The Oregon Country Fair Celebrates its 35th Anniversary

come be a custy!!!!.....

Come on down to the Country Fair(tm) and spend, spend, spend!!! Short on cash-- no problemo. We take Visa and Mastercard....

It's a shame that some people can't appreciate a good thing. Failing that, let other people enjoy a good thing. The country fair is a home-grown, non-corporate, community-minded event put on by the community. Small art and crafts vendors and restaurants sell home-made and healthy products. Good local organizations get a forum to air their views to the community. The fair donates its meager profits to some good non-profits and foundations. People who can't afford a ticket can volunteer to cover their admission and they can bring their own food, or barter or volunteer to earn food.

So stop yer yappin. Come on down and have fun. Or sit around the house and complain. Your choice.

Come pay $16 to shop alongside undercover cops
and tourists photographing hippie nudists.

Mother has been going to this fair now and then for 25 years. There is none better. Pay no attention to the belly achers who have a problem with any life out of the gutter. This fair celebrates all that is good and successful with the the hippie tradition. What's wrong with that? Good things can come to good people and this is the proof.

I've always wanted to go, but can't bring myself to dealing with these thugs...

all P-town's got is a bunch of politicos with their undies in a bunch over which lame ass Nader or Kerry sells out more.

Good music and good vibes, what's not to like?
Good grief, if the Country Fair is too "corporate" for some people, then how the heck are you going to do any effective policitcal organizing with the really straight people?
I've gone to CF and loved it, too.
But you do have to like being in crowds.
Some people would rather sit in front of their computer screens, I guess, instead of being out in the sunshine.
Too bad for them.

They always have cool bands and great speakers.

This year, both Medea Benjamin and Kevin Danaher will be speakers.
That alone is worth the price of admission.

If you don't want to be a consumer of grassroots arts and crafts, you don't have to buy anything.
The criticism is unfair and inaccurate.

One of our group had to back out so we have an extra ticket for Friday and Saturday. Will sell at face value (with no service fees)seperately or together for a discount. can email lakshmi_mama @ yahoo.com (minus the spaces of course).

You may also try the Erb Memorial Union on the University of Oregon Campus...or the W.O.W. Hall (Eugene venue). I believe they still sell tickets. No hassles there!

If you don't like a vendor accepting VISA/Mastercard then go to a different vendor that doesn't use plastic. I see no difference now between plastic debiting and cash...except I have to worry more about cash getting stolen than plastic.

See you all at the Fair. I'll be the one in the green sparkling three horned mask.

I posted an important critique of the OCF based on first hand experience as a hired performer there for 20 years. Why on earth did the pdx imc take my comments down and then replace them with a bunch of glowing stuff, but my post about the sexism, the racism, the classism, is gone? For a balanced view of the OCF, there needs to be discussion of its racism, sexism...I would like to know why pdx imc censored my critiques that are very valid and very true re ocf being horrifically sexist...or it is okay with the pdx imc that black women do not stand a flying fuck of a chance at the "big time" on ocf stages due to race??? The portland imc does not want us to discuss lecherous men taking pictures of young women's tits, under false pretenses? I do! Shame on you pdx imc for censoring a 20 year vet at ocf like that. You are condoning the sexism and racism there by doing so.

Whoops! I thought I had been censored when I guess there are two OCF articles by the same author here, so here is what I posted at the other one at  http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/07/291955.shtml...

OCF IS RACIST, SEXIST, CLASSIST and MORE!

Although that sugar-coated review of OCF is stuff fairy tales are made of, similar to American policy justifications, the ugly underbelly of OCF remains. I was a contracted performer at OCF for 21 years. I was drafted into 20 midnight shows in a row. I was the only solo woman to ever end the midnight show and I did it more than once, under my performing name Mother Zosima, the radical nun. During my 20 year stint at OCF, I did such things as sledgehammer a bathroom scale on stage while reciting the poem "Fat Grrls Are Dangerous, while naked at 250 pounds, except for a nun's habit and army boots, I was the only fat woman ever pictured naked on a midnight show scarve, I burned my camping pass onstage at midnight show, I was the first performer to write the sign language interpretters INTO the act without their prior knowledge, I announced people should register for OCF membership and vote from midnight show stage in 1990 and for the first time ever in OCF history, the OCF info booths ran out of membership forms on sight on Sunday, and voting membership rose by something like 300% that next election year, I ran for president of OCF on the platform that if I was elected, lesbians could finally sleep their way to the top, I blazed the path for the first women emcees of midnight show, etc. I was the most visible feminist act at OCF for years on end...But I have LEFT OCF for good. I must boycott it due to sexism, racism, classism, and homophobia.

