#365chico project

[365chico]

August 10th, 2016 // Day 222 of 366 Subject: Steven Gary Caples Age: 32 Years Old Born: Panorama City CA Currently Resides: Chico CA Occupation: Bar Back at 220

“I like seeing new stuff, I like moving around for the newness of it but I don’t ever want to be around nobody that I know, if that makes sense. I feel like I’m most at home when there’s a few people I know around, a few people I can be my comfortable self with and feel like we’re actually getting somewhere with our discussions. It’s really all about the social circle for me right now, and having friends around that are where, as far as I’ve learned, where I feel the best. Not in these weird little towns by myself but around people that I know and love.”

“Being a barback at Two-Twenty. I’m not kidding, I think I feel into, and I got lucky but I’m super excited to be in a perfect environment. Another good one would be an event photographer; I feel like I can capture people’s good times in a way that they see themselves, candidly, but also having a really good time. Event photographer would be my dream job; get to actually go to the fun events, take pictures, and not have any other responsibilities other then to have a good time and to capture that good time. I think that would be my dream job.”

“I think we gain something from every minute in life whether it’s building up motivation to finally do something when you’re doing nothing, or whether it’s learning from all the wrong shit you’re doing or the mistakes you’ve made. I don’t feel like God has ever played a big part in my life cause I don’t feel very close to the guy. The people that love him have influenced me a lot and I don’t think that’s in a negative way. I feel like had a very comfortable and loving childhood and it’s carried through, so far, into thirty-one years old.”

“I feel like this is my home now, this is my first time trying to an adult on my own in my entire life, and I feel like there’s a reason I’m here right now. I feel like this is very much home and where I want to be.”

“I think for me it would be great if I could forget everything that has ever happened, just take a deep breath, be myself, and let life happen organically. But knowing me and knowing how my brain works, I’ll relive every moment more then I’ll ever live in any moment that’s going on; I’ll be constantly affected by all of the stuff from the past. But people change and hopefully that’s something I can change about myself is to stop thinking about all that shit. I’d love to live in the moment, that’d be great. I’m working on it.”

A couple of months back, while riding around on bikes, drinking, partying, having a great time, Steven told me that he wanted to participate in 365Chico. I told him that I would love to have him and here we are; a day that I get a cancellation is the day that he’s here for me. He seems to have that knack for randomly showing up places even if they’re planned. Sometimes life plans for you and you take the path of least resistance. Does that mean that you’re a follower or that you have less ambition? I would say that Steven is not that way at all. He’s followed his heart to different places but had his mind in the right place for sure. And even though he, and most everyone I know, feels like he needs to work on stuff for himself that doesn’t mean he isn’t making the best of what he’s got. He’s taking life as it comes, looking at the brighter side of things, looking to the past, but now seeing the present; he’s here in in Chico. His new home. The place he wants to be.

S

[365chico]

July 28th, 2016 // Day 209 of 366

Subject: Irene Alexis Korber

Age: 32 Years Old

Born: Chico CA

Currently Resides: Chico CA

Occupation: Assistant Librarian // Further University Advancement // Chico Area Punk Member // Admin for Chicolist

“So when I was working for AS for the ERK, I was a director and we did things like Ecofest which was an all day music, vendors, food, face-painting for kids, for environmental awareness. We’d bring speakers, and show educational films on campus and, of course, the community was invited. And so as director I really spearheaded a lot of those events. And then with, formerly Pyrate Punx now CAP, when I first got started I was booking shows and obviously playing them as well, so I was a whole lot more involved that way. And as I’ve gotten older I’ve definitely gotten more jaded, which I think has contributed to kind of backing off a little bit, but I am still involved. So for example; I just completed this two-week long diversity academy, which is basically an intensive seminar offered by Chico State for faculty and staff to look at diversity in higher education, how people’s experiences intersect, and what that means for them for their life experiences and their lived experiences. So after doing that, my challenge now is to incorporate that in my work and into my personal life as well and I think that’s more of a personal way of being an activist is so much more in the community. But that was an elective thing for me to do, that was absolutely a choice, and that’s really important to me. And we’re already doing that with CAP with no bands that have any sort of homophobic, racist, sexist, or anything like that; content or attitudes. But this is bringing it more into my personal life which I’ve actually been doing for a long time; I’ve definitely have made some group experiences uncomfortable by calling people out but I think that is something important to do.”

“So one would be to not take things to seriously, just because as a woman in punk you are going to get snubbed. So there are times on tour where we would be loading in and whoever was working door would say, ‘Ok, who’s in the band?’ I’d raise my hand, ’No Honey. I said who’s the band not WITH the band.’ So there are all these assumptions that go on. And women do those things too; it’s engrained in people, unfortunately. So one would be to not wear your heart on your sleeve cause you’re going to have shitty experiences. And that’s not just in punk bands but in the work place, or your home environment, or your family. And then just to talk to people and not in a combative way because if you call someone out in a combative way you’re probably not actually going to have a conversation. So you don’t want a debate, you want a dialog, you want to show people that Feminism isn’t about hating men it’s about equality of the sexes and genders. And I think you have to look at look at intersectional feminism because a white women’s experience with feminism is going to be very different then a woman of color’s experience with feminism, so that’s important to note those distinctions. Or class level as well or education level. And there’s all these intersecting ISMs that work together to oppress people and you can’t fight just one.”

“The marriage mark! Well the wedding is going to be pretty awesome; I’m pretty excited about it. I never thought I would get married. Lot’s of little girls, they’re planning their perfect little wedding when they’re five and six. And so planning this wedding, I’m talking to people like caterers and whatever and they’re like, ‘What do you want?’ and I’m like. ‘I have no idea. I don’t know.’ So I was kind of at a disadvantage with that.  But other then that, whatever we do for our honeymoon. We’re both really busy in the fall with our work so we’re not going to honeymoon directly after the wedding so we’re gonna go in January; right now we’re trying decide what we want to do. So when we vacation it’s more outdoor adventure challenges as opposed to hanging out at a resort. We’re looking at Machu Picchu, perhaps, and go hiking around and camping there. So that’s the next big awesome.”

