August Show - underGROUND

Now showing through August 27, 2009

by Beverly Naidus

Earlier this summer (June 2009) I had the privilege to work with dancers, composers, writers, performance and visual artists at Earthdance in western Massachusetts. While being introduced to the ways that these artists exposed ecological issues in their work, I was offered a deeper connection with the dance form, “contact improvisation.” One dancer described the form to me as a process of sharing weight. I participated in a Dance Jam that included a man in a wheel chair and people of different ages and sizes. Once I moved from sketching in my journal onto the dance floor, I was hooked. Excited by the liberating aspects of creating meaning through movement, something I had understood in an earlier chapter in my life, I was compelled to bring this energy back to my studio on Vashon.

Instead of approaching this new body of work with strategies that are well known to me, I decided instead to move through my tiny studio space, and the adjoining woods, trails and garden, like a dancer, scavenging weight, form and texture within my local environment. At times I was reaching in many directions, seemingly at once, drawing, sewing, gluing, sculpting, tearing, rummaging through drawers, picking things up and moving with them, tying things together, in very unfamiliar rhythms. At other times, I found habitual gestures provided a comfortable launching pad for deeper work. The tactility of found materials and a constant shifting of weight were necessary to deal with often challenging sources of inspiration: the things that are underground, under the radar, most easily avoided, but need attention. My process allowed me to be more fluid in my emotions and less self-censoring as I unearthed imagery and metaphors that would not have been discovered through a more intellectual approach.

The results of this improvisation are a series of wall hangings and sculptures, often inhabited by small, sculpted heads and figures, animating each piece. Mulberry bark and translucent paper became skin-like forms to be pierced and sewn with stories about nuclear weapons and toxic dumps. When the difficult material became too weighty, I shifted poses and perspectives, opening up to humor and a reconstructive vision of the world, where gardens transform the muck swept under the rug for so many years. Both soft and sharp, the work has an anthropological quality, like artifacts of this moment.

Some of my early work (from the late 1970’s and through the 1980’s) dealt with nuclear nightmares, and were audience-participatory, inviting the community to share their stories about nuclear war. During the Reagan presidency, when a “hot war” seemed very close to the surface, many audience members were eager to share their fears, anxieties and hopes. My site-specific installations, exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles, London, and Minneapolis offered visitors the possibility of moving beyond our despair into communities empowered to dismantle the nuclear arsenal. Now, post-Bush, with a worsening plethora of social problems, from economic to environmental, I continue to use my art to confront what is sick in our society and to remind myself of what is whole and possible, just around the corner from our fears. Ultimately my art is a meditation on the paradox of living in this time with an open heart and a sense that the future has not yet been decided.

Biography:

Beverly Naidus has lived on Vashon since 2003, when she took a position teaching interdisciplinary arts (with a focus on art for social change) at the University of Washington, Tacoma. She has shown her work internationally and it has been written about in several significant books about contemporary art.

She is the author of the recently released, Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame (New Village Press, 2009). Her website is www.artsforchange.org.

She is the mother of Sam Oak Naidus Spivey (age 14) and the life partner of Bob Spivey, founder of SEEDS (www.socialecologyvashon.org).

Johnny Depp Rumor

Johnny Depp is not headed to Vashon, officials say

By LESLIE BROWN

Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber Editor

The rumor has been circling the Island like a gull at KVI Beach: Johnny Depp, word has it, just bought Tom Stewart’s spectacular 525-acre estate near Paradise Valley.

How great is the speculation? Great enough that someone has stated it as fact on Wikipedia: “Johnny Depp, world famous actor, now owns the former Misty Isle Farm property. Has been spotted driving on the Westside Highway,” according to an entry in the user-generated, online encyclopedia under the “people of note” section for Vashon Island.

But according to a spokesman for Stewart’s company, Services Group of America, there’s nothing to the rumor.

“We’ve not been in contact with Mr. Depp regarding this property or any other property,” said Brad Parker, from the company’s Scottsdale, Ariz., headquarters.
Told of the Wikipedia entry, he said he’d go online and make a change to it.
“I have no idea how it would have gotten onto Wikipedia,” he added.

Stewart’s Misty Isle Farm has been for sale for nearly two years, listed initially at $125 million. The sprawling, ranch-style home is small by multi-millionaire standards — a mere 6,500 square feet. But the expansive property boasts a number of other amenities that set it apart from other parcels in the luxury home market, including an airstrip, a helipad, 10 additional residences, botanical gardens, a putting green, bridle trails and a three-acre pond annually stocked with 500 pounds of rainbow trout.

The demand is soft for luxury homes, however, and the property, initially the subject of a focused marketing effort, is no longer being actively peddled, said Hans Youngman, who manages the ranch.

“There’s no marketing campaign currently under way,” he said. “There had been, but it got put on hold because of the economic conditions and lack of interest.”

Youngman said he, too, has heard the Johnny Depp rumor several times and, like Parker, said there’s nothing to it.

“Jack Sparrow,” he said, referring to Depp’s character in “The Pirates of the Caribbean,” “won’t be the next owner of Misty Isle Farms.”

Stewart, a stalwart Rep-ublican known for the conservative celebrities he used to bring to his estate, enjoyed the Depp rumor, Youngman said. In fact, he thinks that’s possibly how it began to spread.

“When a friend asked him about it, he sort of led him on for a moment,” Youngman said.
Johnny Depp’s publicist, Robin Baum, did not return repeated telephone calls or e-mails requesting comment.

The Johnny Depp rumor is not the first one about a Hollywood star snatching up the largest private parcel on Vashon. For a while, Tom Cruise was the purported buyer; then John Travolta; then Cruise and Travolta together, with an eye towards making it a Church of Scientology retreat.

Many have heard the rumors and have called or e-mailed The Beachcomber, asking if they’re true. Most were curious, some skeptical. A few said they thought it just might be true that Depp had indeed purchased the property or, at the very least, was poking around.

“I have some good sources who have confirmed that there has been interest from him,” said Melinda Songterath, owner of The Hardware Store Restaurant. “I don’t think it’s a completely fabricated rumor that he’s interested in the property.” She added, however, that she’s not seen “any concrete evidence. ... It’s really all rumors, as far as I’m concerned.”

Emma Amiad, a buyer’s broker on Vashon, also said she’d heard from “a reliable source” that Depp had bought Stewart’s place for $75 million, $50 million less than the asking price. “You might want to watch for it,” she said in an e-mail.

As for Youngman, who some say was the source of the Cruise/Travolta rumor, he said he doubts Depp would find Vashon Island particularly compelling.

Noting that the movie star recently bought his girlfriend a French estate, he added, “He likes France. I don’t think he’d spend much money on a cattle ranch here in Washington state.”

Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber Editor Leslie Brown can be reached at editor@vashonbeachcomber.com or 206-463-9195.

