In addition to the many individual contributions we receive from our supporters, we would like to thank the following local businesses who are making ongoing donations to the BBCRC: Northbound Coffee Roasters, General Produce, Mt. Shasta Resort, and Weed Building Supply.
News
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Spring 2012 Work Party
Thanks to all of our supporters and friends who showed up for our Spring Work Party. We accomplished a great deal of project work, including a huge push on fuels reduction/forest restoration. Thanks also to all the bands who performed (Kicker, Sneakin’ Out, Did is Dead, Surfshit, RVIVR, Dog Jaw, and the Hobogoblins), as well as the artists who contributed to one of our most successful art shows ever (Pokey, Emily, Miss Max, and Joey Alone). Thanks also to Vanessa Renwick (www.odoka.org) and Dani Leventhal who organized a showing of their own amazing films during the work party. Despite some logistical issues due to the number of people who showed up, it was a very successful event.
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New Zine: Forest Restoration at Black Butte
Today we release a new zine, “Forest Restoration at Black Butte“, which details our efforts to improve the health of our forest area. Contact a BBCRC board member or stop by the BBCRC if you would like a copy (suggested $2 donation to cover copying/production costs).
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2011 Year in Review
This was been an event-filled year at Black Butte with the arrival of a new caboose, many gatherings, music, art, and zine release events and much progress made on all sorts of projects. Our renovated boxcar and PFE “reefer” art and performance space are now complimented by a 65 foot long “loading dock” — and have been hosting more events than ever before.
In February we were the venue for the second annual “Hot Winter Nights” gathering for the Weed community which included music by “Gopher Snake”, “Cheatin’ Hearts”, and “Coffin Hunter”, as well as many other performances, bringing a large local crowd to the Center and a mention from our local newspaper. In early April the “Resourced” Art Show (by the Just Seeds Screen Print Collective with Roger Peat and Kevin Kaplicki) opened in our reefer gallery. The show was accompanied by music from New Orleans-based band “Crackbox.” Later in April we hosted the Minneapolis band “Dark Dark Dark” along with “Why Are We Building Such a Big Ship?” (from New Orleans) and “Y La Bamba” (from Portland).
In mid-May our third caboose, BN #10772, arrived at its new home at Black Butte. This resulted from the collective efforts and contributions of a group of active and recently retired railroad workers who all plan to help with its restoration over the coming year. For more info and photos of this car visit this page.
Our Spring Work and Music Party, over the weekend of May 20-22, was in conjunction with the “Awesome Future” Zine Release and art show by Robnoxious. Written while Rob was here as caretaker, it is published by Microcosm and even features a long illustrated story about the BBCRC watch dog, Maxx!
We had a good turn-out and lots of great music, including performances by “Livid”, “Honey Bath” (both from the Bay Area), “Missoula Flood” (from Chico), and “Rye Wolves” (from Eugene). The extended cold in the Spring made for a late start for our garden but once in, it raged and provided a huge amount of food over the course of the summer and fall. In mid-June we had our annual Railroad Days and railworker gathering in conjunction with Dunsmuir RR Days. This included a well-attended boxcar music show with “The Bindlestiffs” (from Reno), “Pick n’ Holler”, and an acoustic traveling band who also busked down at Dunsmuir RR Days.
The weekend featured the appearance of a classic 1950s streamliner passenger train which came up and turned on the wye at Black Butte. We made sure to get it a good welcome and send-off at Black Butte! Other boxcar music shows included “Brute Heart” (from Minneapolis) on June 15th and “Snarlas” (from Ohio) and others in early July. In mid-July we hosted an art show installation, “Nobody’s Home”, by Oakland-based artist Bekey Kaye. The weekend event included a metallic oriented music show featuring “Into the Rhine” (from Vermont), “Embers” (from Oakland), “Speed of Darkness” (from Humboldt), and “Aranya” (from Portland).
In mid-September our annual Fall Music and Work Party took place, along with the opening of an art show featuring drawing, paintings and photographs by BBCRC members Shannon Knox and North Bank Fred. We also had acoustic music in our boxcar with “Amelia”. The event was very successful. Projects included repainting our Black Butte trainorders office, re-roofing our shop building, completing a “loading dock” along the boxcars, erosion control work, rebuilding the garden shed and greenhouse wall, harvesting and processing produce from the garden, further fuels reduction/forest restoration work, firewood cutting, infrastructure work on the two steel cabooses, maintenance and improvements to our office and other outbuildings… and even the construction of a tree house!
