This is probably the last Driftwood post for a while; I’m going to miss Drop Party this year, and by the time the drift itself happens, I might be in recovery for the kidney transplant surgery. So.
I don’t think I’ve got an essay in me tonight. Enjoy the pics and we’ll be back at it next week.
For those that don’t know, Driftwood is an annual gathering out in the Delta, on Bradford Island. Reachable by car ferry, there’s no running water or very much electricity; we sort of bootstrap the whole thing with stuff we bring in. A lot of people contribute various things, like hauling in porta potties, or a generator, or they help organize. I bring my cameras. The point, although we call it a ‘festival’, is to get together and make art with a bunch of cool people.
Look, I know this is a lot of pictures. Driftwood has expanded from a weekend to four days. So there’s a lot of stuff that happens. The big edit was like 120 pictures. So. I did cut quite a few.
There are communal dinners, music late into the night, camping, swimming in the Delta. We sit out on the dock/in the water during the day, when it’s hot, and then come back to Jack’s plot (it’s also Jack’s dock) for dinner and music and dancing. Originally, the whole thing was powered off Jack’s solar array, but in recent years upgrades to our PA system have required more watts than he has on tap at night. There are batteries, but not quite enough of them.
Because Sophie helps organize, we went out on Thursday. This year, me and Sophie rented an RV, sort of experimentally, because AC is nice. It was a pretty big hassle though, and I don’t know that we’ll be doing it again. The ferry plus the drive out there was just a lot. Although, getting there and basically being set up in 15 minutes, instead of having to set up a tent was pretty nice. There was an amount of other setup to do, of course. Lights, rugs, DJ booth, you know, just the essentials.
The second day, there was a really amazing sunset, complete with double rainbow. I got a picture of it, but pictures of rainbows never really do it justice, so you’ll just have to trust me. I did get a bunch of the sunset that night from the top of the levee, though. Jack and Benny both came up in one of the carts to see.
I really should take field notes at these things, I have no idea what order these photos should go in. The whole experience was magical and amazing, even with the rain the second day. In fact, it made the whole thing a little less hot; it can be really unbearable sometimes, you know?
There were a lot of moments I didn’t get pictures of, because I too was lost in the moment. Joseph put down some foam and blankets and pillows in the back of his truck, and parked it so it was close to the music, where people could chill and look up at the stars. That was a good one. Or when someone brought watermelon down to the dock to share just as it was getting hot. Or like, probably a hundred other little moments.
Anyway. Here are the rest of the pictures.
These are from a trip up to Portland January 2024; we went up to see our friends Sam and Kate. I know I said the Driftwood pics were soon, but they’re not quite ready. I need to show them to some people before I can let them out the door. Anyway, this trip.
The air from the plane was, for some reason, super clear; it feels like it’s never this good. I took a bunch of photos out of the window on the way, and really liked this one.
I’m also not at all sure where the light in this photo was coming from. Maybe the city? Maybe another city, like Sac? No idea.
It was supposed to be a nice and simple little weekend jaunt. Go up, drink some wine, eat delicious food, and fly home. We got there, and it started snowing over night; by 10 in the morning the power had gone out and the whole city was basically shut down. We had cheese and crackers and wrapped ourselves in blankets, trying not to freeze. Sam made Caccio e Pepe for dinner, and I realized I was starving. I had been reading Moby Dick all day, got through the first lowering, and that’s where I still am in that book. Somehow, reading it while stuck in on a cold winter’s day was right, and since then the mood hasn’t struck me. I do love that if you just read the first several chapters, it’s a buddy comedy between Ishmael and Queequeg. Nothing bad could happen to our buddies, right?
Anyway. The power came on in the night and the house warmed up; we were all able to shower and charge our devices back to full when we woke up in the morning. Then we went wine tasting in downtown Portland. Neat place, big Burgundies. All the waiters could do this neat trick with the stacked glasses that apparently everyone that comes in has to get a picture of. Yes, I am also guilty.
And then that night, I decided to walk a little bit around the neighborhood. I think I was nominally searching for an open store to sell me a soda or gatorade, but really it was a little cabin fever and a need to move around a bit. Hard to sit still.
Here is one of the ways doing photography the way I do is worse than just sharing the pictures on instagram on the day: these were photos from Jeff’s birthday gathering over a year ago. Some stuff is timeless and important and some stuff is just friends gathering for nice drinks. I think they also went out to the bar after this but even at this point I wasn’t drinking, so we demured and I think I drove home? Anyway.
I probably need a system for like, knowing if something is super important or not, because having year old pics just now getting published is a little embarrassing. On the other hand, at least I’m getting there eventually.
I do have a reason for starting to get these out. There’s only so much time, and dying with thousands of unpublished photos couldn’t be me. No sir. No Vivian Maier here.
Many more posts coming. Like a lot.
OK so, the setup is this: one night party, setup saturday, strike sunday morning after a few hours sleep. Completely transform an office waiting room into a lounge/dance floor/art space for the duration of the party. We brought in rugs and cushions, projectors, lights, big fabric hanging bits, art from previous iterations of the party, and a dozen or so cool people.
There was also the matter of the music; DJ OTHA (also known as Joseph, the man in the fetching hat) spun like a 4 hour set after opener Vizlicious. Joseph’s marathon sets are always pretty awesome, but this one was really special: https://soundcloud.com/josephotha/joseph-otha-live-drop-party-2024.
I think that’s all? Except to say: dang I’m a lucky dude. Just having all these incredibly kind, creative people around me is really awesome.
Copyright © 2008-Forever, Matt Mills.
