Wolongong

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011 Posted by Jessica. Published under Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

Just a quick update– I went to Wolongong, a small town on the coast of New South Whales last week.  Ray drove me up there– about a 5-6 hour drive.  We spent over an hour driving through beautiful rainforest mountains to get to sea level on the coast.  The scenery went from being yellow grass to lush trees and ferns in practically no time.

We stopped in Batemans Bay (Ray and I called it Batman’s Bay) to eat lunch by the ocean.  When we walked up to the picnic area, I looked on the ground and said “Who didn’t clean up after their dog????” And Ray informed me I was looking at kangaroo droppings.  Then he pointed about 100 yards ahead of us and there was this huge family of grey kangaroos staring at us.  I got really excited and started filming and taking lots of photos.  Ray thought it was pretty funny that I was so excited– it’s a bit like someone filming a family of deer eating grass in the United States and getting really excited about it.

When we got to Wolongong, Ray couldn’t remember where the other tent embassy was located– which was the whole reason we drove up there.  No worries, though– we found a nice spot near a national park (Australia has way more national parks than America) to set up my tent. 

The next day, we drove down to the ocean and swam for a bit.  The air was cooler than in Canberra, but the water was really warm and crystal clear.  On the way back to Canberra, Ray drove into the outback a bit and took me on a bush tour, showing me animal tracks and what was edible.  He even let me film him chopping down a eucalyptus branch to make a boomerang.  I’m really excited to go through all of my footage when I come back!

Tomorrow, Ray’s going to drive me up to a small Aboriginal community in the bush about 2 hours from Sydney.  I guess the family that moved there really read up on the Australian constitution and figured out a way to officially make the land they were living on soveriegn.  I should get some really cool interviews out of that, too!  Then it’s back to the United States and back to my life in snowy Boston.

Working on the Road

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011 Posted by Rachel. Published under Bike Tour Preparations, Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

It is the dream of many, and of mine, to work when and where I want to. Very few of us is blessed enough to live like Paris Hilton, so we have to work hard to get to a point where we can be our own schedule maker.

There are so many reasons why I want this sort of life for myself. When deciding what to study at university, I dreamed of working on movies like the ones I loved in exciting locations all over the world. But I quickly found out that I’m not really a good candidate for Hollywood type film sets. Mostly because I don’t do well on 4 hours of sleep!

So it was back to the drawing board, but I also wanted to not have to worry for a while either. (That would be my dad’s voice in my head…) And now, I’ve enjoyed a stable job and income these last two years here in Boston. I’ve also learned more about being a professional than I could have ever learned on a film set. It’s allowed me to work with a multitude of people as a wedding and editing freelancer because I was able to network with people here. They’re work on building a self-owned business also taught me worlds of information.

But there was always that little voice inside (not my dad’s), that wanted to run off to live in Berlin, or Chicago or on the West Coast. And then I met Jessica. The idea for a bike tour tugged at those adventure heart-stings just right.

Having the desire to live a life full of adventure can only work so long as the money last though. Here we are at that same dream of working when and where we want. I’ve been thinking lately about all the different types of work that can be done from any location.

Writer…
Web designer/developer…

A few that you get assigned to a location but could also probably find work that would send you where you want to go…

Journalist…
Filmmaker…
Photographer…

I’m sure you, dear reader, can come up with many more choices. I, or we, have to build our own plans for this. Jessica has journalist training. I’m working on web design and am actually really enjoying it! I’m also very confident we’ll be able to work out our film treatment and successfully fundraise for it. Everyday is a new day for learning, it’s just a matter of time!

I won’t let this dream go either. After listening to a new author, Ida Haettemer-Higgins, talk about her book, The History of History, at my job this week (Gotta love the Forum Network!), it was all I could do to not jump on a place and permanently move back to Berlin. Her words touched on my love for that city, and hearing that her own reaction to it was so eerily similar to mine; they whispered in my ear, “This is not the end of the road for you. Berlin is calling.”

Where would you go and what would you do if you could work from anywhere? Comment below!

Sovereignty Day

Monday, January 31st, 2011 Posted by Jessica. Published under Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

Today I’m going on a car trip with one of the Tent Embassy folks to another tent embassy about three hours away on the coast.  Ray, an Aborigine about my age, is going to take me bush walking out there and maybe fishing (I always said I’d eat fish if I caught one and killed it and gutted it myself, so we’ll see if that happens today).  Anyway, I don’t know when we’ll be back from the coast, so I’m writing Monday’s blog post on Friday morning/Thursday evening depending on what part of the world you’re reading this.

