Creating a Culture: End of the World Party (the FAR END)

I’d like to offer some ideals for how this party will go. I want to instill a mood. We need to affect a certain ‘culture’ here. It’s a vacation and it should be made into such. Do you need a vacation?

I think of the attention spans and collective ADD that we share, societally. We need to be entertained all the time? We need information fed to us? We need our text messages going at all times?

This is THE place to get away from all that. Trust me. Since moving to Goldfield, I’ve let a lot of frustration go. Granted, certain goals, I’ve been working toward my whole life and one of them is to identify just what it is that keeps us worried or discouraged. Maybe it’s convoluted thought, itself, that keeps us lost and running scared. Always something we need to be doing. Never a clear idea of where we are or where we’re going. Clarity.

Let’s make this party chill and pleasant. Let’s let it all go for a weekend. Let’s remember what true appreciation is and family joy. Bring your kids. Opt out of Burning Man-style drug induced haze. Gaze at the stars; observe nature. Enjoy the rapturous sunset. Appreciate the history of the city that used to stand here and the energy that was once exerted here. Imagine the past. Interact with people again. We’re all in the same boat and we all need to remember that FEAR is not necessary. Just be.

I call it the End of the World Party because I want you to feel out on a ledge and at the FAR END. I want you to remember what’s beautiful in the world and get back to what’s real. Stop wasting time worrying. Let’s enjoy. Let’s embrace. Let’s relax.

The irony is that you feel ‘away’ when you’re here but not disconnected. We’re at the edge of a tiny town that’s celebrating its own existence. Goldfield Days is the same weekend, August 17^th.

Sleep amongst the car forest.

Regarding Purpose

With The Tibetan Book of the Dead sitting on my arm rest, I’m writing this, having seen a portion of a show this morning documenting Hitler and his rise/demise in Germany. I tell you this, now, to offer you a glimpse of where my mind is at.

Reading the spiritual text, just a bit today, I’m reminded of an event that I experienced a couple years ago. I wrote about it: “I Met The Devil In The Cortez Bar”. For the record, I believe in no ‘devil’, but it makes me wonder what this means. I concluded that whatever this person was, that I met, I was not ready to accept what he wanted to show me.

There was an event in my life back in the early 2000’s, occurring an early morning in San Francisco, while communing with buoyed seals. I refer to this moment as “my epiphany”. It was a simple sentence that popped into my head: There is no truth.

As an Agnostic (in a myriad of ways), I’ve viewed this abstract statement as something close to my core-a certain philosophy. What makes me different? Is it this verbalized belief? What would this belief even mean in this concrete world? I might suggest that it means there is no meaning. Maybe it was a realization that no one can save me.

The Tibetans do not have a belief or desire for “a meaning of life” but the Dalai Lama has stated (for Westerners) that “The meaning of life is happiness.” This probably doesn’t sit well with a lot of our puritanically minded associates. I have no reason to live?

Does a beautifully aromatic lilac have meaning or purpose in life?

Now how could one operate in life with no direction or ‘meaning’? Isn’t meaning needed for us? Aren’t we here­-as humans at least-with purpose? Could we continue to exist if the masses believed in themselves and their lives as containing no ‘purpose’? Wouldn’t we all kill ourselves? Would commerce and art cease? Would there be chaos?

Without ‘purpose’ in human existence, war would cease. This much I know.

Having co-pioneered the art movement, NadaDada, I now live in this tiny town and currently hold the title of President of The Goldfield Chamber of Commerce. I regard projects, such as these, as practice or as an education. We go for it. We hold on and we absorb as much as we can. You might suggest that I MUST believe in meaning if I engage in any projects, collaborations or directives.

Being a tiny town with no budget, our Chamber of Commerce has special challenges and we have a certain directive to advance. We want something. We carry out a ‘purpose’ for the benefit of our townsfolk. We engage in meetings and activity for our own benefit, as we live here too. We reject notions of defeat or ‘it is what it is’. We want to encourage change. We inhabit desire. We inhabit purpose.

