Esozone 2007

Though it’s nothing to be proud of, I am something of a veteran of
the Internet-group-turned-physical-event. I’ve seen them manifest
in cities, in the middle of the desert, inside other larger gatherings,
or Temporary Autonomous Zones, and as attempts at forming long-term
communities and artist co-ops.

People oftentimes talk
a whole lot about “bringing it to meatspace,” and quite frankly,
oftentimes that talk is just that. Well intentioned, perhaps, but
little that couldn’t otherwise be accomplished on the Net. The outcomes
are sometimes far more disastrous than this, a messy, embarrassing

disaster only held somewhat in
check by the complete absurdity that oftentimes ensues.

For me, Esozone was the final event in a summer full of events,
and put up against many of those other events- most of which had a
history, and professional organization and financing- I figured it

wouldn’t be especially notable. A pleasant stop along the
way, perhaps, but little more than that. I really didn’t know
what to expect, to be honest, and was somewhat concerned by some of
the useless posturing I’d seen online within some of the participating
cliques and sub-groups.

The truth is, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Comic Con
can slip into spandex and go fuck itself in a dark alley somewhere,

Esozone was a blast.
Those of you who didn’t or couldn’t
make it missed out on an inspiring seed event, which could very well
turn into a true cultural phenomenon if it remains on the same
track as it grows. (Yeah, I mixed my metaphors. I’ve been on the road
for what seems like many sleepless weeks with a head-full of drugs,

what do you want?)

The video footage provided by the Oregonian gives a surprisingly
good overview of what you missed,
including snippets of the

target=”_blank”>Foolish People‘s performance, which was in my

opinion
one of the highlights of the event. (We will likely interview
John Harrigan of the Foolish People here on Alterati soon.)

The three days of the event were packed full of panels, theatrical and

musical performances,
and conspiratorial rants backed by slides and ominous soundtracks.
The participants, both on stage and off, came from such a diverse
range of bizarre and oftentimes patently freakish worldviews that
it was difficult if not impossible to catch a top-down ideology
within the event. Just the way I like it! Even the Chaos magick

paradigm wouldn’t sufficiently sum up the diversity of a crowd such as

this one, where the lowest common denominator can nevertheless be found

very easily in any conversation, over a vodka and tonic. We don’t need

to agree with one another to have a good time, and in fact it’s better

that we don’t, if we want to learn something new.

Some of the media from those varied panels and performances will be

leaking your way through

Greylodge, and one can only assume, many other

online media hotspots.

However, as much was taking place off the stage as on it, as people
met and mingled words, energies, and god-knows-what-else in the
shadows. This was an event marked most by the quality rather than
quantity of participants, and the venue (Backspace and Someday Lounge),
were either intentionally or merely serendipitously well matched to

the intention of some hard-core hanging out. The fact that
organic coffee, vegan food, and a fully stocked bar were present the
entire duration of the event was, to me at least, no small bonus. (And I hope they choose to keep that for at least the next year or two. I’m looking at you, Klint.)

Sorcery Panel.

What follows is my own personal account, which like as not will

resemble other accounts only on its surface. This wasn’t an event for

solipsists, nor was it an event for “those who dislike crowds and shun

the sun,” as was reported in a local Portland rag, but it was a very

subjective kind of thing. As they say, your mileage may vary.

For me this trip began in hell. I woke up the day of my flight out to

Portland feeling like someone had filled my joints and dark recesses

with hungry, angry fire ants. I had been pickled in sweat and sauteed

in nightmares. It might have had something to do with the extra long

session at the gym, or a particular chronic illness, but whatever the

cause, it didn’t seem to bode well for my trip. Then there were

canceled and delayed flights yet again, tornado’s in cities that

tornado’s simply have no right being in, and the general misanthropy

and

malaise that always results from long layovers in crappy airports that

close their terminal restaurants, one can only imagine, purely out of

spite.

It didn’t take Portland very long to pick me back up again. I got a

nice tour of what I imagine to be the “center city” of Portland,

sections of the North and South West quadrants of the city with Pale

Rider and Psymonetta. There’s such a laid back aura to the city, it

reminded me a little of San Francisco, but with less pretense.
We sampled the food and alcohol, (it passed my most critical

standards), and I was whisked off to the PDXO (Portland Occulture

Meetup), which was somewhat incongruously occurring in a pool hall.

After

being fed a countless line of free drinks, and being recognized by a bunch of

people I didn’t know, I suddenly felt like I

was home. (I say “free,” I didn’t find out until the next day that many

of those drinks were being created on tabs for “Robert Anton Wilson”

and “Bucky Fuller” and so on. Leave it to the dead counterculture to

stiff bar tabs.)

Let me tell you, for a chronic traveller and wanderer, that’s a strange

feeling to have. Maybe it was just the alcohol, but I don’t think so.

There is something to this event, yes, but there is also something to

this city, like the scent of an old lover. I just may wind up a

resident.

The first day of Esozone was a blur. We opened things up, got the ball

rolling, and schmoozed. I met many of the actors in this real-life

play, such as

href=”http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6554675426294499496&q=eso

zone&total=3&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2″

target=”_blank”>Freeman, Klint,

href=”http://www.foolishpeople.com/foolishpeople/2007/08/arrival—nic-

p.html” target=”_blank”>”famous on the Internet” Danny Chaoflux and

Nick Pell, the list goes on. (Though I somewhat thankfully didn’t get to meet the Red King, who was the last performance of the event on Sun. I may have been one of the few Esozone-goers who enjoyed their theatrical performance, but after the drooling and whatnot, I’m not so sure I’d want to chill with him backstage. The dancers from the show, that’s another story.)

It wasn’t until the second day when the event

really hit it’s stride. Or maybe it was just me. I missed the Meatspace

panel, thanks to a lingering hangover from the night before, and got to

the venue just in time to set up for the Art, Music & Magick Panel.

(For some reason there was a typo on all of the event

literature, saying it was the “Arte” panel. You may want to fix that

next time, guys.) Video for that will be on

href=”http://www.greylodge.org/gpc” target=”_blank”>Greylodge

within the next couple weeks. One thing you won’t catch on the cameras,

right when the panel finished, Rex (he’s the one with the

horns), leaned over to me and said “you don’t smell.”

I can only imagine this is the Satanic version of “you’re OK in my

book.” But who knows, really?

Following this was part one of the Foolish People’s performance. What

can I say? Maybe it is my artistic bent, but in my opinion, this is how

ritual is meant to be done. I’ll save musing on this for a later date,

when we run footage of he ritual/performance and talk to John Harrigan,

the Art Director of the Troupe. (I may have been one of the only people

in the audience who laughed throughout almost the entire performance. I

certainly meant that as no disrespect.)

As I write this I am realizing just what a far cry the words are for

the reality. I’m going to stop my accounting here. At it’s bottom, that old parable about the menu and the meal is probably the intention behind

this event- all of these groups and sub-groups have formed in a medium

where information is always available, but almost always of dubious

epistemological value, where it is easier to misunderstand someone than

really grasp where they are coming from, easier to watch a girl get

sodomized by a horse than hold someones hand and kiss them on the

neck. Not that it is the first, not that it will be the last, but it is

about time we left the possible, and started exploring the

possibilities of physical reality together, rather than just

behind the screens of our computers.

Wes Unruh gives the closing statements.

Some more Eso-media:
Transcription of Making Magic- Innovative Sorcery Techniques Panel

Transcription of Mutant Meatspace Networks panel

(Thanks to Metaphorge, the Oregonian, Vincent Al Keen of C-PAN, Miss

Patti, and

anyone else who managed to capture and/or transcribe some of this

content.)