Chamber Looks to Tourism to Lift Island Economy

Our goal is to tell Vashon's story, through visuals, graphics, audibles, and positioning. It'll be a call to action to come to Vashon, to shop on Vashon.

Amy Herbig, President

Blonde Ambition

Treasure Discovered?

Yep, it's true. Two young treasure hunters converged on the buried treasure, almost simultaneously. In the end, they agreed to split the fortune.

The winners may become Treasure Masters and are eligible to help develop next year's hunt. Thanks to everyone that participated!

Lost Luggage

Sunday's Clue

She knows where the red valise is kept.

Friday's Clue.

Also, don't forget to visit Gusto Girls tonight. Important clues will be revealed. Ask for the "Savoy Hotel Special No. 2."

If you are an underage drinker, ask them to substitute the absinthe for Yoo-Hoo. Let us know how this tastes. Maybe this will become Special No. 99.

You should be forewarned. Here's the recipe for Special No. 1:

Savoy Hotel Special Cocktail No. 1

2 oz dry gin

1 oz dry vermouth

2 dashes quality grenadine

1 dash absinthe

lemon peel

Who knows what might end up in Special No. 2?

Please visit the Valise and Two-Wall Galleries this Friday evening or Saturday afternoon for some great art, including the fine exhibit Land/Structure/Impact by soul-mates Heather Joy and Matthew Olds.

Today's Clue: Pinex

Used by the folks in Vermontville.

An Aficionado Discusses the Finer Points with the Artist

Best Done Under Cover of Darkness

By Nels A. Jr.

1954: Vashon Island, Washington

Startin’ on the Farm to Market Road from the 1951 Washington license plate stuck on an ol’ pole, near the Eyot farmstead, travel south (77/4) towards the Thorsen Place (78/5).

Dodge Old Man Thorsen’s dogs over to Bank (79/2), then east towards Center. Near the pond (79/9), look for the trapper’s trail going north and then west. Tie up your pony here because the trail gets too narrow.

From the trailhead, it’ll be 266 paces to our old camp site in the grove. Go about 400 paces to the corduroy bridge and 200 more paces downhill to a miraculous stand of tall firs. Count slowly from here and look for the salal trail north to the Chilcat village. No more counting. At each wye, always take the rightward trail to the old trappers shack.

You’ll need to sneak up quietly as not to arouse the tribe nearby. Watch out for Indian sentries.

Historian Rachel Bard might recall the right way.

Treasure Hunt: Rumors and Clues

Update: By our count, Team Jesse was leading the pack, having located four map sections. Team Jesse was followed closely by Team Thunder Cloud. A fifth map section will likely be discovered today. This piece can be reached by surveying the section from a high vantage point with a spyglass. Seekers who are tough enough to reach this map section from mud level, they will likely discover a bonus clue for their efforts.


For those of you catching up, there’s buried treasure on Vashon Island. Yep, that is the truth.

Treasure hunters amassed in Vashon’s town center last night, scouring for clues. They are looking for twelve fragments of an ancient map that will lead a lucky team to the prize, fabulous gems looted by Napoleon’s army.

Let us indulge in a bit of history: In 1812, Napoleon’s Grand Army entered Moscow. As winter approached, the Grand Army realized that they were running out of food. The army’s supply lines had been cut-off. The Russians had burned all the food in the city left the cupboards bare. They abandoned their city and hid in the countryside.

However, the sensible Russians left behind treasures and gold. After all, you can swallow a small sapphire but it doesn’t taste very good.

With the Russian winter coming, the Grand Army began to retreat. Some of the foolish soldiers thought they could carry looted gold bullion and other imperial treasures. It wasn’t long before Napoleon’s men discarded the heavy treasures as they tried to walk home to Paris.

In Napoleon’s Army was a group of Saxons. Fifty or so Saxons deserted Napoleon’s army during the retreat. With them, sewn into their clothes, were the Baranov gemstones.

HOLD Studios Conspires with Valise

In a multi-media exhibit entitled Land/Structure/Impact(LSI), artists Heather Joy and Matthew Olds (aka HOLD studios) explore the relationship between humans and the land from a micro and macro level.

Heather uses photography to document human-made ecotones (ecology + tension), representations of human attempts to control natural systems. Examples include the sharp lines between farmland and watershed, farm and city, port and wetland, among others. The images are from a series of Heather's aerial photographs, taken over the past five years. She shoots while traveling on commercial flights, and some of her images are obscured by jet fuel, smog, cloud cover, frosty or cracked airplane windows, uncontrolled lighting and weather conditions.

Matthew uses painting to document the rise and fall of structures in the landscape. He has long been fascinated with buildings and bridges in various states of deterioration, from use, neglect, or both. To better understand the dynamics of the built environment, Matthew has erected several structures of his own and installed them in the landscape. He uses these structures as source material for his paintings and will install a related structure in the gallery space.

An additional component of the show is an ongoing collaborative project titled Land-Grab, which was inspired by the recent economic collapse, as well as the historical U.S. land rush of the late 1800's. Heather and Matthew selected hundreds of Heather's aerial photographs and created an installation of them in a "parcel-like" grid. Each photograph will be available for "on-the-spot" purchase and will leave the gallery with the buyer. Throughout the show, Heather and Matthew will document the evolution of this interactive project, as each element of the installation is sold, leaving a void where there once was land/art. By the end of the Land-Grab project, they hope that only the abandoned infrastructure that was supporting the pieces will remain.

This July exhibition is the third iteration of the Land/Structure/Impact project. The first was installed in the fall of 2007 at the Tacoma Contemporary Woolworth Windows. The second was installed at Seattle's Fetherston Gallery May 15 - June 13, 2009, which included the addition of the Land-Grab project. At this third stop Heather and Matthew will install Land-Grabat the Valise Gallery as it was at the end of the Fetherston show. Future Land-Grab locations to be announced.

The gallery has extended its hours to Fridays 6 to 8 pm and Saturdays 12 to 5 pm.

Search for the Lost Baranov Diamonds

Presented by Two Wall Gallery and Valise

Curators’ Note: The following history was compiled after years of painstaking research by noted treasure hunter Cecil Benthos. Several of the clues are being exhibited during the month of July at both Two Wall Gallery and Valise, and others will be revealed during the month at various locales, clues to which will appear as you follow the trail. One lucky treasure hunter will hopefully find the legendary Lost Baranov Diamonds at the end of that trail. If anyone does find it, that person should contact either Two Wall or Valise as soon as possible! The finder will get to keep the treasure, but only if you contact one of the galleries for debriefing.

The Baranov Diamonds: History and Clues

By Cecil Benthos, PhD
Treasure Hunter and International Entrepreneur
Offices in Vienna, Krakow, and Bean Blossom, Indiana

“Read these words carefully! Each word means something!!”

