin do you live in? I’m curious because I live just north of Rice Lake in Northwestern Wisconsin.
You can email me too, if you’d like.
huby7 at g mail dot com
Take care,
Curt
Comment by Curt — 22 July 2007 @ 2:38 PM
Wow, sorry, I thought I’d already posted a response to the 29-30, but I guess not. That works for me no problem.
Comment by jhereg — 24 July 2007 @ 11:44 AM
I’ve been reading the E-Prime discussion on REWILD. I’m curious–why is the verb “to be” stand out? I ask only because in the E-Prime discussion, this is proposed:
Animist languages seeks to describe patterns of activity, and to connect similar patterns to each other. To separate the way of the coyote away from words describing sneaky behavior, destroys connection, destroys layering. In fact, to use the word “coyote” also means to “act like a coyote”, “to sneak”. In fact, the word “talêpês” means most properly “to act like a coyote”. So in English, I can describe this as “the word coyote does not describe a thing, but a pattern of activity - I must denote a coyote by saying that it “acts like a coyote”. I cannot point out a coyote itself.” In an animist language I’d find it difficult or impossible to say what I just said. English intrinsically looks for Aristotelian essences, inner natures, fixed realities, whereas native trackers know that a set of tracks may match the pattern of coyote activity, but that does not mean that “a coyote” made them. In quantum mechanics: “is it” a particle or a wave? Pointless question that creates a paradox. In animist language, “does it move” like a particle? a wave? Effortless conceptualization of a former paradox created by the actual structure of a language dedicated to enslavement according to rigid classes and conceptions.
But even people who speak English do sometimes use nouns to symbolize actions or verbs when we take a noun and attribute it to another meaning. Consider when we compare someone to a “lion” or that they are being “bovine,” based on attributes we have attached to lions and cows.
How does discussing “to be” in of itself make one unable to understand relationships in our world?
Comment by Taylor — 29 July 2007 @ 8:19 AM
Not terribly relevant to the discussion at hand, but reading “Toward Understanding E-Prime,” by Robert Anton Wilson and a little bit of independent thought should give you your answer. My own article, “Writing, Language & Thought,” doesn’t deal with e-prime directly, but “to be” in English is simply a reflection of the cognitive frame of “thingness” created by writing discussed in that article.
Calling someone a lion does not make “lion” a verb. To make it a verb, you’d have to say that someone is lioning. Simply pointing out that our language is capable of moments of clarity is not a good counter-argument to its underlying insanity.
Comment by Jason Godesky — 30 July 2007 @ 8:53 AM
The main thing I have found useful in thinking in terms of e-prime and how the verb “to be” affects things lies in understanding that the animist mind sees the world in constant motion. Nothing ever “is” anything. Civilization uses equations in order to minimize the importance of life when it wants (they are savages, they are plants, they are black, they are animals) and maximize the importance of humans when it wants (we are gods).
That’s not to say that you couldn’t say such things in a language without a “to be” verb, but you would find it much more difficult, and you probably would never even think of it if you never grew up in a language that makes equations by default.
I would love to talk to you about this more, but I recommend that we move the discussion over to the REWILD forums so as not to clog up comments for the Mountain Festival planning.
Comment by Rix — 30 July 2007 @ 9:10 AM
hi.
a) Gilligan’s Island i watched in re-runs, as a grade-schooler, in the 70’s. i very much wanted to BE on that island. it sounded way way better than school. also, i had a crush on Gilligan.
b) we’re getting totally conflicting advice on bears from all sides, and young Mr. Black Bear has been back around at least once more. and he seems to have spent some time checking out Ran’s new composting out-toilet (http://www.ranprieur.com/land.html) which answers two questions: 1) judging by the foot prints he is not terribly big–but BOY do bear prints look like a human print if the human is doing that fox-walky thing! and 2) does a bear shit in the woods? yes and no. he does, but he prefers to use the composting toilet, of course! for now i’m just carrying an axe around, making lots of noise so i don’t accidentally surprise him, and planning to look as big and loud as possible, should i run into the dude alone. honestly, i’d rather face the bear, than the hornets!
C) i will post/send/share the Squatteropolis basics when i am back in the Burgh–August 22nd or so. i know where i have the notes at home.
D) last week of September is okay with me.
Comment by patricia — 1 August 2007 @ 11:10 PM