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Archive for August, 2009 
I can’t believe it. I’m loathe to believe it. I don’t want to believe it. But I have to believe it. Come Friday, it’s time to pack my bags and journey back east to finish my formal schooling. Yes, that’s right. I’ve only got 9 more months to finish my degree and to find myself a suitable husband. Just kidding!!! After gathering answers for countless Adventurer Profiles this summer, Cori and Aviva insisted I write my own. I’ve been thinking about my answers real hard too. Because I take these things very, very seriously.
What skill do you want to learn? Food and drink you donʼt want to live without? What’s the scariest thing you can think of? What is your favourite party supply? Your favorite book of the moment? Describe your dream party place. What is the evil version of you like? What gives you confidence? Name four essential elements of a good party. What do you appreciate most about a party host? Favorite adventure supply? Describe the best party you ever attended. Hotel room or campsite? Do you have a style icon? Where is your next adventure destination? If you could teach a class about anything in the world ever, what would you teach? Your motto? What is your spirit animal?
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If you urgently need to celebrate someone’s birth but don’t have time to bake a proper cake, or you simply believe ice cream to be a far superior alternative (like me), you might consider this innovative Adventure School/Ben and Jerry’s hybrid birthday solution:
Just another example of The Adventure School motto, Semper Ad Extremum (Take it to the Limit Every Time) manifested through bike innovation. It ain’t The Adventure Bike, but it’s pretty damn cool. This example of highly awesome bike technology brought to you not by The Adventure School, but by someone cool in Sacramento.
Whenever finger lickin’ good ribs are involved, I find that it’s really easy to forget which part of the country you’re in. Inspired after observing Cori and Aviva all summer, the czarinas of party planning, I decided to throw one myself to put everything I’ve learned from these two into practice. The evening was a success; it had all the makings of a classic summer barbecue and then some: ribs, watermelon, ice cream, booze, ambient lighting, and magic. The food tasted delectable, but it was really the guests that made the night a great success. If I’ve learned anything thus far, it’s this: Having friends of all ages makes life way more fun. Yes, some of my peers do consider it strange that I have friends who were alive during the Cuban Missile Crisis or there to witness the rise and fall of Milli Vanilli, but if you stay strictly within your generational bracket, you’re totally missing out. I’m telling you, inter-generational is the way to go. Prosecco, magic shows, teddy bear sunflowers, and Molly Moon’s ice cream. These are also other indisputable ways to go. All resulting from having friends of all ages, of course.
You may not know it, but strange and wonderful things are afoot in south Seattle. One such thing is Spitehouse, the intriguing new exhibition at the Lawrimore Project curated by Yoko Ott & Jessica Powers. The Lawrimore Project being a contemporary art gallery located just across the street from the Adventure School offices, all cozied up next to the US immigrations building. If you work in the area and need a breath of fresh air, you should mosey over on your lunch break and look inside. Oh, and don’t be intimidated by the big wall blocking the entrance. It’s supposed to be there; just walk around. Now, to pique your interest, here are a few words from Yoko and Jessica on Spitehouse. Adventure School: Jessica: The most compelling spite house story is that of the Richardson Spite House. Story here: Yoko: Adventure School: Jessica: Group exhibitions are, by their very nature, land grabs and property disputes. When two art objects hang side by side there is an unspoken territory of spite between them. Spite also exists between the artist, the artwork and the audience, especially when an action of obstruction is implied—whether physical or conceptual—and often with self-defeating results. Adventure School: Yoko: Some visitors thus far have felt a bit shorted, or perhaps even spited after their first lap around the space because they “missed” some of the works. Two of the largest pieces in the exhibition have gone almost routinely unnoticed because people have forgotten what the architecture looked like previously. Matt Browning painted the formerly hot pink corner of the exterior and the gallery’s office window black for the show, and SuttonBeresCuller drastically altered the white cube exhibition area. Others have expressed feeling a “heaviness” when viewing the show, sensing boundaries everywhere. This said, the end goal was not to simply incite spite in viewers. If that were the case it would have been a different show altogether, and possibly resulted in jail time for us. We did mean to provoke the audience–but to the extent of them becoming spiteful, not really. Adventure School: Jessica: Yoko:
*photo of the hot pink corner courtesy of Barbie Hull, the rest courtesy of the Lawrimore Project website
Another day, another dollar. Another Monday… ANOTHER ADVENTURER PROFILE! This week we’ve got our spotlight trained on Abigail Guay. She’s a Soft Rock Freedom Dancer with Mark Siano, another Adventurer Profile alum, so you know she’s gotta be fly. Abigail is also shaking things up over in Bellevue as Exhibitions Director of Open Satellite, “a contemporary art exhibition hall for the Seattle metropolitan area.” Open Satellite gives residency to 5 artists per year, national and international, to increase their presence and exposure in the Pacific Northwest. Please take note of Abigail’s yellow thigh high socks. This girl is keeping it real. For real.
