forget toulouse-lautrec. joey draws absinthe. better.

mr. joey veltkamp crafted several charming drawings for the tablecloth at the recent dinner one pot and caffe vita hosted at cremant. chef scott emerick killed it - with little vine dried tomatoes stuffed with pork and foie gras sausage, a lush celery root and chanterelle soup, the big yellow pot filled with dense and lovely cassoulet, and a chocolate cognacs to finish. thanks scott and tanya.

corridor project: directions to the ross island table

here are the directions to the 18 foot table we installed on ross island. the table is rather pretty - and smartly designed by my beloved friend and artist mark lakeman. if you head out to the island please let us know. it is in a no-trespass zone - not the most scenic setting if you like "pretty" - but it is a powerful place to consider the city of portland, its charms and a couple of its dirty secrets. the lagoon in the center of ross island is none other than a 200 foot deep hole in the willamette river - quite literally the negative space that built much of the city - and much of the structure of the interstate 5 - and in the process tragically degraded the river.

for more about the 2 year inquiry that is the corridor project...

next stop: pomona college - for a two day hike to the interstate - through city and woods and concrete jungle...

one pot + absinthe + cremant = sept. 24th

the ever talented chef scott emerick of my favorite neighborhood bistro in the west - cremant - has just received a shipment of some kind of bonafide absinthe - you can expect that I will be merely sipping the myth-rich spirit - but I suggest you go full throttle and find out exactly why verlaine shot rimbaud and drove the young poet off to ethiopia to sell coffee. I have asked scott to re-animate a couple items he was taught while cooking at the michelin 3 star guy savoy in paris. don't expect a degustation menu - this is about absinthe and pots of food - but it shouldn't be missed - 20 seats only. and of course some fine coffee from ethiopia will follow...

7pm. $70 person - includes absinthe and wine and food and merriment.
email onepotorg@gmail.com to reserve.

from the ross island dinner.

some new photos of the first leg of the corridor project. for more information on this 2 year inquiry into the interstate 5 corridor... go here...

the corridor project is part of a gathering of artists and words and ideas called suddenly - corridor project work + the work of many remarkable artists can be seen/experienced at reed college starting sunday september 21st.

photos by sergio

extra special private reception with The National

September 19th at the Moore Theatre (seattle)

ONE POT and Caffe Vita have been helping put together a lovely fundraiser for the National Co-op Grocers Association. Come early – pay a little extra – and get small bites from Scott Emerick of Cremant, Scott Staples of Quinn’s, and Ericka Burke of the Volunteer Park Café – and then before the masses arrive pick out front row seats for The National (possibly the best new indie album of last year – tho my vote still goes to Arthur and Yu) and pdx darlings Menomena. This is a damn fine opportunity to see some amazing music – up close – and eat some splendid food. Everyone can thank the gentlemen at Neumos for making this event a reality.

Early super rad private reception: $50. 5:30 - 7:30. Front Row Seats. email hebberoy@gmail.com.

General Admission Concert. buy tickets here...

songs for eating and drinking + arthur and yu

the darling seattle band arthur and yu makes music that makes the world stop a bit - i consider that a profound achievement - i listened to their first full album (hardly art 2007) a couple million times - i will listen a couple million more.

i was honored and honored and honored to have grant at the table in early august when we launched songs for eating and drinking - he played my favorite song in their young repertoire - a bonus track that didn't make the cd - a song about "horse meat" - thank you grant.

for more songs from the common table go to songsforeatinganddrinking.com

bumbershoot... is... over...

it was a wild three days - or rather 8 months - of planning, sweating, cooking, filming, damn - i am still too exhausted to write much more than that - it left me very fulfilled and completely spent.

we are working on post production - and should soon have remarkable sound and video of:
matthew caws of nada surf
enchanting musical rants by the nick jaina band
genius award winner rebecca brown singing paul revere
wunderkind photographer chase jarvis
tilson of the saturday knights
the maldives getting sentimental
a brilliant sly contribution by a hero of mine chip kidd

and dozens of others ranging from age 8 to age 88 (how old is deedee rainbow?) drawing attention at the table and contributing some damn moving shit about 1968.

