Westside Arts Walk: "Esoteric red nose clowning"

The Westside Arts Walk that took place on Saturday, January 28th, is not to be confused with Arts Walk Olympia. A distinguished community event, Arts Walk Olympia happens every October to celebrate locals business, visual art, and Oly’s historic downtown. The target demographic for that event is either a) families, or, b) wearers of handcrafted jewelry, whose houses are full of tastefully arranged antiques, and who have developed discriminating wine palates.

The Westside Arts Walk, on the other hand, organized by the Raccoon Collective, was far more ambitious, and far more indicative of what Olympia is all about. It was an informal event wherein a group of twenty-something neighbors decided to open their houses to a pantheon of art forms, and roaming masses of half-drunk, fully-stoned Greener-types. The map/schedule was printed no more than two days before the event, and was available for the first time the day of the show. Twelve houses are listed on the schedule, all in about a four-block radius, allowing participants to easily wander about and peruse the offerings. And offerings there were. The schedule lists events such as Old + Weird 16 mm Film Showing, Time Travelers Convention, and something called Olympia Clown Collaborative Salon Esoteric Red Nose Clowning.

I, for one, performed in my one-person musical project, Mythologies, at the Loud Show at the Lupanar, a small house on Jackson Ave NW, along with Sitka and With The End In Mind. When I came at 7 to set up my gear, nobody really knew if the show was ultimately going to happen. There was uncertainty about whether we would be able to get a speaker system, and whether anyone would even come to check it out. The music was supposed to start at 8:00, but the other artists showed up at 9:00, and so did the arts-walkers.

Around the time With The End In Mind, a fascinating post-rock solo-project, began, the tiny house was suddenly inundated with young people. The smell of the place was part food co-op, part dive bar, and part Nirvana show circa 1989. The crowd dressed the part: dressed down in hemp earth tones, raw denim, and flannel. The brave proprietors drifted in and out, trusting their home to the chaos of twenty-five or thirty young hipsters mobbing emphatically to Sitka’s easy-to-swallow punk rock music. Groups navigated the neighborhood, having a blast at stuff like Building Block Station, Drinks, And Paintings by Susan Sanguine, and Hella Sick Local Underground Hip-Hop. Although it was all scheduled to end by 11, I’m pretty sure the Hella Sick Local Underground Hip-Hop bumped hella sick beats until 1 am.

Based on the success in this year’s event, we can probably expect a similar-- perhaps even greater-- happening next year. The front of the map/schedule pamphlet says, “We need houses, artists, and volunteers to help this event grow.” If you would like to get involved, email the Raccoon Collective at raccooncollective@gmail.com. 

Listen to Olympia pop-punk band Sitka's demo right here: