Creekfest Memorial Work Weekend

Hear ye merry Creekfesters. It has been announced that there will be a work party at the creek starting Friday night, May 28th and continuing through Memorial day Monday, May 31st. So bring your work clothes, gather up some frosty beverages and choose a musical instrument of your liking. Previous work weekends have productive and enjoyable in highest order.

Make sure to let The Queen or The Man know if you plan on coming up as they would like to be prepared with lots of fun projects for you CFers.....

I hope to see you there.

Jeff

Pluggin' my new business venture

I've started a little web site design business here in Grand Rapids. I could use your help. If you know of anyone who is in need of a public relations and marketing saavy individual who has the ability to build websites, please send them my way. I'm focusing on green businesses, individuals and companies that are eco-conscious. I'm going to try to only work with sustainable businesses or groups, folks involved in organics, Natural clothing, that sort of thing. Peace.

WORK WEEKEND, MAY 2006

Hey kids, here's a few shots of what went on at Creekland this Memorial Day weekend. Much was accomplished. Unfortunately there are no photos of Liz and Jeff moving the outhouse - I know you're disappointed. Click on a photo to enlarge it.

Tons of cleaning and planting has occurred. Deb K was busy in the garden, along with Val and Gentri. Paul also added some new features to the stage. The stage now includes a new beam running across the width to hang lights, and it should be much easier to get a cover over the stage if it decides to rain.


Major Construction: There's a new set of stairs and a deck on the path down to the creek that everyone will certainly use. The construction crew included Paul, Ovid, Erik Emig, Bernie and Jerry. As you can see, it's snazzy and it's much easier to make it down to the water!



The view from the new deck





Judith did a great job repainting the picnic table and benches. My close-up shot of the table didn't turn out, but you can almost see it here in this shot of Bernie and Paul. Check it out when you get there, it's cool.



James dazzled everyone with his craftsmanship. There are new solar-powered lights on each path that are amazingly beautiful and fully functional.



James came up with a fabulous design that casts complex spiderweb shadow patterns, which will be really fun for those of you who plan to stay up late. They're a trip!

Bernie, Whitey, Jeffy and Ovid played a few ditties late Sunday night. The music was excellent as always, and it traveled far in the humid night air. I was in my tent far back in the woods listening. It was a great way to end a tiring day.

Good to know that you're out there and that you're visiting the website. This site has gotten over 100 hits in the past two weeks. In other words, this works!

See y'all in three weeks!!!

Jeff & Jen's trip to Europe - Click for Pics

A full month after leaving for Spain and Portugal Jen and I finally have our pictures online. The two weeks we spent on the Iberian peninsula were fantastic beyond description. Looking back it almost doesn't seem possible to squeeze as much into two weeks as we did. From Sevilla to Granada and then a week in the Algarve region of Portugal we hit too many cafes to count, Moorish fortesses, Orchards as far as the eye can see, and some of the most beautiful beaches and coastal cliffs in the world.

Starting in Sevilla we spent 3 days exploring the city and enjoying the nightlife. The days were spent wandering narrow cobblestone alleys, eating & drinking in streetside cafes, and experiencing Spanish culture in form of a bull fight that was shocking and visceral. The nignts were spent pretty much the same way but the culture was provided by Flamenco and sangria.

Next on the agenda was a two hour train ride east to Granada, nestled at the feet of the Sierra Nevada mountains and home of the Alhambra, a ginormous Moorish fortess built in the 9th century. Unfortunately by the time we hiked up from our hostel the tikets were sold out and we weren't able to see the inside. However, we hiked further up an adjascent hill covered in wild flowers and were treated with a fabulous view of, not only the Alhambra, but also the city of Granada and mountains in the distance. After our walk back down we stuffed ourselves with excellent pizza and two pithcers of sangria, which made the rest of the walk back much more enjoyable. After four days and nights of travel and staying in hostels we were ready for a night in a real hotel so we treated ourselves that night. At five the next morning we were walking through an almost deserted town to the train station to head back to Sevilla to pick up our motorcycle.

Up until this point in our trip our luck with the weather had been stellar. It had been sunny every day and between 70 and 75 degrees. Sure enough, as soon as we sit our butts on the motorcycle for our 4 hour drive to our resort in Portugal, it started to rain. (More to come......)

The Halfastronauts and some Pork!

Bernie Jellema and the boys in Halfastronauts will be jamming this Sunday, August 14th. Head on down to the Red Dock Cafe in Saugatuck from 4pm to 8pm. There's a crew headed south for the show. Bring a few friends, let's rock the dock!

Don't forget Brad and Anne's pig roast Saturday, August 20th! Bernie will be playing there too.

