The Establishment, an aptly named 19-person community that was founded in the 1970s, was the only community we contacted in SLO.   The 19-bedroom house used to be a hotel and was originally located next to the railroad that runs through town (it was moved — rolled on logs and pulled by oxen — in the early 20th century).  Jack Kerouac is said to have stayed in the hotel during his famous train hopping days.  The Establishment’s community members, all in their 20s and 30s, seemed to be a fun-loving family; interests included roller derby, bikes, and Burning Man.  There weren’t any all-community events during our stay, and community rooms were small so people seemed to spend a lot of time in their bedrooms (which were also quite small), so we didn’t get to spend much time with too many people.  The folks we did chat with were very welcoming; one told me I should “feel free to walk around the house like it’s a weird museum.”  I did.

-Rachel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She got stung by a bee (while trying to eat it):

We’ve been dumpstering Petco and Centinela.  Along with some highly bizarre pet products (such as a perfume flask-like container of “cat pheromone”), we’ve picked up six or seven 30-lb bags of dry dog food.  We’ve also found cat food, tug toys, stuffed animals, extraordinarily large dog beds, and various kinds of treats and rawhide.

The view under the bed:

Needless to say, though we are training Ivy constantly and consistently, we don’t exactly abide by the “no free lunch” philosophy.

The Sugar Shack, a 10-year-old, 15-20 person community in Los Angeles, occupies one of the most striking houses I’ve ever seen.  It used to be a store (on a street full of smallish shops and no other houses), then a church, and probably some other things that I can’t remember.  It fell into disrepair and the founders of the Sugar Shack purchased it for cheap, turning it into a vibrantly colorful, playful, dare I say hippie-esque mansion of sorts.

Downstairs:

Pool table:

Bus downstairs (!!):

Dining room:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sugar Shack’s ic.org description is quite brief:

The Sugar Shack is a Los Angeles intentional community committed to social change through cooperative living, art, and activism. We do this by living communally in mid-city and providing free of charge spaces for individuals and group gatherings.

Perhaps they figure that words are relatively meaningless if people don’t come visit and see for themselves, talk to residents, and experience the colors and sights and smells in person (I quite agree!).  I was told by one of the founding members that there is an unwritten rule of utmost importance: NEVER try to talk someone into moving in.  An applicant really has to want it, on a deep, instinctual, personal level, for their membership to work out.  Coming from a community that’s always struggling to make rent (and is therefore constantly recruiting), this rule seemed like a huge privilege!

I visited the Sugar Shack twice, the first time with a number of Technicolor Tree Tribers for a dinner visit, where everyone except me and Max got to mingle and chat because we were babysitting our very food-driven puppy.  I felt like parents of an infant in a stroller, both of us completely occupied by feeding, cleaning up after, monitoring, and talking about our charge while the rest of the noisy world just passed us by.

Because I didn’t get to learn much about the community during that first visit, I made a point of returning just to chat, and ended up spending a few hours talking with the founder and property owner of the Sugar Shack.  The visit was very satisfying; I felt like we were on the same page.

Unlike with most of our community visits, I went through my list of “interview questions” and we spoke about each one.  I’m usually frustrated when people say that the intention of their community is to “live together,” because any group of people can try living together and so often it ends up like random housemates who maybe do their basic chores but rarely talk about the greater societal implications of communal living (examples might include gender disparities in housework/yardwork/construction, lack of racial diversity in the community, opportunities for using the community as a hub of political activism, etc.).  The Sugar Shack was different.  It’s true, my host/guide did tell me that their intention was to “live together and share resources.”  But this community definitely took it farther than that; the nature of the art and the diversity and openness of the people I met made it clear to me that the Sugar Shack really is committed to social change through art and creative expression.

The Sugar Shack is impeccably clean.  The community abides by a clever indoor adaptation to the decree “Leave No Trace,” as community members are asked not to leave their personal belongings in the common spaces.  There is also a complex (but apparently manageable, since it clearly works!) system of chores.  There are two parts to the system: Sugar Love, which involves each community member committing 1-3 hours of general cleaning tasks; and Energy Exchange, wherein each community member does certain tasks for the community and records their work on a paper spreadsheet, tallying hours as they go.  Work hours/tasks can be traded and exchanged among members, and it seemed they were always in flux.

