The Miss Rockaway Armada

HEARTS GO OUT TO OUR FRIENDS ON THE RIVER

Miss Rockaway — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:13:47 +0000

The crew of Miss Rockaway spent two amazing summers on the Mississippi River experiencing the unbelievable hospitality, kindness and fun of the folks we met all along the river. Right now our we’re thinking of our friends in Clarksville, Canton, La Grange, Hannibal, Louisiana, Alton, Quincy, Burlington, Muscatine, Oquawka, Keokuk, and all areas affected by the recent flood. It comes as no surprise that the resilient folks in these towns are pulling together and holding back the water with sandbags. We’re thinking of you and thank you a million times over for all you’ve done.

EVERY DAY IS A NEW GOODBYE

Miss Rockaway — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:41:08 +0000

Dark Dark Dark performing in the backyard.

Backyard campfire.

Long Gone Gabe heats it up on his guitar.

Wendell and Laura cut a rug.

Fire-lit artist’s housing.

Friends help injured Mike Boushee make it up the hill to the picnic.

Daredevil Marshall on the not-so-natural not-such-a-bridge.

Kevin Caplicki strikes it GQ-style.

Luke Boushee savors the view.

George communes with the Universe.

Just in case we may have given the impression we were all work and no play up at Mass MoCA, here are a few photos from our one day off (the day AFTER the opening) spent up at the natural land bridge in North Adams, and photos and a video from our backyard BBQ.

Here’s a video Dark Dark Dark performing at the same backyard BBQ as in the photos above:

KIDS WITH POWER TOOLS

Miss Rockaway — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 01:28:36 +0000

(photos from the installation Being Here Is Better Than Wishing We’d Stayed by the Miss Rockaway Armada at Mass MoCA)

We have finished our stay and installation at Mass MoCA. Being Here Is Better Than Wishing We’d Stayed is now open through April 2009. We had a blast, and are extremely grateful to the museum and it’s staff for offering us this opportunity to continue to create. We hope people will enjoy the installation as much as we enjoyed making it. Spending time together in North Adams was also wonderful, and hopefully we should have some photos from our non-working moments (and they were just that, moments) to share soon.

There is a larger photo gallery from the installation here.

Thank you again Mass MoCA!

A video walk-through:

Dark Dark Dark performing with Long Gone Gabe at the opening:

TOO MANY HANDS, NOT ENOUGH DRILLS

Miss Rockaway — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:45:33 +0000

(One last batch of clues before the installation opens on Friday)

Come see the exhibition when it opens to the public on Saturday, April 19th. Details here.

SING IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT

Miss Rockaway — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 18:55:15 +0000

(photos from perfomances by The Miss Rockaway Armada at Mass MoCA and Williams College, full photo gallery here)

The Miss Rockaway Armada presented performances by Dark Dark Dark, Fall Harbor, Phil Not Bombs, Long Gone Gabe and A Tillion Gallons Of Gasoline as part of their installation Being Here Is Better Than Wishing We’d Stayed at Mass MoCA. There was also a screening of Angela Coppola’s short film about the Miss Rockaway, “The Good Ship Impossible.”

In case you missed it, we’re including some videos of the performances below for your vicarious enjoyment.

Mass MoCA performance:

Williams College performance:

Dark Dark Dark and Fall Harbor rehearsing together the night before:

PUZZLE PIECES IN PICTURES

Miss Rockaway — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:31:04 +0000

(Here’s a small peek at the installation to date. We wouldn’t want to spoil it too much, now would we?)

Most of the build crew (plus a friend) outside of Jae’s half-price sushi night.

We are roughly at the halfway point of the installation. From this point on the project will start to divide up into various more personal projects. As this caucaphony begins to build towards its crescendo it should be interesting to see how everything fits and works together.

Things are looking good though. Just tonight we were able to get the spaceship up into the treehouse successfully. Once we figure out the entrance to the Magic Cave and the. . . er, hmmm. Perhaps I have said too much already. . .

IMAGINATION AT WORK

Miss Rockaway — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 04:16:39 +0000

Mass MoCA at night.

John Vanderslice performing in the crowd at Mass MoCA.

Nona and Marshall show a screw who’s boss.

John geared up and ready to go.

The view from our work space.

