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8 June 2007
First Annual Beerfly Alleyfight, 19 May 2007
 We all know that Chicago is abundant with fantastic theater. Up here on the northside, we boast the location of the Neofuturists, at the corner of Ashland and Foster. A couple of the members of this company started another group, The Drinking and Writing Brewery. Since, some of the most scandalously fun events have been sponsored and produced by this group who has, in their words, embarked upon the noble journey of “Exploring the connection between creativity and alcohol since October 17th 2002 (officially anyway).”
 And so was born the first annual (and we do hope annual) Beerfly Alleyfight, Drink! Eat! Watch! This event combined homebrewing, cooking, and art. All they needed to do was include yoga in some way and I would have been stuck in a blissful limbo not unlike that of Mr. Barclay, who became addicted to the holodeck on the Enterprise B. Anyway, Alleyfight participants were technically competing, but you really couldn’t tell. Even before anyone was let through the doors the place was already buzzing with people talking, tasting, drinking, and I guess, getting a head start on the buzzing.
Doug brewed up a fantastic red ale that was hoppy. Probably the hoppiest beer there. One of the local beer gurus (okay, GenXers don’t really get into gurus, but the word fits well here) told us how happy he was that we had such a hoppy offering. That alone was like winning an award.
For the cooking entry, I conjured up a batch of my Sassy Vegetarian Roasted Pepper Pesto. Wheat bow-tie pasta was the vehicle, and garnishes included roasted pine nuts, cherry tomatoes, parmesan, and lime wedges. We ran out near the end, but that’s okay. We still had beer.
 And the GenX show was on display, for the very first time! The prints were 8x10”, matted in white and framed in 11x14” gray-stained wood. Folks, it looked terrific. I am unashamed to say that I was proud of all of us. Around the frames I scattered 6 different business-sized cards with quotes from interviews and my research. I also had a sign-up sheet available which rendered a few more participants. If you’re curious about which prints were used and you can’t tell from this little snapshot, just hit around on the GenX site because all 10 photos are now live on the GenX webpages.
Throughout the day, performers took turns interpreting homebrewing in their own way. One woman washed her hair with beer while a recording of her impressions played. Another woman did interpretive dance while a homebrewer accompanied her on the French horn. No degrees of separation here because the homebrewer/hornblower was Jason, a fellow GenX participant. Whoo Hoo Jason!
 Doug and I took turns roaming the room, tasting all the delicious food and beer. The creativity ran amok at this event. Beer styles ranged from a maple porter to a brown ale to a Belgian-style saison to an English mild served with a hand-pump from a firkin. The food choices ranged from cream puffs to macaroni and cheese to tamales to a smoked barbeque brisket. And can you believe that the attendees were charged with choosing the “Best of” in each category!? They were, and they did. To my outright shock, my Sassy Vegetarian Roasted Pepper Pesto won for “Best Food.” No kidding! Vegetarians, represent! Whoop! Whoop!
Without a doubt, this event was cranked up to 11.
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 While on a road-trip to Las Vegas in April 2005, we came across this store in St. George, Utah. The merchandise was primarily cheaply produced gray-market sportswear. Isn’t that nice?
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GenX on Tour:
Madison, WI
January 28th through 30th, 2005
The weekend
of January 29th, Doug and I loaded the GenX gear into the Subaru
and headed North to Madison, WI. We both have friends there and
I managed to round up a full day of photo shoots and interviews
on Saturday.
 Late
Friday evening, we hit the road. Our first participants of the
day on Saturday were kind enough to offer us their guest room
for Friday night. We arrived in time to drop off our gear and
head out to The
King Club to see an excellent local band. If you are ever
in Madison, do make a point to catch The
German Art Students, if possible. Their lyrics are intelligent,
their instrumentation is clever, and they seriously rock. Afterward
we enjoyed a little late-night beer drinking with our generous
hosts. They were kind enough to gift me with a hand-knitted hat!
Thanks!