Years ago, while my father was surviving the Battle of Stalingrad in an overlooked vodka cellar, he wrote several letters home that mentioned in passing some hidden jewels that he had heard about around that time, perhaps even as he was in the cellar. His letters were not clear, but as a child, I was interested in this. It was only later that I realized the importance of his words, and begin to piece together the history of the Legendary Lost Baranov Diamonds.

From what I could learn through extensive research in the Pacific Northwest and from my business associates in Russia, who almost refused being paid for their help, the Baranov Diamonds (my name for them) are a collection of brightly colored and rare heart-cut stones that came from a diamond mine in the Urals. They were originally a gift that Napoleon acquired for Josephine (“Stolen!” my Russian friends say), but were lost in the retreat of the French in the winter of 1812-13. Apparently, they were last seen then by a Russian woman who was paid to wash Napoleon’s uniform, and she set them on his dressing table. They disappeared as if by magic that very day, leading some people to think they were indeed magic stones. Both magic and terrifying, is my conclusion, for mere mention of these stones has the power to turn some people into violent skeptics and has led to at least one traffic accident in southern Poland between a car and a manure spreader.

Not long after their disappearance, a similar collection of heart-cut stones was mentioned in a letter from Alexandr Baranov, the first governor of Russian Alaska and manager of the Russian-American Fur Company, to his sister Irena. His translated letter contains the statement “And dear sister, amazing stones are finally out [or displaced] painfully cut like little hearts my own like crystal [part unreadable] and colors remarked [or remarkable].” So it is clear to me and beyond all doubt that Baranov acquired the diamonds and took them to Alaska.

Russian relations with natives along the coast during that time were strained at best, but following the Battle of Sitka, the Russians found themselves ill at ease in a country filled with violent and skeptical natives. Money and other things of value were sometimes kept hidden in case of attack. It is my belief based upon the clues I have found that Baranov buried the diamonds on Vashon 1815 or 1816 while returning from a trip into northern California. His diary from that time mentions an encounter with a native party that was prepared for war near what is now called Portage. The natives assaulted the Russians with beach rocks and sunk a small boat. Oddly, Baranov wrote in his diary that he thought his men were being mistaken for someone else, based upon insults of a personal nature yelled by the natives, but this mystery (or magic!) was never explained.

There is a least one artifact from that encounter, which you will see displayed in town here. After the battle, Baranov was fearful of a second attack and so he buried the stones for safekeeping. Baranov never returned to recover them. He died in 1819.

Baranov’s diary talks about burying the stones. Although the word “diamonds” is not used, he mentions hiding something of great value to be gathered when things settled down. He writes that the item was wrapped in a cloth, hidden within a tin coffee pot, and sealed with wax and mica (as was common for the time). Mica was also scattered near the hiding place, perhaps because it would remind Baranov of the sparkling diamonds, or perhaps only because they were careless with the precious mica (or ising glass). It is no coincidence to me that the words “ising” and “island” both start with “is.”

The clues I have amassed include several rock carvings that you will see displayed, some other artifacts, and most importantly a map. This map I found in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, which cost me a fortune in pre-inflationary rubles to borrow (when money really meant something!), and includes some of my notes, as well as other notes I presume are Baranov’s. The map in St. Petersburg had been cut into 12 pieces to insure that no one had all of it at once, but two pieces were missing. Years later, I found the last two pieces in an Orthodox Monastery in Alaska, near Baranov’s headquarters, stuffed inside a bible, one next to a passage in Exodus and the other in Revelations.

For reasons of security, I cannot finish the search I started years ago. So I ask for your help. My clues are arranged like knots on a string. Start at the end I give you and follow it to the finish. Each clue may be the one you need most….or perhaps some of the clues are pickled red herrings. All I ask is that you keep following the string…and if you find the treasure, you let the kind people at either Two Wall or Valise know about your discovery. You may keep the treasure if I can meet you to see it and hear how you found it. I just want vindication for my poor departed Father, who suffered so cruelly in that cold cellar in 1942, and was accused of such terrible things by the SS. Barely kept alive by the dregs in the vodka barrels, his memory lives on in this search. Help me show that his passion was not misplaced, and help me put his spirits to rest.

The Clues:

Look for these clues to begin with; others will be apparent as you search. Remember there are 12 pieces of the map to be discovered:

1) Beginning July 3, and for the rest of the month, the first clues will be visible at Two Wall Gallery, Valise, and Giraffe, with leads to other clues offered at that time. Be prepared to look for other places where clues might be visible. At Two Wall and Valise, two rock carvings and other clues will be on exhibit on July 3. At Giraffe, find Priscilla and tell her you want to “Pay for the Statue.”

2) Beginning Friday, July 10, another important clue will be revealed at Gusto Girls. Ask the bartender for a “Savoy Hotel Special No. 2 (nudge nudge, wink wink).”

Clues to the rest of the 12 pieces will become available as you go. We recommend you take some paper with you to trace or draw the map fragments so that you can play with them at home. They are all the same size, and they all fit together to comprise the original map. We’re pretty sure about that. Well, reasonably sure.

You may ask us if you need help. We may offer hints….or we may not, depending upon whether or not you are wearing brightly colored socks that day. One of us loves the color orange. We know nothing, but some of us can be bribed.

IF YOU FIND IT, LET US KNOW. Trust us, you’ll be famous, but only if you tell us how you found it.

Thank you, Amy.

Who is the comforting figure behind the child?

Hidden Treasure on Vashon Island

By Greg Wessel (Two Wall Gallery)

In addition to July’s exhibits, including works by Heather Joy and Matthew Olds, the Two Wall Gallery and Valise will display artifacts that are clues to a purportedly “fantastic hidden collection of gems.” Presented by mysterious fictional artist and entrepreneur Cecil Benthos, these clues and other signs, that will be revealed from July 3rd through August 6th, will lead one lucky and dogged Vashonite to the legendary “Lost Baranov Diamonds.”

The galleries could not verify all of the amazing claims made by the artist, but we researched it far enough to confirm that there is absolutely something valuable hidden somewhere on Vashon Island. It is worth finding and should be discoverable through correct interpretation of the clues. That much is fact.

According to his Facebook bio, the veracity of which could not be verified, Benthos rose to prominence among treasure hunters after his success in finding the Lost Scotchman Mine in the Sonoran Desert. Benthos has been looking for the Baranov treasure for “nearly 30 years,” after learning of its history from his father.

Clues to the treasure include an ancient map.

First Friday - June

Please join us for the opening reception of "Foresight."

[not to be confused with the show, Foreskin, showing at the Valium Gallery in Montreal]

Foresight will feature the incomparable works of Seattle artists Amy Huddleston and Jane Emens.


First Friday, June 5, 6-9pm

Valise Gallery

17633 Vashon Hwy SW

One door south of Gusto Girls

Coming in June

Drawing Sessions in May

Drawing sessions at the Valise Gallery, Isle of Vashon.

Hosted by the engimatic Adam and debonair Brian.