We continue to build, having completed phase one (or “lock n’ dam 1″ as we have started calling them) which is the base foundation, and are in the middle of lock n’ dam 2 (seating/eating area). Lock n’ dam 3 will be when each of the build crew begins to focus on their specific interests and personal projects. We are still a few days away from that, but definitely on schedule.

Some of the crew were generously allowed to attend the performance by Stephen Malkmus and John Vanderslice at the museum on Friday. Which was also good since we couldn’t work/use power tools during the perfromance (for obvious reasons).

Communal meals and successful scrapping runs keep spirits up, along with everyone seeming to be excited to be here and working with such a great group of people. There have been a few parties thrown by museum interns or other Mass MoCA installation people, and the MRA crew has made a bit of a reputation for themselves in the process (but that’s not really appropriate for the blog).

Here’s a video of Marshall, Nona (of Dark Dark Dark) and Gabe playing a bit for people still working during a meeting break. They will all be performing twice on Saturday, April 12th. During the day at Mass MoCA, and in the evening at Williams College. Flyer below:

SAILIN’ ON… TO MASS MOCA

Miss Rockaway — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:22:27 +0000

Todd Chandler exploring inside the still-abandoned parts of Mass MoCA.

Down into more decrepitness.

Areas of the still-abandoned sections of Mass MoCA.

Ascending.

View from over the Hoosic River.

Marshall talking over the installation design.

Marshall showing us his monster-man impression.

Kevin carrying cleaned scrap lumber from building 6 to the installation space.

Working late into the night.

View of Fransje Killaars’ installation inside the museum late at night.

The Miss Rockaway Armada has been invited to create an installation at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, MA. We are excited at the opportunity to form something new with the same inspiration and ideas that helped start the Miss Rockaway project back in 2005. There is a crew of MRA members currently at the Museum working day and night on the collaborative project, which will open to the public on Friday, April 18th, 2008.

We will also be performing at the Museum and Williams College on Saturday, April 12th, 2008.

The installation will be on view until April, 2009. We will continue to post photos and updates about the installation throughout the process. We hope you enjoy them.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Miss Rockaway — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:33:32 +0000

Remains: the center raft/galley of the main Miss Rockaway vessel with the modified front raft docked to it.

The initial incarnation of the Miss Rockaway Armada ended it’s voyage in St. Louis, Autumn 2007. Scroll down for photos!

While we don’t currently have plans to continue along the Mississippi river, offshoots and branches of the Miss Rockaway Armada are working on projects on water and land. We’ll keep the website updated when there’s news to report. Please visit our events page for details on a current group art show in New York at Exit Art that Miss Rockaway is participating in. Also rapidly approaching is an installation the crew is building in Massachusetts at MassMoCA. Click here for more info.

If you’re interested in building some rafts and floating down a river, check out this page on our website:

http://www.missrockaway.org/wordpress/boat/

and

http://floatingneutrinos.com

and order the zine The Strange Voyage of Leona Joyce here:

http://www.microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/title/1717/

Once landed in St. Louis in a very difficult tow upstream (click here for the full story) the crew decided it was time to return the fleet, or at least large parts of it, to the scrap it came from. We worked day and night at the waterfront to take the rafts apart, occasionally inviting friends to come see the rafts.

The Miss Rockaway in St. Louis with the front raft structure dissembled.

Crew members and friends helping to take down the helm.

The cement bridge at Cementland, our landing spot in St. Louis, with crew member Nick.

Some kind friends of Miss Rockaway came along and welded some safety railings to the cement bridge.

Soon after there was a show, but this time other people played for us, and we just danced.

Staying on in St. Louis through the colder months of fall and winter, the Rockaway Crew cleaned up the docking sites.

Bold members of “Team Bling” as they worked into the cold fall months repairing the now destroyed “Garden of Bling” raft.

“I Left My Heart in Kirksville” paddlewheel raft during it’s dissembly.

More photos of Miss Rockaway can be found HERE

MEGA ULTRA GRAND HITS!! ! !!