When I asked about conflict resolution, my guide had a lot to say, and a lot of experience to back up her statements.  She said that the community is always working towards greater transparency and personal accountability, and that she believes the best way to work through conflicts is to have everything out in the open — no secrets.  We talked about the difference between gossip and constructive discussion among friends.  Gossip, she explained, requires keeping secrets; talking to one person and asking them not to talk to others leads to divisions in the house.  Talking to as many people as possible, especially at a weekly house meeting with a goal to resolve the conflict in mind, airs out the issue and lets everyone know what is going on, so that no one is talked about behind their back.  She explained that back when she and the other founding members were looking for a house she insisted that it had to have only one kitchen.  The kitchen is where everything comes out — at the TTT this is also very true.  Multiple kitchens would lead to factions, which could be the community’s demise.

I have often wondered if many (if not most) of the TTT’s problems were simply due to age: everyone there is in their late teens/early-mid20s; the more “mature” people often end up spending most of their time in their rooms because they can’t stand the mess/noise/whatever of the rest of the house.  Well apparently the Sugar Shack has recognized the implications of having a lot of young community members; another unwritten house rule is to never accept more than one or two applicants in their early 20s, OR to accept a whole group of friends in the early 20s so that they can have their own area of the house to contain their energy (and stuff).  I found this very interesting.  I’ve never lived in a community with a large age range, and I often wonder if the older people resent being pushed into a “parent” position (I feel this at the TTT, and I’m still in my 20s!).  I can see how this “unwritten rule” takes care of some of those issues.

In conclusion I’ll just mention I’m telling all my LA friends who are older than 25 to live at the Sugar Shack.  I think it would be the perfect fit for most of them: colorful, joyous, genuinely socially/politically conscious, and also quite mature.

-Rachel

Some intentional communities’ main focus is to help members recover from addictions or live with mental illnesses.  Communities for whom this is not the main focus, however, still must decide how they want to handle these issues.  Some are clear in their application materials that if an applicant is struggling with addiction, they need not apply.  Harsh, but understandable if the group is unprepared to help.  Others make no mention of such common difficulties, and deal with issues on a case by case basis.

Should intentional communities generally be places where people can heal from addictions, trauma, inclinations towards violence, PTSD, etc?  Let’s assume we’re all working under the same premises:

1. People who have experienced violence, especially in childhood, are more likely to be violent themselves.

2. Being a member of a supportive, loving, accepting social group is important for many people in healing from violence.

3. Intentional communities are often supportive, loving, accepting social groups (or at least they strive towards this goal).

4. Violence (and other behavior such as addiction) perpetrated by a community member can make other community members feel unsafe and is generally viewed as unacceptable (sometimes leading to the person who has committed or threatened violence being asked to leave the community).

5. When someone is asked to leave a community, or when their behavior is labeled as unacceptable by the community, the community becomes a much less supportive, loving, accepting place for that individual.

So when someone who has experienced violence in their life, perhaps in childhood, commits violence in their community, is it the community’s responsibility to remain as supportive, loving, and accepting as possible, allowing them to stay and perhaps providing counseling or other services which might help the individual?  Is it right or moral to ask that person to leave without any other comment?  What if the individual refuses counseling or cannot afford it?  What if the violence was committed against a non-community member?  Is there ever justification for violence?  What of verbal aggression, threat of violence, intimidating behavior, violence towards non-human animals, etc?

Some optimistic community members believe that living in an intentional community will automatically heal people who have experienced violence or trauma, regardless of that individual’s current behavior.  Others believe that communities, in order to function well (often with limited or no professional counseling resources) must be diligent in their recruitment/acceptance procedure in order to ensure that people who have any inclination towards violence whatsoever and for whatever reasons are never accepted into the community.  Such people, it is thought, must take responsibility for themselves and seek the professional help they need before they can be effective members of any community.

