Tidying up my archive and found issue 1, March 1985 of “Patagonia, A Quarterly Review” with the “Do* Boys Do the Yellowstone” on cover. Pleasing articles within too including YC’s “State of #Patagonia , Nov 94”.
Never saw another issue of this and remember (in the early days of the Internet) asking Patagonia HQ about this and they had no idea (they replied with a pleasant letter which I still might find)… so, this was just sitting in a box since the 1980s sometime, waiting for today.
“There’s two kinds of growth: growth that makes you fat, and growth that makes you strong.”
Yvon Choinard
I learned a lot about grassroots marketing and community building from following the company in the late 1980s.
Specifically: They community-sourced photos for catalogs, had a toll-free number “just for advice”, provided sponsored gear for *regular interesting people* rather than professionals. All tactics I later used in business endeavors.
Related: Mountain Travel catalog which fascinated me as I pondered which trips/tours/adventures to join… (and thinking about how I could be one of the person that was a guide like did this for a job) // I never did *exactly* this & deserves more of a riff but for now, here is the front and back of a wonderful dream book.
Poetry Accolade of sorts: Pleased to be on the prize list for a very interesting poetry initiative with roots in Vancouver’s downtown eastside.
I was selected as the “random” prize which i suppose isn’t flowered with prestige but that’s not the reason i write and share poetry anyhow. Thanks to Muriel’s Journey 2021 And Beyond (FB) for including me.
My poem “Alchemists Confer with Hypnotists” (below) comes from my fcked up #MECFS medical journey of conundrums and unintended reinvention which took me around the world seeking ways to re-create neural pathways and myself as an existing sentient creature. The poem will be included in a chapbook and reading at some juncture.
Anyhow, congratulations to those acknowledged, those who write, submit, deal with illness and also to the memory of namesake Muriel and the organizers of the campaign, especially Isabella J Mori.
{The prize booty is stashed in a Canadian bank account for Ichiro for when the opportunity comes for him to visit his ancestral homeland of sorts.}
Poetry is everything, distilled.
A note about Muriel:
“Muriel was a social justice activist, poet, and spoken word artist of Indigenous heritage from the Gitxsan nation’s Owl Clan who spent a lot of time in the Downtown Eastside. In her work, she always explored new ways of expressing herself, always talked and wrote about what’s urgent and important. Her energy was like fireworks, and her hugs legendary.”
bizen yaki kiln, forging clay into treasure
Alchemists Confer with Hypnotists
Varying days
of bliss and malaise
I'm busy these days
chasing dubbies away
When the ache nears
the break comes and
light becomes a haze
your soul is so faded,
no hiding, so worn
The alchemists confer
and deny the hypnotists’
clinical opinions.
Retorting,
“He simply needs
more magnesium
injected directly into his bones”
The past-life regression
of painters and pirates
offered no evidence
only barroom stories when
posted up envisioning
a distant yourself
Generate kinetic watts
from my broken soul,
frantic heart and coiled brain
anxiety - I've plenty to power
all of Iowa - roller rinks and all
Please won't you deplete me
save me from me and help me
tell me, to sleep? And you’ll
insist on my compliance,
fading into ease.
note: dubbies is a Jamaican word for ghosts
Update from Muriel’s Journey selection committee:
Thanks for posting this. The randomness is important. Judging poetry (or anything literature) has an element of personal taste and is, therefore, biased. When we first receive poems, Kyle Hawke and I pre”judge” them so that our judges don’t have to Wade through too many poems. Then we present the three judges with about 30 poems. This year the judges were Heidi Greco , WJ Kehewin , and Gilles Cyrenne . All the poems are judged blind – nobody knows the names of the authors. By introducing a random price we give the chance to someone who might have otherwise fallen through the cracks. So far, by chance, all the random prizes went to poets who were already in the preselection.
“Varley’s Vancouver – Discovering the City’s Artistic Heart in Frederick Varley’s Past” Freed Weed feature column by Dave Olson in Megaphone Magazine, January 27, 2012
Pub: RainZine (Vancouver) / Spring 2010, cover / art by Jer Crowle
“Letters from Russia” (excerpt and art) in Rain Zine (Radical Art in Nature) Spring, 2010
Cover art by Jer Crowle, also includes Kris Krug, Dan Mangan, Bex Apostoli , Dorian Taylor, Carla Bergman and Indigo
Pub: RainZine (Vancouver) / Spring 2010, flyleaf (art by Indigo)Pub: RainZine (Vancouver) / Spring 2010, CD including Dan ManganPub: RainZine (Vancouver) / Spring 2010, “Letters from Russia” excerpt and art by Dave Olson
Kris Krug and Dave Olson discuss social coverage of 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics with Bob Mackin as in 24 Hours Vancouver, July 16, 2009Printed detail of Kris Krug and Dave Olson discuss social coverage of 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics with Bob Mackin as in 24 Hours Vancouver, July 16, 2009
Excerpt:
Social media strategist Kris Krug said talks are underway to host the True North Media House in the W2 Community Media Arts Centre.
“We’re just a bunch of kids who are doing social media and online media and we just want to cover the Olympics,” Krug said. “We’re banding together to share sources, resources, photographers, places to work, press briefings.”
Krug and Dave Olson are leading a local new media group that sought access to the Games through VANOC and the B.C. 2010 Winter Games Secretariat.
“We were shut out and frozen out at every step of the way,” Olson said.
Krug said the International Olympic Committee is reluctant to open the doors wide to new media, fearing that it will erode the value of international TV contracts.
They adopted an if you can’t join them, beat them with kindness strategy and conceived the True North Media House.