On our very first visit to Merced, CA in January of this year, while Ann was interviewing and being interviewed, I was engaged in a contextual research project. That’s when I first stumbled into the 17th Street Public House; and, that’s when I began imagining our own potential immersion, our own possible intertwinement in this new context, to honor the texture of this metaphor. Fast forward, and we’re here in Merced, and I’m already making comparisons between my initial research findings and those related to a similar investigation that I conducted at El Bait Shop in Des Moines, Iowa four years ago. At any rate, I’m pleased that we’ll be able to take part in the Great Beer Movement that’s happening here and throughout the country. Kinda’ makes me feel at home.
Tag Archives: Paper Fifty Three
Moving Parts
Why the packers took some things apart and not others is the main question that I’ve pondered in the last couple of days. Then, there are the questions related to the so-called hardware box, the small, open-faced, improperly sealed cardboard box intended to carry all of the shelf supports, nuts, bolts, etc, and how it was cleverly held together to some degree on the bottom by the ingenious four-flap-fold’n-tuck technique. This “box” held all the parts that it could; unfortunately, some of those parts were lost in transit. Consequently, re-assembling the pieces that were unnecessarily dis-assembled in the first place – fully embracing the randomness here – has required a unique blend of technical and cultural competences and has granted me another blessed opportunity to look at myself in a whole new way.