Wednesday was Sovereignty Day/Australia Day.  Aussies really go all out for Australia Day in a way that I feel like most Americans (or at least Bostonians) would be considered rednecks: Australian flags EVERYWHERE (on every article of clothing, from the shirt, hat, and shorts, to the sun glasses and facepaint), and massive consumption of Alcohol in public.  Australians start drinking 24 hours before Australia Day– Tuesday night was super loud, but by Wednesday night I guess the city was too hung over to raise too much of a ruckus because I slept a lot safer/sounder in my tent.

The Tent Embassy is a dry camp, so none of the protestors were drinking.  On Wednesday, Ray and I walked about 1.5 miles down to the city center with the college students where there was a rally.  Other Aborigines and Aboriginal supporters showed up, and within 20 minutes, there were Aboriginal flags everywhere.  A sound system was hooked up, and a few people spoke and some students performed a dance to the famous Aboriginal song “Thou Shalt Not Steal” by Kev Carmody.  Then it was time to march back to the Tent Embassy.

Protests in Australia are apparently much more quiet/somber than protests in America.  There was a little chanting of “Always was, always will be Aboriginal land”, but not a lot.  I’ve been to protests in America where I thought a riot was about to break out, but no one got arrested.  This was extremely tame, but I guess one of the Aboriginal protestors at the front was walking too close to cars and was blocking traffic and the cops grabbed him and dragged him through the protest to a police van and threw him in the back.  The protestors started chanting, “Bring him back!  Bring him back!” and blocking traffic more, and the cops started shoving people back to the other side of the street.  I got the whole thing on camera– I figured I’d keep filming until a cop told me to stop. 

The whole protest, I was running back and forth from front to back, trying to get as many different shots as possible.  It was 101F outside, and by the time we got back to the Tent Embassy I thought I was going to have a heat stroke.  Some of the elders gave inspiring speeches at the sacred fire– including one woman who was one of the original protestors 39 years ago.  After, everyone threw eucalytpus branches in the fire– the same thing as a Native American smudging ceremony.

Once I cooled down a bit and drank tons of water and reapplied sun screen (I look like a lobster– I’m already starting to peel), I interviewed one of the march organizers, a Mauri from New Zealand, about the significance of the march and Sovereignty Day.  I think it’ll make for great narration of all the footage I shot that day.

Yesterday, I filmed Ray making boomerangs and spears out of Eucalyptus branches.  Then we went out on the Parliament House lawn and threw them around.  When we go bush walking today/tomorrow, Ray’s going to let me film him cutting down the branches he uses, as well as a bush tucker (aka wild food) tour. 

Until next time!

Greetings from Australia pt. 2!

Thursday, January 27th, 2011 Posted by Jessica. Published under Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

Tomorrow is Australia/Invasion Day, so the library’s going to be closed and I won’t be able to write a blog update.  Yesterday (Jan. 24), the Tent Embassy folks drove me to a farm about 40km away in the bush where a group of college students were camping as part of a workshop about Aboriginal land rights.  Almost all (if not all) of the students weren’t Aboriginal, but the Tent Embassy protestors adore fiesty college students fighting for their rights (they sure picked me up right quick four years ago)– especially since they’re the ones who are going to be running Australia some day. 

Mostly what the students were organizing against was the mining of uranium in parts of Australia’s outback.  Most Americans don’t know about this, but Australia’s outback is full of uranium mines which have been contaminating the soil and the people (who are mostly Aboriginal) who live out there.  Here’s just one news article, but it’s been happening for a long time.   Aborigines and white supporters have been protesting the mining the whole time, and several events have taken place at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy over the years.  

The students were excited to talk to Robbie, whose older brother was one of the four original founders of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, and it was great to watch all of the students asking him questions and showing him such respect.  It was also cool because Robbie brought along a copy of the film I made and everyone watched it on a TV at the camp.  I was a little embarrassed (because I know so much more about filmmaking now than I did then), but it was also exciting to have my first “Australian Premiere” of the film.  I took a photo of everyone watching it.