and since i don't have anything finished to show yet - here is link to some initial photos from drew and a new video from the first songs for eating and drinking dinner - featuring ritchie of loch lomond singing his pretty heart out.



videos of stone gossard, arthur and yu, the saturday knights, head like a kite, fences, plus insanely beautiful pics, recipes, at songsforeatinganddrinking.com

and to close the bshoot post... a huge shout out to:

the bumbershoot production crew who ended up being remarkably supportive - matt stegner who spent a multitude of hours capturing some brilliant audio recordings - michael and wendy on cameras, holly, stephanie, theo, johnathan, alicia, rachel, emily, matt, erin, juniper, amy, drew, dustin, the ice cream man.. i am missing someone - all put it in hours upon hours, and whitney and sam made the thing happen.

and a huge thank you to adobe, nw film forum, frank's produce, , urban hardwoods, macrina bakery, pedersen rentals, and big mario for making this project possible.

ONE POT + BUMBERSHOOT: THE TOAST

if you can't make dinner - here is the kindof toast that will fill the room to get things rolling - it will be less cardboardy and pretentious when i shout it out to the room - i would love to have your digital submissions as well - creating a kind of digital bumbershoot table - add them as comments - or email them to hebberoy@gmail.com - we will add them to the site.

The kind of toast i might make on saturday, sunday, monday night:

greetings - you are here at one pot at bumbershoot so that i can feed you - but also so that i can get something from you - the basic request is one of reciprocation – I cook you dinner and you bring me something – it seems to be that this basic exchange is the root of most culture. money is an unfortunate substitution for basic reciprocity – it is silent, and generally rather dirty, "it don't sing and dance
and it don't walk" - many cultures have (had) great ritual in the matters of the table and the guest/host relationship – the greeks in the classical era were famous for long treatises on the importance of proper exchange – the table was central to this – the collapses of this code often resulted in calamity. take for instance when paris decided to take more than food from the the table of menelaus (he slipped helen of troy into his pocket) the result was the most mythologized war if all time. so don’t steel my woman – I will burn down your village.

restaurant tables do not offer this kind of currency. this table was built as a kind of modern agora for an exchange about a very important time – 68 changed our world – I don’t profess to be of high knowledge about this era – this year – in fact I wasn’t even born – but I launched this project to learn about how it came to pass that all the way around the globe thought and ideas turned into action – the world is filled with ideas – and yet the world has arguably never seen as much action as it did in 1968. why?


so you are here – I offer you a simple stew – and bread – a proletariat meal if you will – hopefully you drank heavily prior to arriving. clink your glass and tell me something about ’68, or civil disobedience, or social uprising, or the basic magic of thought turning into action… be it a song – a piece of writing, a reading from one of the texts that clutter our table, an artifact, a story, a sound. or just leave here and tell of the experience – in a matter that will be just as powerful.

(the sound of glasses clinking - and bowls filling with stew)

SONGS FOR EATING AND DRINKING LAUNCHES

This may be the most exciting moment in One Pot's short history. Take a quick look at the remarkable video above created by Chase Jarvis and Co. (the handsome man playing guitar is the famed guitarist Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam) and then take a spin over to www.songsforeatingandrinking.com...

This night caught by flashing cameras and perfect microphones will forever be etched in my memory - stone gossard, tiny vipers, arthur and yu, loch lomond, sarah rudinoff, the saturday knights, and fences all performing show-stopping songs about eating and drinking while sharing a tremendous feast of baby back ribs, succotash, and strawberries and little delicate pastries... (thank you ericka burke) The photos and the videos tell the story - go go go go...

ONE POT + BUMBERSHOOT

One Pot will be "in residency" this year at the Bumbershoot Festival. We are taking one of the massive Northwest Rooms hostage for the entire weekend. The idea is rather simple - I will be cooking some very lovely, very simple dinners - you will be coming and bringing some very thoughtful words, songs, artifacts... you bring something - i cook food - you bring something. simple.

And something a little more specific than anything.