Having said such conflicting words as I’ve written here, one might question my sincerity. Do I really believe there is no purpose or meaning in life? Isn’t it true that I must believe in truth to sacrifice my hours to this group? Don’t I want something? Doesn’t this prove that I have desire? Am I trusting the Dalai Lama in his statement about happiness if I work instead of play? Isn’t play the epitome of happiness?

I’m happy to say that one relative ‘truth’ that I accept is that money has nothing to do with success in my own life. I cannot bow to that goal and I respect myself for that. It’s not that I would not like to be wealthy, I just trust that it hasn’t come to me because I don’t need it. I’ve been able to succeed without it. This has been a lesson for me-a consolation.

I had not wanted to offer answers here, but rather questions. I’m not purposing an ideal for readers to follow or even something as tangible as an ‘opinion’. I’m only philosophizing. I want to engage in something less than black and white. It’s the journey, isn’t it? I don’t want to dissuade anyone from continuance of their life’s goals but who cares what I want for you anyway? Does my existence have anything to do with yours?

I’d answer that I’m simply offering you some working ideas and perceptions from my own mind so that you may also offer your own from your world. Direct response is appreciated. I wish for an active humanity, one that engages their talents and perceptions, whatever conflicting perceptions they may all have.

Least Touristy Destination in the Wild West

A new motto for Goldfield that I’m proposing: “Least Touristy Destination in the Wild West”. Whaddaya’ think?

Attending the Rural Roundup conference, in April, I saw that the tourist industry is much more robust in Nevada towns other than Goldfield. Maybe this is one of our strengths, I thought. We certainly draw a unique kind of people to our town. Basically, tourism does not even exist as an industry in our historically rich little town.

Like an ancient Zen monk, I thought of impermanence, interdependence and interconnectedness. My duty is to promote commerce in a town of around 200 that has morphed from a city, once populated by 20,000. These Buddhist concepts are meaningful to consider. Change happens regardless.

In years past, there were fears that Goldfield would have no Goldfield Days. I can assure you that this year Goldfield will have its Days.

Can our town be proud of facts such as these? Can we connect with enough people to make this event a success? We’re many hours from the more populated ends of our great state. We only have 8 motel rooms available in town and, I’m told, they’re already booked for the weekend. How can we host enough people in Goldfield to make this event fulfilling for all?

Event planning takes vision, and my friends, nothing is impossible. “You have first to experience what you want to express.” -Vincent Van Gogh. I had a vision. We’d offer camping spots. I’ve always loved camping. I’d love to camp at an event such as this.

Goldfield Days is August 17^th weekend. Festivities will include a bed race, food, beer and vendors, as well as the inaugural Independent Performer’s Showcase. Floats will parade down our main street. You can bid on items in the auction and tell a whopper in our liars contest. Family members will enjoy our children’s games and events, a poker walk, historic scavenger hunt, and the chili cookoff. Ghost tours will mystify you and both our beautifully historic courthouse and firehouse will be open for tours. Enjoy the historic bus tour around town as well. The county of Esmeralda also conducts its enticing land auction that weekend so bring your checkbook.

We’ll probably get to see some gun fighters in action. Western wear is encouraged. Parties are always better when people dress up and play. We’re inviting the hot rodders and photographers to town as well. Personally, I’m hoping to see a workshop put on by the star gazers and we encourage self guided tours of our back roads. The expansive local sights can be pretty dazzling. Bring dirt bikes and four wheelers!

I’d like to invite you to camp out for this weekend event. The Car Forest is asking for a ten to twenty dollar donation. Bring your tent, shade, grille, water, boots and flashlights. We have basically unlimited camping area available. You’ll even be able to stay in your RV if you like, with dirt road accessibility. And the general store, downtown, is only a ten minute walk.

Please see International Car Forest of the Last Church on Facebook about camping, or email me: bigfishbowler@gmail.com.