I’ve actually been trying really hard to take lots of pictures while I’m here.  I don’t typically take pictures of anything when I go places (I think I can count on one hand the number of photos that exist with Rachel and I both in them), and the last time I was here I only took one photo at the Tent Embassy.  I guess I was too busy filming everything.  I just want to make sure I get some good photos of the stuff I’m doing and experiencing over the next ten days so I’ll be able to remember as much as possible.

Anyway, the students are all coming to the Tent Embassy tonight to camp out and spend Australia/Invasion Day with us– should be a great time tonight and tomorrow!     

Oh!  And this morning we made Jonnie Cakes on an open fire– Rachel and I will totally make these on the road– recipe coming soon!

Greetings from Australia!

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011 Posted by Jessica. Published under Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

I know today is supposed to be a bike touring blog post day, but I’m in Australia right now and I wanted to post photos, but I can’t right now because the computer at the library won’t let me.  No, I’m not soaking in the Australian sun on Bondi Beach in Sydney right now (as tempting as that sounds since I just left 5ft snow piles in Boston)– I’m living in my tent in front of the Old Parliment House in the capital city (Canberra), participating in a 39-year-old permanent protest called the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. 

I feel like I have so much explaining to do!

I’ll try to make this short: Basically, in college I studied abroad in Melbourne.  Part of my study abroad program reuired that I spend 5 weeks working on an independent study project.  Everyone else in my group wrote 40-page papers, but I decided I wanted to film a documentary about the Aboriginal Tent Embassy (sigh rewind 15 years– I’ve always been obsessed with Aboriginal culture and their fight for human rights so I already knew about the Aboriginal Tent Embassy when I studied abroad). 

So I camped out at the Tent Embassy in 2007 for about five weeks, shot 13 hours worth of interviews, and made a 27-minute film.  Looking back on it now, there are SO many things I’d do differently with the filming/editing (I had no idea what I was doing), but everyone at the Tent Embassy loved it, and that’s all that really matters.

Every January 26th, there’s a large group of people who come to the Tent Embassy to protest Australia Day (it’s like the Australian version of the 4th of July– only they didn’t have to fight a war to kick the Brits out)– the Aborigines call it Invasion Day.  So I’m camping out the next two weeks and I brought a video camera to hopefully get some better interviews.

I’ll try to explain all of this in more detail later, but if you want to know more about the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, I suggest checking out Koori Web.

That’s all for now– I’ll keep trying to figure out how to post photos, I swear!

Happy Snow Day from Boston!

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 Posted by Rachel. Published under Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

Hi All…

Sorry for the delay in posting this.  I’m feeling under the weather and spent 4 hours waiting for urgent care last night because I didn’t want to be trapped by snow and rolling in pain, which resulted in me not getting home until 11pm and thus not writing a post.  At least I was correct in thinking we’d get trapped by the snow!  Here’s some pics as proof:

Not Politically Correct: Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 24th, 2010 Posted by Rachel. Published under Mini-Adventure. 1 Comment.

Sorry if we’re offending anyone by wishing you all a Merry Christmas, we don’t mean to not recognize your’s or anyone’s diversity…but we’re both from families who celebrate Christmas.  Since Jessica was flying out to see family in Ohio yesterday morning and my sister and I were romping around Boston instead of working, it’s been determined that we are officially on Christmas break until next week Tuesday.

But first, I’d like to simply share with you all, what Christmas means to me as a secular person with the hopes that it will become more of a politically correct statement when coming from us.

Holidays are for celebrating the love of friends and family.  For being grateful for the blessings of shelter, food and creature comforts we are afforded.  For me, it’s irrelevant which holiday it is, which religion or secular belief it’s based on, every single time I sit at the table, look at my loved ones surrounding me, I am grateful, so grateful for my family and loved ones.

I’m also grateful for the wonderful community we’re finding here through Against the Grind.  Each and every one of our readers and your comments are worth all the work we’re investing here.  It makes spotting our launch date as more than a tiny dot on the horizon.

And finally, please comment below about your favorite holiday tradition and what it means to you!  We always love hearing from you.

Biking: The New American Road Trip

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010 Posted by Rachel. Published under Mini-Adventure. 1 Comment.