Why would a solid member of the vaudeville performing family (with full passes) for almost 3 decades now just bail on OCF? Because I am sick of its sexist, racist, classist bullshit. That is why. Your first lesson in feminism/sexism at OCF this year is to READ BETWEEN THE LINES ON THE STAGE SCHEDULES. Look at the stage line ups for WCFields Stage. How many male solo acts are there? Now count how many female solo vaudeville acts there are? Likewise, how many of those male solo acts have female helpers whose lines are written by the men? How many of the solo female acts are forced to use sexism and objectified sexuality in their act for stage time? Now how many female solo acts have male "helpers?" Now look at the Stage Left schedule. Again, how many solo male acts, how many female solos? And then do that again for the Daredevil Stage. Without even seeing the line up this year, I can already guarantee it is sexist. How? Because it has BEEN sexist for 20 years before I left. It is not for lack of women solos that the stages in OCF vaudeville are filled with white men.

In 2000, Mildred Hodittle and myself, Mother Zosima, were both hired for OCF as usual. As the only two independent solo vaudeville women acts hired by OCF in 2000 (and for decades prior), we were literally told by the OCF vaudeville coordinator that there was NO ROOM ON ANY VAUD STAGE FOR US ON SATURDAY. Now, on that Sat in 2000, on WCFields stage, we had MALE SOLO ACTS such as Rhys Thomas, Louie Lichtenstein, Charlie Brown, Glenno, (mildred and my peers for decades) REPEATING their shows, while there was NO ROOM for the two solo women to do ONE show, in vaudeville. That year, the only women to step foot on the WCFields stage on Sat were women in the group UMO with men, and these women "helpers" to male acts. Likewise, the DuCaniveaux/Daredevil Stage that Sat was filled with repeating male solo acts, and no solo women, as was the Stage Left stage. Stage Left not only had little - no solo women vaudeville acts in 2000, but its largest act with women is a can-can line. Ugh! How progressive. The day the men have to be in cancan lines for stage space will be something! The message OCF vaudeville stages give women is they can look "good" scantily clad in can can lines or as helpers to male solo acts. That is it. It makes me sick. For YEARS, I worked SO HARD to try and give girls and women at OCF something higher to strive for than can-can lines at the circus, and helper to men status. But OCF is firm in its sexist footing. I used to think that the problem was ignorance and once they learned how sexist their policies were, they would change. But it finally became apparent, that OCF WANTS its women in cancan lines, in lingerie and as male helpers. There is NO ROOM on stages for solo women acts in OCF vaudeville that operate in independence, as in we are not romantic partners with the male heavyweight performers. How would the men benefit from my feminist act? Apparently the men in power at Vaudeville feel it is more advantageous to support VERY thin women who shake their butts, wear lingerie on stage and dance cancans for them, than smart fat funny and educational women, women acts who ask all women to ask the men they sleep with how many kids they have and how they support them and women acts that support women throwing away their diets! Mildred and I had nowhere to perform on Sat 2000 at OCF, but the girlfriends and wives of the FLying Karamoxov Brothers, Rhys THomas, Charlie Brown, Louie Lichtenstein, Chumleigh, and MANY of the male performers did get stage space through the men that saturday and that year, as in other years, and it all became glaringly clear to me that this shit was no accident. The men wanted to control the women performers. That is very very clear. That is why so FEW, if any, lesbian acts make it to the midnight show or OCF vaudeville stages. How would that benefit the men? It would not, so fuck it. Alice Dimicele, for instance, has been a solid lesbian act for years, but she is not in the heavy part of the midnight show, why? She is a lesbian act, I believe in my soul that the reason she is not drafted for midnight show is that she is not of use to the men of vadueville. It is about what titilizes the men WAY MORE than about women and talent. MOST of the women on OCF vaude stages actually never had a stage gig until dating the males who already had acts for them to just latch onto. And the women helpers in the male acts are also ways for the men to show off their prizes, their trophy wives...Mildred and I, by contrast, have had solo gigs prior to OCF and prior to knowing the performer men. We did not need men for our careers.

Back in 1990, I said from the OCF stage that it had been 16 years of all male emcees at Midnight show and I was hoping in the 90's all that would change. I got huge applause for that, and got reamed by the men in charge of midnight show thereafter. THe following year, 1991, in response to me asking for a woman emcee, Paul Magid aka Dmitri Karamazov came out in a dress, and that was our woman emcee for the year. It pissed me off. They say that was comedy, I say it showed how truly afraid of sexual equity they are.