Being a member of an intentional community certainly takes a lot of effort, and not just because you have to clean the kitchen once a week.  Living successfully with 20-100 other people isn’t easy, especially since most of us were raised in comparatively isolating, single-family environments.  When someone ticks you off, how do you respond?  Can you let it slide for the sake of group harmony?  What are your limits; what if someone says something truly unacceptable, such as a racist slur?  How do you respond then?  And perhaps the slur wouldn’t elicit a response from you if it were uttered by a stranger or even an acquaintance, but when it’s your housemate?

How much of a choice is it when someone acts with violence?  If they were raised in a violent environment and struggle with controlling or channeling anger and other intense emotions, can they be held fully responsible for their actions within their community as an adult?  If they have significantly more emotional/psychological needs than other community members, is it the responsibility of the community to meet those needs?

Of course the answers to these questions depend on the specific community.  Some communities have common money which could pay for professional counseling.  A community whose sole focus is permaculture might behave quite differently than, say, a spiritual community.  My purpose in writing this post is to ask communities to think carefully about these issues before they come up or get out of hand.  I personally believe that intentional communities can be places where all community members can heal from the diseases of mainstream society (materialism/consumerism, patriarchy, capitalism), but unless their focus is to address specific issues (such as addiction or mental illness) each community must draw a firm line at what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior, for the good of the whole group.  Which is not to say that people who behave “unacceptably” should be automatically kicked out.  They are community members, too, and should be treated with respect as human beings who have probably experienced a lot of trauma and need a lot of support.  They should be provided with as many helpful resources as possible.  But they, and all other community members, should be very aware of where the line is.  We can accept and understand the fact that violent behavior is often a result of being the target of violence, but that doesn’t make violence acceptable.  A community’s goal shouldn’t be to shun people who have experienced trauma, but rather to help them end the cycle of violence that they are perpetuating through their behavior.  If they do not understand how they are perpetuating this cycle, or if they do not understand why their behavior is unacceptable, then I do not believe that they can, at this moment in their lives, live successfully in community.