I have to confess something.  As much as I do love being on a bike, especially my gently used Volpe, and have always loved being on bikes, I’m not obsessed like many bike tourists.  I don’t own one of those tiny brimmed hats.  I don’t pretend to know much about how to repair bikes although I’m eager to learn since I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands.

But when Jessica first talked about wanting to go on a cross-country bike tour, I couldn’t get the idea out of my head.  And after watching The Road last night (and having it haunt me all day), I’ve finally really come to the conclusion why.

This is the new American road trip.  And you may wonder how on earth a post-apocalyptic film helped me realize this, but it wasn’t the apocalypse I was thinking of – it was the fact that any story that occurs on a road is golden in American culture.  Around every bend is the hope for a new and glorious adventure.  But on a bike, one is seeing those adventures at the slow pace this country deserves.

As I ponder how I’ll propose my fundraising needs to Kickstarter soon, I feel that this will be my own story’s foundation.  What do two women, not quite fresh from university but also not quite settled in, stand to learn from the United States of America?  How will our lives change for better or for worse?  Certainly, I’m hoping we don’t end up in the horrific scenes of The Road, but I do hope we’ll see more of America than can be imagined from my semi-warm apartment in Boston.

It’s easy to isolate oneself in a community where one is safe and loved.  I definitely feel shock every time I’m confronted with American culture that I’ve purposely avoided such as talking with anti-abortionists or extremely testosterone filled men.  The road, for me, will expose all of my weaknesses in facing these situations, but it will also highlight my strengths.

As I delve further into the world of bike touring, learning all those things that obsess the hard core, I can see the road in all of their words, excitements and failures.  Jessica and I are joining what is becoming a very large group of devoted people.  I know we’re in good company too.  I also hope that we inspire even more people to join in.  Human-powered transportation is the great equalizer, and we’re all off to regain what’s been lost of that romantic ideal.  Yeah, I know, it never existed…but that doesn’t mean we can’t strive to make it happen at least once, right?

This is what the American Road movie, book, poem, etc. is all about.  Going west to find your fortune, falling along the way, but always pulling yourself up by your bootstraps in the end.  Most of all, I believe that our very name, Against the Grind, encapsulates this very idea, for we are doing nothing except to search for a life that shucks the bonds holding one down.

I can’t wait for our (sustainable) road trip, pedaling against the grind.

Graduate Studies…or not.

Thursday, October 14th, 2010 Posted by Rachel. Published under Mini-Adventure. 1 Comment.

Much to the chagrin of my parents (I’m sure) I’ve not only:

1. Completed a 4 year undergraduate degree in Film Production at the University of WI – Milwaukee and
2. Successfully convinced them I don’t need a further advanced degree to work in filmmaking/videography

But also:

1. Researched a Motion Graphics Masters of Fine Arts (The only school I like was in Georgia and hell if I’m living there.)
2. Researched and applied to two Photography MFA programs
3. Been rejected for both programs
4. And now am considering the idea of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program.

But regardless of what may look like a random jumping around of an indecisive child, they all come back to my being interested in visual mediums like film and photography and also what affect these mediums have on culture, media and societal norms.  In my attempt to find a supportive community for my abstract and untethered thoughts, I applied to become a graduate student in photography at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and University of MA – Amherst.  Needless to say, I am not attending either, but I thought I’d share the portfolio with you today.

[slideshow]

Since my rejection letters arrived in the mail, I’ve come to the decision that it was for the better because not only am I not sinking myself into debt for a degree that would only have maybe ended in a professorial position (my heart’s desire), but I’m also now able to save for a bike trip which I think will be exactly what I was looking for to begin with:  A place to spend time meditating on themes, creating images and stories, and refining my skills.

When we’re finished with our cross country bike tour, I’ll be able to refocus on what I really want to do.  Maybe I’ll be a sustainable farmer?  Or a wedding videographer?  Or an events and lectures coordinator?  Or I’ll apply for a Comparative Media Studies program and become a sociologist?

Photos from Washington DC

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010 Posted by Rachel. Published under Mini-Adventure. No Comments.

So I finally got around to finishing editing photos from our trip to Assateague Island that ended with us escaping to DC instead of staying stuck hiding from the mosquitoes and Hurricane Earl.  It was no bike tour, but it is our national capitol (and Jessica’s first vacation in a while…), so I think it was worth it!

Enjoy!

[slideshow]