SWM seeks friend in New York City, NY

I am very much a free a spirit, and am searching for someone with whom I might share some common ground with.

I would enjoy having a friend to explore New York City, but also to get out of NYC to do something new, different and interesting together. And by this process, I am hoping that we might get to know one another.


I've drawn some inspiration in life from Robert Louis Stevenson's story, "The Suicide Club," in which a group of Londoners live each day as if it were their last. That's been a credo which I've tried to live by.


That's why I care a good deal about the quality of a friendship.


Similarly, I care about the way we relate to art, music, literature and the way we interact with our environment and the communities we live in.


I am especially passionate about participatory, underground artsy projects. For example, I participated in the Quiet Project, where I was among 80 or so "citizens" living in Japanese-style sleeping pods in a Tribeca loft as part of an avant garde film documentary. With the exception of Burning Man, I've never experienced anything so out of the ordinary.


Most recently, in November, 2006, I camped out in a used car lot in Queens, NY as part of an art project. My friend documented this at http://tinyurl.com/y7b2u5.


And when I am not having fun, I have assisted various community groups in litigation against administrative agencies concerning land use planning and historic preservation.

Among other things, I prevailed against the Buildings Commissioner in an important zoning case which protected residential neighborhoods from commercial encroachment in a decision which was affirmed by the State Supreme Court.

I also helped save a historic building from demolition, which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Historic Districts Council gave me an award for my efforts.

This month, there's a very special event which I am hoping someone here might want to go with me to.

Specifically, I am interested in going camping in the Allegheny National Forest
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/allegheny,
leaving on Sunday, August 12th, and returning on Sunday, August 19th. It's near Warren, PA, a 350 mile, 6.5 hour schlep from Manhattan.

There, deep in the Allegheny Mountains, there will be a magical Rainbow Family Gathering.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Family_Gathering

The Rainbow Family's Gatherings have been described as "a reunion in the woods commemorating and attempting to re-create the 1960s with all the love and loving, communing with nature, rejecting authority, accepting substances, and indulging appetites that made up the best and the worst of that era" - the Hon. David B. Sentelle, Senior Judge, United States Court of Appeals.

Judge Sentelle was inspired to write a book about his Gathering experience http://tinyurl.com/2ot6ef "Judge Dave & the Rainbow People" ("in so far as I know, I am the only federal judge to run a hippie re-union").

If you want to look at what a Gathering really looks like, browse the pictorial essay at PhotoJoe Levy's "The Trip Without a Ticket - Adventures With the Rainbow Family," @ http://www.laventure.net/rainbow.

I am hoping you will enjoy this Gatherings and find some inspiration from it. Like many things in life, it can be as shallow as much it can be profound as you want to make it be. I think it is a wonderful place to kick back, relax and just chill being in the wilderness together.


Needless to say, please send me a private message if you might want to meet me. I am in Manhattan, but can travel within the NY, NY area.

 

welcome to the forums, wildyorkie!

:cheers:

have fun posting!

 

Thank you, Cerridwen. Your Webpage showing your knitting is quite impressve, I might add.

It's not easy meeting hippies in New York City. The days of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg are long gone. The Rainbow Family drum circles and potlucks in NYC's Central Park which used to draw hundreds now only attracts only a small crowd. This mirrors the drastic and rapid decline of national Gathings, too. Seems everyone has gone to Burning Man.

 

hey man im in philly & would love to go to the gatherin with ya i'll pm u

 

Hello there wildyorkie and Welcome to the forums.
Sounds like you have many interests and I am sure you will meet up with some like minded folks here on these threads.
I am going to burning man in a few weeks, first timer. Just wanted to experience it once. Heard a rumour that there may be a regional gathering here in WV soon too? Would like to go there also.
Peaceful thoughts your way.... Farmout

 

welcome

 

Good luck on your trip to Burning Man. It has a sureal, visual "oh wow" factor that Rainbow Gathering just don't have. You'll have a memorable time.

There is a regional Gathering in WV, as well as Colorado, and Maine, too. See

http://welcomehere.org/cgi-bin/calendar.pl?month=8 Enjoy your trip.

 

Wildyorkie, yea, I have heard about the WV gathering, which is pretty close to home here! Bad thing, I think its the same time as burning man. Yep, my buddy is taking me on this trip to the playa, he has been there many many times and finally convinced me I should go along with him. We'll be stayin at the homebrew camp, lots of suds there. Although I imagine water would be more appropriate in that kind of enviroment.
Thanks for all your links, I have enjoyed lookin at them.
Peace... Farmout

 

Hey, Farmout, I think it is a very good idea to go with someone to Burning Man. The way Burning Man is organized, with over 500 self-sufficient theme camps, many of which are in larger "villages," can sometimes make it awkward as an "outsider" to connect with the "insiders." People who have high hopes and expectations to the contrary may be a little disappointed, notwithstanding the Burning Man cliche that "everyone is a participant, and no one is a spectator."