-Rachel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About two months ago Max and I adopted a 10-month-old rottweiler-sheltie mix from the LA Animal Services’ South Central shelter.  We’d been thinking about adopting a dog for many months (really we’d been independently brooding about it for years) and our situation was finally just right: we knew we’d be in LA at the TTT for at least a few weeks (turned out to be months) and we had wanted to adopt from a high-kill urban shelter, we had a steady supply of unseasoned dumpstered meat coming in, we were staying with people who loved animals, and we had lots of TIME.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may have noticed that we’ve been visiting a lot of animal shelters on our travels, “just for fun.”  In reality it wasn’t just for fun; we’ve been perfecting and re-perfecting our criteria for adoption and discussing the details of bus-dwelling/traveling dog ownership.  We eventually decided on exactly what type of dog we were looking for: medium size (I personally would love a very large dog, but we do live on a short bus!); a mutt (to avoid inbreeding-related health issues); older puppy/young adult (to avoid potty training and teething issues, esp. since we don’t have room for a crate); totally non-aggressive and preferably friendly (though we realized that the shelter environment leads to a lot of confusion if not downright depression in some dogs); no known medical issues; friendly with other dogs; etc.  We’d met with several dogs at several shelters, but none fit all our requirements until we got here and started haunting the LA South Central shelter (which happens to be less than four miles away from the TTT).  On our first visit we met with a German shepherd who was wonderful but too large.  We also noticed a smaller, incredibly adorable puppy who was housed with a couple other dogs and who was still on hold; she was already microchipped and the shelter was trying to contact the owner.  She would become available the following day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We returned the next day to visit her, and ended up spending nearly an hour playing with her in the play yard (I felt bad for the volunteer who had to monitor us; I’m sure he had other things he needed to be doing!)  It was impossible to say good-bye; this dog fit all our criteria and reminded us of ones we hadn’t listed (like being super cute!).  Thus began the long process of adoption, standing in lots of long lines, waiting for this or that employee or vet tech or volunteer, waiting to get her spayed, waiting to get her microchip updated, our stomachs fluttering in nervous excitement all the while!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a bit difficult to admit to ourselves that we were finally doing it.  Despite the months of talk and planning, we still felt like inexperienced parents, totally unsure of ourselves, totally dedicated to getting everything 100% right.  We went to the Central Library and checked out a million books on clicker training, nutrition and natural diets, cooking for your dog, canine health, and agility training, which I would love to get her involved in just for fun and exercise (she has a lot of herding dog in her and has both a lot of energy and an intense love of learning new cues and tricks).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent an entire week trying to decide on a name.  We read through huge online lists of native West Coast plants, nature-related names, dog names, hippie names, “unusual girls’ names.”  We developed a list of name criteria almost as long as our list of criteria for the dog!  We finally narrowed our list down to two: Ivy and Zora.  We both loved Zora, but felt awkward about it because we know a young couple in Portland who recently had a baby person and named her Zora.  We’re fairly certain that we’ll spend time with them again, and couldn’t bring ourselves to name our dog after their baby.  So we settled on Ivy, and despite the many negative associations folks have with ivy (poison ivy and invasive English ivy being the main two), the word “ivy” really fits with this puppy.  It’s short and easy to say and I feel it’s appropriate for an Angelino dog, given that English ivy is often the greenest thing around here, and thus makes people (myself included) quite happy.  [I also associate ivy with the post-apocalyptic undoing of civilization, but that's another story.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ivy is incredibly smart, meaning that she learns cues very quickly.  Having done some research on clicker training and operant conditioning, however, I have to mention that my definition of a “smart” dog is changing.  Any dog can learn cues, if you know what to use as a reward and are consistent.  My concept of dog training has changed a lot, too, from one based on being a “pack leader” to one based on using positive reinforcement to encourage desired behaviors.  And there are many ways to get rid of unwanted behaviors that don’t involve any punishment (which includes yelling “No!”).  I could go on (I gave a mini-workshop on operant conditioning to a group of friends recently), but there’s a lot of wonderful books and information out there.  Out of the stacks of books we found in the library, here are the ones we chose to purchase for our bookshelf:

How Dogs Learn by Mary R. Burch and Jon S. Bailey

The Dog Trainer’s Complete Guide to a Happy, Well-Behaved Pet by Jolanta Benal

Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats by Richard H. Pitcairn DVM and Susan H. Pitcairn

And our beloved Youtube trainers, without whom we’d still be lost:

Tab & Solea

Kikopup

-Rachel

The “Old House” on Orchard Street, which housed the Technicolor Tree Tribe from 2007-2009:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The TTT ’08/’09:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The “New House” on 28th St. which is the TTT’s current home:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The TTT ’09/’10:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The TTT ’10/’11:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The TTT ’11/’12:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information about the TTT, please check out these sites:

Life in Technicolor, the TTT’s blog

The TTT’s Fellowship of Intentional Communities (FIC) profile

A short, slightly chaotic video Gerardo made at the house

As official as we get

And finally, look us up on facebook!

One of the fun projects we’ve recently completed here in LA (parked in the Technicolor Tree Tribe’s driveway) is installing a beautiful solar panel on Ollie’s roof.  Before using solar power, we charged our auxiliary battery off our starter batteries when the bus was being driven.  When the bus wasn’t being driven (which was often) we drained the auxiliary battery, and quickly.  We were often left with only our headlamps for light!  With the solar panel, we’ll (almost) always have electricity whether or not we’re driving around a lot.  Yay!

-Rachel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trader Joe’s’ on Sepulveda Blvd, Santa Monica Blvd, and National Blvd:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Los Angeles Ecovillage, located just northwest of downtown LA (and only three miles north of the Technicolor Tree Tribe), is a well established 40-person community that I’ve been wanting to visit for years.  Their fee (though small) for official visits was a bit off-putting.  But I stalked their website for a while until an interesting free event came up, and a bunch of us from the TTT biked over to check it out.  The event was a potluck and forum where people from the greater community (those affiliated with the Ecovillage but not necessarily residents) could present about conferences, workshops, and other special events they’d recently attended.