Miss Rockaway — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 06:19:41 +0000

Okay here it is, the ultimate update to date, so grab a glass a water or just skim to the good parts. Alton. We hunkered down and prepared for the coast guard test. We never found a good docking spot and spent our stay on a crappy rock wall on the other side of the oh-so-shee-shee Alton marina. Doesn’t mean we didn’t have fun though, or that we didn’t meet awesome people.
John Becker introduced us to great folks, Carla and Sandy who both gave us showers and home grown vegetables. Spent a night at ‘Bubby’s and Sissy’s’, where Mike jumped onstage and did a number with one of the Queens.
A few went to the discovery garden and picked tasty tomatoes. Ayen and Porter scouted the chain of rocks canal and decided its a piece a cake, but the upstream jaunt is lookin’ hairy. (they were right.)
There was an awesome article in the Alton paper, thank you! Then a condescending one in the St.Louis dispatch which called us hippies about eight times. Its scary isn’t it , that we’re something else that you don’t have a name for!
Ha!
Bob Metzger threw us a BBQ and Island Dave threw us a pizza party. (is it that obvious that food is the way to our hearts? Thank you guys!)
We had a show, but it was rained out, we performed the next night to a small crowd. A small but surprisingly un-dysfunctional show! (I realized it was also our most hippied-out show to date. Ha!)
Charlie and Christine continued to paint cute nasty things about each other on the Giraft. Last but not least we owe a big shout out to….Glenn! yes Glenn, of Glenn Motors, volkswagen genius, helped us out so much. Alexis and Ellery brought him home cooked meals all the time, and he gave us amazing advice and hope. So with a bit of hard work, the secret mind of our Babalouie boy genius on the job, and our fabulous Nick Binbinboyytal we were ready to go.
A real saint, John, volunteered to tow us if things got crazy, and showed up bright and early as well as the coast guard.
We pulled out and did maneuvers to show that we know how to run these boats, and weren’t as unwieldy as the flood in Clarksville had made us look.
We did tight turns and went upstream well holding position fine.
Yes!!! We got the go ahead, proceeded through lock 26 Mel-Price, no problems.
The chain of rocks canal was also fine, I imagine it could be hectic if your motors went out just as a barge passed, but it was smooth sailing for us. Lock 27!
We called and they said ‘come on in’, we went all the way up and the door was still closed. Confused we stopped on the wall just before the door, still waiting. Then, behind us, the wall raised up out of the water, closed and we locked through in no time! A surprise ending was a nice treat for our last lock, the final one on the Mississippi, the Rockaway having been through them all.
John attached his johnboat to tow us just before the end of the canal where it meets the rest of the river. His boat started pulling and right away it was obvious that we were not going to be able to do this. Happily the coast guard was right there, waiting, having anticipated hairiness. We were already losing ground against the strong current, then the tow line snapped, we were going backwards fast, steering in reverse. Props to our brave drivers, Tracy and Alexis!
The coast guard tied to our boat and attempted towing us. We were making way against the current now, but with the boat in voltron it was awkward. The Giraft’s nose being pushed under water and a bunch of us standing on its stern to counteract! It was kind of working, but we decided we couldn’t get far like this.
The coast guard helped us get to shore. They told us to let them know when we planned to move next so they could be backup again. Coast guard rocks!!!
Where we docked was less than ideal, muddy, and half a mile from a road.
Somehow our rudder apparatus got totally bent so we drove the twisted system into St.Louis. Our friend Dave hooked us up with welding em back to good at his incredible work studio. Thanks Dave! Also we made a date for our next attempt and found new folks with boats who could help. It was a nice night, Santiago, Anna and Andre returned and some folks from St.Louis came too. We roasted hot dogs and told stories.
Our plan was to tow the boats separate, so Sunday morning the Rockaway went out first. We got a little ways, quickly obvious we were gonna have problems with the johnboat towing us, so the coast guard stepped in. They attached a tow line and one coast guard member rode with us. Just past the bridge the hecticness began, water started coming over the bow of the ship, fast. A wave swept a bunch of things overboard, shoes, amps and most of the contents of Ellery Neon’s cubby. As this happened on the bow of the ship, in the stern the rockaway’s motors were being started again. Just while the ship’s starboard side motor, Mortimer, was being revved an amp and a pair of heels floated into the propeller, somehow lodging in it, and causing the drive shaft to bend wildly and rip itself off the swing arm in under one second. The cold-rolled steel shaft looked like a noodle.