We are taking advantage of this amazing space - building a long gorgeous table from a tree that recently fell down in Marysville, WA - constructing a kitchen - and sharing food - in the honor of an odd but important anniversary - 1968 - a year that saw more riotous uprising than any other year in the history of man - or so they say. They also say 68 reshaped the world, they also say 68 will never happen again. 68 is the topic - but your contribution to the dinner could also have something to do with radicalism, uprising, rebellion, etc etc in any form. I wasn't even born when the trouble started in Prague in the springtime of '68 - so don't be discouraged.

So to recap - you come with something - literally - some piece of writing - some piece of music you want to perform - some piece of literature you found - some kind of artifact - to be shared at the table. dinner is free. bumbershoot is not.

email me if you would like to pre-reserve a spot. hebberoy@gmail.com

Dinner:

6pm Saturday August 30th
6pm Sunday August 31st
6pm Monday September 1st.

Midnight Supper. Capitol Hill Block Party.

the pictures tell it best. but quickly: a midnight performance by seattle stars Throw Me The Statue, a candlelight romp with Chromeo, a 1000 degree brick oven in which we cooked baby turnips, sweet carrots, plump sausages, dreamy squash, delicate beet greens, bloody lamb ribs, all served alongside bowl after bowl of vibrant aioli - it went till 3:30 am - it was a brilliant end to a phenomenal weekend of music...

a dinner with christian lander. july 15th.

white people like christian lander. it is harder to tell whether or not christian lander likes white people. i had one presumably non-white person tell me they were deeply offended i was doing a dinner with christian lander. i didn't know how to respond. anger, remorse, laughter, confusion and in the end it just left me stumped. i think his blog is laugh out loud funny. i am white.

and.

i want to talk to christian. i want a thirty people to talk to christian, intimately. and i want to do it at the hideout in the company of greg lundgren and friends. and i want to raise a glass to his remarkably amusing effort: www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com. i am still stumped. but gladly. is this really all that controversial?

dinner with christian. 6pm. the hideout. $60. includes his new book. email onepotorg@gmail to request a seat.

book signing and cocktail imbibing with christian. 8pm. the hideout. free and open to the public.

this event happening because kim ricketts is rad.

the corridor project begins. late june.

the 1 maybe 2 year engagement under, along, in the middle of, arching over, and floating next to the interstate 5 corridor begins late june. the first dinner is not being televised for fear of giving the folks in the yellow and black boats too much notice. more on the project...

an introduction - late night october 2006.

in october of 2006 i woke up at 3am - shaken from sleep - thumbed through some channels - and eventually grabbed my computer. i had been trying to figure out what was next - how i could work in the world of food, but not be constrained by the conventions that didn't suit me - i had responded to this context in the year 2000 when my former partner and i formed family supper and ripe - but things had changed - i was different - and i wanted different things from the table - and wanted to contribute different things to our culture at large.

i scribbled these paragraphs together - and without much of a thought posted them on onepot.org - two years later one pot is coming into some kind of self awareness - still amorphous - still.

first one pot description:

"one pot is meant to be a bit more than a way of cooking, or a way to gather people, or a way to make some cash. it is meant as a gesture – a gentle fuck you – to the corporate little box we reside in and are supposed to dine in – you might see one pot plastered around town with an upside down trademark, an underscore, a conflation that says I am open source. if you are in nebraska, toledo, alabama, please take the name one pot, use it, put up posters, tag it, cook something simple, gather people and charge them money, or charge nothing, do it in a monastery, do it on a hill, your apartment, wherever, or don’t do it at all.

you want something more clear: I’m not a big fan of the transparent, a clumsy tool – but i will let you know the way I am personally using this thing called one pot - this brand that i am offering to any takers who feel the call – my little corporate one pot world headquarters in seattle washington will be hosting dinners in various locations – some open to the public and listed here, some deeply private and not listed anywhere, where we cook one simple thing in one simple pot and serve it to a group of willing participants. the main thing served on said evenings will have cooked long and hard and slow in an aged vessel. it is hardly any more complicated.

