Brian Hitselberger’s Neighborhood

We have shut the building, closed the kitchen, scattered beyond for the winter.
I have completed my stay at Elsewhere.
It was an incredible 6 months, lots of learning and art-making and doing and thinking and friend-making and organizing and cleaning and shopping and cooking and curating.
But it's time for this pup to travel onward and see what else is out there in the world.
As all-encompassing, fabric-encased, friend-laced, cheerwine-filled as Elsewhere is, it was time to leave.

A wrap up of my last week at Elsewhere... & beyond.
I'm sorry for my spotty blogging this season, dear readers.
please follow me at my new blog: http://aliyabarbeque.tumblr.com/

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Monday November 18, 2009
Last Day at Elsewhere. This was the last day of the two week, 12 day, top to bottom, deep intensive clean and major “f*cking up” of elsewhere's museum, in preparation for shutting down and closing the doors of the museum for the winter (to re-open in march). To give you an idea of the mindset of the last day, we started writing our to-do lists on tortillas:

Monday was supposed to be the “personal move-out day” but there was just so many projects we started that we had to at least finish up some of them.

Part of this included doing 14 – FOURTEEN – loads of laundry. Not quite laundry actually, it was more like Elsewhere Garbage; the Washable Episode! Brave sailors, Michaela from the land of Chapel Hill, and Natalie from the land of the West Coast, and myself trucked off to the trusty Suds 'n Duds to tackle this beast – the bags and bags and bags of clothes, fabric, ribbon, and just random other stuff that had been either found in trash bags on the third floor, or gotten wet in the big rainstorm that had come through, or maybe was just always covered in dampness, or mold, or whatever. These bags, a lot of them, had been sitting in the back alley for the past few days during the 2-3 days of HURRICANE-LIKE DOWNPOURS. So, that was an extra exciting part.
 
(wish i had pictures of this... michaela??? are you reading? can ya help a girl out?)

Actually, the most exciting part was loading up 14 washers and going down the line adding detergent and quarters and seeing our army of machines whirling and attempting to clean what at this point was mostly moth bits and large conglomerates of lint in the form of former sweaters or skirts. While switching the loads to the dryers, I looked in and suddenly feared for whoever was going to wash their laundry in that machine next... We gathered as many bits of Elsewhere as possible (broken buttons, bits of fabric) and did our best to clean up the machines. It was one of those ridiculous moments at Elsewhere when you realize you are working incredibly hard to save a Collection of things that are disintegrating, dying, and decaying. I wonder if Elsewhere in 30 – 80? 100?? – years will be a Collection of literally multi-colored dust, a museum in miniature, a tiny display of all that used to be whole. Each time we touch an object or a piece of fabric are we killing it just a tiny bit? Or is that the point? The process over the product, but yet the museum is made up of products in so many stages of finality!

Anyways.

It was the last day. Moving out was surprisingly easy. Mostly. I've found at Elsewhere that you have to keep your personal items contained or else they will get lost in the sea of Collection. So for the most part all my things were in one of 2 places.

Dinner was pretty Epic. We called it “The World: Dinner”. Dan and Kat were the main chefs and then Natalie and I jumped in after our laundry adventure. For dinner there was food representatives from all parts of the world, or at least attempts. A salad I called, “Africa” which was maybe Moroccan inspired (raisins? Feta cheese? Edamame? Everything else that was in the refrigerator? yes. it has nothing to do with Africa). Next was Nat's Baked Tofu Gyros with homemade hummus, a yogurt dill sauce, tomatoes, & cucumbers. C-Mo's Miso Soup from a few days before made a rousing comeback. A delicious platter of quesadillas (a last minute addition!) used up the last of the burrito leftovers from Sunday. Kat labored over the leftover quinoa and brown rice SUSHI, filled with avocado, cream cheese, tofu, chives, carrots, cucumbers, and everything else (but sadly no dessert sushi). Dan's pasta with Cheesy Green Sauce (broccoli, spinach, mozzarella, onions, mushrooms, delish) really held its own. Kat threw in a (self described) bizarre apple crumble torte thing. It was kinda bizarre. But much appreciated in the scope of the meal and the quest to USE ALL THE FOOD LEFT IN THE CO-OP.

Definitely a really exciting night. Definitely proved our culinary prowess.

And then we all hung out in the alley, Stepho giving haircuts, everyone with their nick-name-labeled 40s, and kinda sad last or almost-last hugs being given left and right. It felt a bit urgent and final a little. Like, I wanted to make sure to say goodbye to everyone, but inevitably something will get forgotten or more likely just missed. And then its not like we're dying. Just parting ways. But you know how sentimental and sad I get about those things. Way too much for the amount of moving I have set myself up to be doing in the next year or so.