But if you’re interested in participating as a vendor, performer, or in the parade, see www.goldfieldnevada.org. Also, we’re looking for advertisers for our program that will eventually be distributed throughout the year and throughout the state. Don’t hesitate!

-President, Goldfield Chamber of Commerce,

ChadSorg

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My Town’s Throwin’ a Party, Notes From Goldfield Chamber Prez #2

It all falls into place. Every building that becomes renovated and saved from the elements, we consider it a little win against the ghosts that live on here. Life after death. This town has it. Goldfield has changed drastically but it has had one hundred years to get used to that. We’ll never forget what it was. That’s why we’re here.

As quiet preservation gives us something to do, many visitors pass through. Tourists and commuters from Las Vegas to Reno and beyond drive through this quiet town but we have this one weekend that we throw a party for everyone. Goldfield Days is August 17^th weekend and this year will be the best so far. We’re stopping them in their tracks this time.

Vendors are invited to participate, at very reasonable rates, alongside events, entertainment and relaxation. There’s a parade and we’re inviting hot rodders to inhabit our streets in the shade of crumbled historic giants. There’s a scavenger hunt across town, children’s games and entertainment. Ghost tours, the courthouse and firehouse are open to the public.

The photographic opportunities are incomparable.  We drive ATV’s down the streets. The skies are never less than dazzling (not to mention the stars). Everything looks better with an old building behind it. Camping space is endless. It feels like the edge of town no matter where you are here.

We’re preserving what it is that has been good here for a long time and that is a simple place. It’s a rare thing to be able to see a city that has become a scarcely populated town.

Everything has an order of how it needs to be accomplished and Goldfield has a pretty good handle of what to make of this town. We’re not re-living history, we’re making it. We’re preserving the peace.

Please contact me with any questions and if I don’t know, I can put you in the right direction.

President, Goldfield Chamber of Commerce

-Chad Sorg

www.Fishbowler.wordpress.com

http://www.facebook.com/GoldfieldChamber

chadsorg@gmail.com

Here’s my new radio spot for my show Audio Sorgfield..

Notes from Goldfield Chamber’s Prez

[ed. note: previously printed in Tonapah Times-Bonanaza and Goldfield News]

We must do things a little differently in Goldfield. For instance, I like to relay an observation made that I never would have imagined. Upon becoming the President of the Chamber of Commerce in our town I was part of in-depth ponderings of exploitation of ghostly apparitions in such a supposedly established and formal entity as is the Chamber. I was astonished. We’re known here for our ghosts. This was a lesson to me; we work with what we’ve got!

This place is unique. We are a place where history lives. Also, we’re unincorporated, so there is an interesting sense of self initiated action here to make change happen.

2012 has begun to bring about some notable change for this town. Goldfield residents have been active in creating a community that now boasts wooden street signs on many blocks of town-yes, wooden. We have a radio station that has undergone program changes and gained a new street front location. There’s a newly constructed bar and antique shop awaiting their public openings. A new jewelry shop is facing its big day of ribbon cutting, as is a new gift shop-both new to Goldfield.

Many buildings have survived history and restoration allows them to live on. The town of Goldfield has an overall direction involving cultural tourism and preservation of our historical value. Attainment of these goals has not been easily handed to us. We’re doing it ourselves through conscientious effort. Banding together, folks from varied walks of life have been strengthening Goldfield’s sense of self. We all wear at least two hats.

In addition to Chamber President, I’m also an artist, event coordinator and radio DJ. Our Vice President, Dominic Pappalardo is also a County Commissioner, President of the Historical District and is involved in various civic organizations. Patty Huber-Beth also has a position with the Country road department. Lisa Thomas-Farnsworth instructs martial arts, drives a school bus and sells gifts. Meaghan Kelly sells gems, sits on the board of our non-profit radio station and creates jewelry.

It brings to mind the image of the small town barber/gun shop owner/mayor. It’s nothing to be ashamed of; we do what is needed here. We use what we got!

