Bluish Barn

After folding up the chairs and picking up from the 24-hour theatre (which was GREAT, congrats!) we took a Sunday afternoon excursion through the woods: Morel season is here. 

While neither Tim or I are mushroom hunting experts, we are definitely enthusiatic about mushrooms, maybe even mushroom enthusiasts. 

Sunday’s outcome: We (where “we” means Tim)  actually found 2 morels, one of which I am positive is the real deal (kind of a runt, but we don’t discriminate) and the other questionable, maybe a black poison death morel? Anyway, this is one of those things we think we could be really good at, Tim as an experienced scavenger with strong instincts and a fantastic mental map of Metro Detroit, and me, a pretty good landscape-scanner who has logged hours of photohunt and also frequently prepares a variety of mushroom-based dishes…..we just need to identify good places to go. 

This brings me to my question.  Are you an experienced hunter?  Do you want to show us the ropes? Wikipedia  can’t enlighten us like a seasoned moreller would.  We realize it’s just poor form to ask you to disclose your morel hunting spots, but if you feel comfortable telling us about old apple orchards, moist mossy ferny shady woods (preferably with lots of old growth), we’d be thrilled to add to our location list.  A friend or acquaintance of yours has acres of lovely of wooded property and thinks mushrooms are gross, perhaps?  The scoutabout continues this week after work, through the weekend. Contact us if you want to come along.  girlnextdoor at bluishbarn dot com.  or timothy at the same 

So almost everything is in place, the forecast is good, and 24 Hour Theater is going to happen.  But we could still use a few actors to give the writers more flexibility and make things a little more interesting.  Most of these kinds of events get organized through official departments at Universities or acting companies or venues with a natural pool of actors.  They start with the actors and then fill in the holes.  We did it ass-backwards.  My friend Onna, after having successfully organized a 24-Hour Theater event at a squat in Paris, settled back in Ann Arbor and decided to try it here.  We have writers, directors, and a small army dedicated to costumes and makeup and food and making everything go smoothly that day, but not as many actors as we’d like.  So please forward this call and contact onnalyn [at] gmail [dot com] if you might be interested.   Thanks.

Looks like girlnextdoor beat me to the punch [see below].  Here’s what I was going to post:

Friends and neighbors, it’s that special time of year again known here at our house as Moveout Stakeout. Me and my trusty companion GND will be getting in our truck and joining countless other scavengers in swarming the residence hall loading docks and trolling down campus streets at night looking for the reusable castoffs of hurried college students.

If you are a friend and I know where you live in downtown Ann Arbor, please let me know if there’s any kind of furniture or household items you need right now. Include approximate dimensions or preferred color if applicable. If we see anything like what you want, we might be able to pick it up for you. Post your wishlists in the comments below.

Many of you know that Mongo Deco (another one of Tim’s projects that he doesn’t take enough credit for) has found new opportunity in our neighborhood through our restoration of the house-venue-formerly-known-as the Bad Idea.

The basic idea is that the house will be completely restored, renovated, renewed with recycled materials –An all-recycled house.

This week is a big week for the project, a process we call “Moveout Stakeout:” as students move out of dorms, apartments, houses, we patrol the streets in our trusty red truck looking for those discarded box fans and neglected folding chairs, rescuing them and hoping to give them new life.

In addition, today we added a sub procedure, “Plant Roundup,” which involves adoption of unwanted houseplants for our planned greenhouse.

If you or anyone you know is moving out, we just might need your loft (we need plywood!), your plants, whatever. If we think you have something or a bunch of things we could use, you can email me at girlnextdoor at bluishbarn dot com. Or call us if you see something good sitting out. We’re really into this.

And beyond this semester’s moveout, we will always be on the prowl for miscellaneous stuff, and might be looking for additional skilled workers to co-house with us, so check mongodeco.com for updates and talk to us if you are interested.

I showed up with my sprained ankle at the recent woodland burn at Kuebler Langford, so they gave me a camera instead of a drip torch:

The complete set is here.

Find out more about volunteering for NAP here.

Our most recent wreath was made out of old 7″s by the illustrious Lish from Handmade Detroit.

Handmade Detroit is a “loose collective of people who like to make stuff” that organizes the Detroit Urban Craft Fair (which just opened submissions for the August show), Sunday Crafternoon in Ferndale, and the Handmade Detroit Holiday Market. They’re awesomely busy, and busily awesome.

But that didn’t prevent the storm last week from blowing Lish’s beautiful wreath off of the nail it was hanging on and smashing it to pieces on the concrete underneath. I should’ve fastened it better. I’m so sorry, Lish. You worked hard on it. Everyone really liked it for the few days that it was up, I swear.

And I know this isn’t the best time to ask, but if anyone else out there wants to make a wreath for our house, please write to timothy AT bluishbarn DOT COM or just drop it off anonymously on our front porch. I promise we’ll hang it with extra care.

I was doing some research this week and stumbled across an interesting paper from in the June 2006 American Sociological Review: Social Isolation in America: Changes in Core Discussion Networks over Two Decades. Using data from 1984 and 2004’s General Social Survey, the researchers look to prove something about the changing nature of social networks (“core discussion networks”) and make estimates about the number of social isolates.

