March 3, 2011
Dear Clusterflock
Let’s discuss Clusterflockstock III, shall we? Historically, second sequels tend to disappoint (do we even need to reference Jedi?), but I have great faith in our collective resolve and creativity to make something amazing.
So, shall we toss out some candidates for host cities?
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I vote for somewhere within a 200 mile radius of Portland
If I owned a compound in or around Kansas City (MO), I’d offer it. Kansas City rocks.
Dang. If I owned a compound, I’d offer it. I am renting a 3 BR/3 BA townhouse just outside of Dubuque, IA, but that’s not enough space, and besides, it’s a three-and-a-half hour drive from Chicago airports.
Thank you, thank you, Josh. I am still holding strong to the notion that this coming Memorial Day I’ll have spent the previous three or four days amongst my favorite people. As for volunteering a city, I’m damn near positive the Bay Area is too expensive for anything. Except camping. We could always camp.
I’m sure North Texas would still be available (and inexpensive), but I understand wanting to branch out, and maybe we should try to make it easier for the Europeans to make it.
I know the three-day Memorial Day weekend makes sense in so many ways, but for some US flockers, it means conflicting obligations. Family expectations and all. And if you are not an employed State-sider, it means nothing in terms of a paid day off.
Of course, I realize that for most flockers, it is a convenient time.
Ahh yeah, my Brother-In-Law is getting married that weekend, so unless it happens to be in Detroit, I’m out.
Also, the Memorial Day weekend is a hideous time to travel. Just a thought. I wish I had something more constructive to offer than three bedrooms 175 miles from O’Hare and Midway airports.
My employment is not forgiving of national holidays, so any weekend will work for me (provided enough notice).
Organic groceries don’t take days off
Exactly. I mean, people could starve!
Yeah, let’s not do it at the end of May because it is not only my birthday but it is the graduation weekend for lots of folks. Beginning of June might be better, like that first weekend?
I will be able to afford a ticket to somewhere but I probably can’t afford for the trip to cost very much in terms of hotels/etc.
I’d be into the Texas situation again, I liked the dynamic of everyone being cut off from the Internet for those few days.
I’d be likelier to make the scene if it were not scheduled for Memorial Day weekend, that is for sure.
I still wish I had more to offer space-wise. And that I did not live so far from a major airport.
Anyway.
I’m as flexible as a 12yo Chinese girl, given enough notice.
Memorial Day weekend is my anniversary. :-/
I humbly suggest Boston! Of course I do. I would love to meet y’all. Especially if it means seeing Dave Vogt make like a 12yo Chinese girl.
Ooh, thanks for reminding me, Ms. Mae. I am also two thumbs up for the farm.
Deron
If Lynn and Jackie are willing, we would love to come to the farm again. There is something amazingly magical there. Though it shouldn’t be “all work” for Lynn and Jackie. It doesn’t have to be Memorial Day weekend for us. I think we could work out any weekend after before Labor Day.
Dave, bring your costume.
w/r/t the farm, I do not think the fact that we would be returning should diminish its consideration among potential venues. I believe that it should be evaluated on its merits. We would be in the same location, but it would be impossible for us to be in the same place. We’d be blessed to be anywhere nearby, but I have no doubt with this group that wherever we were could be at least as wonderful.
Andrea
You would love the farm. And, really, there is no kool-aid. Just love.
Daryl and I will be there, whenever and wherever it is. I admit to having a strong hankering to go back to the farm. I’m just really happy that we’re determined to do it this year. I wasn’t sure how I was going to take the disappointment if everyone decided to skip it this time.
I’ve heard great things about North Texas. Where is Andrew Simone in all this?
Lynn and Jackie are out of town till Tuesday I think, but I’ll touch base with them next week and see if there is a good weekend in June, then take it from there.
Wait, is Simone invited?
I was hoping to have it somewhere in the Northeast this year, but I’m also game for anything. I only wish it were cooler in June in Texas.
I’d love to meet in the Northeast as well. I guess the problem we will always have is affordable space. The farm is ideal because there is room for us to gather in one place, eat together, sleep in close proximity, etc. Daryl and I are hoping to create a similar space in Marfa at some point (though Marfa is just as remote as the farm, and still in Texas, so that hardly solves much). Kelsey’s space last year in Colorado was perfect in a similar way, but I don’t think anyone else has that much room. The only way we could come close to the experience we’ve had the past 2 years is to rent a huge home somewhere for a weekend getaway. That’s definitely possible. If you want me to look into the cost of renting something in, say, the Boston area via vrbo.com, just let me know.
That said, I would love to return to the farm. I think of it as our place. I hope Lynn, Jackie, Deron and Amy don’t mind that!