I really didn't want Kirsten to leave. Or Dan. Or Danna. Or anyone. I didn't want to pack. I hate packing.

But blah blah blah but i did it and then the day ended and next thing it was Tuesday.

Tuesday November 19, 2009
Basically a sad day, or morning. Woke up early and me and Blake took Natalie to the train station. It was really sad. And then I picked up some stuff from Danna's house, and then back to the farm, for the final packing. And suddenly everyone left! For a meeting about next year at Stepho's house. It felt really lonely and huge in the museum. I sucked it up and finished packing. Got myself together, stopped crying, packed the car, and left. Yelled goodbye to Butch and Bill, who I've bought countless cheerwines across the street, and Butch gave me a crumpled hug through the window while the stoplight was red. Stopped in at the “next year” meeting for 30 seconds to say a goodbye that had slipped through the cracks. I tried not to be a blubbering mess, and failed of course, but Blake's small smile upon seeing me in the window really is what I will take away from that last goodbye.

Wearing my Hooper shirt and car finally (expertly I might say) packed, I started up on I-40 west and left Greensboro for the foreseeable future.

After listening to a round of the same CD I've been listening to since May (I seem to be resistant to the way everyone else who has been in my car since then can't stand this CD....), I felt better and felt ready to take on Western North Carolina. A friend claimed that everything gets better the further west you go, and maybe that sorta applies here.
I finally visited Asheville! It was entirely organic and well that's basically how I would describe it. I don't want to sound jaded or hypocritical, because I definitely loved it there, but it did feel a bit over-self-conscious. Or something. Reminded me of Northampton, MA, but more southern. I had some great vegan chili with vegan queso and kale. And enjoyed walking around. Especially this auspicious hardware store.

Onwards, changing up the music choice to a more appropriate North Caroline song (which would then repeat all through the Carolinas & Georgia), drove the tiny winding roads (don't worry mom! I was careful!) to Rutherfordton, about an hour south of Asheville, to the incredible little log cabin of a friend April Norris's who so generously opened her house for me to stay that night. It was such a welcomed little retreat from everything I know about North Carolina. Look, it had this great santa!:

I made myself a little tea, and did some drawings and fell asleep almost instantly in this beautiful little house, close only to the gas station down the street and a bunch of woods all around me.

Wednesday November 20
Woke up and had a real shower, in a real bathroom. Ate my Elsewhere Co-op leftover grapenuts with soymilk and raisins, and was off! Off to Spartanburg, NC! The home of Hub-Bub residency! A program I heard about and had gotten really excited about from former Elsewhere artists Sarah Witt, Brian Hitselberger, and Derya Hanife Altan. Wow! They were so great and so was Hub-Bub! I'm really excited to apply, to create some great new work, and add it to this application till it's THE BEST EVER and then send it off and send so many great energies towards the west North Carolina.

I also got some great shots of really lovely signs in Spartanburg. It finally hit me that these signs weren't coming back once I passed them, so I started slowing down/pulling over to get some pictures! So good!

Dad, this one's for you:

Then, I continued driving diagonally southeast. Crossed all of South Carolina without stopping much, and headed towards Charleston. I have been really excited to visit/be a part of REDUX, an art center I heard about when the former director, Seth Curcio, came to Hampshire and did a big slide lecture/critique last January, which got me SO PUMPED UP about making art in the real world and having it be something attainable and fulfilling and exciting and real! So, even though it was kinda out of my way (the highway seemed to have attached Charleston on as an afterthought, and would end up requiring me to travel on the same roads twice... not something that was in the plan of this trip), I decided to go for it. I called ahead and found out they were planning for their big art auction that Saturday, so they were kinda busy, but they'd say hi to me at least.

I got there, 20 minutes before they closed for the day, and saw the gallery, shop space, artist studios, staff office, and a little tiny bit of how they operate (small staff! Artists renting studios contribute work hours! Community classes! Murals!). It was pretty great, but also a little disappointing. It seemed... normal? Is that harsh? Coming from Elsewhere? I mean, I really didn't have time to give it it's due, but the point is that I think it would have been awesome and perfect had I lived in Charleston or had an additional reason to be there, but at this point I'm not going to move there. I missed their artist residency deadline for this year, but maybe next year I could end up there. Again, please respond with your support for Charleston, SC. I'm sure it's great... I just didn't know where to go and had to jet.