if you do decide to start your own one pot thing – be it a dinner, or a boxing match (food is not required - nothing is actually required) let me know and i will do my best to promote your endeavors, however tired, brilliant, or just plain not they may be… your event will be listed here - indiscriminately - with my own - it will be talked about in our email newsletters, it will get noticed. but. you need to send me some pictures, a broken plate, a story, some kind of talisman that speaks of what happened. if you are serious and ready (or just amused or like sending spineless little insults) email me at onepotorg@gmail.com. ‘till then."

one pot + gabriel and sam's liberation seder = april 24th

a remarkable night. more soon. 

one pot + the raconteurs = april 21st.

from our new unofficial headquarters in the pike street fish fry there will probably be several opportunities to cook large unruly dinners for traveling indie legends. the fry is precariously perched in the neumos tree fort and just about every rock world darling worth their salt passes through the increasingly glamorous club/bar/fishfry complex – sometimes it will just be a quick bite of fish but occaisionally we will convince a road weary band that sitting down to a long table and eating deeply and drinking wide are worth the time – the American indie rock tour seems to be unsurprisingly attention deficit disorder-ed. bands spend little to no time in each place – eat complete crap from whatever is in a 2 block radius, knock out a show and hit the road often directly after the performance. the only respite from this march seems to be in towns and cities where friends reside – I have seen many a band rescued from the battle ground for 2-3 hours fed some vegan specialty and dropped back at the club. I have alternately gained new respect for musicians that tour and desaturated any fantasy I ever had about living the life of a rock musician.

from that vantage point I am thrilled to provide something a bit more cultural than the taco-bell-take-out-window for the road bound– our first opportunity came in the form of a person I have idolized from afar for years – yep – jack white. the raconteurs newest tour was self described as “a small club tour” – but the band didn’t seem to reduce their production staff to reflect the size of the venue. we got word that they were interested in sitting down together – supping in the one pot style – sharing food and wine with the band, the opening act and the entire production crew. i must say I was rather peeing myself with excitement – not really just to meet jack – as I knew it wouldn’t be some kind of Gilgamesh like reunion of two lost brothers – I have found celebrities to be rather distant and often difficult to converse with – but just to insert a genuine food experience in the middle of their tour had me whistling with excitement.

then it happened – the American thing – 5 minutes before dinner – things changed. this wasn’t some slopped together feast – super star chef and dear friend matt dillon from sitka and spruce fame was upstairs in the fry kitchen hand rolling cous cous, deep frying whole radishes, making a sumptuous fish stew. the table was set for 25 – the candles were aflicker – we were swishing about in an electric fashion – anticipating – and then the production manager whispers in my ear.

it looks like we are going to need to do this a bit differently… the raconteurs are going to eat alone….

why? good question. but that is how it went down – the band members took their seats in the middle of the long long very long table. and we very politely served them – brendan benson was a supreme gentleman – thrilled about the food, fascinated by the nettle salsa verde – and very curious about the entire one pot project. jack was a bit more regal and aloof...

one pot + ethiopia = capitol hill

we brought our experiences in ethiopia home. a sprawling evening of ood (ethiopian incense), honey wine and stunning food by HIDMO. again more soon on this one as well.

see more pics and some videos from the ethiopia voyage here.

one pot for naught = april 9th

a dinner with justin neideremeyer of pian pianino.

one pot + las estacas mexico

there have been anonymous one pots reportedly held around the globe - i have gotten dispatches from slovenia, kentucky, quebec, dinners that people decided to put together under the one pot banner. some of these wonderful people send over pictures, and accounts of the evening - here is one such fete held in an ecological park in morelos mexico. the pots slowly stewed in a solar cooker - still waiting for the details of the menu.

photos by sandro canovas.

one pot + the fortune cookie chronicles = march 30th

a perfectly captivating evening with the sparkling jennifer 8. lee - author of the equally sparkling new book the fortune cookie chronicles. i will write more on this soon - jennifer is one of the sharpest pens in the food world. we are planning round II presently.

see some pics and here more about the evening on jennifer's overflowing blog.

