Go, Go, Go around the east coast

So- per usual it's been a while since getting more stuff up here. Just a testament to how busy things are I suppose.

Right after the last post- my camera broke. wha whah. So there are some epic things missing in photograph form...

We spent a couple days in Ithica NY- which- was perhaps my favorite part of tour thus far (well... top 5 at least). We hiked around a bit, saw some amazing gorges, waterfalls, and a cool cemetery. We stayed with some anti-fracking activists at a place called Ghost Cat (where Ryan gave me my first real banjo lesson- renewing my faith and desire to actually play!) Maria and other Ghost Cat friends gave us the downlow on Fracking, including a copy of Gasland. It took us a bit to watch it- but once we did I realized that everything I was hearing about it is not just rumors- but real. And it's horrifying. Not only is it really awful, scary, and all other things bad- but it hits super close to home. Too close.

I knew it was in PA, and happening all over the place- but then I learned it's all over Ohio, too. The Marcellus Shale covers LOTS of Ohio- way more than I thought. AND after emailing an Ohio oil and gas organization, NEOGAP, I found out that on the eastern boarder of Ohio- companies are already working on leasing land. Terrifying. I still have a lot to learn about Fracking, but just thought I'd share that little bit of info I have and encourage folks to watch Gasland.

But anyway- after Ithica we did other cool stuff- like a presentation at a community garden in Providence (where we saw many cool things- like an old firehouse that is now a community space and apartments, a cool and amazing place called the Steal Yard, and did a great show at Brown University), an amazing show at Food for Thought Books in Amherst MA, and a couple of other things... all before getting to NYC (and getting a camera!)

Just testing out the new camera in staples...

Hahaha.

Flip book in action at the Commons during a dismantling monoculture presentation in Brooklyn.

Erin and Sully= friends foreveeer.

Subways and folding Wannabee booklets- the usual.

The massive show we did a Laguardia High school- a couple hundred students were there. Yikes!

Laquardia students getting up close and personal with the poster

After a short presentation on the True Cost of Coal, we did a mind maping at the Renaissance school.

It was ab0ut Police Behavior- and folks shared some very scary stories about police in their community with us.

And then we had lunch with Juan at school- yay!

And got to hang out while Juan taught students there how to screen print- using crayons!

Central park snacks with Roger- horrah!

Practicing trumpet on the dock of the house boat we stayed on in Brooklyn

Rolling posters on the top of the boat- getting ready for the mini-RMO show later that night.

RMO let us practice with the dance team that night- which was super fun! After we learned the dance to matador, the band took their practice to the street and did a small show for anyone who was around!

Mini show for RMO!

And Michaela and I practiced a new way of presenting the poster- using a technique of highlighting each scene in the poster by extending a hand to push it out more than the other images. We have a few details to figure out... but watch out for this new style soon!
(kidding.... clearly).

Hanging out on the boat.

And then- we went canoeing on the Gwanus. It is perhaps the most disquesting water i've ever seen...

But it was really fun and we avoiding touching the water at all costs- rumor has it the water its self has gonorrhea.

Erin- just hanging out in front of the ghost ship.

On the way to the Grange, we saw... a double rainbow! Oh My God! It's so vivid!!

It's starting to look like a triple rainbow!

We went to an old factory to see the very amazing acre of roof top community garden.

The garden is called The Grange- so naturally we had a minor freak out about how cool it was.

City scape meets food scape

Later that night, we played games at Johns house with many delighful people.

Of course, we played the drawing game... which one of the best ones went like this...
"(1) molly and erin picked a pack of moichi ice cream balls.
(2) erin and michaela pick and eat dandelion flowers under the sun.
(3) heres the thing about those bees: they graze like sheep.
(4) When the bees saw that they couldn't free the ram, they were so upset they threw up in the grass.
(5) sheeps milk makes bees vomit. "
haha! so great!

The we jumped out of NYC for an afternoon show in NJ

And then we headed back to the big city and... It was Halloween! In a last ditch effort for costumes- we decided to embrace the cliche and all three go as Bees! So we did a show at the very amazing Bluestockings book store dressed as bees... ahaha!

We even had wings!

She's cute. I like her.

We took this opportunity to have delicious photo shoots in the corner... (haha).

Dancing at the c-squat after party for critical mass (which- we missed because of the presentation that evening).

And that night- Michaela had to leave the US of A because of these weird and horrid things they call boarders. We stayed out as late as we could (which- wasn't very late...) and stayed up with her until she had to run out the door at about 4 am to catch a train to get the airport. She was flying out to Panama and then busing to Guatemala to do solidarity work with folks impacted my mining there. She's great.

We miss her a lot.

beehive real world

So, it's now week 2 (3?) of tour. After leaving Appalachia Rising, Michaela, Erin and I jumped into little red and hit the road.