I had to jet cause I had to get to BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA by dinner time! 7pm that is. I was staying at this Treehouse Hostel, a place I had found and been enamored with for about 3 years, mostly from when my now ex-boyfriend and I were planning a road trip to NC to visit his family. So, in one way this place just exuded magical-ness, and seemed so romantic and perfect (25$ a night! With an included vegetarian dinner! And did I mention you stay in a TREE HOUSE??), but in another way, it ended up like this:

It's way past dinner time, it's dark. I'm in the middle of Georgia, off the highway, looking at the map and scanning desperately for a tiny sign that will signal I'm in the right place. It's a divided highway so even when I just realize that I've missed the driveway for the third time, I still have to drive up and around to get another chance. Finally I make the turn at the right time, and then I'm driving down literally a mile of a one laned road, dirt road, I'm driving under 5 miles an hour, coasting really from one pot hole to another, and there are trees all around me. And they're definitely southern trees. They are sorta moss-y, and the floor is mostly sand, and there's a lot of palm trees mixed in. Its not a forest you would find in Massachusetts. But it's also just a little anti-climactic. And I feel really lonely. I was supposed to be here with someone else, to make it less weird, and more of a friendly retreat. But here I was anyways. With my whole life in the car behind me.

Anyways. I made it. I got to the parking area and then saw the solar powered lights and little treehouse cabins and it was incredibly beautiful. It was a thriving intentional community with treehouses and geodesic domes and composting toilets and chickens and ducks everywhere and dream catchers and an outdoor open to the forest shower and bronners soap only please and hand painted signs everywhere. The best part was the wall of pictures of the directors. The left were the original directors, like from '78, and then the pictures moved across the board to the present day pictures. The edges of the older photographs were more yellowed or frayed, and the picture quality was worse, but the hippies were the same.

It was really sweet. And I think I would go back, but for that night I think I would say I wasn't in the best space to really accept it and be a part of it fully. I was kinda burnt out on community maybe. Or just not ready to jump in and try and make new friends. Is it ok to be anti-social sometimes? I did sit around the fire for a little bit, tried not to be too judgmental of the conversations, and went to bed. I was really glad that I had, um, borrowed a flashlight from the GE house before leaving Hampshire.

Thursday November 21
woke up feeling much better. The Treehouse hostel was really quite something in the daylight. I was woken up by the chickens (roosters?) yodeling goodmorning. For a few minutes I thought they were somehow “trained” to cock-a-doodle-do on the hour, and I had heard them 4 times, so I freaked out thinking it was 11 or noon or something. But then realized it was 8:30am.

I explored the other treehouses, the different parts of the common areas, the pathways that were made of really beautifully crafted scrap that together made a cohesive and quite useful pathway across the sandy/not as barefoot-friendly floor. I found some leftovers from dinner to eat. I found their really really great lake that I wished I had a bathingsuit (and a swimming buddy?) to partake in. Someone had found a leather armchair on the side of the road and was currently washing it down, preparing it to join the common areas I guess. I attempted to use the outdoor shower, and was genuinely excited, but couldn't figure out how to use the spigot. I ended up using the faucet that seemed to be for washing your feet and just kinda splashing cold water all over while being exposed to the forest and all the squirrels that kept running back and forth spying on me. It was really nice. I wish I could've figured out how it worked though.
I also realized, in the light of day, that I had slept under not one but four dream catchers, and that one of them in particular looked just exactly like the one I had made myself in kindergarden. I can't wait to hang that guy up again. Really missing those sweet dreams.
XXXXX

Time to leave. I drove out and when I emerged from the forest it was literally sun-shining everywhere. It was gorgeous. I just could FEEL the floridian in me stretching and smiling. As corny as that is.

I drove south and soon hit the Florida border and suddenly it all made so much more sense! I was in my right place! I was home! My car license plate made sense, and didn't stick out like a gigantic geographic sore thumb! My phone number area code was recognizable, familiar, a floridian number! The trees on the sides of the road made sense! It was so big! And full of highway!

I stopped at the friendly welcome center. Did you know, that the great state of Florida hired someone to sit at the welcome center and offer samples of grapefruit or orange juice to any visitors while heartily welcoming them to the great State of Florida??? How Great is That!??!?!?!!!! Also, the welcome center offers, in addition to respectable vending machines, clean restrooms, and friendly picnic tables, free wireless internet! Just what I needed to finish up some work (weird how the rest of the world continues and continues requesting things from you even when your current life completely stops and changes direction and travels 800 miles south), send it off to the appropriate recipients/supervisors, and then continue on my drive.

It was time to change the song. I was no longer in the backwoods of the mid-atlantic.