Saturday began
with a fun and relaxing shoot and interview. Just as we finished,
our next appointment called to cancel as one of the participants
was sick. I am always grateful when people alert me to being ill
prior to a meeting. When it comes to appointments in my studio
or at an on-location shoot, I'll always cancel and reschedule
to avoid catching whatever crud happens to be floating about.
So, we had
a few hours free until our next scheduled appointment. I asked
the first participants what they were up to for the afternoon.
They said that they were heading off to Wollershiem
Winery in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin for a port tasting. Would
we care to join? After staring in stunned silence for a few seconds
(people are so cool), we heartily agreed to accompany them. It
was truly our pleasure to taste and purchase some locally produced
wine and port.
Our early
evening appointment was with a woman who is the lead singer for jack,
another Madison band. Previously, I'd agreed to do a few digital
shots of them for their upcoming EP release. Once again, we rocked
out to some fantastic, home-grown music while I popped off a few
shots. The participant then eloquently and kindly kicked everyone
out so we could do the GenX photo shoot and interview in peace.
She embodied some of the qualities that I admire most about our
generation. Doug must have thought so, too. He later confided
in me that he considered asking her to marry us.
 Our
final appointment was with some old friends who were also kind
enough to accommodate us for Saturday evening. We drove out to
the Southwestern Wisconsin countryside as the Sun floated below
the horizon. We hauled in our gear and got comfortable in the
basement/family-room of their home. After the photo shoot and
interview, we feasted on various home cooked tapas, drank delicious
craft beer, and listened to loud music until the wee hours of
the morning. Doug and I were introduced to jalapeno-stuffed green
olives. Our fridge will be without jalapeno-stuffed olives nevermore.
A huge thanks
to the participants in Madison, WI! We do plan to do another weekend
there to pick the brains of more GenXers. Feel free to email
me if you're in the area and wish to participate.
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 GenX
Neo-logism
Verb: Tetris
To rotate,
stack, pile, fold, bend, or otherwise manipulate items until they
most efficiently fit within a cramped space. Particularly common
among urbanites dwelling in small apartments or condos.
"When
we got married, we had to Tetris all of our gifts into our tiny
Chicago apartment."
"We spent
the early hours of the morning Tetrising our road-trip gear into
the station wagon."
"Now that it's Spring, I need to Tetris my huge winter parka into the coat closet."
"Even
though I've lived without one for 2 years, my mother insisted
I own a microwave. Now I need to Tetris the one she bought me
into my galley-style kitchen."
(Many thanks
to Alexey
Pazhitnov, the creator of Tetris.) |
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| Tuesday
4 January 2005
Regarding Easy Rider. (1969). Written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper,
and Terry Southern. Directed by Dennis Hopper. Columbia/TriStar.
This
is probably the most intriguing Baby Boomer film I've ever seen.
Hopper directs as well as stars in it along with Fonda. Jack Nicholson
does a fantastic job of presenting the character who deep down
admires the hippie culture, but has partly sold out by working
as a suit... as an attorney for the ACLU. On first glimpse, the
fact that they shot this movie stoned the entire time - something
I noticed while watching the film, before my supposition was verified
in the making-of documentary Easy Rider, Shaking the Cage,
also included on the DVD release - may erode their credibility on representing their counter-culture. Why do I laugh as I type that?
As far as I'm concerned, this film proves that Hopper, Fonda,
Southern, and Nicholson are the authorities on representing
their generation's counter-culture.
Once
I got past my own initial adoration of the 60's counter-culture
hippies, I became a rather harsh critic of them. In Easy Rider,
Hopper plays out the stereotype of a druggie with little to no
philosophy outside the desire to score a crapload of excellent smoke and wile away the rest of his days naked on a beach somewhere.
This character leads me to believe that the writers were able
to critique their own culture. My impression has been that Baby
Boomers aren't interested in self-criticism; I'm happy to have
been wrong about that. Wyatt (Fonda) and Billy (Hopper) visit
a hippie commune where a group of people are trying to farm with
no actual experience, having babies, doing interpretive dance
in their pajamas, and squabbling over unshared pot. On the surface,
another criticism, but not entirely.