You know, just taken good bye photos (the day east coast tour left dc- meaning we won't see each other in a super long time).

From there, we headed to the Yestermorrow Design School, in Warren Vermont. We rolled into town a couple hours before our evening show. It was my first presentation of the True Cost of Coal!

That night, we went out to the Theater/Coffee house/Bar/Open mic/doughnut shop across town.

And we got to sleep in a super cute strawbale cabin a bit up the mountain the school is located next to (they built it!).

Since it's a design school, they have all sorts of really cool building around- such as this really amazing tree house!

And it's handicapped accessible!

Horray for tree houses!! Too bad it was too cold and rainy to sleep in it that night...

Composting toilet... with zipper door!

They even helped us make a new back 'window' for our truck.

Ah, so helpful! They even helped us put it on, in the rain, under a tarp. Yippie!

After Yestermorrow, we rolled into Burlington and did a show in the garage of a collective house there. We weren't there very long and the show was fairly impromptu, but it was great and everyone there was super friendly.


Our next stop was in Troy, NY. We were hosted by the very cool Sanctuary for Independent Media , a old church that has been made into a community center that does lots of diy media work (and other cool stuff)!

On Friday night, we did an evening 'gallery' showing and presentation, and there was a very fun band that played, too! The next morning, we did a three hour workshop, an evening presentation, and helped facilitate a post-movie (showing of 2012) mind mapping exercise. It was busy busy, but lots of fun.

Once we left Troy, we headed to do a show at the Orchard School,. located in Alstead, NH.We stayed with Ann and got to help celebrate her birthday. We had infused vodkas she made (like orange pine and blueberry and other amazing flavors), slept in a yurt, and spent the next morning using a computer at the bakery there, and picking apples from the orchard!

We did a show in the after school program, with about 20-30 kids from ages 4-8 or so (?). It was really cool. We did 'where's waldo' with the coal poster, drew a bug dance party, colored the poster and shared stories about the poster! Super cute, but somehow we didn't take any photos (what!?). That evening we did an 'adult' presentation, which was really great, too- but not nearly as cute.

We did two classroom visits at Emmanuel College in Boston, sharing the True Cost of Coal and trying to get more indepth with Beehive method sharing, too.


And after a few other things in Boston, it was time for HONK!- a festival of activist street marching bands. Yes, it is as cool as it sounds! We had a huge set up and husstled posters ALL day, and then in the evening we packed up and went out to dance to the great music all around! We got a chance to see What Cheer? Brigade. We danced, they played, they danced, we all had fun.

After that, we headed to the after party, where they had amazing food catered there and FREE beer (free GOOD beer, at that!)

We saw many friends at Honk, including Woods!

The next day, was the parade! It was the first year the beehive with in the parade, and even though we were kinda small scale, we had lots of set up to do and folks worked super hard to make a way to carry the banner in the parade.

We could fold and unfold it while we walked- so cool!

Erin got extra dressed up for the parade- go erin, go!

Michaela helped break down the story of the True Cost of Coal once we crashed a space at Octoberfest.

Chattin it up

We love, love LOVE Rude Mechanical Orchestra, so much. We somehow made it to every show they did that weekend and dance the whole time!

And then we went home (being very much so in the way of bostonites trying to get where ever they were going on the sidewalks...)


Nate made out with Thomas...

Erin looked Hawt, super hawt.


Hanging out with Susie and John, at their great home in Sommerville (Boston), before heading out for dinner and the show at the end of HONK! They gave us a home for the whole time we were in Boston, and Susie helped organize HONK! which gave us a great in for things like the parade and after party.

That night, we all had tickets to go see all the bands play 3 song (or so) sets (we had tickets, thanks to Susie!). It was really great because we didn't have much time during the day to see bands so we got to check it out after. So many great bands played... I can't even handle it!

And no matter how sad it may be, good things like HONK! have to come to an end (until next year anyway). But, that's ok because we then headed to Gill, MA where we stayed with Aaron for a night on the farm. Always lovely. In the morning, we headed to do a show in Brattleborro High School, which was AMAZING!

We had two full hours, so we shared a bit about the Beehive, then did some methodology sharing and made mind maps. Then we got to connect the three different mind maps (Education, the War in Iraq, and Homophobia in Schools), which was really cool to see people making all sorts of connections that maybe we didn't see before.

We've been very very busy (as you can see...). So busy this has been the first time I had to update, and today we took our first real morning off. We had coffee, played scrabble, and went for a hike up a mountain that overlooked Brattleborro! So lovely. We also got to see some students from the high school do an art instilation, where folks are making artwork in the sidewalks all across the city! Really cool! And now, we have a show in about 2 hours and are getting ready to have a lovely curry dinner with our hosts! Horray!