I entered Orlando! The temporary destination, for the weekend. I met up with my good friend, friend from Middle School (back in the day!) Ali Gleason, and her fiance Mike Duncan. It was so great to see them! As Ali said when we went grocery shopping (PUBLIX!! WHAT A GREAT (floridian!) GROCERY STORE!), it was really funny to have me be a part of their normal Orlando life. Very out of place, even though it was totally welcomed. I loved seeing Ali all grown up. Teaching a real class of 1st graders, with a real house and a real fiance and all that, it all suddenly felt very real that I had really picked a different path than I could have. I could have a normal job at this point, but instead I had spent the morning showering in a forest under a faucet. Weird. Not that I would change it for anything really, but it felt like a very real choice after visiting with Ali.

Anyways, really loved and appreciated the visit, and the stay in their lovely home. Gave me a chance to collect myself, my things, reorganize, and rest (and shower....). Can't wait to be seeing more old friends now that I'm back down south... Ali's wedding is in March so that'll be some more good excuses to be seeing more of them.

Friday - Sunday November 22
Friday afternoon was the beginning of the Team, Management, Leadership Program North-American Weekend in Orlando, a program that I had started back in late August in Portland, OR. So this was the 2nd weekend of 5 weekends, a year long program. And I was just SO EXCITED. First of all, I wasn't the newbie. So I felt like I actually knew what was going on or what to expect. I had everything that I'd been up to in the last 3 months to put on the line, to have at stake, and to contribute to the conversations and shares and presence of the weekend. Another really great thing was that this was my dad's last weekend, after being in the program for 2 years. I got to be there for when he was being acknowledged  for his contribution and for who he was for everyone on the team. I see him as a doofy dad, someone who answers my calls whenever and is incredibly patient with my every breakdown. And I could see him as someone who is a coach for so many other people besides me, and how he is so generous with his time and listening, and how he stands for the greatness of everyone around him, not just me. It was pretty powerful and incredible. For those who have been reslife interns at Hampshire College, it was like the audio version of the Nice Notes exercise we do in training, except after 2 years of solid intern training.

Anyways, I'm pretty excited to be on Team Florida-Jamaica. Last quarter I was on team Southeast, out of Atlanta, and in a group in North Carolina. It was wonderful and exactly perfect, but I'm also excited to see how another team operates, especially a team as big as this one. The amount of emails going back and forth is overwhelming, but it also is having me see structures and ways that I can make things happen really, and support others in making what they see is important in their lives come into reality. And not just structures, but just being that this is important, or worthwhile, or that I am important or worthwhile, and making requests for that to occur.

I don't know if this makes any sense. I'm sure of this piece of my life, even if I'm unsure of everything else. This feels right and steady, something that has me being here (wherever here is) powerfully and enthusiastically. I'm preparing to take on ANYTHING.

I also am noting that I seem to always be involved in organizations and groups and passions that seem to be entirely unexplainable to the outside world. darn.

On Sunday night mom scooted all the stuff around in my car and we drove back to Delray together. Everything looked the same. The highway exit looked the same, downtown looked the same, our road, the house, it even smelled the same as when we moved in 11 (12?) years ago. I slept in my bed for the first time in over a year. I realized that I had had that bed since I was at least 10 years old, if not before. My room at home is now a storage area/ sometimes scrapbooking room. It was sorta confronting. Just so many boxes and, worse, piles of just stuff, mostly that is a combination of too sentimental/not very useful such that it has no where else to be but in a pile in my used-to-be-room. It's going to be a project to take on being here, and even being here with the goal being that it's temporary. I could already feel it even though I'd only been home 4 hours.

Luckily, there are some really great parts of being home. I slept with the windows open and the tropical breeze coming through, with a house full of loving parents who were, for now, really really excited to have me home and inhabiting the house (i.e. Distributing stuff and myself all over the place), and a refrigerator that was strangely way more full than I thought 2 people living without kids (or teenage boys stomping through all the time) could really achieve.
It was a sleep filled with list-making and planning.

Monday... onwards November 23
So I made it home, I'm here. After a brief stint in Arizona visiting my mom's family for thanksgiving, I'm putting my feet down for a hot sec. Gathering my thoughts, my brains, my cash moneyz. I'll be happily babysitting the entire neighborhood (who ISN'T super pumped to have an exciting, super responsible, local recent graduate babysitter available!?!?!), working for my dad's company testing computer software (most likely), saving money, and rediscovering delray beach, a place that in many ways I've overlooked during the time that I was here. Also, turns out so many people in delray (or who used to be in delray?) have started some really great projects! I've been making contacts and talking to mentors, gathering ideas and thoughts.

My friend count is somewhat low, but that's just an opportunity to learn how to make friends without an entire artist collaborative, and entire residency program and 10 person staff assisting me! Maybe I'll end up just making a fort with all the boxes surrounding me. Or really falling in love with this place. Maybe.

see you in other parts of the blog-o-sphere, readers. Elsewhere, see you sometime soon. Elsewherians, see you sooner.

lovelovelove
aliya

These streets will make you feel brand new,
the lights will inspire you.