Particularly stunning was the low number of survey respondents who listed a “neighbor” as a confidant. Only 7.9%, down from 18.5% in 1985. (The survey is sort of open ended, so, you could list your spouse/significant other, your neighbor, your mom, your friend and it all counts as a percentage point)

“Whatever the reason, it appears that Americans are connected far less tightly now than they were 19 years ago. Furthermore, ties with local neighborhoods…have suffered at a higher rate than others. Possibly, we will discover that it is not so much a matter of increasing isolation but a shift in the form and type of connection… the evidence that we present here may be an indicator of a shift in structures of affiliation.”

[from http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/June06ASRFeature.pdf]

Don’t make me go into the long “pro list” on befriending the neighbors. You don’t have to be creepy or watch them through your windows. But you should make an effort to talk to them, because clearly, there are lots of advantages many of folks out there are missing.

(Thanks for letting me still post here, Tim)

This is the official post about the 24 Hour Theater event that happens one month from today, Cinco de Mayo, at the Bluish Barn. You might have noticed the page I put up a few weeks ago on the sidebar. Since then, we’ve had about a dozen or so people volunteer, and the event is taking shape. But we still need one more writer, three more directors, and 7-11 more actors.

The nice thing about this project is that it all happens in one day, meaning there is very little time commitment. Everyone puts in a few hours that day until their part is ready, and at 8:30pm the show happens with whatever amount of roughness or polish it has. A recipe for fun. Interested people should contact the organizer Onna at onnalyn AT gmail DOT COM.

Here’s her writeup:

24 Hour Theater is an experimental performance piece in which the entire process of a theatrical production is condensed into one day. Between the hours of midnight and 9 a.m., four playwrights will each create a 10 to 15 minute play to be performed by three actors. The actors arrive at 10 a.m. to memorize and rehearse the scripts. By noon, costume and set designers, technicians and crew will be sewing, painting, wiring, as time gets short and the energy mounts. The curtain rises at 8:30 p.m. In this experiment, the product is secondary to the creative process. The time frame calls for a level of improvisation, collaboration, and resourcefulness that will encourage spontaneity and creativity in every step of production. All of the artists involved will push the limits of their imaginative and physical stamina to create a public performance of intensity, originality and perhaps mass chaos.

It all happens Saturday May 5th [changed from April 28th] here at the Bluish Barn. Any interested writers, directors, actors, costume and set designers, or general helpers should email onnalyn at gmail dot com.

Two days ago it was sunny and 68 degrees. People were wearing shorts and sandals. Housemate Michelle asked me if I’d help her switch out the screens for the storm windows. I asked her if she was sure, reminded her that this is Michigan, and said something like “maybe this weekend.” Today’s forecast:

I’d say that’s Michigan for you, but really, that’s everywhere for you. People in almost every US state regurgitate the old saying: “Don’t like the weather here? Just wait five minutes!”

So next time she asks to take off the storm windows, I’ll tell her sure, I’ll help - if she just waits five minutes.

The time has come once again to make your suggestions for movies to screen when we start back up sometime this Spring.

Think of movies that would be good to see on the bigger screen out under the stars in our backyard. Truly independent movies, local movies, or impossibly artsy movies that deserve to be screened at a microcinema. Plus, we always try to fit one documentary and something foreign into each schedule.

If you’ve never posted a comment here before, your first post will be delayed for approval by the moderator (me). After I know you’re not spam, your comments get posted automatically. And you can always email me at timothy at bluishbarn dot com.

Here’s a list of some films we’ve screened already, to give you a taste of what we like:

July 19: The Cruise
July 27: The Warriors
August 3: Badlands
August 11: If…
August 18: Instrument
August 25th: Stand By Me
August 31: Breaking Away
Sep 14: Papillon (McQueen and Hoffman in classic prison escape flick)
Tues Sep 19: [Bollywood night] (to honor Twitch microcinema; curated by Vinh/Zack)
Sep 21: City of God (Brazil; growing up gangster in poor Rio de Janeiro)
Sep 28: Titticut Follies (Wiseman doc about mental institution talent show)
Oct 5: Wizard People, Dear Reader (Harry Potter re-narrated)
Mon Oct 9: Who is Bozo Texino? (secret history of hobo graffiti; $5-$10 sliding scale to Bill Daniel, travelling filmmaker)
Oct 12: the Celebration (Denmark; Dogme #1; family dinner gone wrong)
Oct 19: Plague Dogs (animation; escaped lab dogs hunted as Bubonic carriers)
Oct 26: the Fearless Vampire Killers (Polanski vampire spoof)
Nov 2: Ann Arbor Film Festival pre-screening screening
Jan 11: Assasination Tango - all Robert Duvall; with Argentinian food served by housemates just back from Argentina
Jan 18: Dead Man - Jarmusch directs, Depp stars, Neil Young scores
Jan 25: Madisonfest: A Documentary - premier of Shawn Wernette’s documentary featuring one song by almost every single performer at last summer’s local music fest
Feb 1: Zardoz - ridiculous 1974 sci-fi drama featuring a young Sean Connery in heels
Feb 8: A Thousand Clowns - how can you argue with the tagline: “lift for the spirits, laughter for everyone”
Feb 15: Elevator to the Gallows - Louis Malle directs, Miles Davis scores
Feb 22: the Beaver Trilogy - no link; it’s best not knowing anything about this before you see it; an experience
Mar 1: The Falcon and the Snowman - young Hutton/Penn as real-life spies Boyce/Lee
Mar 8: Death and the Maiden - Polanski’s takek on Dorfman’s play about justice and revenge; riveting
Mar 15: the Idiots - Dogme #2; Lars Von Trier directs a social experiment of ‘idiots’