Scheduled:

May 21 (Thursday) - 6 to 9 pm

May 25 (Monday, Memorial Day) - 6 to 9 pm

May 31 (Sunday) - 12 to 3 pm

Valise Gallery, Group Show May 2009

by Terri Fletcher

Valise Gallery, May Group Show

Wayside by Carol Schwennesen

May Group Show, Valise Gallery Vashon

A Tribute to Donald Rumsfeld: by V. B. Monchego

This is a 1:120 scale model of an outdoor installation to be erected on the Mongolian-Manchurian steppe in 2011. This vast grassland covers an area of 350,000 square miles.

May Valise Gallery Group Show

Veil of Light by Gay Schy

May Valise Gallery Group Show

Girl Talk by Jiji Saunders

May Valise Gallery Group Show

The Calling of Saint Matthew by Brian Van Buren

December, July, February

by Heather Joy

Ink prints framed in birth control pill boxes.

Road Show

by Victor B. Monchego, Jr.

Collage: Valise with maps, miscellaneous travel detritus, clean underwear, tiny whiskey bottle, Paxil tablets, hotel card keys, AIG visitor passes, business card towers, and family polaroid.

Activists on Display

Clara Fraser

Bella Abzug, left

Greta Gaard, upper right

Women in their Underwear

What comes to mind are three women on frank display. These are not Maxim playthings, not cover girls. Think of your aunt. The eccentric one with the high IQ.

What some people may fail to appreciate, without a deeper examination, is what remarkable lives these grand women had.

The women are Bella Abzug (orange), Clara Fraser (blue) and the still vivacious, Greta Gaard (green), as depicted by Jiji Saunders in Valise Gallery’s April installation titled, “Carry On.”
What hangs on the wall is not lingerie. In fact, they are the aged linings of womanly valises. The faded, silky fabrics have been dissected carefully from three suitcases pre-dating the Nixon administration.

Years before 9/11, the items in a woman’s suitcase were especially intimate. What’s inside? Contraceptive foam? A new pants suit? That strange scissor-handled contraption used to shape eyelashes? But the metaphor runs much deeper.

What is inside a grown woman’s life? Where has she been and what has she endured on her journey?

The faded nylon fabrics are lovely. Look closely; there are stains from all the voyages. One subtle spot hints of lipstick? menstruation? plum preserves? Who knows.

The subjects of Saunders work are activists. Clara Fraser and Bella Abzug had rich lives. Born three years apart in the Roaring 20’s, both died in 1998. Greta Gaard carrys on as a writer and educator.

Clara Fraser was a feminist and socialist political organizer, who co-founded and led the Freedom Socialist Party and Radical Women. In being fired in 1975 for speaking out against sex-and-ideology discrimination at Seattle City Light, then being rehired seven years later, Clara Goodman Fraser improved life for many of the Seattle's working women, poor people and minorities.

Her headline-grabbing actions of the mid-1970s and early 1980s made Clara Fraser a familiar name. From then on her work in Seattle's Radical Women and Freedom Socialist Party, both of which she helped found, became high-profile.

So did Ms. Fraser herself, a dramatic, husky-voiced former laborer who loved chocolates, cigarettes and mystery novels. But for more than a quarter-century before, she had agitated for women, people of color, union workers, gays and prisoners. Divorced herself, she helped write the state's first divorce-reform bill and organized Washington's first abortion-rights rally. She also campaigned for university-funded child care at the University of Washington and worked to get women into electrical and engineering careers.

Bella Savitsky Abzug was an American lawyer, Congresswoman, social activist and a leader of the Women's Movement. In 1971 Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan to found the National Women's Political Caucus. She famously declared "This woman’s place is in the House—the House of Representatives" in her successful 1970 campaign to join that body. She was later appointed to chair the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year and plan the 1977 National Women's Conference and led Jimmy Carter's commission on women.

Greta Claire Gaard (born 1960, Hollywood, CA) is an ecofeminist writer, scholar, activist, and documentary filmmaker. Gaard's academic work in the realms of ecocriticism and ecocomposition is widely cited by scholars in the disciplines of composition and literary criticism. Her theoretical work extending ecofeminist thought into queer theory, vegetarianism, and animal liberation has been influential within women's studies. A cofounder of the Minnesota Green Party, Gaard documented the transition of the U.S. Green movement into the Green Party of the United States in her book, Ecological Politics. She is currently a professor of English at University of Wisconsin-River Falls and a community faculty member in Women's Studies at Metropolitan State University, Twin Cities.

I see three dames, posing proudly in their underwear.

Random Re-Viewings

If at first you don't quite see, try and try to gain... a second look; that's my advice to those attending the new Valise show--and there are plenty of reasons to re-visit: eight distinct/distinctive artists and umpteen suitcases and carry-ons, in various stages of dress, undress, and total destruction. Here's some of what I saw...

1) A purse full of rounded stones of varying shapes and sizes (title: "Bag of Rocks," by Terri Fletcher) and an open suitcase filled with rusty machine parts ("Pre-digital parts for a new era," by Gay Schy). You are what you meet, I presume.

2) Heather Joy's exceptional, multi-dimensional "Always a Window Seat," which offers depths beyond the obvious, meaning its suitcase with TV screen-shaped cut-out allowing viewer to peer through to see an apparent airplane window and further view of massive mountain in the distance--even though the "views" are a single two-dimensional photo. None are so blind as those who will not seat where assigned.

3) There's nothing really to say about the "New Economy" (Elizabeth Conner). A spud's a spud for a' that.

4) "Bella Abzug" stripped to her orange luggage lining, thanks to the often encaustic Jiji Saunders--a cleared suitcase of over-activism.

5) The tragi-comic, tucked-in-a-corner "Alligator Bag" (by Carol Schwennesen), with lizardly parts protruding fore and aft. (Granny's got your gator.)

And much, as they say, more--40 works plus a wall of amusing and confusing, plastic sandwich bag-encased... stuff. Razors, pregnancy tests, liquids of indistinct origin, fluttery papers, old photos, luggage tags and stickers. The detritus of the Homeland Security age in all its wretched splendor.

But one type of carry-on not mentioned in this otherwise all-embracing show would hark back to the slightly unseemly British comedy films of the previous century--Carry On, Doctor; Carry On, Nurse; and scads of others. And yet, maybe this fun and fuzzy installation actually is a perfect example of a post-9/11 sequel: Carry On, Artists.

"Pack up, let's fly away..."

The Challenges of an Installation

What makes good art? Or the converse, what makes art bad?

I never had an art class and I don’t consider myself an artist, so as Kurt Vonnegut once said to me (true story), “If I don’t like what you’ve written, it is perfectly fine to tell me to go to hell.” The same goes here. I am not trying to be high-minded.

Five qualities to consider:

Craft – does the artist have control over the medium?

Unity – does the work hang together with a coherent meaning, rather than having divergent styles, distractions, and inconsistent meanings?