I went to NYC last week! I made it to this awesome conference! I didn't have a ticket, but I made it in... AND got to see some awesome galleries and friends new and old! what a packed weekend.

I wore Harrell Fletcher's wrist band to get in! Suzanne Lacy indirectly bought me a beer! I was part of one of the most incredible critical social-practice-art-intense theory/practical conversations since/including all my art classes and it lasted forever but was so good for every minute.

Here is my powerpoint that I gave to the other Elsewherians when we returned:

(ok, it needs more descriptions than when i presented it in person... will update that soon.)

Here are some key points i'm taking back with me.

• utilizing under-appreciated resources in a community - how can we bring value to these non-monetary exchanges?
• where are the non-art people in these conversations? how can we engage in this type of art conversation outside of an art circle -- is it necessary to be considered an artist in order to have the freedom to do these types of projects/get funding within our current system of understanding and advocating art in public practices?
• must get involved with the grassroots groups already tackling the project/ideas i want to consider in my artwork: they are the ones already connected and trusted by the community
• an ongoing need for a revolution: is academia a "safe zone" for us (artists) to develop ideas and projects that go back out into the "war zone" of real life?
• legislative art? does it give more structure/results than more esoteric art pieces? a way of having art take responsibility for it's power and the issues it responds to (benefits from?)
• how do you measure the success of a project -- is it art because it is measureless? does that lead to esoteric and meaningless art pieces? is that ok -- isn't it ok to dream and create without creating measurable results? what if the results are un-measurable and yet still have just as profound an effect as any other act and effort?
• distinct, political goal oriented projects can still have esoteric, indeterminable artistic moments.
  
• how do i avoid over-thinking and critiquing my work to the point that my theory paralyzes my action and making?
• there are always consequences to your practice: but where, and how, and who has control over those ideas once they are out in the world? We have to stop thinking we don't impact -- even if it is only impacting yourself.
  
• "If artists felt like they could do anything, why are 95% making paintings?"
• how can artists instrumentalize their cultural capital?
• do long-term goals paralyze immediate action that could be considered merely a "bandaid" to the larger issue? are the smaller projects still valid? necessary! how can they be incorporated and a valid contribution to/acknowledgment of the larger picture?
• be present to your human condition, compassion, feelings, thoughts, authenticity.
  
  

Here's what a bunch of other people say about the conference:
Claire Bishop
Zefrey Throwell
Zefrey Throwell
Audio Intro

first proposal deadline: November 6!

Call for Performance Proposals
The Art Shanty Projects and mnartists.org are seeking individuals or groups interested in producing programs on frozen Medicine Lake in Plymouth, MN from January 16 through February 14, 2010.

• bags of trash
• bagging, bundling, storing, hiding things away
• secrets
• cocoons
• sleeping bag brigades/forts/fortresses/armies
• sewing circles
• ice cream making
• ice-dying
• slowly made tiny ice igloos/sculptures
• freezing things into the ice
• carnival
• country faire
• rallying point
• a flag pole
• flag-making
• lots of flags all over the place like post-it notes.
  
• claiming lands; making continents; making forts; making a place /territory/rules/games/ways of speaking/walking/doing
• ice-risk?
• drawing maps on the ice
• dress making
• ice-dress-fashion-show
• ice-project-runway
• ice-iron-chef
• ice-friday-night-lights
• ice-freaks-and-geeks
• disney on ice
• installations all over the place
• mousetrap, the human ice-version
• making shish-kebobs
• fax machine games x 100
• ticket to ride out the wazoo
• letter writing
• movie making
• home movie reenactments
• olympics on ice!
• Childhood sleeping bags
• tea parties
• snow cones
• gladiators
• elaborate structures for random competitions(rock paper scissors, jumping jacks, shortest, thumbwars): get evan scofield involved.
• Mobiles... of ice?
• truck-ice-skiing
• sitting in a cool truck.
• trucks in general.
• hauling stuff.
  
• puppies! kittens! ice-pet shop! Stuffed animal making!!!!!!!
• locally-inspired play: bring a basically created plot with lots of open spots and involve local volunteers and local issues into the cast/plot: create the props and parts, have easily jump-in-a-ble roles and positions, be flexible to the community's needs.
• People's living rooms. Grandma's living rooms. Memories of grandmas living rooms. What happens in living rooms. What is a living room.
• Canadian border? Where the hell is minneapolis anyway (talk to athena?)
• Written as an outsider looking for a place to be.