As I watched the performer men fawn over some sexy stripper that OCF male vaudevillians imported from Germany around 2001, to give stage space yet again to women acting sexy more than displaying talent (she bent over backwards and lit a cigarette, great role model for girls, whoopie)...over the acts who invested decades, Mother Zosima and Mildred Hodittle, I saw women's eyes roll, as men were enthralled at the strip tease as a vaudeville act. I was starting to loose my temper.

I finally quit after the so-called "Girl Circus." I had done feminist activism at OCF for two decades and have tons of fan mail saying I changed people's lives. I am especially proud of all the letters from young girls and teens. But in 2001, I believe it was, in response to my complaints, as well as others', re not enough solo women independent of the men in vaudeville, some women who are predominantly married to powerful males in vaudeville, made a "girl circus." The "girl" circus had a theme of all women in lingerie as their group costume. Yeah, I am not an advocate of young girls using lingerie as their logo nor of women having to dress in underwear on stage when men do not do that. I believe that women should not have to dress in sexual attire to perform, men do not dress sexy for us. Certainly I do not see Tom Noddy or Baby Gramps in thongs, or having to dress in lingerie, for stage time. So not only were these grown women calling themselves "Girls" but they were also exposing GIRLS to sexist crap, yet again, this time led by WOMEN! The "girl circus" had a blonde, bone thin wife of a Karamozov Brother coming to the edge of the stage, lifting her skirt and shaking her butt in panties at the audience. Its band leader came out in lingerie and long gloves and led the band in sexy theme music. So, is this a sex act for men to watch named "Girl Circus?" YUCK!!! Cuz it was not empowering as a woman to watch! That was for sure. I would not have let any girl child of mine be in that mess. And as the most visible feminist act at OCF for decades, it is no mystery why I was not asked to join such a sexist act. It made me sick that in trying to get powerful women acts to stage, they once again just used the women the male performer heavyweights have power and control over, the women who are married to the men of power in vaudeville, the women who are willing to put on lingerie and shake their booties to be on OCF stages! I AM NOT OF THAT ILK. I believe women should be allowed on stage for talents other than shaking booty, just like the men.

Your next assignment to reveal OCF's sexism to you is to watch the midnight show lineup. I was in it for 20 years, I know it too well. You will find the BULK of the women performers to be women folk singers. I was always the only female comedy solo except for mildred. The bulk of the women solos will go on before the most active part of the show after the parade arrives. The bulk of women acts that are not sexy for men will go on before 10 or 11 pm. You will notice the last 2 hours of the show will be full of solo male acts. Likewise, the only women you will see on stage at midnight show in the last two hours, will be predominantly scantily clad. And it does not end there. Count how many NONWHITE acts you see at Midnight Show, on these lands that were previously American Indian grounds...

Yes, you can count the number of African-American acts at OCF, and they are SMALL in number. Subtract the reggae groups, and you are left with almost ALL white stage sets. Shady Grove stage is a good place to go see LOTS of white people on stage in a row. When I suggested over and over that OCF do outreach and bring in strong black women singers, gospel groups, and angry young rap groups, people's racism quickly came out. One well-known love fest brother at OCF said we could not bring rap to OCF cuz it would increase violence at the fair!!!! I have heard this type of nonsense over and over now from OCF "family." So if you are black, and do not play reggae, there is nowhere for your act at OCF really, except in token status, just like there is nowhere for your solo vaudeville act if you are a woman at OCF. I have a black woman friend, who is not thin and does not dress like a stripper, who has performed music at OCF for 2+ decades too. She has one of the top 5 voices ever to sing at OCF. Yet she has never been lauded with the privileges the skinny white chicks with little to no talent, who shake their underwear for men on stage get.

There is a class, race and sex hierarchy going on at OCF regarding the vaudeville and Shady Grove stages. You only have to go look at these stages to see what I am saying is true. This last year, a new coordinator took over OCF vaudeville books and he noted what I have said for 20 years, the women were paid very differently than the men were for decades now.

I am sick of being told there is no room on OCF stages for independent, strong, feminist, educational and comedic repitoires, yet there is endless room for women in lingerie in can can lines on those same stages...I am tired of the women who sleep with the powerful men in vaudeville getting perks that outweigh the solo women who WORKED their way to the top of their genre.