Composition – does it lay out well? Is it interesting in its organization and spacing?

Color and Shade – does the work take advantage of color elements, or is it muddled?

Theme – as a hack writer, I get themes. Does the art tell a story? What might the lessons be?

Carry On: The Gold Standard

In the mid-Seventies, radio station KJR had a contest: "$10,000 in gold has been buried somewhere in the world; listen to our clues, figure out that location, and give the right answer when we call your name on the air. Then we'll fly you out there to collect your gold." (Now, that would be a carry-on worth toting! I thought.)

My son Glenn, age 10 maybe, was determined that we could win if I would only listen to the radio (at work) every day and jot down each day's new pair of clues. I got into it, did just that, and we carefully tracked the clues using our Atlas, leading (we thought) across the Pacific, down through the South Seas to New Zealand and then to its South Island, and on to the cities Christchurch and Dunedin... (Meanwhile, contestants on the air were incorrectly guessing locations in Spain, North Africa, Hawaii, Central Asia.)

Then one day there came a clue about Scottish poet Robert Burns, which left me stumped--just had no idea what it meant. And the very next morning, of course, Glenn's name was called out on KJR, and we had 10 minutes to phone in with our answer. (First we had to get all the interlopers off our phoneline, strangers calling instantly to try to give us their answers to gain half the prize!) But with a minute to spare, Glenn got through to the station, and then came the moment. If we were on the right course, which New Zealand city connected somehow to Burns... Dunedin or Christchurch?

Sweating bullets, I flipped a mental coin and went for the bigger and better-known Christchurch. Glenn gave his N.Z. answer to the disc jockey. Total silence, dead air, for 20 seconds or more, then the deejay cleared his throat and said. "Er, sorry, that's not the right answer."

Aw nuts. Glenn was still happy, because he would receive a hundred dollars for playing the game on the air (money for a new bike). But I felt like another kind of carrion... How could I have misread those clues so badly?

The contest carried on, two more weeks of new clues and bad guesses, and finally one day came the correct answer: "Dunedin, New Zealand." Dunedin, I immediately learned, was a veritable den of Scotsmen and Burns lovers! We had missed by less than a hundred miles! I coulda been a contender--hell, coulda been a rich champion! What a ridiculous muck-up.

But the years passed, and around 1986 I left the US for a couple of years travelling the world, wearing a huge backpack and lugging a strong carry-on full of books. One stop had to be Dunedin to see the damned statue of Robert Burns that had cost us ten grand. Yep, there it was, on a park square, right near a Mexican restaurant. (No Latins to be seen but amazing mole enchiladas.) I looked up at Robbie, jotted down some thoughts in my journal, and moved on...

Two more decades pass, and now I sell books on the Internet; and for one sale a customer in England mails me US cash in a small letter packet, the bills for no reason hidden inside a 1979 brochure on the buses running between Christchurch and Dunedin! (Argh! Grabbed again by the clasping hand of fate.)

I'll be hanging that pesky flyer somewhere at the new installation, and if you hear me pathetically carrying on about Burns and En Zed (as they say Down Under), just remember, "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men/ Gang aft agley." But you gotta carry on.

Directions to the Gallery from the Prince Georges Factory Outlet Mall

Take I-95 South to the Capital Beltway (I-495). Follow the Capital Beltway (I-495) toward Silver Spring to Route 1 South (Exit 25) toward College Park (left side exit). Continue on Route 1 South to East West Highway (Rt. 410). Turn right onto East West Highway. Go past Prince Georges Factory Outlet Mall on the right, then double back to Route 410 also known as the East West Highway. Take Exit 24 and continue on the frontage road, watching on your left for the Capital Beltway on ramp, then merge slowly to your right, back on to Interstate 95 North. Head for Virginia.

Keep right to take I-270 N via Exit 35 toward FREDERICK. Merge onto I-70 W via Exit 32 toward HAGERSTOWN, crossing into Pennsylvania. Take the US-30 E/I-70 W exit toward HARRISBURG. Turn slightly rigth onto I-70/LINCOLN HWY. Merge onto I-70 W toward I-76/Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Merge onto I-76 W/PENNSYLVANIA TURNPIKE toward Pittsburgh/Exits 146-2. Keep left at the fork to go on I-76 W, crossing into Ohio. Take I-80 W toward CLEVELAND. Merge onto I-80 W via Exit 21 toward IN-51 S, crossing into Illinois. Merge onto I-380 N/IA-27 N via Exit 239B toward Cedar Rapids. Ah, fuck it…

April Installation - Carry On!

Valise Gallery
17633 Vashon Hwy SW
One door south of Gusto Girls
www.valisegallery.org
Visit our website for more about Carry On

Please join us for the opening reception of
“Carry On”
An installation by Elizabeth Conner in collaboration with Valise members

First Friday, April 3, 6-9pm


Inspired by the artist collective's name Valise, an installation titled "Carry On" will welcome visitors to a space that might remind you of storage for lost luggage... or playing in your grandmother's attic... the aftermath of a gentle earthquake...or a collection of secrets waiting to be claimed.

What comes to mind when you hear the words "carry on"?

We invite you to bring written thoughts, photographs, or small objects (3" x 4" maximum) to Valise during the April Gallery Cruise. We will add your contributions to the installation, which will grow and change during the month of April.

Show runs through April.

(photo by Irene Stroganova)

Another Drawing Session

Monday Evening Life Drawing

Come Draw the Peacock Lady!




The Valise Artist Collective will host a second free drawing session Monday, March 30 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm at the Valise Gallery. Come draw the Peacock Lady in all her finery. The session is open to all ages. Please bring your own drawing materials and a chair or cushion.

Playing God with Chickens (or Playing Chicken with Gods)

by Victor Bravo Monchego, Jr.

Animals have been my best teachers when it comes to life’s big lessons. Unlike too many humans, animals teach by the creed: Show, Don’t Tell. Animals never pontificate.

There was the Canadian goose that I shot, not so deftly, on the bank of the Platte River. That goose taught me about the responsibility of power.

My dogs, over the years, have taught me about loyalty and unconditional love, even when I’ve behaved badly if not inexcusably. It is possible to forgive those who have trespassed and harmed you the most.

I’ve outlived many generations of pets. This metering has tried to instruct me about impermanence, the reckoning of our lives, and the hazards of procrastinating away important dreams and goals.

My most recent coach is a Sicilian named Butter Cup. She is a chicken. Last night, I found Butter Cup on the bottom of the coop, badly wounded. She was twisting and quivering in the guano beneath her sisters’ perch. One eye was working, one was not. Her neck was badly wracked, mortally by my assessment. Butter Cup dropped me off at a moral crossroads:

To the north was the road to mercy; kill Butter Cup and end her suffering. An honest, practical man would have Butter Cup for tomorrow’s dinner, too.