To the bow again, Santiago is in the skiff as another wave floods in it, pushing it under. As its sinking he jumps off and we cut it free. Bob one of our tows, had tied to the other side of our bow, and his propeller had gotten totally jammed with items swept overboard. He decided to use anchors to get to shore.
We almost drift into a bridge pylon, and at least a few members think their death is at hand.
We decided to get to shore too, cause if things keep going wrong at the rate they have been we’ll be in splinters in twenty minutes!
We dock on an unmanned barge and the Coast Guard pull the skiff out and bring it back to the Rockaway. The motor has been underwater for ten minutes and its still running, good sign.
Bob’s got his prop untangled and drives to our ship. The coast guard says they’ll tow us back to where we left from this morning, but first their going to refuel.
We all breathe deep and are ecstatic that no one even got hurt.
All shaken up and joyous we dance on the piles of coal on the barge.
When the coast guard gets back we were all surprised to hear their enthusiasm.
Lets try it again!
The bow line had been tied over the the raking, pushing the bow down, it should have been tied under. Plus the skiff and johnboat on the sides created drag, and we can move all the stuff on the Rockaway to the back of each raft. scary to run back into the same situation you barely made it out of, but our last chance to get to that secret video game level heaven, Cementland. Lets do it.
We pull off the barge smoothly and cross into the confluence smoothly, and things just… keep going smoothly…( I was sweating bullets for the first hour, but after that just excited.) It took two hours to go four miles, but…we…got…to…CEMENTLAND!!!
The Rockaway docked without a hitch.
This is a lot of catching up to do.
If you need a break, i feel you.
Now the adventure of the Garden of Bling.
The Coast Guard returned from Cementland around dusk all geared up to move the rest of the boats. We tied the tow line up to the Bling and all piled on. Once again the tow line was tied over the bow. Oops. Even the weight of seven people and an 800 lb. organ at the stern wasn’t enough to keep the bow from dipping under. As the current increased so did the water in the studio. Harrison grabbed a broom and began to sweep water off the bow while the rest of us sat in the costume shop thinking heavy thoughts.
We took turns informing the Coast Guard of the condition of our crap raft on the walkie-talkie they had loaned us. We decided to turn back when the boat was halfway under water. We returned the boat to the same spot feeling rather defeated.
Since then we have taken much weight off the boat and continue to look for a way up to Cementland.
Anyone know where we can get a tow?
Now we are more in the present…
Kirksville, the Giraft and Bling sit on a secluded beach as their fates are decided…
Cementland is amazing..
It looks like an abandoned cement factory growing into a castle.
Its a Bob Cassily project, and he’s been encouraging us to run around it like the playground it is. He also let us spend the night in the City Museum, his other project, we ran around laughing and screaming our heads off till daybreak.
My butt still hurts from going down so many slides.
Also, Siena caught a baseball at a cardinals game.
The Coast guard says we can’t go any further without a major overhaul to our propulsion. Don’t worry Coast Guard, we’re not planning on it. The Garden of Bling might keep going, but only if we get rocket boosters on it.
There was a interview with a Coast Guard member on NPR about how he saved our ass, but that guy wasn’t even there! He’s the boss of the Coast Guarders who helped us out. And we thank you guys immensely.
The boats aren’t going further for a bunch of reasons.
It gets colder faster than we move is a big one…one of the Rockaway’s motors has kicked the bucket…almost out of money…tired of not having good cappuccino…Okay, that’s a joke, but a bunch of things do add up, and really most of this crew is tired. Whatever else we’ve got to do is out there, and finding a safe way to do the lower Mississippi seems unlikely. Cementland is the perfect place for these rafts, and we can build something totally new out of them that has the potential to stay there indefinitely.
St.Louis has offered us some wild opportunities and its hella exciting.
We made it over 700 miles on these junk crafts and this feels like the reward. We’re going to do several shows here, to share our river mutant perspective with people and raise some money for our deconstruction and building something outta it, and for if the Bling decides to go further down river.
We’ll keep the website updated with our continued drama, glory, performances and events. When we do shows in St.Louis, hope to see some of the awesome folks we’ve met on our journey. All of you are why we do this and why we have made it this far. Aww, sounds so cheesy but its goddamn true, there are some amazing wonderful beautiful people on this river. Thanks again.