one pot + sidamo = february 28th

there is much to say about this trip - and the two one pot dinners - one deep in the wilds of sidamo with thirty tribal coffee farmers and one in addis ababa with many of the leaders of the ethiopian coffee industry. i promise i will shed light on this voyage soon.

one pot + implied violence = jan 11

hard to explain this cacophonous event.

piles of cut lemons, men shaving, barley girl getting slapped - 5 courses - hard to remember the menu - so many things - avant theatre group implied violence owned the night - one pot merely filled in the corners.

one pot + detroit II = date tbd

we did this once – we are going to do it again – and probably again. I tried to actually manifest one of these tents in rio last week – but it just wasn’t the right time, but those lovely rio folk (cariocas) have insisted that I come back down and do it – and do it right – they want to eat and drink and talk detroit, what did marcio botner say.. “it is just such a f#cked up idea, we need to do it.”
god bless ‘em.
so instead of blasting you with the details – click here for the invitation to the first one, the upcoming dateless thing will be similar
and talk to me about detroit – I need old family recipes, photos, whatever – we are opening pandora’s box here, give me stuff. -MH
location: the hideout

one pot + hideout = dec 23

once again we are going to take over the main flank of this brilliant room of drinks - the hideout will remain open - their regular customers will be quite confused when they find a 30 foot table anchored in the middle of the floor… - MH
SOLD OUT

one pot + arcade = dec 6

thursday night swing by rainier square. we will be having a little shindig with the fine folks at arcade. for those of you new to the journal it is one of the clearest most respected voices on architecture and art and design in the region – they decided perhaps foolishly to give me the reigns for the upcoming issue – it is their first look at food and how it intersects with the more refined forms of culture. beast meets koolhaas. this is a simple gathering – drink some wine – eat a few snacks – and pick up the freshly printed pieces of pretty paper. everyone is invited.
location: rainier square atrium – 1333 5th avenue – enter on 4thtime: 5:30- 10details: gratis – and no reservations required. this is just a reception.
http://www.arcadejournal.com/
- MH

photos by drew zandonella-stannard
www.onemoresalute.com

one pot + songs for eating and drinking = dec 16

this first dinner is a test run. an idea hatched by one pot, the ever rocking venue neumos, and the folks at caffe vita . concept: get a bunch of insanely talented musicians together – and let them share songs, food, and drink. many a musical career starts with small audiences, impromptu performances, late night mutterings - and then the lucky end up on large stages and tucked deep inside recording studios - often vastly disconnected from those that love their music. my friends in the music industry have bellyached that industry folk hardly ever share food in a meaningful way – or rarely just get together and f’in chill. so we decided to throw together a simple night, set a couple long tables in an empty rock club, cook up some sturdy drinking food, set the table with bottles of whiskey – and throughout the night let songs rise up from the table. we invited about fifteen of northwest’s better known talents to consider the ancient tradition of the drinking song (and its bastard sister the easting song) – they said yes bless them – and so the night will roll out as such. I sadly can’t invite everyone to this particular table – but I am keeping you posted because if this one isn’t a disaster we will continue – and the musical offerings will be recorded – and most likely you will soon be able to listen in. and if you are a musician – host one – make it happen – record it – share it with us.
huge thanks to neumos and makers mark and vita for making this night possible. - MH
SOLD OUT

one pot + the vera project = dec 12

ONE POT and Vita collaborated with Sole Repair on December 12th to raise a bunch of cash for The Vera Project. The evening featured a bunch of glorious food by ONE POT (ropa vieja, dirty rice, avocado salad), a sparkling brand new event space (Sole Repair), and coffee we just brought back from a remarkable farm in Guatemala Finca Nuevo Vinas and performances by Dead Science Mass Sugar and Husbands Love Your Wives. Pics by Micah

one pot + brazil = oct 22

as many of you know local coffee roaster caffe vita and one pot have started a multi-dimensional project to criss-cross the globe together. vita spends its time developing relationships with farmers – cutting through the layers of middlemen – and buying beans directly from farmers – really really good farmers. and one pot hits the ground and figures out how to invoke a table on the ground in these regions – and pack it full of good farmers, and maybe some bad farmers and pickers, brokers, writers… the idea is to use the table to incite dialogue and understand what the hell is actually going on in the world of coffee – the table like a big long examination table – I will save you all of the details here as you can pop over to the one pot + vita site and read at length about the project – so far it has been incredible.