To the south led the road of compassion. Care for the bird and attempt to mend her. Should the matter of her being born Gallus gallus instead of Homo sapiens make a difference in a Zen cosmic scheme?

Either direction, south or north, were morally equivalent in my mind. They were both acceptable decisions.

To the west, there was no trail. It was bushwackery. The choice was to do nothing, feel nothing. Return to the house, pop a Schlitz and watch The Real Housewives of Orange County. In other words, let Butter Cup die in the dung.

I did feel something. I was empathetic but a type of fear was meddling with me. I lacked the conviction for a merciful execution or for a compassionate doctoring, because let’s face it; doctoring is messy. Doctoring often requires impounding the injured while tending the wound.

As Master Yoda forewarned, fear turns to anger. I was becoming angry with myself because I knew I lacked conviction. I was judging myself because I couldn’t end the bird’s misery, and too inept to nurse it.

Fortunately, I knew a back road. I chose the path to the east, the coward’s way: I called in my virtuous spouse who possesses a braver constitution. She has the ability to act decently, in most situations, without pondering. She lives in a world of black and white, where mine tends to be all shades of gray, not to mention yellow.

So now we have a gimpy chicken recovering in our shower stall. According to the vet, Butter Cup does not have a broken neck. She has neurological damage which may or may not be permanent. The vet said, it looks like the results of a hawk attack. We should know in the next few days, if she improves.

For now, we are hydrating Butter Cup’s crop and feeding her by force. She is crippled. Feeding requires sliding a tube down her gullet several times a day. This is the same way geese are fattened for pate. Like most patients, Butter Cup is adjusting to the unpleasant procedure.

So the easterly coward’s path eventually turned southward. Thank the gods I don’t walk alone.

Please Keep Your Baggage with You at All Times

Drawing Session

Sunday, March 29

Valise Gallery, a collective of Island artists, is hosting a drawing session Sunday March 29th, 12:00 to 3:00 PM at the Valise Gallery, 17622 Vashon Hwy.

The session is open to all ages and will combine some life drawing and still life study. Participants are requested to supply their own drawing materials and bring a chair or cushion as well, however, drawing materials will be provided to those just beginning.

Valise will be hosting this session monthly. For more information contact Brian @ 227-0061.

Mason Bee and Chicken Assault !!

Saturday, March 28

At 2:15p.m. Saturday, March 28 after the Farmers Market closes, everyone is invited to Valise Gallery at 17622 Vashon Highway, one door south of Gusto Girls.

We are offering presentations by Jerry Gehrke on “Mason Bees on Vashon: Why, When, and How To” and Amy Beth Holmes and Toby Holmes, along with Sheryl Allen and Grace Hockley on “Having Chickens – a Local Pecking Party Panel.”

Amy Beth Holmes is the owner of Holmestead Farms along with her husband Toby. http://www.holmesteadfarms.com/. Questions are encouraged. Prizes will be awarded for the best chicken and Mason bee imitations.

Valise is a Vashon artist collective of 11 members who have dedicated the last week of each month’s art exhibition to community involvement. Currently, Britt Freda is exhibiting paintings of chickens, bees, and other animals, which sparked the idea for the offering of “Mason Bees and Chickens” to the community. Bring a cushion or folding chair to sit on!

Questions? Call Carol at 567-5907.

Fowl Play at Valise Gallery

In honour of Britt Freda's exhibit, Fowl Brood, we asked Vashon Island musicologist and writer Ed Leimbacher if he knew any songs about chickens. Without much rumination, Ed began to chirp. Here is what we heard:

by Ed Leimbacher

Fowl of a feather brood together... and when they do, a soundtrack is a nice addition eggsactly. Chicks and roosters, hens a-scratchin', they all dig the old-time sound of the barnyard, whether Black, White, or Blues.

Take "Cluck Old Hen," for example, recorded by Taj Mahal on an early double album, and a splendid feature for his rolling, cackling banjo and sly talkalong, not to mention serious musicological learning. Or the Old Timey duo of Arthur McClain and Joe Evans recorded in 1931 (in the heart of New York City!), their syncopatin' mandolins rippling right on through "Old Hen Cackle." And anyone of a certain age likely remembers Chicago blues giant Howlin' Wolf (and then the Rolling Stones) dissing that "Little Red Rooster"--"too lazy to crow 'fore day," but still able to rise to the right occasion!

Well, this occasion definitely merits a pondering of the chickens of music. Oldtimers galore sang about "chickens crowin' on Sourwood Mountain" ("So many pretty girls you can't count 'em"), while Cannon's Jug Stompers honored the anti-distaff side back in 1929 or so with "The Rooster's Crowing Blues." (But hear this: unknown blues dude Walter Rhodes had waxed "The Crowing Rooster" before them in 1927, playing his accordion! Sea shanty blues, anyone?)

Still, some later "yardbird" connections could be even more esoteric: Charlie Parker stopping to claim a roadkill hen (to cook for dinner) and earning himself a permanent nickname thereafter; Amos Milburn eighty-eighting a "Chicken Shack Boogie" that may have been referenced years later when jazz organist Jimmy Smith recorded "Back at the Chicken Shack"; and New Orleans funkmasters The Meters doin' the "Chicken Strut," which became a NOLA standard and was maybe distantly echoed when Zydeco giant Clifton Chenier (yes, more accordion) declared that we should all "Keep On Scratching." And who can forget British blues bands Chicken Shack and Atomic Rooster, or slide-guitarist Ry Cooder teaming up with the Pahinui family for some Hawaiian slack-key "chickenskin music"?

Do chickens really "roost behind the moon"? Or are all these... well, tracks... strictly for the birds?

Who cares? Just ignore those cackling critics.

Dance, you funky chicken. Play, fowl. Cluck, old hen.

We gossiped and fibbed our way through many Vashon stories about the mysterious, Balkan cigarette man named Ramos (isn’t that a Spanish surname, by the way?).



We heard how Zamfir’s was going to hurt Granny’s Attic and bankrupt the clinic. There were plenty of racial slurs that made no sense. How can one be precisely racist while being completely ignorant about a person’s heritage?

Sea Change Tattoo was in cahoots with Zamfir. Pawn shops were bad because island teens would hock the family toaster oven for drug money.

I heard nothing about the American dream or the reverie of entrepreneurship in Hard Times. Some folks would rather see a line of boarded storefronts than a place to sell Grandpa’s trombone.

We enjoyed several versions of this vignette:

Three Japanese men (sometimes told with two Chinese, or maybe Koreans) entered Movie Magic and asked (in heavy accent) for pornographic movies in hushed voices. The folks at Movie Magic courteously explained that they did not carry hard core. Instead, they offered up Mickey Rourke’s ridiculously erotic 9 ½ Weeks (in VHS only).

The unhappy men wanted nothing from Mickey. When they couldn’t find It on our fair isle, they envisioned opening their own shop. What an opportunity! Nine thousand souls lacking a convenient outlet to purchase pornography.