What skill do you want to learn? Food and drink you don’t want to live without? What’s the scariest thing you can think of? What is your favourite party supply? Your favorite book of the moment? Describe your dream party place. What is the evil version of you like? What gives you confidence? Name four essential elements of a good party. What do you appreciate most about a party host? Favorite adventure supply? Describe the best party you ever attended. Hotel room or campsite? Do you have a style icon? Where is your next adventure destination? If you could teach a class about anything in the world ever, what would you teach? Your motto? What is your spirit animal?
For your vicarious adventuring pleasure, may I present Ms. Meghna Philip, brilliant, beautiful, brave, and a fellow Brown undergrad. She’s changing the world and I’m enormously proud; be inspired.
We arrived in Delhi in the middle of June. It has been my first time coming to India on my own, without my family. I was born in Kerala, and lived in Bangalore until age 5, before we moved to New Jersey. Every other summer we came back to visit, but always stuck to the Keralan backwaters, whose intricate byways of extended family filled up all of our limited vacation days. So I had never been to India on my own, and never seen anything of it outside of Kerala. It has, needless to say, been quite an interesting excavation of the dualities of my upbringing. I can think of no more apt word to describe this trip than “adventure”. An adventure of elephantineproportions, (we have made several friends of the pachyderm persuasion), from the hot, uncertain beginnings, to the rainy, monsoon-y middle, to this, the last, dizzying stretch. India is so big, vibrant, and diverse. We have experienced a broad swath of its architectural, climactic and cultural diversity. Going from the dry, hot dusty north, full of breathtaking and ancient Mughal architecture; to wet, coastal Mumbai, where commercial capital towers alongside decaying, gothic architecture from the British Raj; to Portuguese and French ports in Goa and Pondicherry, where the colors and foods and buildings again are varied, and seem transplanted straight from Europe into the heart of India. Traveling as a group of three girls has added its own flavor to our experience, along with all the curry, cumin and coriander… it is impossible to avoid the realities of frustrating gender dynamics, and the strong undercurrent of male voyeurism that seems to dominate every place we go. At the same time, intelligent young women seem to predominate the student populations we have been interacting with at various universities, and yesterday we arrived at Jawaharlal Nehru University in the middle of some sort of student demonstration and gave three cheers for a “Fight Patriarchy!” graffiti quite becomingly fashioned along the side of the Administrative Building. It has been a fantastically exciting and productive summer. Networks for Peace is slated to begin within the next two weeks, with six of the best public and private universities in India and Pakistan participating, and some of the leading political think tanks on either side of the border collaborating. (Keep your eye out for us!) Now writing from Darjeeling, where, outside of my window, the rain is falling heavily, and clouds are rolling around on the winding streets! It is full of tea estates and gompas (monasteries) and Himalayan mountain views… one final adventure before heading back to the States. So from one rainy city to another, namaste and happy adventuring!
Neon’s not just for signs anymore! It’s also for the ceilings of ultra-hip Chinese restaurants and Baroque chairs. But neon’s still for signs too (really cool ones, that is). Keep your eyes peeled . Creative use of neon= The Adventure School’s new frontier.