Ryan's Creekfest 2005 Pics

Hey Everybody,
I have a ton of photos from CF 2005. I have created a separate blog http://lexluthier.blogspot.com/ for all the pics. All of the photos are print quality. Expand the pic by left clicking, then right click and choose "Save image as" and its that easy. You now have the pic in your computer and you can print it, draw mustasches on people, make impromtu dart boards, or if you are so inclined, you can print out a pic of Jeff Lynn and use it as toilet paper.
Have fun,
Ryan

Creekfest Online: Day 4

Hah! Theres's a great shot of James below! Thanks Ryan for joining in. This is going to be a really fun and an easy way for all of us to stay in touch. We're off to a great start! Strong work Ry!

If you're reading this site for the first time, please also read the post entitled "Welcome to Creekfest Online" below.

This morning I spiffed up the Creekfest artist's business directory in the right column. This was really easy to create and didn't take much time at all. If you want to be listed there but don't have a website that we can link to, send me your contact info - address, phone, email, etc. - and I'll make a listing for you.

I added some stuff to the "Resource" section also. If you have other ideas about what types of things would be helpful to folks, send them to me. There really isn't any limit to what we can do here, and I hope that more folks will sign up in the next few days. Brainstorming continues... drop me a line if you have any ideas. Remember, anything goes!

Expect more emails from me in the coming days and weeks promoting this site. Please tell every Creekfester you know that they should feel free to write or add their stuff to this site.

Canoe Crew

Hey Everyone,
Giving a shout out to all you Crazy Mother Festers!
Take care,
Ry Guy

Got a light?

The King & Queen

Welcome to Creekfest Online!!!

Sean and I hatched an idea while sitting near the bonfire, a collaborative website that would showcase the talents of each of our many Creekfest friends. Here it is - rather unfinished - but everything cool has to start somewhere, right? Hopefully this is more than just a newsletter, hopefully this blog will help all of us promote our ideas, businesses, music, etc. We are a highly creative and crafty bunch, let's work together as well as play together. Let's promote ourselves and one another!

ANY CREEKFESTER CAN POST ON THIS SITE.
THIS SITE IS FREE TO USE FOR THE CREEKFEST COMMUNITY.

Access: Adding stuff to this website is really, really EASY. Contact me and I will send you an email-invitation that will allow you to begin. You'll also have to register with Blogger.com, which is free and will take you about 30 seconds. They do not spam. Registration is unfortunately necessary, but there will be no censorship or restrictions on this site. (I don't have everyone's email, so forward this message to every Creekfester you know who has a computer.)

Photos and images: You can upload photos to your post by clicking the image icon in each post window. We are somewhat constrained by the limitations of Blogger as to advertising. You can add images outside of your posts - for example: at the bottom of the page or in the side bar - by using a program called Hello, free to download. (I created and added an ad for Erik's disc at the bottom of the page as an example.) Image-hosting is critical. We want all of our images stored in the same place and Hello will do this for us for free. It's incredibly simple to use, but the process is annoying the first time you do it. Let me know if you need help and I will guide you through it.

Comments: There is a "comment" link at the bottom of every post. This is an easy way to communicate with one another and provide feedback on each other's work. You can also comment on the comments, creating a thread of open communication.

Audio: We also have the ability to "audioblog," meaning that you can leave a voicemail message on this site for all to hear using your regular phone. Sorry, I haven't figured out how to upload MP3 files to Blogger (yet). If you have the ability to text message on your cellphone, you can add text to this site from your mobile phone.

Hosting: I imagine if we found someone with a server willing to host this site, we could go crazy and really add some cool stuff, like animation, etc. For now, Blogger is free, relatively easy to use, and a great starting place. Erik Emig had an idea, while I was burning stuff in his kitchen, to have a live feed from the bonfire circle to the net. I will work on getting this site hosted elsewhere, somewhere we'll have more space so that next year's Creekfest could go full-on techno with a live internet broadcast. If anyone has any ideas about webhosting elsewhere, I'm open. My vision (come along for the ride) is that this site will grow continuously in the coming year, and that we will add snipets of tunes played on stage, video of the bbq process, the ducky race, and whatever else y'all come up with at next Summer's gathering. It will culminate with all of us enjoying a lucrative retirement. Am I asking to much?

This site was created for promoting all people and things Creekfest. Let your imagination soar! Start adding stuff! Add event info, random thoughts, art, photos, etc. Consider this another art project in process, but also a tool for marketing your ideas, your business, or just putting-up photos of your kids.

I hope this becomes an addiction for you! This can be highly successful, but only if YOU participate. Welcome to Creekfest Online!

Peace,

Jer
(photos: Sarah Whiting)