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As I contemplate living in Washington another year, my sixth, I can’t help but think about ideas of history and place.

The house I currently live in was constructed in 1908. Throughout the 1920s and into the early 60s, it served as a dormitory for Catholic nuns trained as nurses who tended the sick and infirm at St. Peter’s Hospital, located across the street. The original St Peter’s hospital was founded in 1887 by Mother Joseph of The Sacred Heart, one of the many Catholic funded hospitals and schools she founded that helped settle and establish the west. In 1919, however, the original hospital was forced to relocate to make way for the new Capitol Campus. St Peter’s was rebuilt with state of the art technology and again opened its doors to the people of Olympia in 1927. St. Pete’s served as a bastion of hope through the dark days of the Great Depression, both World Wars and the turmoil of Vietnam. In the mid-70s, the hospital was incorporated into one of the first and largest state-wide health collectives in the nation, Group Health, and opened a new facility on the outlying eastern border of the city, where I receive the majority of my health care as an employee of the state.  The old St Pete’s building across the street now houses a multitude of efficiency apartments.

My house, the nuns’ dormitory, was purchased in the late 70s by a group of young, visionary radicals anxious to partake in co-housing social experiments of the time; it has existed as a collective since: The Alexander Berkman Collective, or the ABC House. In the infinite wisdom of the generations of hippies, eco-terrorists, musicians, artists, anarchists and political organizers whom lived under this roof over the years (or hid in the basement), the original floral pattern wallpaper throughout the house was not allowed to be painted over. The wallpaper is hand screen-printed, a technique that went out of fashion in the 1940s. Although the paper is yellowed with age, scuffed, cracked and stained, I know this pattern of large, colorful flowers I look at every morning and every night is the same embellished bouquet that has been gazed upon every morning and every night for at least the last 70 years. There’s a certain kind of comfort there, found in the intersection of history, place and one’s small contribution to each in the appreciation of details.

April showers bring May flowers, or so they say.  The Black Dot Museum, curated by Jean Smith and David Lester of Mecca Normal, took over the walls of Northern for the month of May, bringing together political artists based out of Vancouver, BC. We also celebrated the one year anniversary of Northern in conjunction with the opening. From the press release:

For May, David Lester and Jean Smith of Mecca Normal co-curate a month-long, group exhibit at Northern. “The Black Dot Museum — Political Artists from Vancouver” includes paintings, prints, drawings and comics by David Lester, Jean Smith, Brian Roche and Gord Hill. The opening reception for the artists was Saturday May 1, from 5p – 8p with a Performance by Mecca Normal at 7. This special opening also celebrates Northern’s one year anniversary serving as an all ages art and music venue in beautiful downtown Olympia, Washington.

Biographies provided by the artists:

David Lester is the guitar player in the underground rock duo Mecca Normal (Kill Rock Stars), a painter and graphic designer whose artwork is featured weekly in Magnet Magazine online with text by Mecca Normal singer Jean Smith. In 2009, Mecca Normal celebrated twenty-five years in music, touring their lecture, art and performance event “How Art & Music Can Change the World” based on Lester’s Inspired Agitators poster series. The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism (Arbeiter Ring, 2006) — an astounding collection of comparative statistics compiled by Lester — has been included in university course material in the US and Canada. David Lester’s art appears in the recently published Paper Politics (Soft Skull Press, 2009) as well as Reproduce & Revolt (Soft Skull Press, 2008).

Jean Smith is the singer and lyricist in the literary rock duo Mecca Normal and a two-time recipient of Canada Council for the Arts awards as a professional writer of creative fiction. Jean has two published novels and has, since 1986, released fifteen CDs on Kill Rock Stars, K Records and Matador. Smith’s series of self-portraits from age 13 has been included in several Ladyfest art exhibits. Her paintings are featured in Mecca Normal’s touring lecture event “How Art & Music Can Change the World”. Smith grew up in Vancouver with two abstract parents for painters.

Gord Hill currently lives in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (occupied Coast Salish territory). From the Kwakwaka’wakw nation, with Tlingit and Scottish ancestry, his family lineage includes the Hunt and Scow families. He has lived on reserves and in cities, small towns, and isolated mountain camps, and has been involved in Indigenous and other social movements since 1988, participating in many protests, occupations, and blockades. He is an artist, writer, and carver. Above all, he considers himself a warrior—one who defends his people and territory. Gord is the author and illustrator of The 500 Years of Resistance Comic Book (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010).

During the 80s and 90s Brian Roche regularly exhibited his large paintings of various historical figures rubbing elbows with icons of popular culture.  An ex-Catholic ranting about atheism and corporatization at dinner parties, he regularly answered the inevitable “but what does it mean?” question about his paintings with “you figure it out.‘ This was all fine, but there comes a time in an artist’s life when, in taking a tally of accomplishments, things don’t add up. At this time, Roche stopped painting. Several years ago, Roche decided to stop living the way he was — a painter not painting is a person not happy. He decided to be happy. His recent return to painting came after discovering that smaller canvases make it possible to complete work in the time after his day job.

