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Date Posted: 09:27:08 08/17/09 Mon
Author: SS
Subject: ****************EROSFESTP1**************

Feisty Flaming Nora! My head is still spinning like a tantric turntable after the first-ever ErosFest Northwest over the past weekend which, in all consistence to the North Star, has positively changed my life profoundly on multiple levels, even while on the outside I will always be observed as a gentle, introverted, lucubratory, generally reticent spirit to everyone who knows and loves me (to read my pre-festival ponderings, refer to my note here ).



In fact, I felt like I was on vacation from August 6th through August 9th, despite the fact that I volunteered approximately 102 hours (including meals/snacks and "hurry up and wait" lulls) from Monday of last week through this past Sunday (or an average of fourteen and a half hours each day) with both pre-festival digital outreach and right-hand man styled assistance, as well as a diverse slate of random festival tasks and responsibilities (aside from a specific role as Volunteer Team Leader for Workshop Assistant volunteers on Saturday) that I grasped as each one presented itself to me. It was like the florid fantasy of "The Chronicles of Prydain" meets the big tent bluster of the Minsky Brothers and the Rentz-Santley Novelty and Burlesque Company meets a somewhat Westernized version of the Thanthra Vidya Peedhom (the world's first Tantra school) meets your favorite Ibiza nightclub meets Burning Man.........and even then any association will never fully explain just how momentous and extraordinary this festival was. As my friend and Event Liaison Michael Kaiser said so candidly multiple times: "It doesn't get any crazier than this!"



It can be easy for many who did not have the opportunity to attend this festival to tag it as a "fringe" festival. Though it certainly pushed the envelope beyond the conventional festival form, I would strongly disagree with any such assertion, for the simple undeniable fact that my friend, and festival founder and chair Gabriella Cordova grew up in Amsterdam with her mother, who was one of the very first Tantric practicioners and call ladies in the region, and she was immersed in a gaudy, convivial culture where the Red Light District and a melting pot of various artistic disciplines boiled together, from theater to dance, from comedy troupes to seminars...........not to mention was inspired by other tried-and-true successes in the artistic spectrum with an erotic face including Cirque du Soleil’s Zumanity, Tantra Nova Man, the Tantric Circus of San Francisco, and Inviting Desire.............and her vision for this festival was, essentially, to invite them all under one big tent...........which is exactly what she and her fellow festival visionaries accomplished under the DreamTent at the Jupiter Hotel (as well as at the Forkfly Gallery).



In addition, it must be noted that a vastness of ancient dance, literature, art, sculpture and theater has always been laced with erotic themes and innuendos. One quintessential theme in erotica has always been the deification and worship of goddesses. Historians have pointed out that even a typical Cro-Magnon man 28,000 years ago worshiped goddesses, and that this custom would live on through ancient Babylonian culture and beyond. Even more noteworthy is the fact that many cultures are polytheistic and, what's more, have specific rites and rituals honoring a fertility goddess, with the Egyptians honoring Hathor, the Greeks honoring Aphrodite, the Inuit honoring Pukkeenegak, the Ashanti people of Ghana honoring Asase Ya, etc. Even though we call this Goddess by myriads of different names all across the world, there is a common thread between each and every one of these cultures including our own.............we LOVE our goddesses, and through the arts and humanities many of us relish trying to come in sync with our inner God or Goddess as well, whether it be through belly-dancing among many other dances, or through the frequent theme of a muse in classic literature, or through tribal drumming, etc.



Regardless of how sexually open or nervous one may be, it cannot be denied that the erotic, sacred and sensual is a central, creative force in our lives. I constantly remind my peers that sexuality is NOT solely about the physical act of sex, but also extends well into our motivations and psyches; why it is we always strive to rise and shine early in the morning to seize the day, why it is we work so hard in whatever vocation we adhere to in life, why it is we dance like no one is watching, etc. The libido is channeled through all of these outlets just as it is through sexual desire. It is for that reason primarily why I believe a festival of this stripe was log overdue not just for Portland, but for much of the world as well, and why I find it farcical when a festival that's intrinsically paying homage to our most primitive roots of human discourse and spiritual tradition provokes media shock signals. Italian poet and playwright Pietro Aretino couldn't have said it better: "Why should I be ashamed to describe what nature was not ashamed to create?"