I can no longer support the white, patriarchal world of OCF. As a performer, I tried to get away from the sexist crap in vaudeville by offering a different talent to OCF. I offered to help make the OCF Fair Family News better with content. I sent three monthly columns full of performer interviews, fair family history, info on where to take kids at fair, where to buy large women sizes at booths, toilet etiquette at fair, etc. Instead of printing my columns, the Fair Family news instead put out an ad for someone to do performer interviews, and fair related articles for the paper!! I wrote back and said, "but I sent you columns on JUST THAT and you do not use them." I got no explanation. I offered to quit trying to integrate the OCF vaude stages with actual feminist acts, or women who refuse to be a sex act for stage time, and tried to move to the Fair Family News and website maintenance as something I could contribute to that may be less sexist at OCF after investing enough years now to qualify for the elder status passes once I turn 50...but even though I am a published writer in Utne, ZMag/Net, Alternet.org, Infoshop.org, Alternative Press Review, Antiwar.com, Informationclearinghouse, Resist.ca, Slingshot Zine, Mexico Magazine, and many many more places, once again, I was not good enough for the OCF writing crew...

So, apparently there is no place for me at OCF if not a helper to a male act, if not scantily clad, if not in a cancan line, and I would rather just skip the whole thing. I finally gave up on midnight show as there is no stopping the sexism in that show. It is a MALEFEST. A WHITE MALE FEST. Please note that almost every woman, IF NOT EVERY WOMAN, to step foot on the OCF midnight show stage and vaudeville stages will be THIN, when most women are not thin. And the fatter women acts will be in the beginning of the show, not the end. You will notice that most women who step onto midnight show stage will be YOUNGER, as in 10+ years younger, than the men. If you knew the women in midnight show's last 2 hours, you will also find that almost every single one of them came from middle-upper class homes. Few "poor" women make it onto stage at OCF, that is why few, if any, of the acts other than mine at midnight show ever talked about issues of poverty. You will notice that most women on midnight show stage will have a sexual nature to their cloting. You will notice very few men have this sexual element to their clothing unless mocking it as women's dress, such as men in tutus, etc. Notice how ALL the acts make heterosexuality the norm. I just cannot do OCF in good conscience anymore. When I was a female at midnight show with a small child from 1984-1990, I was the ONLY person backstage with a child. ALL MEN acts made NO KIDS backstage. Women took care of their kids. But there I was, year after year, as the ONLY person backstage with my baby. Because I was one of the only solo woman acts there. Kat Wildfire, another solo woman act in OCF history, then had a kid, and her and I shared childcare backstage as we were two solo women acts in a sea of male acts and women helpers and cancan "dancers." It was telling to me that as I stood backstage with men who ALL had kids, such as Artis the Spoonman, Moz Wright, Karamazov Brothers, DuCaniveaux members, such as PKDwyer and Dave Conant, etc., I was the ONLY one with my kid backstage for years. It has changed now as it is now more kid friendly but back in the 1980's I was breaking ground by BRINGING my BABY to backstage at midnight show, unlike all the men who had women to take care of their kids. I even brought males in on my camping passes AS babysitters, but they threw fits and said they refused to be relegated to "babysitter" during midnight show so even when I had male partners, I still ended up with the kid backstage at midnight show...

I also cannot watch one more young girl without her top on photographed by one more gross old man to jack off to later. And it is rarely older women with sagging breasts or fat women who are topless, nor are they ever PHOTOGRAPHED topless, it is ALWAYS thin, young women photographed and there is a reason for that too. They get ALOT of attention for no tops on if thin and young. You do not get treated the same if topless and older with sagging breasts or as a fat woman. Which says a lot to me about why the men are giving energy to topless young thin women. How many midnight show scarves have had some topless thin woman who is not even a performer on them? GROSS. How many topless chicks are pictured on the internet from OCF as a titilation for men...and the women act oblivious, but really now! I just cannot watch dumb girls be sexually exploited by dirty old loser men at OCF any longer.

The fair is a mess in my opinion. It is held on sacred ground to American Indians which is also a problem. There are a TON of problems with OCF's white Patriarchal festival. I boycott it personally. Its pretty packaging no longer works for me. And I was there for 20+ years. I know of what I speak. I find the fair stages to be too white to be entertaining, and I cannot watch even one more woman shake her booty from stage while talented women sit it out on the sidelines.

Kirsten Anderberg aka Mother Zosima
www.kirstenanderberg.com
OCF Contracted Performer 1983-2001

 http://www.kirstenanderberg.com
seatlle, Wa

You will be a lot happier. The General Manger of the Fair is a female. Take it up with her.