Photos of the gallery show and the opening (with a special performance by Janet Pants!) below:

Procession of The Species. Epic, every year. Cute kids and old hippies always make me verklempt. Evidence of my continued existence:

More on Northern’s march show, From, Johnson

Artists included in From, Johnson:

Daniel Arlein, Brooklyn, NY
Avantika Bawa, Portland, Oregon
Jenny Buffington, Shorewood, IL
Ingrid Burrington, Baltimore, MD
Scott Marvel Cassidy, Los Angeles, CA
Ariel Churnin, Johnson, VT
Thomas Cummins, San Antonio, TX
Janet Hassinger, Houston, TX
Harrison Haynes, Durham, NC
James Horgan, Cambridge, MA
Laura Kaufman, Hudson Valley, NY
Ji Eun Kim, Cheyenne, WY
Jong Sun Lee, Rockville, MD
Caitlin MacBride, Brooklyn, NY
Sharon Madanes, Chicago, IL
Rose Nestler, Brooklyn, NY
Ruben Quesada, Lubbock, TX, in collaboration with Jonathan Bohr Heinen
Nathan Rayman, Kentfield, CA
Alexis Semtner, Brooklyn, NY

More photos of pieces below:

Thomas Cummins‘ beautiful photo of bustling Johnson, Vermont on a snowy night.

Caitlin MacBride

Ingrid Burrington

Janet Hassinger

Ariel Churnin

Scott Marvel Cassidy

Avantika Bawa

Rose Nestler

Jong Sun Lee

Sharon Madanes

Ji Eun Kim

Ruben Quesada in collaboration with Jonathan Bohr Heinen

Sometimes it’s hard to hear the Universe talking to you above the din that is your day to day life. As someone who already has bad hearing from an ungodly amount of hardcore and emo shows attended as a teenager, sometimes it’s difficult to hear anything at all (I escaped the alterna-90s and all I got was partial hearing loss). However, when the same sentiment is repeated over and over from the mouths of unrelated people in my life, I can’t help but acknowledge larger forces at work and stop to listen.

I found out Thursday that I didn’t get a job I was actually (for once) holding out a fair amount of hope for – I had even been informally told to expect a phone interview, so I’m not placing all blame on my overactive imagination. As a direct result of this revelation, I have been listening to Kate Bush non-stop.

Recent insight via electronic correspondence with thoughtful Nora, brunch with the inimitable Brian Jones, and a phone call from always encouraging Kai, however, have left me with renewed faith (or at least a feeling of contentment) with my current lot in life.  Like Kai said, I live in a cool house, I teach at a rad liberal arts institution, and I have a cat and a blog. What more could I want?

While life is never as simple as a single catchy sentence, I recognize the truth in those words… even though I wish that sentence was somewhat longer. If it comes down to it, what’s another year in Olympia?

Where else could I have caught Calvin Johnson reading the entirety of the “O” section from Dan Nelson’s (somewhat problematic) book  All Known Metal Bands on Saturday night? AMAZING. Then, the following evening, where else could I have caught Wynne Greenwood and K8 Hardy personally screening their collaborative video projects via data projector beamed onto old sheets in a hip local thrift store? Jesus. I mean, how fucking awesome is my life?

(Right…?)

Photos via my shitty cell phone.

The night after I returned from Vermont, The ABC House hosted a show for Olympia All Ages in the basement featuring Broken Water, Sic Alps and Magik Markers. Holy shit, this was a good show. About 75 people turned out to sweat and dance away the night. It was great to have a rock show at the house again; it’s been too long. I implore you to check out all three of these bands.  Photos below are of Broken Water and Sic Alps. Sic Alps were recently invited by Pavement to play at this year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties.

Halloween was a piecemeal holiday this year. At the last minute, housemate Shawn and I bought candy and candles, hoping to entice kids to venture up our long, dark driveway. I quickly decorated the front porch and stairs with candelabras, jack-o-lanterns, and 50 tea lights. Shawn rocked the scary sound effect records. Unfortunately, we only had 8 kids (and accompanying parents) who were brave enough to approach the house.  After we realized that we weren’t going to have any more costumed visitors, we decided to head downtown for the  Thrill The World performance in which an amateur dance troop staged the choreographed Michael Jackson dance from Thriller. After observing downtown Olympia’s usual freaks and geeks, we returned home to our own adopted family of misfits at the ABC House who were preparing for a mischievous night on the town.

Arrington de Dionyso pretty much usurped Olympia’s July. He had an excellent exhibit at Northern throughout the month, officially moved back to Olympia after several years in Portland, played a series of guerrilla house shows with his new band and performed at the closing reception of “Root and Crown.”

The photographs below are from a generator powered performance outside at Olympia’s free flowing artesian well on July 15.

The closing reception and performance at Northern on July 24 involved an interactive element via overhead projectors and hand colored gels, which visitors were encouraged to move around and rearrange.

On Saturday night, Olympia’s hippest and most talented put on a variety show at the Capitol Theater. It was billed as a “fashion show” but seeing it included videos, performances, and dances, I’m gonna call it a good old fashioned variety show. It’s stuff like this that makes me happy  to live in Olympia. Where else could this have happened? Certainly not in Portland or Brooklyn. I laughed, I cried. There’s truly a lovely, quirky little community in this town.

Greta Jane and aerial performer Carlin

Kimya Dawson and The Olympia Free Choir with Dancing Kids

Bridget Irish and crew perform Night On Disco Mountain!

Viscera choreographed by Mary Russell (a former student!)

Cairo Pythian performs The Dark End… with smoke machine. Best. Performance. Ever.

I love Olympia in the Spring.

Ah, another year, another Procession of The Species. If I recall, y’all missed out on last year’s photos so I doubled the amount this year. Also, I was able to scramble up onto the Capitol Theater’s Marquee and watch the festivities from above for a unique perspective. Enjoy the freakiness that is Olympia!