*

*



Anyway, my story into this primitive fix begins on Thursday, August 6th at 11 AM where, after having worked thirteen and a half hours the previous day in helping get the word out via multiple micro-blogging and social networking sites (I was the official ErosFest Northwest Tweeter, which I literally let loose as my voluptuous alter-ego that would relentlessly inform followers of individual featured events at the festival, and interweave such updates with articles from Carnal Nation I found either amusing or fascinating, quotes about erotica and real-time commentary on what was happening at the headquarters, among other things. To make it pithy, I intended to pitch this festival like a phrenetic porn star, and while I certainly don't exhibit many of that persona's characteristics in reality, I nonetheless got a kick out of channeling my inner salesman in a whole new way! ;) ) I agreed to sleep in a little later on Thursday, then stop by the official festival office headquarters in the Beaumont neighborhood to serve as Gabriella's personal assistant. I started off stapling free admission passes to festival placards, as well as listening to her messages on her voice mail and recording a log of all her queued calls (and yes, I did get a few Tweets in there! ;) ) until, around 12:30 PM, Gabriella was informed that the Forkfly Gallery was in dire need of additional volunteers on-site to assist with the preparation of the Opening Night Exhibiton, which at that point I was quick on the draw in re-directing myself there.



It was at that point that Mike had just gotten back from Portland International Airport to pick up Freddy Zental Weaver: a Chicago-based Tantra practitioner and theatrical performer also known as "Tantra Nova Man", who would be performing his production "Tantra Nova Man" as well as host an accompanying four-hour workshop titled "TantraNova Theatre Workshop" in encouraging participants to go beyond merely analyzing the intimacies in their lives and go deeper by weaving through one's story through the expressive arts to seek deeper clarity and inspiration. After acquainting myself with Zental (if this story were a play, I would use special lighting effects to denote an element of foreshadowing in dramatizing how Tantra Nova Man would later prove a much more major influence on me than I originally had expected) the three of us headed downstairs to Mike's white van where, due to Zental's luggage and limited space, I volunteered to pinch and plait my skinny little self into a narrow space in the back of the vehicle all the way across the Willamette to the ForkFly Gallery, where Mike went on to crack some jokes about my accommodations and bellowed "Oh, don't worry, you've got a brush, and you've got some clothespins beside you to keep you company!" LOL! Before we even left the Beaumont neighborhood, and I was already in situ, Mike and Zental actually walked over to the Starbucks just next door to pick up some beverages, where they provided me a brewed Berryblossom White tea and I bantered about when they were going to pay my bail! ROFL!



So after a fourteen minute drive we reached the ForkFly Gallery, where it was then about one in the afternoon, and Zental and I had a tête-à-tête with featured ErosFest artist and official photographer Mark Gamba, where I immediately assisted Mark in hanging up the ErosFest Northwest festival banner outside across the gallery window (after several failed attempts we managed to keep the banner up straight by tethering the upper corners with rope and then holding the lower corners down with miniature weights) Then from there Zental and I worked with both Mark and Barry in measuring the windows and door panels in the interior of the gallery, cutting up black construction paper by their appropriate dimensions and plastering it over each of the doors and windows with duct tape as to provide an intimate environment for each and every art appreciator. Finally, after moving around some gallery furniture to indulge our guests and vacuuming the floors (someone actually unlatched and opened up Mark's toolbox without permission, thus allowing all of his tools to spill out and I took the time helping him rearrange his toolbox) we had plenty of time to appreciate the 43 artists and more than 150 works of art featured in the Opening Night Exhibition (all the artists were amazing in their own way, but I found Peter Keresztury's erotic female statues strikingly stunning with how real they look, especially "Beads A Poppin" and "Foreign Invasion", as well as this large acrylic painting by Nancy Peach depicting a woman hanging upside down in bondage with how colorful and almost anime-like it appeared) as well as enjoy some early hors d'oeuvres.



