Climbing/Farming/Performance Art

Dear Dirtbags,

My name is Eli, I am a climber and a performance artist looking to get into some shenanigans. I am putting out messages all across the world wide web in search of 4 climbers interested in spending  the summer (2022) climbing and farming with me with the intention being that we are fully self-sufficient in this endeavor. I have some land in the Adirondacks where we would be based and once the group is established we would figure out the ins and outs but my hope is that we would rotate between climbing and farming/foraging every few days, perhaps in different groups and then every other week we would bike or drive to a great climbing area and post up there for about a week learning the cliffs intimately, establishing new routes, etc. Living would be free but we would all have a lot to do to feed the group. After the last harvests in the late summer/early fall we would put on a performance on a cliff in the high peaks region of the adk. 

A little about me: I have been trad climbing for over ten years and mostly focus on technical mountaineering stuff. I have experience farming and regularly forage the edible and medicinal plants and fungi in the Adirondacks. I am an anarchist who believes and fights for all that comes with radical decolonization and I absolutely love the woods, the rocks, and all the human and more than human beings upon which I depend. 

A little about what I am looking for: This is as much about radical living as it is about climbing. I want to gather a diverse group of people with big, creative, revolutionary dreams and I want us to be collaborators in both daily acts and in the performance piece that we will cocreate. I am looking for people who can talk about other things than climbing but love to climb with passion and style. I am looking for people who fiercely defend what they believe in. I am looking for people who like to struggle, who care more about the journey than the summit. I have no money to pay you nor will I have any money for myself this summer. 

The only requirement is that you must have a car. My car is old and I do not want to be relied on. If you are familiar with the region, the land that owns me is 15 min from Moss Cliff, 30 min from Silver Lake, and 40 min from the high peaks. Please let me know if you're interested, your thoughts, and if you feel so inclined share this post with people who might jump at the bit. 

Love,

Eli

What is the name of your cult?

Clothed or not?

what flavor of kool-aid you thinking of? i don't like grape...

J W wrote:

I don’t know if “shenanigans” and “daily acts” are euphemisms, but who am I to judge?

One thing, are you sure you are “looking for people who fiercely defend what they believe in”? That’s not actually an admirable quality, but each to their own, I suppose. Some appreciate open mindedness; others appreciate militant dogmatism.

Eli, I hope the summer turns out as you envision. Sounds like an adventure.

Cheers.

People who write so deliberately with euphamisms have to understand how manipulative they sound. It's a particularly effective grooming tactic that fringe groups and organizations (use the term cult if you want) use to get you to go along with an idea or plan that would sound ridiculous if dilvulged immediately. You want to find crazy? Follow language. 

OP: Can you explain what a typical day might look like in this venture? What is the gist of the performance act you have planned?

T Legowrote:

OP: Can you explain what a typical day might look like in this venture? What is the gist of the performance act you have planned?

https://cdn2.apstatic.com/forum/251935.jpg This guys knees was the first thing that came to my mind...

This reads like a long winded hobby specific Craigslist personals casual encounters ad

Are we talking about farming that is more related to growing? 

He cuts to the chase in the last paragraph.  This is a long and creative way to say “I need to borrow a car”

10/10.

Edit:  but “Eli’s Farm” now gives the climbing community a great retort to when some climber drops off the map, disappears, or goes off the deep end…

“Hey whatever happened to so and so?”    “I think he went to Eli’s Farm”.  

“Where’s Shawn Snyder nowadays?”  “Pretty sure he’s down at Eli’s Farm”

Eli Bwrote:

Dear Dirtbags,

My name is Eli, I am a climber and a performance artist looking to get into some shenanigans. I am putting out messages all across the world wide web in search of 4 climbers interested in spending  the summer (2022) climbing and farming with me with the intention being that we are fully self-sufficient in this endeavor. I have some land in the Adirondacks where we would be based and once the group is established we would figure out the ins and outs but my hope is that we would rotate between climbing and farming/foraging every few days, perhaps in different groups and then every other week we would bike or drive to a great climbing area and post up there for about a week learning the cliffs intimately, establishing new routes, etc. Living would be free but we would all have a lot to do to feed the group. After the last harvests in the late summer/early fall we would put on a performance on a cliff in the high peaks region of the adk. 

A little about me: I have been trad climbing for over ten years and mostly focus on technical mountaineering stuff. I have experience farming and regularly forage the edible and medicinal plants and fungi in the Adirondacks. I am an anarchist who believes and fights for all that comes with radical decolonization and I absolutely love the woods, the rocks, and all the human and more than human beings upon which I depend. 