The last few weeks have been all about andy warhol, all the time. we were preparing and getting the town excited and ready for us and our celebration of receiving the national Andy Warhol Foundation Grant -- a real honor for us and Greensboro of this national forward-thinking arts recognition. We decided to announce it with a blow-out fundraiser party, aiming to match the national grant award with local donors' contributions.

Well, despite tensions running high, and working non-stop all week to produce this epic, three-floor, no-holds-barred, fancy and fun party, it turned out great. it was fun, classy, just the right amount of weird, warhol, silliness, delicious food, and staffed by some of the most attractive individuals in all of greensboro (we really clean up nice.) I had a lot of fun, I think the guests got what they came for, and we even had Father Time come through and have the chance to see the place all dressed up for the first time -- he was overwhelmed and awed I think.

Some favorite moments, because I'm tired, and because I do best in lists:

• having everything come together magically! every station set up, every bit of junk concealed and transformed into warholian party land! supporting people in making it work and knowing we all were working together to make this an amazing event for everyone.
• the delicious food and fancy drinks! not only did we get to eat such great treats from our favorite Chef Graham (which included walking back and forth from his walk-in freezer, down the alley, to our kitchen table!), but I got to be a bartender at the "Banana Bar" which was quite exciting.
• the photobooth with kirsten!
  
• getting my haircut on the fire-escape! by neighbor and fancy hair-stylist kyle britt! it fits in the theme because of warhol's Haircut films featuring Billy Name and Edie Sedgwick. the end product is a bit short (on one side...), but totally smokin'. and prominently displaying my rat-tail.
  
• seeing old friends!! Les, resident from last summer, and Chelsea, intern from last summer were both there! As well as some great people I've met this year but haven't seen in a while: Brian, Diana, Alister, and Natalie! who I've heard tons about from Blnkt, but now finally get to meet (what a great broad!)
• the banana plush pillow (about 4 feet in length) (in front of the desk). yep. i made it.
  

  DSC_6148-1
• dance party in the bathroom: actually, it was the "Factory Toilet Facilities", covered entirely (ENTIRELY) in tinfoil to resemble this (this too), and additionally with a newly silver-spray-painted floor as a last minute brillz-and-ridiculous idea executed by dan, kaylan, and brian (at about 3 in the morning, the day before the party). It started with the call of Ace-of-Base and just got better from there. the song lyrics, "boom boom boom, I want you in my room. Let's spend the night together, from now until forever" are really not leaving my brain any time soon.
  
• a really delightful sleepover with 5 of my favorite people in my bed... such a late night and so much effort put into making this party happen, that we all were giggle-y and filled with stories of what happened that night and what went into making it happen. needless to say, the space feels a bit empty this evening.
  
• the brunch in the morning, with everyone really sleepily eating delicious strata (prepared by fabulon board members cliff and neal) but enjoying the sun in the alley-garden, and really being with each other in a relaxed and stress free way -- the party is over and we don't have to be crazy anymore!

I'm really excited to continue planning October's events, and make some other amazing things happen around here. It was great to focus and produce such a solid overwhelming entirely gigantic event, but I can't wait to go back to thinking about something other than Andy Warhol... right now his face is plastered (really) all over the facade of the building. That's about 300 Andy Warhols ready to come down and make room for the rest of the season of amazing community, art, playfulness, and magic.

1. foot-baths. my feet get really really dirty when i walk around barefooted, especially in the wet-floor dishroom. as anthony and i discussed, it's really good that my feet are small and fit in small buckets.
   
2. more doing, less planning. as many of you know, i do a lot of scheduling, planning, making planners, making schedules, reworking, list-ing, etc. in fact, i would go so far to say that I am really quite a master spreadsheet maker (really learned from the best -- my grandfather). They are my specialty. BUT. one problem is that I end up spending a lot of time making lists, and then the time is gone and I have yet to accomplish something. strange. So this week I have experimented with the phrase, "more doing less planning" to much success i think. examples:
3. i finally did my room installation! it's a full-forced fort (ya hear that will!?!)!! so much so, that in combination with anthony's fort-esque installation, we're really ready for full-blow friendship-wars between our two basecamps. ideas for what to throw at each other, please drop a comment.
   
4. kitchen labels. i might learn how to spell "labels" someday. i finally took it on and am looking at my role as Kitchen Kommando as an art piece exploring domesticity within a necessarily highly functional context. Any ideas or recommendations about food-artists or kitchen-artists please send them my way.
5. working on my website! ok, still nothing to show. i know i know. but i also have reassessed my goals and i'm going to be making a very basic one first, and upgrading it as i go and as i figure out how to do more web-coding-internetz stuff. 
6. organizing my digital life. i moved to an ELECTRONIC CALENDAR. what?!?! and organized my internet bookmarks to not be so centered around my hampshire life (tear). AND, i joined twitter. i'm not sure what this really is useful for, or if it's a good idea or not, but whatevs. now you can follow more random online thoughts of mine. ok, this is a slightly boring #6, but i know you all are really interested in what i've organized recently, and my digital social life.
   
