Tag Archives: stories

Riff: A bunch of stories to finish, eventually (maybe)

[Audio transcript from an updated/location undisclosed recording / Pasted, uncorrected]

Completely unrelated snapshot

Some of the projects I want to make over the next little while:

I want to write a collection of short stories that is just all wacky times, immediately leading up to or following quitting jobs.

Specifically, there is leaving Star Sand Beach Club very quickly and going to Palau and Yap, going directly to the airport and disappearing rather than going to the beach club (in retrospect, seems like the best job ever but for reasons, it just wasn’t.

There is the ATG drug testing, going to Belize incident.

There is the SS Neptune, leaving-to-be-a-schoolteacher-and-getting-karmically-bitten-in-the ass idea.

There is the leaving Kinko’s with a fax at six in the morning and going off to make a film story. That is a pretty good one.

There is the Wirthlin Group phone survey job that was such a nightmare and getting fired from that for not asking personal enough questions, then crashing the office party two days later and mooning the boss in front of everyone and pulling out while the cops pulled in the other way. That was a really good one.

There is Sharpey’s, but I didn’t quit that one, Well I quit but you know with noticing on good terms planning to go back to university of Utah which in retrospect was a colossal mistake. That one was a nice job. The stories aren’t as funny but they’re nice. Although, there was that good incident of getting my car crashed into and taking the insurance claim – this station is called Joyce Collinwood now – taking the insurance settlement money and parting with it and pulling out the dent with a coat hanger.

There is also the Pizza Beast and Pizza Feast incident, that one is a little harder of a story to tell.

There is also the real estate weekly route that me and brothers and I have, where all the papers went into the side yard to make a giant paper of file of pulpy wetness and that was pretty good.

There was also Bob’s story working for that jackass in White Rock that sits by the sea, going in there and me having to play some bodyguard for him. All we wanted was try to get his paycheck. That one wasn’t too bad although not great either, I suppose.

Then there was the job of delivering fliers for the travel company around the campuses in Utah. That one is not bad.

While at University of Utah, geez, I had three jobs there for awhile. “Cinema in your face”, that was a good one, where I delivered the newspapers and fliers to every bar in Salt Lake City – bars, bookshops, coffee shops, etc.

Then I worked for Bing Christensen Land Surveyor. We’d drive up in the hills in a jeep and stand out there in the middle of nowhere until he radios me and tells me that he got the shot and then I stumble down somewhere else.

Teaching WordPerfect classes while sleeping in my van. Well, not simultaneously. During that period, I lived in my van and I also taught the occasional WordPerfect 4.2 or 5.1 or something for DOS classes. But those jobs sort of faded away more than exploded.

Then of course the other really big one I should tell is the story of the job in Japan with the mushroom farm and leaving that day on Mike’s bike and that I have taken up in the trunk of the K car and running away from that horrible job up in the hills with the old ladies.

So if I could bust out ten stories of a thousand or two thousand words each, where it’s really just talking about quitting a job and going someplace rapidly, I think that would be beauty.

Continue reading Riff: A bunch of stories to finish, eventually (maybe)

Signpost: each comes with a story / Noto + Providence & Pokhara

Each place on Tsuchida Station Sign Post has a story behind it for me or for my Ryoko, or for both of us.

Ergo: Noto in Ishikawa prefecture is home to great sensei Hongo Ichiro who taught my darling so many things at Nihon University as well as organized trips with her to Siberia and Indonesia to meet with other arborists and study trees.

We visited his home in a converted several hundred year old fish processing building (where we visited the early morning auction, purchased some fish and indeed processed there on site – as you might expect, there’s a diary post about it) right on the port on peninsula jutting out into the cold north Sea of Japan at what feels like the edge of the World.

