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It’s all coming together this week…

I hope everyone had a great weekend & I hope all the dads out there had a fantastic father’s day. My own was jam packed with activities all the way to Sunday. In addition to attending the Oregon Renaissance Faire, hosting a renegade fire jam & visiting my grandparents, I also spent time with my dad working on the pasta stand.

Now, in truth, I have probably made more references to said pasta stand in the past year than necessary, all without explicating myself:

“The Pasta Stand” is a festival structure/fire prop built on a dare.

In the summer of 2024 I made camp with my longtime friends at Oregon Country Fair’s satellite campground, Shady Rest. As part of an attempt to induce some community spirit, I prepare a meal of pasta to feed my fellow Salmon campers (our group, I should explain, was called Salmon Camp & helped——nay, ran——the Shady Rest Fire Circle).

Unfortunately I had very little takers, but I was unwilling to let a whole pot of pasta go to waste. Thus, I came up with a bit.

I brought the pot full of pasta out to the circle with my contact staff in tow & began to intimate (imitate?) that I was cooking up a meal for myself.

I stirred the pot, as it were.

Once satisfied, I then popped the lid, pulled a spoon from my pocket & began to scarf it down. People went for it in a way I did not really expect & once I exited the circle, I started to receive requests for a bite. Before long, I was making rounds through the crowd & serving all comers.

The Fire Circle ended at around 3-4 a.m. & upon our return to Salmon Camp my friend, Chachi (who had previously assisted me in affixing wicks to the pasta pot using twigs pulled from around camp) mentioned offhandedly, “you need to build a pasta stand.”

“Chachi,” I said with a half-smile curling at the corner of my lips, “you can’t tell me that.”

“Oh?” she responded with a tone of surprise.

“Yeah, if you dare me to do it, I’ll have to do it,” I stated with [the] assurance of a fait accompli.

“Oh, well, I dare you, then.”

“Fuck.”

It was all I could say. And though I was in no rush to begin, I knew it would have to be done. IF not that summer, then some fall, winter or spring coming soon. True to my procrastinating ways, both the autumn & winter came & then went without my so much as lifting a single finger. Then I received a text.

[Chachi:] “How’s that pasta stand coming along?”

[Me:] “Fuck.”

“It’s in the design stages,” I sent back knowing that Chachi knew I hadn’t started designing jack all. The month of February was dying & I had been stalling. My attention had been focused on attending my first ever SOAK, making sure I still was slated to start a new job at <UNNAMED TECH CONGLOMERATE> & keeping my head up after suffering from an extended two-year depression.

[Editor’s Note: the pasta pot bit was one of the few bright spots in my life up to that point. Friends might have noticed, but I did not tell many people nor did I do myself many favors during that period.]

Thus, I started the work immediately——in April.

I came up with a quick sketch for a stand to be constructed out [of] reclaimed wood, likely from an old pallet or three (if one couldn’t get it done, then no way in hell could two), and, knowing I had neither the tools nor skills sufficient for such a project, sent the concept off to my dad.

He responded faster than I could send with a single question, “Why not make it collapsible?”

From there, we began to brainstorm together, sending messages to confirm materials & structure, agreeing on the need for a clamshell design & wheels for transportation & planning build days for May & June.

There were hiccoughs, of course——no one expects a deer to jump out of the woods on their way to their parents’ place & total their car——but by July the project was done. The stand was complete & ready to showcase at the Shady Rest Fire Circle. Dad did most of the structural work while I focused on the flourishes, building the signage & adding wicks for the performances as well as LEDs & lamps for effect.

The lettering was completed by my friend Frankie, whose skill at blocking was unparalleled. Many thanks to her, because it still looks great, even after a full year of use & some light singeing. For my part, I ordered a custom chef’s toque & apron & broke out the old pasta pot for Fair. There’s more story to be told about how it all went down, but in the interest of brevity I will say it was a success beyond even my wildest aspirations.

Serving pasta & dancing with my fire staff to the tune “Uncle John’s Band” as played by the Garcia Birthday Band (the finest Grateful Dead cover band in all of Oregon, if not the land) might have constituted the peak life moment for yours truly, the Casual Rambler.

But the moment I am most proud of came long after the festival. Long in the dying days of summer.

I think, or choose to believe, that most fathers & sons have a period where they just cannot see eye-to-eye. [Editor’s Note: see Turgenev’s Fathers & Sons.] That period for my father & I lasted longer than I would have liked. Perhaps because just that much alike, perhaps because we are just different enough. However, the stand represents a change in the pattern.

It’s not just a pasta stand, you see, because as the sign reads: “Pasta, Poetry & Proposals,” I can also write poems on my typewriter or take any comer’s crazy idea & turn it into a nonsense business proposal.

More than that, it represents a moment where my father’s world & mine could collide into an art project of which we could both be proud. A multi-prop stand for multi-prop men.

To commemorate the moment, I wrote my dad a poem for his birthday. A poem which I am finally ready (with my dad’s grace) to share.

On Patreon.

Kidding! Kidding! There’s another [set of poems] ready for my Patreon subscribers. For now, however, I hope you enjoy a poem dedicated to ta true role model, a personal hero of mine & a voice of reason when I can’t help but lose my mind, my Dad.

Until the next episode,

——The Casual Rambler

P.S. I just selected & placed all the pictures into my manuscript. Next step: designing the cover, I hope everybody is ready for it. I know I am.

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Thanks again to my lovely Patrons: Jenny, Julie, Roshi, Zero & Phil, as well as all my Casual Ramblers for your support. If you would like to join the Casual Ramble for early access to poems, short films & the like, subscribe via the link below!