STRANDED IN PITTSBURGH!!! Please DONATE!!

My tire blew out on the way back to my hosts today, coming back from performing at the Pittsburgh Shakespeare Festival. I’m completely out of money, and just a few days from making it back to Brooklyn. Please help if you can, and thank you all for your support this last year, and the nearly eight months I’ve been on the road.

And check out the avalanche of new updates I’ve posted!!!

The `Speare Bearer Facebook page!!

“Like” it! Forsooth!

The `Speare Bearer: More Seattle and Stories From the Hole pt. 2.1 07/18 One big surprise that awaited me in Seattle was the day I went around to the Seattle Center to introduce myself at all the local theaters, and I walked into Seattle Shakes, and spotted a friend from school in the offices. Thea and I went to Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) together, and were friends, but I hadn’t seen her since just before we graduated, 5 years ago, and surely did not expect to see her working for Seattle Shakes (She was not a Performing Arts major, but an advertizing+graphic design major), or in Seattle in general. We both caught each other off guard, had a delightful, flabbergasted reunion, briefly caught up, she gave me the skinny on Seattle Shakes, where she is one of their head marketing coordinators, and on the Shakespeare scene in Seattle in general. It turned out about 3 days later, when I was about 2 days east of Seattle, that I finally just realized I was EXHAUSTED from my 5 month ride at this point, and needing to go home and rest.  So I was BLESSED from God with a really cheap hotel room in the small town I’d ridden to east of Seattle, Cle Elum, a really cheap flight back to Florida from Seattle, access to an airport shuttle that could take me AND my bike back to Seattle, and the means to pack my bike up (which had proven an immense challenge before). And it also turned out that the girls lived really close to a light rail that could take me directly from and to the airport (where the shuttle dropped me off), to catch the flight I’d booked, which would depart 36 hrs after I would return to Seattle. Are you following this? Anyway I really had a great time staying with my friend and her roommate for that time. They are both such intelligent, and fun ladies, great conversationalists who both work in theater in Seattle, so I had a great time dishing with them about that. We talked about art, theater, feminism, Arrested Development, our futures, theater in Seattle, dished about local the local theater climate, being artists.. Even though most of this trip was about getting away from my insular group of artist friends in NY, and being around real people, who have normal jobs, and live more traditional lives, as much of a breath of fresh air as that has been, I really love artists and love being around them so much, talking about art and the artists life. It’s one of my great joys, and the girls were so thoughtful, and funny, and eloquent. They were super kind and hospitable to me, and really put me at ease in the kind of stressful transition back home. I’m super grateful for that. Turns out there’s A LOT of SCAD people in Seattle.
The `Speare Bearer: Willamette University Law Students I performed Romeo and Juliet for, 06/21 In Salem I stayed with this awesome couple, John and Shanna, from warmshowers.org. I was REALLY tired there, as I have been for a few weeks now, and didn’t do much, but as the afternoon rolled around, I decided it was inexcusable to not at least see SOME of Salem, OR, the state capitol, for crying out loud. So I got on my bike and rode the 10 mi into town from my hosts house. I saw one group of folks sitting around in a circle working and I thought “AUDIENCE” so I stopped and interrupted them and asked if they had 5 min for a scene. They turned out to be Law students and the local prestigious university, but they could use a break. So I did an R & J scene, which I thought was pertinent to what they were studying.. mediation. I dunno’. They were nice though, and at least I got to perform a bit in Salem.
The Speare Bearer: Lumber Trucks. These bastards like to fly past you on narrow backroads you’re riding on, and sometimes your struggling uphill, or desperately trying not to crash, going downhill.
The `Speare Bearer: On the Siskyiou Pass from California to Oregon, on the I-5, 06/12
The Speare Bearer: Smuckers?? No way??!! Is this their headquarters??? Saw this Heading toward Chico, CA, 06/07

A special friend asked me this today. Here was my response:

I’ve thought about quitting since before I started! I think about quitting all the time… And yesterday was an especially aggravating ride… Rain, cold, NARROW roads, confusing directions… And I was thinking there’s other things I’d rather be doing, certain persons I’d rather be spending time with…

BUT plain and simple, I know this is where God wants me and I have to do what I have to do.

The `Speare Bearer: Times Tribune Article: One-Man Street Shakespeare comes to Pattison, Texas! By Lillie Ruby.
Man, I think this fella’s name was Kevin. We encountered him leaving a spot where we were stealth camping, and he was walking. This was his last day of walking for 40 days as a spiritual journey. Nice dude.
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