7. posting on my blog. and my more professional blog. which is a little intimidating trying to blog professionally.
   
8. looking up residencies and places to go for next year... hub-bub in spartanburg SC? working within the miami school district as an art person project maker leader teacher? setting up a art-workshops-community-building-organizing-recycled-sustainability-bike-coop-mobile-old-school-bus tour/project with mr. J gamble using the bus from this project!!?! going to israel?
9. applying to go to israel. on birthright free trips gift wow! possible idea: extend the trip and stay in israel and do a residency there or something. ideas?
10. maybe i should rename this post: "ideas?" or "please talk to me?" or "leave some comments dudes!"

i've also been missing everyone who i don't see everyday, and even some of them i do see everyday, a lot. so, i miss you. i know it's dangerous when i start reminiscing about first semester division 3... cause i know how hard and upsetting that was too. it's kinda scary taking on your life and doing stuff with it. declaring that i'm up to something big and i'm out to make a difference. i almost couldn't even write that cause now you all know and will hold me up to that. darn.

i'm really really really excited for my upcoming visitors: my parents!! and then, allison!! wow! what a treat! oh man, so excited. in fact, i made a map of greensboro aliya hot spots (ok, some of them are specifically for my dad, and some are just kinda lame, but.) for their visits! Look how cool this place is! look how much fun you'll have if you come to visit me! limited time only. i head south november 7th. ish.

OFF TO MAKE SOME LUNCH!
(note: we as a collective have finally become slightly tired of eating so many frozen black bean veggie burgers. they have been the staple of all of our diets for at least the past 4 months, and i love them, but i am also slightly over-burgered-out...)

from toni subira, visiting resident artist from Spain, after listening to a night of me cracking up at the dinner table lost in my own joke of saying "toni _(insert random word that ends in "ni", usually "macaroni" cause that's all I could think of)_":

"aliya maravilla" = "aliya wonderful" (!)

wow!! thank you so much, toni macaroni!!

Aliya and ATown.
we're in it to win it.
esteeemed members and co-founders of the Awesome Rat-Tail Club.
new roomies and future interior-decorators of the red room up front.
he can reach the top of the refrigerator, and i can grab stuff from under the sink.

We went on an adventure today and worked out at the Y, went on the water slide, brainstormed potential part-time-jobs in Greensboro that wouldn't kill my heart, visited our friend Kirsten at work and got delish coffee drinks, bought toilet paper, tampons, and deoderant, got lost and ended up talking to some really swell fire-fighter people and checking out these terrifyingly awesome crashed school busses and cars which I guess they use for training fire fighters for emergency situations? and then invited them to come check out Elsewhere and luckily I had some elsewhere august posters and cards in my car so they are gonna hang them up in the break room. Then we checked out a convenience mart which Anthony was sure would have awesome weird old sunglasses but actually they turned out to be way over priced but I did in fact get a really sweet North Carolina Facts ruler for $1.00 and then we stopped being lost and made it home at last.

 

Found this on the way into the YMCA to catch the end of the last half-hour slot of water-slide time of the day: I think it is now our TEAM BFFForever business card. I am the purple headed one. He is the orange headed one. This picture is a sign from above that our team is totally for realz. We might enter the olympics.

as many of you know, i am a very talented half-glockenspiel player. my instrument was gifted to me by the dumpster gods from Hampshire College's Children's Center back in Fall 2008, and since then I have slowly been restoring it, building a new frame with the assistance of my advisor Greg Kline, and adding some piano felt with the assistance of my friend J Gamble. I designed and produced a custom back-pack carrier bag and have carried this beautiful instrument across six states. It has performed in two official bands ("Let's Be Friends" and "The Rockin' Apocapies"). I can honestly say that as of tonight, I officially feel as if I am really starting to understand the instrument -- we are becoming one. we are understanding each other like friends, and we are ready to continue to the next phase of our relationship, moving beyond random noises into what could maybe become songs? tunes? melodies? cohesive audio-visual-tactile art experiences?