Fonda's character
was different, of course. This character reminded me of the aspects
of hippie counter-culture that once resonated. He seemed to be
more thoughtful, creative, and intelligent. The writers agreed
that his character would have stayed with the commune (they were
the only people in the film who were actually making an attempt
at existing off the grid) if Hopper's character hadn't convinced
him to leave. He also realized that he was engaging in the pop-culture
he disdained. In the making-of documentary, Fonda described his
argument with Hopper about his line in the last campfire scene.
Thankfully, he won, because that line surmised the movie beautifully.
I was left with exactly the question in my head that Fonda wanted
to elicit.
Members of
Generation X recognize the strides made and goals accomplished
by the Baby Boomers, both within and outside the hippie counter-culture.
We take for granted the rights and freedoms we have as a result
of the Baby Boomers' work; and rightly so. These rights and freedoms
make sense interpersonally, economically, and collectively. But
as what seems only too natural to GenXers, we also observe, critique,
and laugh at life's ironies. It's okay that we've noticed a discrepancy
between hippie ideals and the paths many of them took through
their lives. What’s more satisfying than a nice, juicy irony?
Does Generation
X have a counter-culture?
26 February 2007 reply by Kevin:
If only there was easily identifiable cultural evidence within our GenX that it could call it's own. To the tune of 4.5 viewing daily hours of television per American citizen, mass media is now calling the shots: telling GenX what it is, how it looks, and what it should covet. GenX could be chasing it's own tail and it might not know the difference. How do I know this? Because I am part of the counter culture that has extradited popular television and hollywood garbage from it's vantage point. I see the world differently, spend my time in much different ways than my peers who still suckle from the glass teat. The television, and it's rising son of the new age of media, the Interweb, are moving around ideas, images, and voices faster than ever before. How can a tornado stop to tie it's shoe, let alone get a good look at itself in the mirror or the others around him? Mass consumption leads to mass distraction which leads to alienation: iPods, iPhones (i-i-me-me-mine), ring-tones, mini-van backseat TVs for the kids; unending, in-your-face advertising on our streets, in our skies, in our train stations and air ports. Perhaps no generation was so inundated before with so much garbage unformation. Without some concrete identity, some awareness of what humanly bonds them all together, some inkling of a thought that maybe, just maybe they are talking about the same TV show and wearing the same chain-store clothes and coveting the same sports car as the GenXer 1000 miles away from them, they cannot begin to see what truly identifies their generation: the "generation of blandification". I will not be a part of it.
5 January 2005 reply by Doug:
I personally believe that GenX does have or has had a counter culture
(punk rock perhaps but maybe others). It may never be recognized
by the mainstream the way the hippy culture was due to shear numbers.
The hippie counter culture was probably nearly as large as the entire
GenX population while still being a minority of the baby boomers.
By shear numbers alone they had a louder collective voice. It might
be useful to explore the GenX counter culture and help give it a
voice.
6
January 2005 reply by Sarahbeth:
I don't think we (gen X) have evolved our own counter culture that
has continued on. But I do think some of us have been caught up
in the counter cultures of other generations around us or played
with the idea of being a part of a counter culture.
Example:
The punk counter culture of the 1980's included people born as
early as '65 or as late as probably '72/'73. However, you don't
see any of our generation running around with spiked mohawks and
dog chain collars anymore. Another counter culture we have played
with is the Goths. I think that while a number of us dabbled in
it in high school, after moving into the working class, we started
wearing color again and stopped dying our hair jet black.
I don't even
feel that a majority of these people would consider themselves
a part of a counter culture anymore, it was more of a phase they
went through in their rebellious years. While there are still
hippy parents and dirty old bikers running around that are our
parents age. I have yet to run into a Goth. in a board meeting.
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