Goldfield’s Chamber is sending two representatives to Lake Tahoe for workshops and conferences in mid April. Arts at the Heart and Rural Roundup will orient our board members to the state’s opportunities in assisting us in the areas of cultural and historical tourism.

Connect Nevada is a statewide non profit endeavor with the goal of enlisting community involvement in establishing the best internet and cel phone connections possible in rural areas. Community members have recently started meeting with this group. For more info here’s their website: http://www.connectnv.org/

Goldfield Days is our big event, the weekend of August 17^th. Being a community so far from everything, Goldfield has the unique challenge of a place with way too few motel rooms. But we have plenty of camping! In light of this, the International Car Forest of the Last Church hosts a camp out that weekend with attendants invited from all over the country.

We’re not just re-living history, we’re building it. In the end, it’s just fun we’re all after. All of us.

More info, please contact me: chadsorg@gmail.com

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In Search of the Historic Gans/Nelson Stadium

Joe Gans

You’ve seen the coming of age films & you’ve seen similar stories of “the times they are a changin’.” Well, this is one of those.

I’m making my way to the site of a historic boxing match. It was 1906 and this was one of the first sporting events ever to be filmed.

The sport, itself, was something new called Gloved Boxing. The match lasted 42 rounds. Joe Gans finally won by a technical foul. His opponent was “Battling” Nelson. The $30,000 purse made news around the world. They brought in extra train cars to sit on the tracks to house the huge audience in train cars. They built a stadium just for the event and today, on foot, I’m making my way to that location at the North edge of my town, Goldfield, Nevada. I know it was just beside the ruins of the old train station.

I sat down to scribble these words at a line of rocks. It appears this was a storefront at one time and I looked down at the dust around my boots to discover melted clumps of glass. I have to wonder if these are remains from the 1923 fire that was Goldfield’s second major death toll. A flash flood had hit the town in 1913 with a couple fires in 1905 and ’06.

I’ve found the ruins and they lie on private property, in what appears to be a junkyard with a crane and trucks and engines in various states of decay. This mostly fallen down plastered-over brick building has graffiti scratched into it. It’s really a very unremarkable site, other than how it sadly sits, forgotten, in the middle of this sagebrush industrial graveyard.

There is an aluminum plaque at the site that my friend Dominic, a county commissioner, later showed me there. I can’t get over how forgotten the location has been left. The current family that owns the land was headed by a maritime contractor, who’s now passed away.

To describe what I’m seeing: it’s a long gully, a wash, parceled with junk vehicles and the ubiquitous scatter of Goldfield rust bunnies. I see homes, on ridges, over looking this section, but here it seems pretty clear of population. I assume it tends to flood. I swear I just heard an ‘oogahh’ horn.

Not a trace here of that stadium that I’ve seen in historical pictures and a video clip on YouTube. I did find a cement framed box, standing all alone beside a dusty car path with cement barriers blocking entry. In a sea of sagebrush, I can tell this is not a related artifact. Someone has dumped trash into this box, with discolored plastic toys and a vinyl purse, some shoes, a phone and various rubbish scattered.

Later, I’m told that the wooden stadium was quickly dismantled and sent elsewhere. Wood is a hot commodity in this semi-barren desert town-always has been.

The aroma of sagebrush here is almost overpowering. I found a cool keychain on the ground from Nevada’s famed Mustang Ranch brothel. It’s brass and purports a ‘stud farm’ at the brothel and says “Ask for Dave”. I’m keeping it. I put the keys back on the ground that had been attached to it. I don’t know who Dave is. I hope he finds his keys. This place is a paradise for ground scores.

Anyone seeing me wandering around this site must be wondering why a man in work boots and jeans with a nice shirt and tie would be here. Earlier today, I just happened to be a witness in a court case concerning a man who wears a gun. The case was in our beautiful wild west courthouse at the center of town.

There was a time when a gun drawn and pointed at someone’s face was considered a “disagreement”. Today, a person simply wearing a firearm is considered a criminal. My friend is no criminal, he just loves guns. He was found innocent of false imprisonment with a deadly weapon and also coercion.