After a few hours at the gallery, I saw Gabriella come in then, when she thought she'd head over to the Jupiter Hotel to see how set-up was going there, I decided to depart with her, but after having a conversation with someone named John Shetterly I met at the Volunteer Orientation preceding the festival (I would give the following day the festival name "White Pepper" after his sharp peppery white hair color, LOL) I realized she had already taken off so I decided to jog across the Burnside Bridge myself to the Jupiter Hotel. After getting there, and helping Event Curator Crystal Zingsheim (or Dr. Z) with the moving of her featured art components and belongings and several other similar tasks, Gabriella decided the time had come to make a run of grocery shopping for the volunteers and, with the help of a good volunteer friend from Germany, we decided to team up and cruise up to the Irvington Safeway to retrieve and provide food and beverages for the volunteers (Room 139 at the Jupiter Hotel was reserved as a Volunteer Break Room throughout all four days of the festival, with the desk and table used to collocate the snacks and beverages) It truly felt exhilarating having already been all across town in the course of just six-seven hours from the festival office in northeast Portland to the ForkFly Gallery in northwest Portland to the Jupiter Hotel in southeast Portland to a grocery store in northeast Portland, almost like an erotic, buoyant equivalent of a "24" episode, where I knew I was living at full capacity and getting a lot accomplished, and by the time we returned to the Jupiter Hotel with a caboodle of potato chips, soda pop, seedless grapes, Red Bull, Rolling Rock and several other random treats, seeing that the set-up crew had everything under control, I decided to hit the ground runnin' back across the Willamette River down Burnside Street to the ForkFly Gallery to look over the shape of things there.



Viva voila! I was in good fortune once I returned to the ForkFly Gallery at around 7:30 PM, because this colossal, over-the-top public time-based art display of public touch and affection spearheaded by LoveTribe called the Flash Snuggle...........which was intended to symbolically mark the official launch of the first-ever ErosFest Northwest with hopes of having upwards of 500 neighbors randomly appear outside the gallery in their leopard print dog pajamas and bunny slippers with pillows and blankets in a lovely-jubbly, non-sexual mass snuggle on the street which would be recorded and publicized on YouTube for the whole wide world to behold (keep a lookout for the official footage as its world premiere is imminent! ;) ).............that I had thought would take place in the late afternoon to early evening in the Pearl District...............was just beginning to unfold right when I got back. While I wish I could have been better dressed for the affair, whether it be in SpongeBob SquarePants-themed sleepwear or a shimmering blue Microfiber babydoll style dress with luminescent organza layers and unique fiber optic lights, silver rope belt, headband, wings and light-up wand..........gleefully I joined friend and Volunteer Co-Director Avi KindleFyre and Love Tribe Command in this flash flood of a following; nestling myself up in-between two others right outside the ForkFly Gallery in the puppy pile, with more and more people continuously trickling in to join, including a young woman I acquainted myself with earlier in the day named Jada who reclined beside me to my left, who we decided to give Eskimo kisses to each other in front of the cameras! ;)



After ten minutes on the pavement, Avi rang the bell to signal the end of the Flash Snuggle, and we all got back up on our feet in celebratory spirits, where I then immediately joined others in passing out Opening Night Exhibition After Party half-price admission tickets in the neighborhood as First Thursday began to reach a fever pitch. After distributing most of my stack, I wended my way back into the ForkFly Gallery; enjoying a plate of braised asparagus tips in a lemon butter sauce for dinner and then briefly sitting down on an amber sofa near Mark Gamba's exhibit to unwind, chatting with Festival Workshop Director Torch, another fellow volunteer I befriended at the Volunteer Orientation named Christine Forward who was volunteering as a Party Hostess and Clean-Up assistant that evening and a few other guests...........until the disc jockey jolted up the joint for the Artist Reception Party, where I joined Freddy Zental, Visual Arts Director Morgana De Fata and others in the dancing space to get my swagger on! Gabriella, Christine and many others eventually joined in as well, and we danced on and off on through midnight, where by then Christine, Morgana and I, among others, began to clean up the gallery up until nearly one in the morning: tackling everything from glass recycling to silver-toned dustpan sweeping action. Finally, just as the gallery was closing, Christine was so kind as to offer me a ride home.............amidst the effulgent full moon frenzied, moonstone-kissed lamppost afterglow of an auspicious opening day flight of fancy.

*

*

(To be continued...)

XOXO,
Noah Eaton
(LispingHibiscus)

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