OREGON IS WHITE! Look at the schools, look at every city in Oregon...save for Portland and you will see WHITE PEOPLE! Hence, it is hard to find acts of color for the stages. It is sad, but you need to wake up. Diversity has always been a problem because the population of Oregon is WHITE!

I am a Native American (Tututni) and I have no problem with the fair. I find the fair to be a great example of what it may have been like to live back in the day. A village of people trying to live and love. I have no problem with nudity or being scantily clad. My tribe was scantily clad! I saw a man ask permission to take a picture of a topless woman this year...she was painted...and gasp! FAT! She was beautiful. You say that fat women aren't beautiful? Whatever. I love my body and I think it is beautiful and if I want to dress scantily in front of men and women...so be it! That is my right too. You think I don't have a choice? Bullshit.

Maybe they didn't want you onstage because you were so full of anger and rage. Don't let the anger get to you. I applaud your for trying to change things but a boycott of the fair is unproductive and no one but you will care. Your long tirade makes you sound a bit off.

The second best thing to being there...
My attempt to capture the people that make this fair such a pleasure.

 http://www.pbase.com/lance_h/2004_oregon_country_fair

you sound kinda racist yourself you know. i can count more than three times you used the term "too white"
what, is white a "bad" thing?
dont get it twisted, i dont think its "good" either, its neither. maybe your gripe/complaint is valid, but i have a problem with some of your comments, they are themself derogatory and they only deepen the divide between you and your oppressors. i personally dont use the term "too black" and if someone did, i would find it rude, unneccesary, and Racist....

for your information, im pretty sure heterosexuality IS the norm.....
there didnt get to be this many people around because everyone Wasnt straight...

maybe its not my place, wait, yes it is. you posted your thoughts publicly..
but it sounds to me like you yourself are more worried about sex and race of people than peoples minds.
do you identify yourself first as a woman or as kristen anderberg?
example:
"hi, im a straight, white, male, and my name is chuck"
or
"Hi, im chuck,... and i Happen to be a straight, white, male"

whats the first thing you think of about people, some stupid detail like sexual orientation, sex, creed or the character of a person?

because it sounds like your judging those "skinny" girls just as you feel youve been judged
maybe not everyone feels "disgusted" by the same things as you..i suppose those men in their underwear are the only men to Ever appear in a remotely sexual fashion... yeah right.. maybe i should take offence.. are you jacking off to that picture by any chance?, wait scratch that, i dont want to be a "disgusting" person... sounds a little like youve got issues yourself also...

Yeah, there are not enough angry women acts at OCF in my opinion. Ever see Chumleigh's show? It is great comedy, but it is "angry." Ever seen Artis the Spoonman's show? It is very "angry." As is Jim Page's show. Funny how men can be VERY angry, but an angry woman, we do not want *that* on stage?! Well, I DO want more angry women acts, since there are close to *none* as we all *leave!!* I have maintained one of the *only* ANGRY RAGEFUL women's acts at OCF and I am fucking proud of it too. I am PROUD that I scared the shit out of the people in control at OCF, as well as the audience. I am proud of knowing how to swing a sledgehammer naked with attitude. All I was ever asking for was gender equity. And apparently that was one radical agenda! One that could not be realized at OCF.

And re Gen Manager being a woman, yeah, and we have two sup court judges in america so there could not be sexism! Hello!!! No gen mgr is gonna tell the karamozovs what they can or cannot do, or the the K's can take their shit elsewhere and the GM knows it. A *large* part of OCF is the entertainment, so *do not* tell me this is a moot point. Control of the vaudeville stages is still under the arm of men, men with power, and the women they control, almost exclusively. Have *you* been in the performer elite for 20+ years? Do you have *any* idea of what you speak? Because I have working knowledge, of the constructive sexism, regardless of all the pretty packages words. I am not saying that the Karamazovs, for instance, are bad people. They have helped/supported my career and been open to my criticisms of our community at times...it is more the structure is inherently sexist and it is not being allowed to shift...we are not raising amazing women juggling acts, like we did with boys. We have several good juggler males in their teens and 20's now, no women really. Same with music. It is sad. The girls at OCF are bred to shake ass in cancan lines on stage. Not to be angry and hardcore on stage and that sucks. I want our girls ANGRY, not complacent. Not doing a fucking cancan dance. So support what you want. I am going to places they have other angry women for me to hang out with, places they APPLAUD angry women, rather than waste anymore time at the OCF...

And all your slams to me do not erase the fact that everything I have said is true. And that the good angry women acts do not frequent the OCF, and for good damned reason. Look, I know very intimately of what I speak here.

MORE ANGRY WOMEN ACTS! NOW!