You’ll also notice Pokhara, Nepal which was a whole other journey for me to Ayurveda Health home – truly a transformative experience as ann”in-patient” doing panchakarna, and later with brother Bob up to the Annapurna circuit Village of Ghandruk. (I have some extensive posts about this time in my “healing journey“ series which kind of stalled out, will get to it one of these days, in the meantime here’s a few random photos which made my heart leap)

Here’s Providence where I spent a very icy winter around some colleges/universities I could only dream about attending, doing a lot of writing and other dodgy activities, forays to the Berkshires and generally being an amusing but sorta ummm *unwelcome* “hippie on the couch“.

Learned so much about the difference between the west and the east of the USA. And yes, George Washington slept everywhere and Roger Williams really like statues.

Sign is pointing/measuring to the corner of Planet Street and Benefit Street – second choice was Skip & Willas soul food / Worth noting like pretty much everywhere in Providence, there’s an Edgar Allan Poe story here, whether it’s true or not… well who cares (Screen capture in Google Street view)

Several more in process… including Dubai, Olympia x2, Khabarovsk, Misasa onsen,…

Note the two directional sign pointing to Olympia, Greece and Olympia, Washington simultaneously. I felt very clever doing so ? though my intended diligent accuracy in the compass azimuth will be thwarted.

Memo: “document in the way which feels natural to you”

Embark on Personal Archeology, in this case, at Dome Wonderland, Metchosin

Re: Personal Archeology

Document in the way which feels natural to you. Doesn’t have to be a “blog”, can be a notebook with coloured pencils, or buy yourself a fountain pen, or an audio recorder.

Importantly: Tell your stories in the way that feels comfortable like your favourite pair of shoes – then add context, and interestingness. The rest is up to audience to breathe life into it. 

Then do again and again (regardless of outcome beyond self-enjoyment).

“Starting Your Story, part 1” – Social Marketing Kung-fu / workshop & spiel

Dave Olson and students at Social Marketing Kung-fu Workshop / Spiel in May 2013
Dave Olson and students at Social Marketing Kung-fu Workshop / Spiel in May 2013

What to do on day one of any new start-up project” – whether for business, nonprofit profit, campaign or revolution including: naming / branding, media kit and various descriptions, and building culture, excitement and a posse – all without spending much money – are covered in part 1 of a fast-paced *master class* workshop by Dave Olson from  May 2013.

Download: Starting Your Story – Social Marketing Kung-fu 1 – workshop / spiel (1:07:02, 98.7MB, .mp3)

Community Feasthouse podcast feed – All manner of discourse from media interviews to various lectures and presentations. Topics include social web fu, creative culture, podcast making, DIY publishing, community cultivating, art making and related adventures.

Continue reading “Starting Your Story, part 1” – Social Marketing Kung-fu / workshop & spiel

“Shoebox” story collection / chapbook, 1987-1991

Shoebox, chapbook / front cover
Shoebox, chapbook / front cover

Sometime around 2004, i went to a pal’s wedding in Connecticut – knowing i would see some old pals from Utah, unseen for many years, i assembled a run of (whopping) 4 copies of (an obviously handcrafted/bound) chapbook.

This little tome called “Shoebox” contained stories written while living in Utah alongside some of these lads in hopes of sparking memories and giving a little something of myself in thanks for their inspiration and friendship.

Cover photo is a thistle growing inexplicably from the red rocks of the Grand Canyon’s north rim on a wander i did with the groom of the aforementioned wedding.

Shoebox, chapbook / title page
Shoebox, chapbook / title page

As it goes, i never heard anything about the booklet, and forgot about the project until again Utah (autumn 2018) and buddy Dane’s copy surfaced during a move. I dutifully snapped a few lousy pictures for documentary evidence of creation.

The stories were written mostly in the “sudden fiction” style i’d experimented with after encouragement from James Thomas and Francois Camoin.

Shoebox, chapbook / table of contents
Shoebox, chapbook / table of contents

Continue reading “Shoebox” story collection / chapbook, 1987-1991

Social Marketing Kung fu: Choose a topic card, a story or spiel may follow

Choose a topic card, a story or spiel may follow

These note cards are residual evidence of a “lunch ‘n learn” and/or other spiel presented in some context or another.