The times they are a changin’. Welcome to Goldfield where stories like these seem appropriate.

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Artists Know the Trickle Down Smells Like Piss by Chad Sorg

Reblogged from Harbinger Asylum Blog:

Bureaucracy is any system designed to slow down progress. We can’t have anyone excelling too quickly–no one is to be trusted. We wanna make sure no one gets too far outta’ line and a paper trail is needed at every turn.

Bureaucracy is designed to keep everyone huddled as closely as possible. And to be clear, I’m talking about Socialized programs and a system not inherently bad, just a system that’s outgrown its practicality.

Read more… 1,117 more words

Shave

Shaved

Collaboration with Alison. She’s 4 and a half years old. We live in Goldfield.The people have spoken.

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I’ve made an art of my hair for 10 years now. This collaborative photo presentation with Alison and her dad yeilded the longest bag of hair that I’ve so far saved. I have 10 years of ziplock bags full of my hair. I’m not kidding. Some day the hair will be on exhibit.

The Goldfield Chamber of Commerce needs their President to be presentable. This was a present to them in a way. We’re going to rock Goldfield Days this year. Please come camp with us at the Car Forest for the End of the World Party that weekend of Aug. 17th.

Thanks for your patience Alison. Hi 5!

Road Trip, Reno & Back

So I left Goldfield for a couple weeks.

I drove this old rusty blue SuperCab Ford because the plan was to come to Reno, empty my storage unit of all the art and stuff stored in there.

I was gonna write a whole story about it, but at the moment too much goin’ on. I’ll post this slideshow instead. More to come. I can’t wait to write actually.

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The Democrat/Republican Divide for the Layman

In ultimately simplistic terms, the 2 parties are to differ in this way: Big Government vs. Small Government. Democratic Party aims for the first concept; Republican Party’s aim is the second.

Taken to their furthest extremes, the Democratic ideal leads to Socialism and the Republican ideal leads to a kind of Anarchy.

I’d like to broadly generalize it this way: The Republican class is the working class, while the Democratic class is the intellectual class. This is such a widely sweeping statement that it’s quite often a wrong assessment, but it’s a philosophy that we can observe in the daily operating world. Those that work to build wealth for themselves and their family end up being Republican, crying “stay away from my pot of gold, it’s mine!” while the more reflective and philosophical personalities believe in Democratic standards of helping the weak and running society as a collective. Democratic focus is less centered on ownership.

The first position exemplifies Anarchy, the second, Socialism.

How large should a nation be? In the U.S., we have four levels of hierarchical Government: Federal, State, County and City, each with its own evolving sets of jurisdiction. All the current Republican candidates for President believe in lowering the amount of power the Federal Government has, leaving many decisions in the hands of state legislatures.

Racially, minority groups traditionally lean toward Democrat because money and assistance comes from social aid programs and racial minorities are typically on the low end of the fiscally endowed spectrum in America.

Gays often lump themselves in with Democratic views because that party professes a more accepting social liberalism in contrast to the traditionally American views believed to come from fundamentalist Christian philosophy which is not accepting of homosexual lifestyles.

The Republican Party aligned itself, many years ago, with the Christian majority in a bold and decisive political move. They can now brag themselves up as the party offering classic family values. The exception to this generalization is the stance of minority groups, who do have a large number of Christian and religious adherents, but still side with the Democrats based on the party’s alignment with humanitarian aid programs for the materially oppressed.

Economically, the wealthy are Republican, desiring less restriction in material attainment.

The Urban/Rural divide sees Republicans in the country, Democrats in the city. This is largely race, finance and religion based.

One final issue to look at is War. The Republican Party is known more as the gun toting group less aligned with empathetic programs. They edge out as the group more supportive of Warlike policies of international engagement.

It is interesting to note that the term ‘Isolationist’ is currently in wide use against any politician wanting to pull out of wars across the world. It is as if military force is the only way to interact with the rest of the world.

Is war the only medium we can use for international communication?

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