Land is cheap up there. We could buy our own place.
I would just like to point out that Oregon is beautiful in the late spring/early summer, and has plenty of great campgrounds, including one we went to last summer that has a hiking trail connecting 10 majestic waterfalls.
Cindy, you’re up for a long weekend of camping and hiking.
For selfish reasons I want this thing to go down in the west again but I also feel like moving east this year is the fair thing to do. I know out in Tahoe they have some campgrounds that also have cabins that might allow us to do a camping/hiking/stay inside all day and drink combo trip. I’m not suggesting Tahoe – it’s probably a little expensive – but a place like that might fit the budget and give everyone something they want.
The more east we go the more likely, I think, it might be that some of our European friends would be able to make it.
Is Canada part of Europe?
Is Canada not part of America?
Canada? Never heard of it.
Canada? I hardly know her
I heard of someone who once drank Canada dry.
Campgrounds? For god’s sake.
I know, Cindy. It’s better and more exciting to pitch your tent somewhere that’s not strictly legal, like when I took the word from the guy at the convenience store on the res and camped on a patch of ground in the Tohono O’odham Nation and almost stumbled into either a drug deal or some illegal coyote negotiation and then the next morning the nice young man from the tribal police came out for a talk because someone had spotted a suspicious-looking vehicle.
Wait. That’s probably not what you were thinking when you said, “Campgrounds? For god’s sake.” Like, you weren’t thinking of something even more uncomfortable and possibly dangerous than Joel was speaking of.
Okay.
I know a funny non-anecdote about when bears grabbed my friends’ food in the night and they (my friends) had to walk themselves and their grumbling tummies seventeen miles back to their car and on the way they met an English documentary film crew.
I have a funny anecdote about bears, & pesto sauce, but wait, what’s this about? May-June is so far away for me, hard to say, my eyes are fixed on St Petersburg right now. Though my eyes are also smitten by Giullieta Masina, whose Nights of Cabiria i just watched for the umpteenth time. Name a place & date & i’ll shoot for it.
I remember one of the last Oscar telecasts I watched, when they gave Fellini one of those lifetime awards and Giullieta Masina began weeping and Fellini said, “Don’t cry, Giullieta.”
Derek, it would be fab if you were to show up at a flocker fête. It would be a great inducement to my making the scene after failing to appear the past couple of years.
Bears and pesto would be a bonus.
I’m not fucking sleeping outside. Or sitting outside, for that matter.
Yes, I’ve seen that, whenever i see her, acting or not, my eyes well up. That was probably the luckiest thing in his life was finding such a muse.
Yes, i know, Texas seems a long way away from wherever I seem to be, but i do have affairs (land) in New Mexico that might bring me back on a whim.
If I make it I will tell the story of the bear and pesto.
Good god.
My good god is about outside, not bears and pesto, by the way.
It bears repeating.
That makes my day, Derek.
Also, now I’m crying. Like Giulietta.
He died later that year, and she died a few months after.
I misremembered exactly what he said in my earlier comment, but all the next day at work and for weeks after, my friends and I kept repeating his words to her. We were so moved.
Sorry to derail the thread. To get it back on track, there’s also La Strada, that she is in with Anthony Quinn, who I believe is from Tucson or El Paso or some where just on the other side, which begs the question, what about Hueco Tanks, for Clusterflock III?
I could sleep outside if the weather were perfect and if snakes were guaranteed to still be hibernating and if I didn’t have to shit in a hole in the ground.
Fuck outside.
Amy, if I drove, you could sleep in the Element. Snakes would not cause trouble. Also, shitting in a hole in the ground can be good so long as you are not doing it before dawn, when it’s really really cold.
Lots of campgrounds have bathrooms with plumbing.
Okay, I guess outside gets a big thumb’s down.
Andrew Simone is in Kansas City on business, so he hasn’t had the time to flock. I hear just about anywhere would be amenable to him.
I am a happy camper as long as I can check into a motel for bedtime.
I was going to volunteer that Andrew was flexibler than even myself, but I did not want to seem too forward.
I’d be up for Texas again. I’d also be up for someplace more easterly or westerly. Or northerly. Or Iceland. Definitely up for Iceland.
The weekend after Memorial Day is the weekend before my birthday, so if we do it then, I strongly suggest we stay someplace where I can make some cakes. That rules out camping, I hope, though if some of youse still want to go outside and shit in holes in the ground while being bitten on your Parts by insects, I’m sure it can be arranged. Have fun with that.
The weekend after the weekend after Memorial Day is my twentieth college reunion, so don’t let’s do it then, because I plan to go be rowdy in Massachusetts.
I beg to request a Floating Archipelago.
Shelia, dear, we plan to bake you a lovely hat, remember.
