tony longshanks
Well-known member
Hello squatters & misfit travelers, my name is Cheeta (that's not the name the housies get, but it's the name that you get!). I've been semi-lurking & occasionally posting on this forum for a while, minus a proper introduction. I finally thought of a good one. So, a couple years ago I was squatting in this under-construction house where construction had stalled in Portland. I got ten months out of that place, to my surprise, & though it had no utilities & was stripped down to studs & boards & I went through a winter there with no utilities, it still ranks as one of my favorite squats ever so far, so fond did I grow of its humble, dusty, empty perfection during the time we were together. (I kind of date my squats & homes instead of people...) And when the construction workers found me there, they turned out to be crazy cool, treating me almost like a rare wild animal & giving me a wide berth, finally (after months of quietly observing my presence there) they requested I begin leaving so they could resume construction, but they were gentle & cool about it & even offered me a job working in a trailer & watching the construction site for them.
This is the setup to what I'm about to share now. One morning in this squat, after I'd made it through the winter & golden days had come again, I woke up from what I immediately felt was one of the most significant dreams I've ever had in my life; the dream I'd been waiting for, that was like the kernel of an art plant I want to grow in the forest of my future.
It involved a couple kids who go wandering up in some green endless hills, not unlike the ones I'm currently in & out of in northern California, & discover the ruins of a crumbling castle. They & some friends starts hanging out there, then squatting in it, turning it into their pirate playhouse, fixing it up & adding things, returning to their normie home in town less & less frequently, until finally they want to spend all the time at their squat castle.
(I was going to call it The Magic Castle, until I realized that kind of sounds like The Magic Asshole, & I don't want hardcore porn jokes to ruin this vision, it's too sweet...)
They ultimately face some conflict, something that threatens to take the squat away from them, which could be a veiled parable about no trespassing / private property vs. freedom of land & life. I want it to have the tone of a children;s book for adults, though, like Where the Wild Things Are, or Pippi Longstocking, rather than a strident anarchist political propaganda piece.
I want the early parts, before the threat materializes, to have a warm & glowing splendor to them, the excitement rush of starting a new radical housing space with friends on free land... translated into the form of a storybook
I am working on a script & seeking collaborators to make a short movie of this idea. It has such potential. We need a location. Abandoned sights such as the decaying amusement park I heard about somewhere in Oregon could be used. Anyone know of any crumbling castles or stone structures, closer to California than Transylvania?
CHEETA is all ears....
This is the setup to what I'm about to share now. One morning in this squat, after I'd made it through the winter & golden days had come again, I woke up from what I immediately felt was one of the most significant dreams I've ever had in my life; the dream I'd been waiting for, that was like the kernel of an art plant I want to grow in the forest of my future.
It involved a couple kids who go wandering up in some green endless hills, not unlike the ones I'm currently in & out of in northern California, & discover the ruins of a crumbling castle. They & some friends starts hanging out there, then squatting in it, turning it into their pirate playhouse, fixing it up & adding things, returning to their normie home in town less & less frequently, until finally they want to spend all the time at their squat castle.
(I was going to call it The Magic Castle, until I realized that kind of sounds like The Magic Asshole, & I don't want hardcore porn jokes to ruin this vision, it's too sweet...)
They ultimately face some conflict, something that threatens to take the squat away from them, which could be a veiled parable about no trespassing / private property vs. freedom of land & life. I want it to have the tone of a children;s book for adults, though, like Where the Wild Things Are, or Pippi Longstocking, rather than a strident anarchist political propaganda piece.
I want the early parts, before the threat materializes, to have a warm & glowing splendor to them, the excitement rush of starting a new radical housing space with friends on free land... translated into the form of a storybook
I am working on a script & seeking collaborators to make a short movie of this idea. It has such potential. We need a location. Abandoned sights such as the decaying amusement park I heard about somewhere in Oregon could be used. Anyone know of any crumbling castles or stone structures, closer to California than Transylvania?
CHEETA is all ears....