7th annual (!!!) Drowning Rat
FUQ
0. Any special requests this year?
Yeah! Tiffany La Princesse du Rat is asking people to bring "seeds"
for the Easter Island Project. CLICK HERE IF YA WANNA BRING SOMETHING
GROOVY FOR THIS.
Also, Nora is doing a ritual thingy and will want to shoot some video if that is okay w/ everyone. If you have a project or want people to bring special stuff, please join the mailing list above & tell people what you want.
1. What is Drowning Rat?
DRat is a couple people going camping and having a little ritual to
drown a giant rat we make out of sticks & moss. We imbue the Rat with
things we need to let go of and float on down the river. Or we just
have an excuse to drink wine. Natural hot springs a 15-minute drive
away; people usually go on Sunday on the way out of town...Maybe some
pirate songs around the campfire or another bigfoot sighting or
another movie theatre in the woods. Who knows?
2. What can I expect from the holy and wholly mysterious spiritual
pilgrimage that is Drowning Rat?
- friday & saturday: build rat, drink, eat, complain about weather.
- saturday afternoon: ritual with our rat made out out of
locally-occurring, all-natural substances. dress up funny. do the Rat
Ritual. DROWN THE RAT.
- sat evening: Fancy-Ass Feast. please bring food to share in a
delicious potluck fashion & some fancy things to wear over your
Gore-Tex and black leather.
- sunday: pack up, go hang out in the hot springs, leave. unless
you wanna stay an extra day...
3. Uh, is it really a spiritual pilgrimage?
That would be telling.
4. Can I be part of the ritual and the drowning?
Yuh-huh. We are expecting it, in fact. Bring tools & gloves for
rat-making. Invent a short-short performance or ritual of your own to
do publicly, or plan to do a private ritual yourself, infusing the
Rat with some symbolic baggage you need to get rid of. Bring strange
decorative and costuming elements. Or not. Whatever.
4. Is it silly or is it serious?
Yes.
5. Is it okay if I only come for part of it?
Sure. Saturday is kinda the big day. We have to check out of the
campground Sunday by noon (after which we usually go to the hot springs nearby.).
6. Can I bring my really hyperactive friend with the really poor
social skills who likes to get really loud and naked as often as
possible and who can't hold his drink -- you know, the guy who thinks
everywhere is Burning Man Center Camp?
No.
7. Oh. Well, can I invite someone else?
Yeah, sure.
8. Can I post information about Drowning Rat to public email lists,
Tribe, myspace, etc.?
No.
9. So what's the sekrit location and date?
DATES: May 16-18, 2008
LOCATION: The usual campground. Around
$10-14/night per vehicle for camping fees; we can share campsites,
but they limit the number of cars (2 per campsite) and the additional
vehicle has to pay a fee. BRiNG CaSH or CHecKs FoR THiS.
EMAIL FOR DIRECTIONS
10. What facilities exist at this place?
There are outhouses, outdoor cold water taps, trash, and small
firepits w/ big grates on 'em. Chef brings tables, cooking utensils,
pots & pans, and gas stoves.
11. What do we do for firewood?
I'll bring a small load courtesy of my brother, the firewood king.
But if you have access to
wood, may as well bring some. We can share the main fire, or start
your own fire if you want.... It would be great if you could bring a
few newspapers and small dry kindling to share.
12. Can I chop up firewood in the campground?
Fuck no. We gently strip the (soggy and green) fallen branches from
storms, and some moss and leaves, to make the Rat. That's as much
stuff as we should steal from the forest.
13. What kinda weather is likely to happen?
Some grey skies, some rain, some cold, some sun. Definitely cold nights.
13. What should I bring?
NECESSARY: new for 2008: COOKING and cleanup gear!
Cash or checks for campground fees. Cold/wet weather
camping gear & clothes. Tarps. A chair or two. Tarps. String. Towels.
Flashlight. Tarps. Food. Rope. Tarps. A dish to share at the Saturday
Feast. Plates/mess kit/utensils. Drink. Marshmallows. Tarps.
OPTIONAL: Costumes for yourself and others, music-making things (acoustic preferred), fishing gear & licenses, drowning rat t-shirts, Rat-making tools & gear (work gloves or garden gloves are good for this, axes, clippers, hemp twine), makeup, makeup remover, decorations, kindling, fingerpaints, newspaper, absurdly delicious food, macaroni and cheese, fancy-ass-clothing, large cardboard cutouts of George W. Bush, tarps, wine, red patent-leather stiletto-heeled fuck-me boots. Video cameras, cameras, if you'd like to document the madness.
14. What if I don't have the right camping gear?
Ask on the mailing list.
15. What if I can't make it to Oregon this year? Can I drown a rat anyway?
And the New York contingent prepared a Chinatown Rat Book and drowned
it in the East River (photos ~
16. Is it true that the Rat Princesse has claimed Drowning Rat an
"art project" for her grad school portfolio and stuff?
Mais oui! One year, par example, Sean O did his own beautiful rat
ritual in the San Francisco Bay (photos ~
Yep! You are
welcome to do the same.