on the 22nd we delve into brazil – we have the coffee – we even have the farmer – we have rich footage from the lush farms – we have footage from the favelas in rio – we will have artisan cachaca for caipirinhas, we will be recreating the food that we feasted on in brazil – the same meal we ate with the farmers. essentially we have a little slice of brazil. but don’t expect only niceties – brazil is one of the brightest and yet still darkest carpets of the globe. - MH

our pics from brazil:

one pot + sweet crude = oct 14

we are thrilled to have a rare opportunity to engage with the irrepressibly brilliant sandy cioffi on the heels of her film premiere. sandy’s documentary sweet crude recently premiered seattle international film festival. sweet crude deeply questions the stark contrast between the insanely oil rich nigerian delta and the impoverished almost dehumanized state of its inhabitants.
and on this particular night we have a postcard from the nigerian delta. but better than a postcard an actual fleshy postcard. and one with lungs and a huge f#cking heart.
this sunday we are going to make some nigerian pepper soup – and we are going to sit with and share soup with and talk with and drink with and go late into the night with super nova filmmaker sandy cioffi and guest of honor - joel bisina – joel has been a critical leader in the nigerian delta – a kind of lighthouse of hope – and he is here in seattle - he came all the way from the delta – and if you missed the first viewing of sweet crude – you missed something remarkable – but it is a work in progress – and we are going to see new footage – and hear what is happening right now – today – in the delta. this will be casual. you will bring your own bowl and your own spoon. seriously. and we will provide soup. and you will bring wine or whiskey or whatever.
location: verite madrona (verite gallantly funded sweet crude – thank you jody and crew…)time: 6:30bring: wine to share, a bowl, and a spoon.price: whatever you want to pay – I will subtract my food expense and the rest goes directly to the kids in the delta. a little goes a long way. a lot goes even further. - MH

photos by drew zandonella-stannard
www.onemoresalute.com

one pot + architecture for humanity = oct 4

cameron and kate started Architecture for Humanity in 1999 – and since it has become an international phenomenon – and their project (in my opinion) presently stands as one of the most poetic and pragmatic responses to the tragic realities of extreme poverty. their new book Design Like You Give a Damn just hit the shelves – i could gush – but really – you should just check out their work. they will be detailing a dizzying array of projects at town hall in seattle on wednesday oct. 3rd – and then we get them for dinner. one sentence: they have effectively and directly connected thousands of architects and engineers with imperiled communities the world over - the projects that have been birthed are slap-you-in-the-face inspiring. and on thursday night we are going to head south – and share some tales about south america.
i just got back from a remarkable trip with caffe vita manifesting a one pot in the coffee region of sul de minas brazil and then trekking over to rio – where i spent a fair amount of time in the favelas. i am going to share the food i experienced (specifically moqueca – think coconut seafood palm oil) and share some great footage from a specific project i stumbled upon (actually i owe thanks to steph and mk) projeto morrinho and we have the coffee vita directly sourced from the farms we visited. and we get to hear about a couple projects that AFH has undertaken in that part of the world. It should be a rich night – hope – architecture – fish stew – brazillian coffee – stop action animation from deep within the favelas. you should cancel other plans. - MH

one pot + guatemala = sept 16

in an ironic twist the land slice that is guatemala once upon a time hosted the first political state in the americas – a sprawling cosmopolitan metropolis called el mirador – the epicenter center of a brilliantly organized ancient highway system with 26 satellite cities, the largest pyramid in history, and a sparkling civic galaxy. fast forward to the present day and we peer into one of the most unstable and war torn balls of land in either hemisphere. guatemala has been screwed, left and right, up and down, screwed by the spanish, screwed by the nimble giant called the united fruit company (read: chiquita), screwed by the c.i.a., then they started screwing each other in thirty years of bloody civil war – maybe the orgy of self interest and exploitation will cease – but in the middle of this tense land of staggering beauty, fiery volcanoes, dense jungles, there is some of the best, most redolent coffee in the world.