[Footnote: The Wall Street Journal says porn is recession-proof. Try investing in a porn mutual fund like Fidelity’s Millennial Snuff Fund.]

The strangers did not read English well. As they left, they saw shady Zamfir’s across the street. They misread ‘Pawn’ as ‘Porn.’

The Japanese did not want competition, especially from European gypsies, known to ruthlessly guard their porn and cigarette enterprises. Challenge a Romanian or a Greek or a Turkman (whatever) and you could lose an ear in a knife fight. Or worse.

The way we see it, Zamfir saved Vashon from an Asian porn epidemic.

Valise, Contents Revealed.

A Smashing Good Show.

Thank you, Vashon Island for making our first show so successful.
Thank you for the turnout and enthusiasm.
Thank you, Britt for being part of the venture.

Valise Gallery Opens Tonight at 6 pm!

Please join us for the opening reception of:

Fowl Brood

Paintings by Britt Freda

First Friday, March 6, 6-9pm

Valise Gallery
(one door south of Gusto Girls)
17633 Vashon Hwy SW
fair Isle of Vashon

Bad Times, Inspiration for Artists

by Andrei Codrescu for NPR

I will be happy to see every American become a construction worker and a solar-panel installer. I mean, I will be happy to watch them do that because every American who won't put on a hard hat will have to do something easier and funnier — like Art.

The best art flourishes during two kinds of civic situations: 1. When everybody's at work and the artist is asleep; and 2. When everybody's depressed and there is a general depression and a whole lot of free time.

I've seen four decades of art-making in America. In 1968, there was art everywhere and there were artists on the streets and crashing on the floor, and there was new music, new poetry, new enthusiasm for secondhand clothes, street theater, and lots of love, not exactly free, but love anyway. There was also a recession and a stupid war started by pudgy-faced white men.

Then came the '70s, and there was a lot less art because there were a lot more police officers. There was also a lot less imagination going around because artists were being fished off the streets by the agents of God who descended to Earth in a mind-boggling variety of forms and drafted America's youth for nonprofit religious scams.

Then came the '80s, thank goodness, and art expanded again in a multihued explosion of expletive music and street action driven by raw rage and extreme amusement. Artists felt free not to give a hoot anymore and since nobody could make a living anyway, everybody felt free to manifest like a flaming phoenix wherever there was a spotlight. That's when new bohemians sprouted like fleas on dogs in every city. There was also a recovery and a new gentler police and a general makeover of the American image from snarling bully to smiling prosperity engine.

The smiles got so wide in the '90s, artists joined the general hallelujah chorus and quit making art with everything they had, preferring instead to produce precious saleable objects to contribute to the general esthetic health of the self-satisfied McMansion.

When all that ended, just a few months ago, artists started remembering again what they were for, which is to not be like anything else because they have a job making everything else both more interesting and more real. So it's art time in America again, because everybody's broke. And if everybody gets a hard hat, we should get one, too, to dodge, hopefully, what the citizens will be hurling at us.

Ontogeny Recapitulates Philogeny

Once upon a time, humans lived on family farms and in villages. Humans raised chickens for sustenance and pleasure. It was an honest relationship, built upon natural cycles.

In her exhibit, Fowl Brood, Seattle painter Britt Freda celebrates the chicken, Gallus gallus. The show opens March 6 at Vashon Island’s new gallery, VALISE, at 17633 Vashon Highway SW.



Ms. Freda’s paintings depict exquisite birds, like the Belgian Mille Fleur and the Cochin Blue. The ancient breeds were as culturally distinctive as our ancestors. But this exhibit is more than an Ah-Shucks! homage to our feathered flocks.

I paint an up-close perspective of insects (honeybees) and agricultural animals, central to our human food chain, whose existence, evolution and future are being jeopardized by our cultural addiction to abundant consumption. Nature is bountiful, a land flowing with milk and honey, and resilient, but pushed out of balance essential components of our ecosystem are rapidly dying.

In a nod of approval to our provincial kin, Ms. Freda’s paintings contemplate chickens as symbols of self-reliance. Will we allow ourselves to become human versions of the industrial Leghorn broiler, living unfulfilled in cages? Or can we re-evolve to virtuous creatures?

I believe that the cracks in life are stuffed with surprise and the simplest of things, sometimes even chickens, are secretly studded with precious gems, tangible only to those who take the time to stumble. I believe that wealth is abundant when the common black of night, or an inky rooster, is jeweled by the light of places we imagine.

This is a show about the beauty of truth and our own natural cycles. The show runs through March.

Britt Freda - March 6 at Valise

The Fall of Zamfir?

DRESDEN – A senior investment banker with Credit Suisse First Boston has been arrested in Germany on charges of commercial espionage, prosecutors said Wednesday. A Bulgarian and two Romanian privatization officials have also been detained.

Vadim Benyatov, managing director in the investment banking department of Credit Suisse First Boston Europe in London, and Ramos Zamfir, a consultant working for CSFB, had been detained. Benyatov is responsible for the bank's business in central and Eastern Europe.

Two Romanian officials – Mihai Dorinel Mucea, who heads a state privatization department, and Radu Mihai Donciu, a former adviser to the Minister for Communications – have been detained on the same charges. Four other people, including another privatization official, are also being investigated in the case but have not been detained.

Prosecutors say the group, allegedly led by Zamfir, obtained secret commercial documents which they provided to foreign companies participating in the sale of Romanian state-owned tobacco companies.

Credit Suisse said in a statement sent to The Associated Press that the bank had “no reason to believe that any Credit Suisse employee has acted inappropriately” adding it would cooperate fully with the investigation. The statement said the bank would not comment further until “we have a clear understanding of the basis for these allegations.”

Unclaimed Luggage No Longer a Fear

For Immediate Release
Vashon, February 19, 2009.

New Gallery Opens March 6

A collective of artists have reclaimed the gallery space occupied one door south of Gusto Girls. The new gallery will be called VALISE. A valise is a traveling bag, a suitcase that hints of mystery and adventure. What’s inside? Where has it been? Where is it going? The bag is curiously anonymous, nostalgic, and worthy of a closer inspection.

VALISE stands for Vashon Artists Linked in Social Engagement. We chose these words for their humorous, ironic, and activist bent. The Ramos Zamfir Project is an example of artists linked in social engagement, a conspiracy of humor to be shared by all.

The artist for February’s smoke shop project is Vic Monchego. As a writer, interested in social commentary, he wanted to create “a fictional narrative that speaks to reverse gentrification, economic downturns, George Bailey’s Pottersville, xenophobia, and the dreams of immigrants.”

VALISE will be operated as an artist collective, by member artists. The gallery will be dedicated to presenting subjects and media that are daring, unexpected and emergent. We want to stir our audiences. We want to challenge members to initiate fresh work. We want to share the venue with the community and tempt new ideas.