Later in September we took the BBCRC railbike, the “Bindlestiff Express”, on the road to Santa Rosa for our second appearance at the “Handcar Regatta” where our team raced in front of thousands of people. We were even mentioned on the front page of the Santa Rosa “Press Democrat“. See our Handcar Regatta page for photos of the race. In mid-October we had a well-attended “Zine Release Party” for Joey Alone’s zine “Raw Deal” that also featured music by O.M.G.S. (from Tacoma) and Crackbox, back for their second show of the year at Black Butte. Copies of Raw Deal are available at the BBCRC.
Thanks to all of the artists, writers and musicians who contributed to making these shows happen and also to all of the others who donated time, money, and materials to making the BBCRC flourish in 2011! The BBCRC is a growing collective effort and our progress couldn’t have happened without the contributions of our large community of friends and supporters! For more photos from the BBCRC over the year, see our Images 2011 page.
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New Photos and an Images 2010 Section
We’ve added lots of new photos to several of our pages on the site, including a major new “Images 2010” section. Thanks to Alyssa, Rosin, Toby, Joey, Fred, Jet Set, Rob and others who have all contributed photos and artwork. We have also added a new “Library/Art Space” page and also have updated several other pages including the “Local Ecology/Forestry” section (which now includes a Forest Restoration page) and the “Helping Out/Visits” page.
As the end of the year approaches, we are trying to raise some more funds to help with the acquisition of some new infrastructure, including a heating system and projector for the reefer car. If you are able to consider making a financial contribution please check out our “Helping Out” section for how you can send us a check or make a contribution via Paypal. Thanks!
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Fall 2010 Fundraiser with the Pierced Arrows
Amidst high winds, with gusts approaching 50mph, and driving rain we pulled off a very successful Fall fundraiser boxcar music party. We were honored to have the presence of PIERCED ARROWS featuring legendary rockers Fred and Toody Cole along with their awesome drummer Kelly Haliburton as well as Erick and Ivy (Black Rainbows) and Dirty Marquee. We barely contained the mass of people who showed up within our creaking boxcar walls! We’ll be putting up a page of photos of the show on our site in the next few days.
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Bindlestiff Express Wins at the Handcar Regatta
After spending time in our repair shop and getting fixed up at our Fall Work Party, we brought our six-person railbike, the “Bindlestiff Express” down to the 3rd Annual “Handcar Regatta” in Santa Rosa. Much to everyone’s surprise (including our own) we won the speed competition, beating out 21 other human-powered rail contraptions and bringing home the “Zephyr” trophy (for “blinding speed”) to Black Butte. And we only crashed twice!
Several days after the race we were informed that due to a rules infraction (having six pedalers when there is an obscure rule limiting the number of participants to four) we didn’t get the Zephyr trophy after all! But in its place the judges have awarded us the “Nimble Sleight of Hand” trophy, so all is well…
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Zine Release Party and Boxcar Punk Rock Show
We had a surprisingly large turn-out (over 50 people in total, both those coming in from afar by road and rail as well as many local people seeing the BBCRC for the first time) for a great Zine Release Party and Boxcar Punk Rock Show. Thanks to Robnoxious for his great new zine “Shut Up and Enjoy the Rain” (available for purchase at the BBCRC or through Microcosm Press) as well as the three traveling bands who played: Frozen Teens (from Minneapolis), The Nature Boys (from Kansas City) and Hello Shitty People (from Chattanooga). Thanks also to all who contributed food and drinks for the show including our friends at the Weed Brewery!
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Summer Finally Arrives at Black Butte
After a very long winter, summer finally reared its head around the butte. A foot of snow fell on May 31, and the Black Butte Cinder Cone was not free of snow until halfway through June. It was indeed a long, cold, and wet spring, and many tomato plants were lost (AH!). Finally now it’s 95 degrees again during the day and the humidity is back down to 25%… Summer at last! We’ve got a good number of events coming up in the fall, and have a steady crew of dedicated people keeping things up during the summer and waiting for the cooler weather to arrive. Luckily we had been doing a good amount of fuel-reduction in the surrounding forest and old pine-plantation before the weather got so hot and dry. We’d like to thank everybody who has helped us recently and look forward to seeing more of you around here soon… but be careful, it’s hot out there!
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Spring 2010 Work and Music Party
We’d like to thank everyone who participated in our May 13-16 Spring Work and Music Party. We had well over 100 people attending, our largest event yet. Great music in the boxcar and bus on Friday and Saturday nights. We also made huge headway on a large number of projects. We’ll be posting photos of the gathering on the Images section of our site soon.