Memoir
Writes Shimizu: "I had just taken my last East Coast tour with Cass McCombs in which our first stop was the Rainbow Gathering in Virginia. This was also during my second week starting as the Technical Assistant at EAI. At the Rainbow Gathering, my band mates and I wandered around groups of people living as one large camping community, spread throughout groves of trees and flat
green pastures. Many times during our walk, whenever walking past
someone, often male, making eye contact, we would be greeted with,
"welcome home." There were sections specializing in certain basic
functions; cooking, cleaning, trading wares (flea market items laid out
on a blanket in the dirt), healing, etc. At one point, somebody reminded
us to help out. I remember cleaning potatoes, peeling onions, and cutting
green beans. We decided not to spend the night at the Rainbow Gathering.
"This experience led to my re-evaluation of the utopian values I was exposed to while growing up in Sebastopol, California. The text for this video was based on a mix of personal experience and local lore. I related my negative childhood feelings about communes to my experience at the Rainbow Gathering. This led to my interest in capitalist aesthetics and media. I began to read The Futurist Manifesto, books by Ayn Rand, and Dianetics. I also became involved with online dating through the Village Voice personals. I'd spend $25 for the opportunity to send around 10 messages or 20 winks. I went on a few dates, but nothing long term came of it. I became depressed and imagined a stand-in to introduce myself and tell amusing anecdotes, like I often found myself trying to do. This video is the component for a signage style installation in a corporate lobby, as if I were the founder of the company."