Collective members will show about half the time, and artists from outside the Vashon Autonomous Zone will show the other half. VALISE hopes to be an important and accessible art venue for the community.

What’s inside?

VALISE will open March 6, 2009. The gallery’s first show will feature Seattle artist, Britt Freda. Ms. Freda’s show is titled “Fowl Brood.”

Cicero Interviews Monchego

Writer Noah Cicero Interviews Vic Monchego about “The Zamfir Project” at Monkey Tree Cafe

NC: So you think you’re an artist, do ya?

VBM: (laughes nervously) I dunno. Are you going to eat the rest of that coffee cake?

NC: Tell me about the origin of the Zamfir project.

VBM: Sure. Around Christmas time I was thinking about George Bailey and Pottersville and Bedford Falls. Pottersville doesn’t look so bad. The restaurants and clubs are full. People are out on the streets having fun. They still have a library. I think many dying American towns would kill to be as lively and exciting as Pottersville. Take Youngstown, Ohio as an example.

NC: Are you picking on Youngstown? If you are, I’m going to punch you in the head.

VBM: Ever been to the Jolly Bar? Youngstown is a blight, a boil, a bubo on the butt of the Buckeye State. Dusk in Youngstown smells of perpetual despair.

NC: So you wanted to re-make downtown Vashon into a Pottersville?

VBM: Something like that. These are interesting times. A period of anti-gentrification. I think that is a good thing in the long run. We were all getting too uppity, too concerned about aesthetics.

NC: Ramos is the cousin of Gheorghe Zamfir, Master of the pan flute.

VBM: I love Zamfir’s music. Especially when you hear it in an unexpected context. ‘The Lonely Shepherd” song in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill is brilliant.

NC: So Ramos is Romanian?

VBM: In hard, economic times, immigrants always get vilified. I wanted a Balkan. Nobody understands the Balkans. But Ray embodies the American dream. He escaped Nicolae Ceausecu’s Romania, came to America penniless and built an empire of pawn shops and cash centers.

NC: How do you feel about punking the local paper? Feel guility?

VBM: (laughs nervously) Actually, yes. A little bit. I’m not sure we really punked the paper. I hope at some level they knew a hoax was in the air and they were just playing along. I didn’t mean to be deceptive, manipulative. I just wanted folks to laugh. The paper can be kind of dull sometimes, especially the crime report. Besides, the article was well-researched and accurate. I think Leslie did a fantastic job. I’ll bring her some flowers. I hope there are no hard feelings.

NC: What happened to Ramos Zamfir?

VBM: He is being detained in Dresden after smuggling counterfeit cigarettes into Germany.

NC: What’s in the suitcase?

VBM: It’s a valise.

Noah Cicero is a writer and cultural critic. He lives in Youngstown, Ohio, and is the author of four books of fiction.

Romanians are Heavy Smokers

According to official statistics, Romania has strong and stable tobacco sales because Romanians are heavy smokers. This situation is not new or transient, but traditional, with a well-established pre-revolutionary history.

This history is, however, one of marked domination by national manufacturers. At the beginning of the 1990s, Romania’s opening to foreign investments brought it within reach of the most important international tobacco product manufacturers. They found in Romania a tobacco market that was already strong, yet far from saturation and with huge potential. This opening, supported by weak tobacco-related legislation, led to an interest in tobacco at the beginning of the 1990s.

Romanians were fascinated by the array of cigarettes and brands on offer, and that were promoted with aggressive advertising. Romanians quickly turned towards the new brands as a result. For many years, advertising tobacco through all media and without boundaries raised the curiosity of many non-smokers – especially young ones. Youth smoking was prevalent over the review period, and the overall smoking prevalence in Romania is currently forecast to increase.

Zamfir Comes to Town

18 FéVRIER 2009

A payday loan and pawn shop that will also sell luxury tobacco and snuff is slated to open March 1 at the former site of the 070 Gallery, according to a news release issued last month.

The circumstances around the shop’s opening, however, appear murky, and no one seems to know anything about its alleged owners, Peter and Ramos Zamfir. Efforts to reach them have proven unsuccessful.“If you are calling about the Black Russian Sobranies, our next shipment should clear customs on March 6,” a voicemail message on the phone number listed in their news release says.

The news release, slipped through the Beachcomber’s mail slot in the middle of the day, says the shop — Zamfir’s Micro — will offer up “micro pawn brokerage,” specializing “in small valuables such as jewelry and rare coins.” The shop will also offer an “assortment of tobacco and snuff from around the globe” as well as “an easy and confidential way to borrow money,” the release states.

Few seem to know anything about the Zamfirs, however, or, if they do, would not discuss the new business with a Beachcomber reporter. The building where Zamfir’s Micro would be located is owned by Chuck and Mary Robinson. But when contacted about the new tenant, Mary Robinson sounded shocked to hear a pawn broker was moving in next door. “I thought it was an artist,” she said.

She then referred all questions to Chuck, but when he did not return calls, The Beachcomber went to Robinson’s Furniture to discuss his new tenant. He declined to come out from a back room.“He doesn’t want to discuss his tenants with a reporter,” Mary Robinson told The Beachcomber.

Other immediate neighbors of the new pawn shop seemed puzzled or uncertain about the developments. Jeff Lewis at Winterbrook Realty said he believed the new tenant is an artist and that the sign is a joke, but at Vashon IT, next door, the owner and an employee shrugged their shoulders and looked at a Beachcomber reporter quizzically when asked about it. “All I know is what’s in the press release,” the employee said.

The Beachcomber then e-mailed Ramos Zamfir, whose e-mail address was included in the news release. He answered a few days later, saying he was headed to Germany but offering up this piece of information: “Our micro will be a jewelry pawn and we have many exotic tobacco products also. I wish to rent a larger warehouse by the market west of town. I think Troy Kindred will help us.” The Beachcomber then called Kindred, who said he’d never heard of Ramos Zamfir. “I walked past the old 070 Gallery and saw the sign in the window, and at first I thought it was a joke,” Kindred said. “But now I don’t, only because the world is upside down. Napa and Back Bay closing. A tattoo shop in the Old Fuller Store. You know, times they are a-changing.”

According to the news release, the Zamfir family also owns Midwest Money Centers in Youngstown, Ohio. But a Google search suggested that the owner is actually Michael Dohar, who has four shops in the Youngstown area. Reached by phone in Youngstown, Dohar said he’d never heard of the Zamfirs. What’s more, he added, his shops are all payday loan shops; he has a pawn brokerage license but hasn’t used it in years. He doesn’t sell tobacco, he added.

Might there be another Midwest Money Center? “I’m pretty sure we’re the only one,” he said. “We’ve got a corporate name.”And how does he feel about the fact that someone in Washington state is using his company’s name?“At least my name’s out on the coast,” Dohar answered. “As long as it’s name only … it’s no skin off my ass. We’re just a small, local operation.”

Source : http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/