As it goes, i can’t cover all of my Social Marketing Kung Fu(n) topics o’ wisdom in one session, so i make a “game show” where attendees choose their own adventure by choosing from these little prompts.

Shared here for future reference.

PS You can hear loads of my spiels about topics including: marketing, start-ups, PR, renegade social community building etc. via the Community Feasthouse podchannel if inclined.

 

Forgotten Vancouver Stories (aka Poets, Punks and Revolutions) / collage art boards

Forgotten Vancouver Stories: 1 - Everything is ephemera
Forgotten Vancouver Stories: 1 – Everything is ephemera (maps, tickets, pins, pennants) #daveostory

Artifact dossier: Collage art boards from “Forgotten Vancouver Stories (aka Poets, Punks and Revolutions)” spiel presented in various formats at Pecha Kucha Night Vancouver, All-star edition, and Northern Voice 2013 closing keynote. Video and roundup of both prezos exists elsewhere in this archive.

Each collage “slide” was handmade (obviously) with ephemera from my personal collection (exceptions credited on final “slide”) then, arranged on hemp cloth “storyboards”, photographed by Rachel Ashe, then disassembled. An analog to digital remix of sorts. Presented here in rather large size for your printing/screensaver/ amusement and posterity.

Forgotten Vancouver Stories: 2 - Young time stories
Forgotten Vancouver Stories: 2 – Young time stories

Continue reading Forgotten Vancouver Stories (aka Poets, Punks and Revolutions) / collage art boards

Revolutions, Punks & Poets: Vancouver’s Forgotten Stories

Storymaker Dave uncleweed Olson shares an eclectic variety of stories from Vancouver’s counter-culture history on a stage adorned with a record player, campfire & cub scout blanket, art easel, flowers and an Expo 86 mug – plus pulls artifacts from an old-timey suitcase to illustrate forgotten past of a city which is/was much cooler than most realize.

Presented at Northern Voice, June 2013 in Vancouver, Canada, his 11th presentation to this noted personal expression conference (and his last talk before a medical “retirement”).

Filmed by Bruce Sharpe and Andrew Lavigne
Edited, Directed, Produced by Andrew Lavigne (also: With Glowing Hearts and Generation Social).

Music: Derek K Miller (RIP) “(You’re the) Big Sky”

Dave uncleweed Olson shares Forgotten Vancouver Stories
Dave uncleweed Olson shares Forgotten Vancouver Stories

 Topics:

  • Frederick Varley – Group of 7 painter who lived in Vancouver for 10 years
  • Grateful Dead – (tried to) play free shows at Second Beach and Kits Beach in 1966
  • Bob Masse psychedelic poster artist
  • Gastown Riots, March on Blaine, Rock Against Racism
  • bev. davies – rock n roll photographer, community chronicler, punk rock mom
  • Blues in Vancouver – Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee at the Bunkhouse
  • Vancouver punk rock glory days DIY spirit and fanzines (+ final days of The Clash and importance of ephemera)
  • Clayoquot Sound logging blockades
  • Jake Milford and the Canucks recruiting Swedish players in the 1970s
  • United Empire Loyalists + Burner Boys bringing jam band culture
  • Venues of note: Afterthought, Retinal Circus, York Theatre, the Cave, the Bunkhouse
  • Cubscout campfire blankets
  • Howard Hughes, Errol Flynn
  • ++ bits of Kris Krug, Bob Kronbauer, Rebecca Bollwitt, Dan Mangan, Jason Vanderhill and campfire helpers: Mark Blevis, Kemp Edmonds, John Biehler, James Lester, Ariane Colenbrander, Nicholas Demers

Continue reading Revolutions, Punks & Poets: Vancouver’s Forgotten Stories