and up high on a hill, in the middle of a palatial mansion, the july torrents pelting the windows, one pot sat down to dinner with about 15 farmers, a few international brokers, a politician, and several farm hands. it was a comic night, theatrical and odd, but we did eat a stunning mayan stew called suban-ick, and eat soft mouthed tamales, and drink goblets full of lilting/dense local rum. and we did rip right into the side of what it means to grow coffee in a place like guatemala. and it was heated, arguments arose, and laughter broke out, and in the end there was a kind of gratitude snowlike on the ground – our gratitude, but also the gratitude of local attendees – they said “we never do this – we never sit down and really really talk about this infernal crop…”. so a small part of a nubile but growing international conversation began. and on september 16th we bring back our findings. we will cook the mayan stew. we will drink the coffee. we will drink the rum. we will see flickering images. and we will also converse.

a moral to this story: drink guatemalan coffee, maybe even drink lots of it, it is bright, and layered with fruit and chocolate, but know from where the coffee comes – it is a difficult land and not all the apples are made the same… - MH

our pics from the guatemala vita/one pot trip:

one pot + bridge motel = sept 15

for one strange night we get to witness a kind of haunting – something like poltergeist meets psycho meets artaud – wtf? – apparently there is a motel in the deep north end of seattle – and according to posted warnings it will soon get blown to bits – but in that moment – that inbreath – before it is rubble – a few dozens artists are going to inhabit its halls, back themselves into its yellowed rooms, tumble among the stained and rich sheets. installations, performance art, war dances, like I said… hauntings. I really couldn’t tell you much more than that. but I suggest you pack the family cruiser and head in a northerly direction.
we are going to do something that night – I am still deciding – but it will include a long table – and some big pots – and plenty of food – but it will also include participation – I need volunteers and the curious – we might just gather a large pile of food – and start cooking together – and then dine on whatever we jointly prepare. I think that is the idea – a kind of ritualized cooking among strangers. so I guess - let me know if you want to come along.
and if you want something a little less cryptic about the bridge motel business – go to http://www.motelmotelmotel.com/ - MH

post script: 40 people showed up to create dinner - and found a kitchen - a table - and no-host. they had to create their own feast - the food was there - in pristine condition - unprepared - but with instructions - the night was a tremendous success - or so they tell me - they fed around 80 people that night in the middle of the maelstrom of the bridge motel. and i got to shoot a cautionary message through the one pot work: in this strange land of pots everyone is completely responsible for their own experience - culture is created, not produced.

photos by drew zandonella-stannard
www.onemoresalute.com

one pot + how hitler saved my life = sept 8

on Thursday august 9th one pot was witness to a major transformation. we had invited artist and agent-provocateur jim riswold to come back home –he filled a moving truck full of pictures and turned a dusty half finished gallery on cap hill into a rather sensationally exposition – the topic. well, food. and more importantly – bad people: tyrants, real life monsters, essentially colossal f#ckers. if you haven’t seen the show – go – seriously. it will be up till mid september and it will make you laugh – and as riz so cleverly points out these f#ckers hate to be laughed at.
and if you haven’t seen riswold speak – then mark the 8th on your calendar and head down. riswold’s story will amaze – a few hints – jim was one of the most powerful creative directors known to man, he helped start and definitely helped elevate that lil’ ad company called wieden and kennedy (w+ k is vaguely famous for a couple words strung together: just do it). and then at the peak of his career (and majestic partnership in the firm) cancer intervened, a serious amount of the nasty stuff. most doctors would say an amount WAY way beyond lethal – and the ornery bastard decided to keep living – but he said adieu to the upper elevations of advertising and now he plays with toys – and the results are so worth your time.
jim will be leading us through this painfully funny journey. and we will have high tea, and sweet-tea-time-things. - MH