Officially presenting, an award-winning, original piece:

"The Soup is Hott Tonight"
Performed by Aliya Bonar and Amber Phelps Bondaroff; remixed by Amber Phelps Bondaroff
July 2009

After this incredible collaboration and band experience, my half-glock and I felt more comfortable to take on new musical challenges. Two of the residents at Elsewhere right now, Sally Dean and Florence Peake, are exploring the different rooms in Elsewhere through dance and movement. They heard the wondrous sounds emanating from Amber's and my recording session, and asked me to participate in their process. I was really excited about this opportunity, and even though things are busy and crazy, I wanted to make sure it happened. Tonight we went to the third floor to the "ghost room", where past residents Derya and Casey transformed the room into a place to commune with the ghosts of Elsewhere, complete with clothing "portraits" and sunken chairs where the ghosts sit. Sally and Flo moved through the space and I played my instrument. And it was so magical. I kept stepping outside of myself a tiny bit and thinking, man this is so silly. I'm playing an instrument I don't know how to play and they're just moving around randomly, but then I'd step back into myself and realize that this was totally awesome and fun and beautiful and inspiring. We were creating this musical physical event and piece together! I felt like I could actually play this instrument! I vaguely could decide what bell to play to produce the feeling I was getting from watching them dance, and it sounded like something on purpose!

so, while you are only experiencing really half of the performance, here is another original, award-nominated piece:

"A Trio of Whispering Third-Floor Bird Friends"
Half-Glockenspiel performed by Aliya Bonar, Dancing performed by Sally Dean and Florence Peake
August 2009

Tonight when we were eating dinner, I asked everyone to hold hands, and take a breath, in honor of my aunt who passed away this last weekend. It was something she always insisted on doing when we ate together, taking the time to appreciate the food and the company and the day. Even though it was kinda silly, everyone did it -- and we even took two breaths. Aunt Elisa, I miss you incredibly. Your spirit and energy and life is being passed on to so many people you will never even know. You are an inspiring being whose willingness to feel so deeply and express that so authentically has contributed to me being able to allow myself to play a broken instrument in a ghost room installation with two women dancing around me. I feel very blessed to live in so many magical worlds and be supported by so many different families.

some magical things happened on the vacation drive home. I was talking with some of the residents (molly, rachelle, and eliza, the esteemed riders in my car) about elsewhere and i could all of a sudden see outside of myself. They talked about how amazed they were to step into this community, one which was so incredibly generous, so enthusiastic, so positive and excited. How they'd never seen a group be so much of a group, so intensely together and dedicated to doing things together, to taking care of each other, to welcoming the new residents in and making them feel a part of the family. How they'd overhear a meeting in the kitchen, and realize that we actually were having a 45 minute conversation and debate about whether or not to cook frozen pizzas on friday (public event) night dinners -- were they easier to make? easier to clean up? easier to eat? cheaper? or just as much trouble as other food? do we even like pizza? They said how amazed they were to see that actually happening with such dedication and seriousness.

And eliza said how seeing that, and seeing everyone jump in so whole-heartedly into molly's performance last friday (which involved all of us performing as some body-system-part --- i was the mouth chomping in the digestive system! it was an incredibly sweaty costume and a really bizzarre experience interacting with people in body-sacks as a chomping/bowing mouth...) inspired her to make bathing suits for everyone in the community, even though it would be a lot of work. that she was totally willing to give as much as we were because she knew it would be reciprocated.

I'm trying to figure out what it is about elsewhere that i have fallen in love with -- and get frustrated by and confused by and discombobulated and inspired and lost in. what is the essence that i am so drawn to, that makes this place -- certainly not greensboro of which i know very very little about -- feel like home? how can this be entirely beautiful, rewarding, real, visceral, tangible as i can reach out and touch my roommate's foot, sweaty and stinking, bubbling and delicious, but also entirely removed, in a world of its own, un-real and imagined. temporary but forever?

i'm not a poet, but i'm an artist so i can say these things. also, i mean them. i am learning to bathe in my confusion and thoughts, instead of continuing to struggle and drown in them.

ELSEWHERE FAMILY VACATION.
to the beach, the outer banks, 4.5 hours from Elsewhere.
leaving saturday morning, 6am. returning sunday evening, 2am (after being rain-swamped out at 8pm and realizing, after some brainstorms, calls to dan's dad, and magic-phone searches that we just had to go home)
an intense personal thinking time in my head, thinking about groups, how we form groups, why we move together so easily and so confusingly at the same time, how much work it is to mobilize a group of 11 people, and how incredible it is to create and be a collective.

inspiration from eliza, community, hott butts, swimming, friends, beaches, road-trips, teams, the color red.

(while dry and theoretically still as-designed)
(after going swimming -- some loosing their "outer panty", some suspenders loosing their stretch and hold, most all becoming much more revealing, while still remaining surprisingly decent)

eliza fernand designed and constructed most of these, i made my own based on her example and guidance.