Oh, that’s right! And I’ll have to put on a bathing cap. Thank you for reminding.
I am more than giddy at the thought of India baking cakes during Clusterflockstock III.
I don’t remember being particularly bothered by insects at the farm. But I do remember others who were “eaten up” nearby. I am generally the “last bit” in a group, I guess insects prefer sweeter, younger meat, as a first choice. Insects will “go” for the tougher stuff, an old buzzard for instance, if everyone else has gone inside.
You’ll be fine, Rick, if I can manage to show. Every skeeter within miles will show up in seconds and bite me all to bits.
So I think it’s probably highly unlikely that clusterflockstock will go to New York this year, but if everything goes to plan, that is where I will be around that time. We haven’t set a date yet, but we will be doing so. No one will be getting much notice. We’re getting hitched.
Grinning like a possum here in Illinois.
Oh, Lucy, that is wonderful.
Also: Hey, Ross! This is mighty sweet.
Cheers. We’re hoping to be doing it in May but it all depends on how things go with the US government.
I’ll have a word with the government. They generally listen to me.
Congratulations, Lucy and Ross!
We would be willing to come to NYC for such an occasion. Lucy and Ross! Lucy and Ross! Dang, it bears repeating.
Haven’t you ever considered hostels. They’re all the rage in Euranada.
Hallelujah, Lucy and Ross! Happy, happy, happy!
Cheers, lads! We’re basically excited but wading through mountains of bureaucracy at the moment. Understanding US health insurance is like learning a new language. Danish has nothing on this.
SO. I’ve just had a word with Ross about his mum’s summer house upstate. He says it can sleep 10 or more people, “depending on how friendly or drunk they are”. Ten would fit on the various available beds in bedrooms, dens and livingrooms, and if the weather was good, tents could be pitched outside in the garden. I know that the numbers can get up there, so it might not be the most suitable option, but it is at least, an option. (We’d have to check to make sure they don’t have plans that weekend and all that, but they’re lovely people, I’m sure they’d be delighted to accommodate us.)
It’s a couple of hours drive from Manhattan, and Ross just sold his car, but I guess transport could be figured out. Honestly, I’m just offering this suggestion as one of the panoply of options, the farm sounds amazing, really. Though, last time I heard, the internet was only available under one particular bush in the garden of this place.
Mazel tov, Lucy and Ross! It all sounds so very exciting. Except the healthcare bit. Why does that need to be part of the process?
I think it’s so that we don’t go bankrupt and have to play guitar naked in Times Square for the rest of our lives. But I’m not sure, not being native.
Oh! So you’ll be moving stateside officially after the wedding? I missed that part.
Yes, I will become an immigrant and an emigrant in one fell swoop.
So I’ve gotten the go-ahead from Ross’ mum about the house in upstate New York. She says everyone is welcome but though the house is sizeable, it’s nowhere near the scale of the farm in Texas (not having been there, my impression of it is that it’s huge), so it would depend on the numbers and also how much privacy people desire. If some are happy to camp and some others would like to stay offsite, it could work out.
The house is on a substantial plot of largely woodland, with a stream nearby. There are a few surrounding towns/villages, and Amtrak stops at a town about 15 miles away. There are lots of bed and breakfasts in the area and maybe a couple of hotels.
In terms of sleeping, there are 2 bedrooms upstairs with double beds, two rooms on the first floor with a double bed in each (these are both sofa beds), and a double futon in the basement. There’s also a screened-in porch with a cast iron couch in it, if someone sort of ended up there. There is room for camping outside.
The kitchen/livingroom is open plan so it’s probably possible to have twenty people together though it might be a tight fit.
I will completely understand if the farm seems like a more feasible option, but we’d be delighted to have ye.
New York is also very doable from Philadelphia. I’d be game.
Lucy! I missed all the excitement, congrats to the both of you. Whatever you do, don’t let Sheila talk to the government on your behalf, I’m pretty sure they don’t take her seriously anymore.
Michael, I am sure you must be wrong about me and the government. The government knows I am a force to reckon with.
My goal for the day is to write at least ten letters to the government assuring them that Lucy is a good security risk and that if they doubt that, they are off their rockers.
This will be a good start.
Yes, the government appreciates volume.
Doomed.
I will say this, Sheila is familiar with Chicago style politics, so she might just know how to grease the wheels.
You don’t mind if your green card is approved by a dead man, right?
Oh, and I will overwhelm the government on Lucy’s behalf by my mastery of this social media stuff the kids like so well. I am starting a Facebook group, and you just wait till the government sees all the LIKES we get for Lucy’s visa approval.
I hold a lot of water when it comes to the government.
