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.

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!!!

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?

June 19th, 2016 // Day 171 of 366

Subject: Angela Lombardi // Annie Eblin

Age: 35 Years Old // 27 years Old

Born: Torrance CA // Ventura CA

Currently Resides: Chico CA // Chico CA

Occupation: *Angela* Bar Owner at The Maltese Bar // Hustler // Entrepreneur *Annie* Bartender at the Maltese Bar // Hustler // Entrepreneur

/

Annie: “I think the venture of making money is the culmination of a bunch of stuff. And we’re constantly moving pieces of the puzzle around to make it work and in the end hopefully does. We intend on success”

Angela: “What Annie said is pretty much the best description of it; It’s just a giant puzzle that we’re constantly moving around. I think that the way it is that they’re not mutually exclusive. We want to be able to make money off of things that we love. But we also want to have kids and we want to make sure that we get to be a big part of our kids lives. So that’s kind of where everything leads to, is how do we make enough money to be comfortable doing something that we don’t absolutely loathe, while being able to spend time and be really active parents.”

Annie: “How do we craft this world to get ready for our family and our kids, while providing for the community and hopefully making a little money along the way.”

//

Annie: “We’re not seeking approval or anything like that, it’s just a plan”

Angela: “I think that Chico is, even though it’s the middle of Chico California, there’s people that are from LA, or San Francisco, or anywhere else that would be like,’Where is that? Chino? Is there a prison there?’. Almost. almost had it. But this is a pretty safe place. I don’t think we don’t really get hassled granted we don’t want to go twenty miles outside of here. But as far as being a queer couple, thinking about raising kids, I think that this is a relatively nice place to do it.”

///

Annie: “I think that’s been kind of the consensus with everyone. Especially with last night’s drag show, that was the theme of it. Everyone was like,’Fuck that. We’re coming to party. We’re happy. We’re proud of who we are. We’re doing this.’ Ya know?”

Angela: “I think that it’s interesting act like we’ve come so far even still, in wake of this tragedy, tell us how far we’ve come. But clearly it’s not far enough. And I mean, we live inside our bubbles. Like when I lived in DC, there was never one time I thought of being gay. I never felt different, ever, regardless of what part of the city (I was in). Even if I was in the most hood part of the city, I never felt out of place or that people were judging me because I’m gay, I put it out there; you know as soon as you see me that I’m a big ol’ lesbian. And there’s people that just think I’m a boy so it’s one or the other. But we realize it when we have a random layover in middle America, where people that would actually vote for Trump, are the same people that follow me into the bathroom yelling ‘Sir’. Where I get stares constantly, it’s not just every once in a while. It’s like,’Holy Shit’, we walk to the Applebees in Mississippi and all eyes are on us; we’re like head-turners. But there is such discrimination and people are NOT ok with it. And one of the biggest things is talking about it. And I have a big thing where I just wish people that were curious about queer people would just ask questions; you wanna know, I’m actually willing to help educate you because I’m not different then you. And I’m actually pretty fucking delightful but you’re going to have an opinion on me because of my sexuality? That to me makes explosions in my head cause you don’t know me. I’m actually a pretty fucking nice person. Maybe you’re a nice person. We would never even get to see if that was a thing because you already have a problem with me. That’s insane to me.”

////

Angela: “Thanks Sesar. We love you. You’re a Gem”.

/////

What a delightful Sunday this has been already. Woke up. Drank some coffee. Went on walk. And....I got to Meet with Angela and Annie at the bar we love. Well, I would go as far as to say that they love it more but they allow me to love it in my own special way. I’ve been working for Angela independently for a little over a year now and it’s been really nice to have someone just let me do what I’m good at while also seeing herself and her partner grow as well. The best part is that I recognize not only their love for one another, but their ability to adapt and find new ways to proliferate their places in their lives and their community. They help to create a wonderfully open environment for everyone and above all they’re willing to go above and beyond to make others feel accepted. Now if everyone just made that same sort of effort, we might just have a better place to be. Nothings perfect, but Angela and Annie know that it’s not about being perfect; It’s just about being perfectly who you are.

Thanks you two!

May 6th 2016 // Day 127 of 366 Subject: Tara Michelle Johnson Age: 25 Years Old Born: Glendale CA Currently Resides: Chico Ca Occupation: Customer Service Representative // Photographer // Creative Type

“I really had a creative space to be in at the 1078 and I really liked that as well as growing with that but some things lead to me not volunteering there anymore. And I think I just need to find my own space again to be creative and put myself out there more. So I’m excited for the future, basically. And I need to do more research on what exactly I want to do and make me happy in the future.” 

“I like living in the moment but I also like not being in a spot where I don’t know where the next step is. Especially with traveling; I like to have something set and know where I’m going to lay my head at night. But then when I go out into the world I like to live in the moment and be adventurous and try new things. I guess I’m kind of like a ‘foodie’ some people say; I like posting my photography pictures of food, and trying new things with food, and other creative avenues.” 

