Portland again

So I hit up some FNB servings while I was in Portland for the zine symposium last week. It doesn't seem possible to find out where they cook if you're only there for a brief period of time, as none of the websites/posters list cooking places, and the email bounces.

The Friday serving was kind of weird, in that they didn't provide any dishes. I felt that it kind of defeated the purpose of FNB (that anyone can come by and eat), if you have to bring your own dish/utensil. A girl I talked to who was serving felt the same way. Apparently people didn't want to wash all the dishes if everyone returned them. Blah.

Afterwards I went to the Red and Black cafe (a worker owned vegan cafe, with beer!)with some people, and we watched some people play music.

Saturday I tried going to an FNB, but it didn't happen. So I hung out with some other people that were waiting for it.

Sunday I went and found the FNB serving that I'd eaten with last time I was in town, and I ate some food and talked to them a little, but then I went back to hang out with the zine symposium people. Me and this other guy cycled along beside the river and hung out on an old, crumbling, concrete dock thing. Exciting!

Portland!

I came to Portland for the anarchist bookfair armed with the FNB cooking zine.

Or almost, I hadn't finished putting it together (not even close to be honest), and it still needed covers. And space filling drawings.

I drew some stick men and stuff on the train down, and drew the covers to both sides (or "drew" as it is just sorta fancy lettering).

On the second day here, my friend and I went off to find a photocopying place. While he photocopied his anti-olympics stuff, I drew the last cover, and tried to put things in order.

Oh wait, I forgot the part where I crashed my bicycle after slipping on wet tram tracks and cut my thumb and my knee. Rargh.

I spent a couple of hours there getting everything done, but I think in the end they came out pretty well.

I traded some to some people, and gave some others away. Hopefully people like them.

In regards to FNB down here, I tried and failed to find out when/where a group cooked. Considering they seem to serve six times a week this was impressive!

I did manage to find the very end of a serving in a park on Sunday and talked to a couple of the people who had cooked the food. It seems that there's actually a bunch of different FNB groups in town, and they serve in different areas and sometimes don't know each other at all! I thought that was kind of cool. They had lots of bread, and I ate some lentils, and talked to a homeless guy who had given out fake/informative "you can not sleep outside" tickets to people who had camped out waiting for a parade. (Sleeping outside in Portland is illegal, except for people waiting for this parade. Strange.)

Today I tried to find another serving (after getting the info from a flyer), and I went to the right place at the right time, but it didn't seem to be happening. I asked a woman in the park, and she said I was the second person to ask her about it.

I went back to the place I was staying and discovered that it didn't happen on Mondays any more (out of date flyer!). Boourns.

How was Vancouver?