A little about what I am looking for: This is as much about radical living as it is about climbing. I want to gather a diverse group of people with big, creative, revolutionary dreams and I want us to be collaborators in both daily acts and in the performance piece that we will cocreate. I am looking for people who can talk about other things than climbing but love to climb with passion and style. I am looking for people who fiercely defend what they believe in. I am looking for people who like to struggle, who care more about the journey than the summit. I have no money to pay you nor will I have any money for myself this summer. 

The only requirement is that you must have a car. My car is old and I do not want to be relied on. If you are familiar with the region, the land that owns me is 15 min from Moss Cliff, 30 min from Silver Lake, and 40 min from the high peaks. Please let me know if you're interested, your thoughts, and if you feel so inclined share this post with people who might jump at the bit. 

Love,

Eli

Quoting this craptacular nonsense for historians 

curt86irocwrote:

what flavor of kool-aid you thinking of? i don't like grape...

Can we add vodka to it?

M Rox wrote:

Eli, I'm sure you mean well. But this "performance" is giving me big Jim Jones vibes. 

Relax, it's just free solo base jumping. 

M Rox wrote:

Eli, I'm sure you mean well. But this "performance" is giving me big Jim Jones vibes. 

to be fair a culty mountain harem in upstate NY wouldn't be without precedent. on the other hand their messaging wasn't quite so...militia-ish!

As these responses indicate, it's easy for cynics to mock visionaries and idealists who are searching for alternative ways of being/living/interacting with others and the environment. I don't know anything about Eli and whether he has the vision and/or dedication to live by the ideas he professes above, but I hope he has the resilience to ignore those who look upon anything outside the mainstream as hopelessly naive or culty. This is how societies enforce conformity, through mocking those who dare to think differently. Not that any of his ideas are new or that radical, but any objective assessment of our current predicaments re: climate change, inequality, social unraveling would have to conclude that the ideals Eli is promoting are probably a lot more reasonable or practical than the ones we are living by in mainstream society. Change is hard and easy to mock, conformity is much more comfortable, and cynicism is how we protect ourselves from the guilt we have in choosing the latter. 

cubist Awrote:

As these responses indicate, it's easy for cynics to mock visionaries and idealists who are searching for alternative ways of being/living/interacting with others and the environment. I don't know anything about Eli and whether he has the vision and/or dedication to live by the ideas he professes above, but I hope he has the resilience to ignore those who look upon anything outside the mainstream as hopelessly naive or culty. This is how societies enforce conformity, through mocking those who dare to think differently. Not that any of his ideas are new or that radical, but any objective assessment of our current predicaments re: climate change, inequality, social unraveling would have to conclude that the ideals Eli is promoting are probably a lot more reasonable or practical than the ones we are living by in mainstream society. Change is hard and easy to mock, conformity is much more comfortable, and cynicism is how we protect ourselves from the guilt we have in choosing the latter. 

you radically misunderstand me; i'm all for intentional communities. there's just simply a difference between an intentional community built around ecologically sound principles & communal life and....getting a bunch of people together under the umbrella of 'performance art', without any structure or sustainability. more simply, i pause when the rhetoric around such proposals emphasise mutual aid without commitment/reliability and seeking strangers who would "fight for what they believe in". ideals meant very little for the donner party 

edit to add: foraging alone for four people to survive a season is not realistic. literally, where are they sleeping

edit again because i cannot underscore enough that this is a terrible idea: you do not get a group of strangers to commit financially/time-wise to spending an entire season with you and then figure out the very important details

that last paragraph "... the land that owns me ...." - is that some sort of lingo about being in prison?

slimwrote:

that last paragraph "... the land that owns me ...." - is that some sort of lingo about being in prison?

My interpretation is they found some land to squat on.

So enjoying watching this unfold.. 

The 60s called, they want their hippie-ass shit back.

I ain't gonna work on Eli's farm no more
No, I ain't gonna work on Eli's farm no more
Well, I wake up in the morning
Fold my hands and pray for rain
I got a head full of ideas
That are drivin' me insane
It's a shame
The way he makes me
Scrub the floor

I totally hope that this guy is just forging his own path and will have the best summer ever with four like-minded individuals. But from my conforming desk job it provides some needed entertainment.

Too avant garde for the WWOOF book?

slimwrote:

that last paragraph "... the land that owns me ...." - is that some sort of lingo about being in prison?

Pretty sure its because anarchists don't believe in private land ownership.