*neon chair photo courtesy of MocoLoco, Cafe Verite sign of WayMarking
This week, good friend of The Adventure School and adventurous performance artist Mike Pham answers questions about life, the universe, and everything. He also gives us his two cents on the importance of cotton candy machines. Speaking of important things, Mike’s performance group, The Helsinki Syndrome will be opening a re-imagined rendition of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest in “a performance that smashes the façade of A Very Famous Play.” Catch the WORLD PREMIER on Wednesday or Thursday at Crawl Space Gallery at 8pm or Friday at Rendezvous Jewelbox Theater at 8pm. BAM! MIKE PHAM!
What skill do you want to learn? Food and drink you donʼt want to live without? What’s the scariest thing you can think of? Your favorite book of the moment? Describe your dream party place. What is your favourite party supply? What is the evil version of you like? What gives you confidence? Name four essential elements of a good party. What do you appreciate most about a party host? Favorite adventure supply? Describe the best party you ever attended. Hotel room or campsite? Do you have a style icon? Where is your next adventure destination? If you could teach a class about anything in the world ever, what would you teach? Your motto? What is your spirit animal?
Once upon a time, Amanda Belantara left the United States and never looked back. From the moment of her departure, Amanda’s life has been a series of amazing adventures. She fell in love in Bali, got a ring tattooed on her finger, married on top of a mountain, and plans to spend the rest of her days making riotous art while exploring the unknown. And the rest, my dears, is history.
I’m a visual artist and documentary filmmaker originally from Pueblo, Colorado. I met my husband Michael seven years ago in an airport on the way to study music in Bali. We lived together in a small village called Bangah for the summer and married five weeks later on a volcano at sunrise and we’ve been traveling and living abroad for the most part ever since. Travels and work in countries like Indonesia, Japan, France, Greece, and Italy have led us to where we’ve lived the past couple of years- Manchester, UK. But having not lived in any particular place for so long…I’m not sure where home is. I originally came Manchester to complete a masters in Visual Anthropology and have stayed here working with the art collective, Kinokophone and doing my own freelance work since then including creating documentaries, installations and sound projects, and developing other projects along the way like ArchitectSpiders. Earlier this year I had the fortune to be a resident artist in Yamaguchi, Japan at the Akiyoshidai International Art Village. There I created a collaborative and experimental film called 耳がきゅっとなる (Ears are Dazzled, touched by sound). I chose to create this form of non-narrative film because what I wish to achieve through my work is to not so much inform or explain but to create/present sensations and places for audiences to re-experience the everyday and reconsider places often taken for granted. But if I had to do something else, I might be creating pop up books, writing stories, or being a librarian. I feel very lucky to be having this experience; it’s always a little surreal, especially when I re-visit places that were once very new and unfamiliar. Now I arrive and know how to get by there. Living abroad has inspired us. We’ve picked up a few things in our travels and added to our lifestyles: not wearing shoes inside, house slippers, tea drinking, milk in tea, sambal, not using cars, making my own salad dressing.
 Athens near Omonia  Ueno Koen, Tokyo  New Year's Eve Fox Parade, Tokyo  Provence  Chester, UK  Beijing  Red Square, Moscow  Shuho Town, Japan  Akiyoshi Plain  Filming in Yamaguchi City with noise artist Ishii Eiichi  Arriving in Manchester, UK  Estonian Forest  Estonian Singing Ampitheatre  Danish Island  Romanian Pigs in Denmark  Along the river in Kyoto with artist Eisuke Yanagisawa  "Life Library" Still  "Nobu San" Still
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The corner of The Lawrimore Project, before and after
I have been in India for almost two months now. I have spent my summer here traveling with two of my best friends, from Delhi to Mumbai to Chennai, working on a project called Networks for Peace. Its aim is to use a combination of face-to-face dialogue, research collaboration and digital media connectivity to create a platform for collaborative, policy-oriented engagement between top university students from Pakistan and India. 