I RSVP’d to the potluck/forum only a few days before the event and never received a reply.  When the eight of us showed up at the door, we were almost turned away!  The woman who answered our knock looked startled by such a large group of visitors, and told us that she hadn’t received any RSVP for this many people.  When she asked for my name I introduced myself as “Rachel from the Technicolor Tree Tribe,” a title which has become increasingly comfortable and automatic for me over the past year.  Our host immediately warmed.  “The Technicolor Tree Tribe!” she exclaimed excitedly.  “I’ve heard so much about your community!  Thank you for coming!  Come in!”  And we were admitted.

The Ecovillage’s main building is an apartment building, and though the foyer has been turned into the colorful, friendly, poster- and post-it note-filled space that is common for community buildings, the hallways seemed as bare as any apartment building occupied by strangers.  Apparently the Ecovillage purchased the building (and the surrounding buildings) while people who weren’t affiliated with the Ecovillage still lived in it, and some still do.  There is a gradual process of those people leaving and their spaces being filled by Ecovillagers.

The potluck was delicious and plentiful, and the other guests seemed genuinely excited to meet real live members of the Technicolor Tree Tribe, which most of them had apparently heard of.  We were younger than any of the other guests by a decade or two, and they seemed to think of us as the “younger generation” of community builders.  Ignoring some bits of condescension here and there, we had some interesting conversations about our house and what we do.

Before the forum started the host asked us to give a short description of the Technicolor Tree Tribe to the assembly of 40 or 50 people.  We hadn’t prepared for anything like this, of course; we’d assumed we were going to be the audience!  But Michaela gave an excellent description and we all took turns fielding questions (there were a lot of questions!).  Then we listened to the real presentations, which covered a wide range of topics from permaculture to time banks to the LA Bicycle Kitchen.

The presentations were interrupted at one point when someone announced that those with bikes parked outside (us) should move them inside; there was a person wandering around with a bolt cutter.

We all rushed outside, but we were too late: two of our bikes had been stolen.  One of them was Max’s spare, and the other belonged to a cooper who didn’t know it had been borrowed.  Strangely, the event host mentioned a couple times that the Ecovillage would assume responsibility, but then nothing came of it.  One Ecovillager absolutely insisted we tell the police, which we only did after quite a bit of pressure (we try never to involve the LAPD, preferring to find anti-racist and anti-classist alternatives to the “criminal justice” system).  Of course, nothing came of that, either.

[BTW, if you're interested in anti-racist/sexist/classist alternatives to police, check out these great resources!  Alternatives To Police   Revolution Starts At Home]

The evening turned out to be a very mixed experience for the eight of us.  It’s (almost) always cool to visit another intentional community, and I’m definitely always delighted to bring TTT members to other communities in LA.  The presentations at the forum were awesome (time banks are the shit!!), and we met some folks who were very interested in the TTT and it’s always fun to talk about ourselves to interested people.  On the other hand, we had the awkward situation at the door and our bikes were stolen (an Ecovillager was kind enough to give our bike-less friends a ride home).  And it’s always difficult to visit communities that are so predominantly white and middle-class.  Oh well.  Intentional communities are still relatively new in LA, and anti-oppression seems to be relatively new within intentional communities everywhere.

-Rachel

On our way south from the Bay Area to LA, we picked up another beautiful road-killed grey fox.  We skinned and cleaned it on our first day back at the co-op, removed its brains and cleaned its bones on the second day, brain-tanned it on the third day, and smoked it over the fire pit on the fourth day.  I think we may have given some of the younger coopers a bit of a shock!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

In case you’re interested in becoming one of us weird people who does these kinds of things, here are some good resources:

Brain Tanning Furs by George Michaud

Tan Your Pelts with Nature’s Tools by Jim Miller

Skinning, Tanning, & Working Hides: A DIY Guide to an Ancient Skill by Rowan Gangulft, PhD

-Rachel