I’ll head down to the immigration office with a bullhorn and yell “LIKE” when they get to Lucy’s application.
That is excellent, Michael. I’m thinking a mass demonstration. Hordes of people massing out in the street, shrieking “LIKE!” with all the ferocity we can muster.
Lucy, you just can’t lose.
We should see if anyone else would like our assistance getting their immigration applications approved.
I petition for your assistance in applying for citizenship in the Free State of Winston, which tried to secede from Alabama during the Civil War.
Carole, I will exert what power I have over the appropriate authorities.
We threatened to bring an RV to Texas the first time, perhaps Danny and I could petition our friends to let us rent the RV for a week and drive up, perhaps picking up a friend or two along the way. Lucy, would there be a place to park it on the property in upstate? If I remember right it sleeps 6-8 pretty comfortably, though privacy would be at a minimum.
That said, I don’t know how long the RV would be self-sufficient without hook-ups. But that could be remedied with sufficient research to find out how dumping and filling along the way, or while there, can be accomplished. With the price of gasoline, though, it could be way cheaper to fly to NYC, rent a car and get a nearby motel room. It was told that the RV took $300 to fill it last year when gas was just above a couple bucks a gallon. She gets about 7 miles per gallon. It all numbers, and factors.
With a quick factoring in my head. If her range on a fill-up is 300 miles, that comes to a dollar a mile. At 1500 miles there and 1500 miles back, she becomes crazy. We could surely fly, drive and stay close-by for less than $3,000.
Just thinking: So near the Berkshires. Thinking: book rooms now. I could be wrong. Ross would know.
Don’t get me wrong. This sounds great (Ross’s mum’s place). Just thinking that if people want to do this and that if some want to make their own lodging arrangements, we might want to jump like a duck on a June bug. The whole upstate NY/western Mass summer thing and all.
Rick: Yes, I’m quite sure ye could get out of this weekend for less than three grand. It’s such a pity that the only people who can afford to travel like Jack Kerouac now are Wall street bankers.
Sheils: That may well be a good point. Let’s hear from other people first though, before anybody books anything.
I think what would be helpful to get a sense of now is numbers, and people’s preferences for private room/sharing/camping/staying offsite. Or indeed, if people have a preference for the wide open prairies of Texas.
Or if it’s just going to be me and Josh and a bottle of gin out on the porch.
The thing that has been really clear from the first two get-togethers is how necessary one room is that can accommodate everyone.
Okay, but accommodate everyone in what sense? If that means 20-25 people sitting around one table to eat together, well that’s probably not going to happen in the New York house. I think it’s probably possible to fit that many people into the large room there, but I don’t know how comfortably.
Dates? Do we have dates? We need dates before we can get a headcount and it seemed like I saw a few votes for not Memorial Day weekend.
It seems like I saw that the first weekend in June was looking best for people. Or the second.
Although I hope to make the scene, I officially remove myself from planning and calculations, as in any event it will be an eleventh-hour deal with me, and so I will have to shift for myself as best I can no matter where people decide to gather. I brought up the off-site lodging issue only because I expect a motel room can readily be found in June in north central Texas for them as wants one. Not so sure about the summer situation just west of the Berkshires. But again, that is just speculation, and Ross would be the one to know.
It looks like I’m in the weird position of planning this before I plan my own wedding, but I will probably be arriving in New York in mid-May, and we’ll be getting married some time in June. I’d say the first weekend in June would probably be better for us.
I’m thinking there is something wrong with my logic. Le’s see, $300 to fill-up at $2.50 gal. is, let me get the calculator… …120 gals. At 7 miles per, that’s a range of 840 miles. So roughly four fill-ups there and back. That’s $1200 instead, at $2.50/gal. If gas hits $4.00 then it becomes $1,920. Closer to it, I imagine. That would be gas, transportation, and lodging (not counting dumping charges).
Without the RV, airfare to NYC $300 ea.; car rental for four days over a weekend (if not done in advance) $500; Motel (Catskills, just guessing, could be less if not) $200/night (three nights) on the high-end. I am probably high-end on everything here, with a little work we could be exact and cheaper, but $1700 for Danny and me.
Cancel, the RV. While the road-trip might be fun, it wouldn’t be practical, with taking extra time off, etc, etc, etc.
Time, sadly, is so often of the essence.
Especially in Amerika.
Well, I mean, there is sleeping room for a minimum of ten in the house, and seating for (I’ve just been told) 16 around the table.
Okay, let’s say we’re aiming for the first weekend in June. The thing to do now is decide whether we’ll be in NY or TX. In order to keep this from completely taking over the site, how about if y’all email me with your preferences (and any concerns/questions you might have), and I’ll pull everything together. How’s that? My email is incindio@yahoo.com