“I think a lot of people on the surface level they are out there being social but at the same time, with the way technology is and everything, I think there are a lot of introverts as well. And I think you kind of have to put yourself out there more even though everything is open for the those different avenues you also have to keep putting yourself out there to try and establish relationships with different people and not just surface level relationships. And you have to try and strive for that.” 

“In this society right now we have more access to do different things but then at the same there are still drawbacks; women not getting paid as much as men and I think there is still a lot of progress we need to make. But I think being a woman, especially being america right now, we have a lot of access to do more. So I like that and I think there’s more that I would like to do as a woman, and grow, and find my path so I think there’s more chances to do that for me in this society. But the same time I wish I grew up in the Sixties and the Seventies.” 

“Like I was saying before with the Instagram; people getting to do what they love and doing that creatively. I look towards the future to possibly do something with taking photos, and getting out there, and speaking with people, and just letting my creative self flow. And I think there is more opportunity to do that with social media and putting yourself out there in that way.” 

Thanks to the wonderfully dressed and nice lady Tara Johnson for meeting up today on a friday morning for a casual yet very delightful coffee meet up and super chill hang sesh. Doing these with other photographers is intimidating but she was very soft and inviting and even helped frame one of my favorite shots! I had a great time and I hope she did as well. 

Thanks Tara!

April 1st, 2016 // Day 92 of 366 Subject: Courtnie Laverne Hoyer-Burns Age: 24 Years Old Born: Paradise CA Currently Resides: Arcata CA Occupation: Poet // Truth Seeker // Naturalist 

“Poetry is everywhere for me; it started out as way of healing and to just get in touch with myself on that level. And so a lot of my beginning poetry is very personal and talks about stuff I’ve gone through. But as the years have gone by and I’ve continued to write poetry, I’m now tuned into the world around me. A practice that I really love is finding the poetics of something. So when you take the ego out. When I take my own perception out, what is there?”

“When I don’t dance it’s because I’m either uncomfortable in my body or uncomfortable in my head. And I’m feeling anxious and insecure of other people seeing me moving my body freely; for some reason that’s really scary for me. And there have been times when I finally open up and I’m dancing freely and it’s feeling great. And when I stop dancing and I turn around there are guys licking their lips at me; it’s really disconcerting. Cause I don’t want to be sexually objectified when I’m experiencing this freedom within myself.” 

“I used to be really angry at the foster care system, the social workers, and the foster parents because I felt like I was being taught to repress my emotions or just constantly compartmentalize until I have therapy. And what I’ve learned in the past few years through various healing techniques is how to dig deep into my emotional world, my internal realm. And that’s helped me navigate how I interact with others in the world around me. And it’s also very much helped me develop a strong sense of empathy and compassion for those around me. And so I’ve been able to let go of that anger when I realize that this system doesn’t really teach anyone how to do that. So I can’t be upset at these people who themselves didn’t know how to do that or didn’t even have a desire or thought on how to do that.” 

“It’s interesting; I read this book last summer called “Letters to a Young Poet” by Rainer M. Rilke and he wrote it in the early 1900′s. And he said that when humans start loving humans then we’ll know what true love is but as long as men are loving women and women are loving men, love with be skewed. And I think that’s becoming more and more apparent these days. That assigning gender roles; we learn to love the gender roles that a person exhibits. Or we love to learn the relationship that we’re in with a person and that we’re not really learning to the love the person. Human beings are dynamic creatures and we’re very fluid. It’s like each moment, different values of ours are coming up whether we’re aware of it or not. And so I feel like this learning to let go of gender identities or not take them so seriously is giving us the freedom to learn to love people for all these different aspects of themselves.” 

“I don’t have hope; I don’t think hope is sustainable at this point. I don’t need it to show love and compassion to those around me. And I think it’s very dangerous for us humans to think too much about what’s going to happen because there are so many unknown variables at play. So that’s been one thing that’s been really freeing for me is to let go of this. I used to have this very doomsday outlook; that we’re destroying the planet with fossil fuels and just being irresponsible. We’re hiding our trash and we’re not really doing anything else with it and he planet could only take so much. But I don’t think we give the planet enough credit and the thought I have at times that the planet will shake us off like fleas and restore itself. And human have become parasites to the planet in that sense. But thinking about those things tends to put me in a place of fear and it’s hard for me to live compassionately out of that place. So I really enjoy imagination play in everything; I think it’s really important practice using our imagination and not get caught on one story in particular.”

Thank you to my friend Courtnie for doing the 92nd installment of 365chico. She happened to be in town this weekend and was goodly enough to go out a very nice spot in lower park for some creative shots and some good talks. She loves poetry, music, dogs, and sometimes people. She doesn’t open up to everyone but when she does, you’re glad that she did. 

Thanks Court.