“I could see us leaving at some point but I can also see us staying. My family is here, all my immediately family is here, my chosen family is here. And same with Jason; his chosen family is here. I’ve worked on campus for a long time. He’s been at his job for a long time and is actually hoping to end up taking over the business when his boss retires, so that would ben pretty awesome. And Chico has just so many of the things that I really value; we’ve got the park. So when I lived abroad, the biggest thing I missed was the park cause in England a park is basically a soccer field with a couple of trees. And obviously that’s a lot different then Upper Bidwell, which I spend a lot of time in. And the other thing that I really like is that it’s small; I don’t have to drive my car ever if I don’t want to. I bike everywhere and it takes me ten minutes on my bike to get to work and Jason can walk to work in less then five minutes. That’s something that so many people would just kill for and I would hate to ever give that up. I could see us moving but I can see us staying as well. I don’t see any point to leave at this point.”

“Being a CAP member has definitely improved my life; it has connected me with to many people that share a lot of the same values that I have and that’s huge. A lot of people never have a cohesive group of friends that’s really tight and I have tons of people that I can depend on in a pinch, and that’s really unique and special, and not to be taken for granted. That’s in town and elsewhere as well with the all the networking that’s done when you’re booking shows, when you’re playing in a band in touring. As for being involved forever, I feel that if I wasn’t a member I wouldn’t go to shows cause it’s so easy to be lazy; I love being at home. So what I do is I sign up to crew, and then I have to go, and I’m always happy to go. For the foreseeable future, yeah, I’ll remained involved.”

Pretty stoked to have interviewed long-time CAP sister and friend Irene today. We’ve been around each other for many years through shows and in the community but I think this is the first time we’ve taken time to talk and get to know one another. A Chico born, raised, and current community member, Irene has done her best to be involved in activism both publicly and personally. Herself and Rachel of CAP have definitely been two women who have influenced my thoughts and actions with being an ally to women and feminism. I’m grateful for her courage to call people out, being in the punk scene, and overall being an awesome human being. She’s going down some uncharted territory this coming fall with getting married and I couldn’t be more happy for someone who deserves the good things in life.

See you at the next meeting Irene!!!

S

[365chico]

June 27th, 2016 // Day 179 of 366 Subject: Evin Wolverton Age: 32 Years Old Born: Los Angeles CA Currently Resides: Chico CA Occupation: Designer // Artist // Musician

“If I have something that’s within my power to give then yes. And what I’m learning to be is more discerning about what’s within my power to give as opposed to like,’How can I contort my skill set to be apart of this thing that I love.’, when really I’m a shitty cook. And I’m bad at crowd management. Like I shouldn’t be apart of either of those things. But if I can be involved in the storytelling, or getting the word out, or making sure the mood is right; now that I’ve given so much of my time and I’ve seen where it has been put to used and where it would have been better served by somebody else, I can be discerning about where the project will grow and I will grow.”

“There’s no way I’m gonna go through life without making it. Whether I make a concerted effort or not to announce myself to the world as a musician, it’s going to keep happening. If you looked at my voice memos folder on my phone it’s just all stupid musical ideas in various states of sobriety, it just happens. Or awake-ness; I’ll have stuff that I’m just like,’I was clearly half-asleep for that idea.’, but I knew I needed to come down. I’m not worried at all that I’m ever going to run out of ideas or the energy for the actual making of it. It’s just the organized display for the world that comes and goes sometimes.”

“As much as I do believe that design is a shadow occupation to being a musician, in that it borrows from the same set of ambitions and attempts to satisfy the same instincts but is only able to partially do so. There is another side to that shadow that is actually really beautiful in that I am being paid to, in a way, make art that is ultimately my discretion to offer, and to decide the size and shape and scope of. So as much as there’s a negative part to that, there’s also a real beauty to work where and when I please, on generally only the projects that I feel connected to, and turnaround work that I feel proud of that made people happy. That’s a great bottom line to work from.”

“I think the more art you make the easier it becomes to have your life resemble art; to have your daily routines have an art to them. And the way you interact with your community, and your family, and the world at large be artful. But I do think it takes practice and maybe, at first, intentional trying. But then again, I came from what feels like normal circumstances. There are people who are born that are so esoteric that their simple existence is art to the rest of us. I think it’s fun to at least aim for that for what I can become.”

“I think Chico has a close-to-perfect size of community that is large enough to stay fresh and have new opportunities popping up all the time. But it’s not so small that we’re stuck in patterns of grudges and fatal gossip. It represents the best ratio between quality of life and cost of living that I’ve ever seen which made it a no brainer for me to come here. It wasn’t it a no brainer, I knew before I made the decision; I asked a bunch of people,’Hey, I might get stuck there should I do this anyways?’. And all of them said yes. And so I did.”

“Be kind and work hard everybody.”

Ever talk and hang with someone and after you were so high on those moments that you felt like you were floating away? Well that’s kind of the feeling I had today when I was hanging with Evin. I felt like I was the one who was being 365′d in all honesty. He was earnest and honest in the way that spoke and that really made it easy for us to jump from topic to topic whilst traversing the openness and absurdity of life. More and more these days, the 365project has become less project-y and more of a way of life and Evin helped to solidify that idea today. He approaches his life in an artful way; the way he talks, treats others, does his work, makes music, and just lives. The fluidity to it all makes me want to be a more artful person. How bout you?

Did you art today?

S