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Welcome to Paleohippie
A website for Art Goodtimes—performance poet
Cloud Acre / 92 Lone Cone Road / Norwood
Colorado / 81423-0160 / 970-327-4767
[under construction v. 13jun13005]

Ultimately the air
Is bare sunlight where must be found
the lyric valuables
-Geo. Oppen
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New Poem:

Rico Hot Springs

You have to walk past hell
to soak in heaven. Discolored

tailings ponds leaching zinc
cadmium and lead into the River

of Sorrows. But once slipped
into the round tub of steaming

spring-fed aquamarine, the stars
like crystals embedded in night’s

obsidian, stripped and naked,
amigo, you’ve struck it rich!
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BIO:

A bioregionalist student of Dolores La Chapelle, Art writes from Cloud Acre on Wright’s Mesa, in the San Miguel Watershed cusp between the Colorado Plateau and the San Juan Mountains.

When not serving as Colorado’s only Green county commissioner, he grows organic heirloom seed potatoes, hosts various Talking Gourds performance poetry events, takes his family on vacation to the annual Rainbow Gathering, and runs the Telluride Mushroom Festival as poet-in-residence, as he has for the past 25 years.
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ORIGIN of Paleohippie:

It was Nancy Lofholm’s Denver Post story that first sprang Paleohippie on an unsuspecting world:

Paleohippie weaves third term in San Miguel
By Nancy Lofholm
Denver Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 05, 2004 –
Polished and politically correct politicians who failed to capture enough votes in this week’s election can look to San Miguel County for a lesson in how to be an off-brand “paleohippie” and hold office.
San Miguel County commissioner, Green Party member, basket weaver, poet laureate of the Telluride Mushroom Festival and Rainbow Family follower Art Goodtimes won a third term in office Tuesday even though he faced more straight-laced opponents, including one who outspent him 3-to-1 in campaigning.
“I am not a one-size-fits-all kind of candidate,” said the long-haired, copiously bearded Goodtimes from his home in Norwood, where he grows heirloom potatoes and writes poetry. “I look like a Haight-Ashbury hippie. I like to call myself a paleohippie. I am who I am, and I don’t try to hide it or pretend it doesn’t exist.”
For Goodtimes, that free-spirited transparency includes his habit of weaving hemp baskets at public meetings and giving spirited performances of his poetry at conferences and meetings around the West.
“It’s interesting to have a poet be a politician. Poets view the world differently, and I think that’s one of Art’s strengths,” said former Telluride Mayor Amy Levek.
Voters must agree. They gave Goodtimes another four years in office with 1,910 votes. His closest contender, Democrat Brian Ahern, who sometimes operates a Telluride taxi service catering to drunks, received 1,213 votes, and independent Kay Hartman garnered 674 votes.
Goodtimes continued the distinction of being the only politician in Colorado who gained office by running as a Green Party candidate.
He ran on a platform promise of continuing to balance the ecology and the economy of San Miguel County, which includes the liberal-minded, mining-turned-resort town of Telluride and the conservative ranching community of Norwood. He also promised to continue protection of high alpine watersheds and to champion “green” building codes.
Goodtimes said he has evolved as a politician over the past eight years. Key, he said, has been becoming a better listener. That, and his well-known propensity for being a peacekeeper and bringing factions together, helped him win every precinct except for the tiny community of Egnar, where Ahern topped him by four votes.
Goodtimes, 59, said he’s also proud of his political popularity outside San Miguel County. He said that as a Club 20 board member, he has been embraced – literally – by conservatives like former state representative and Meeker sheep rancher Nick Theos. Goodtimes also serves on several environmental task forces and a federal public lands advisory board, in addition to his participation in Earth First and the San Miguel Greens.
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WEBSITES:

“http://colopoets.unco.edu/poets/goodtimes_art/index.html”
“http://www.shroomfestival.com/”
“http://www.sanmiguelcounty.org/goodtime.htm”
“http://greens.org/colorado/artgood.html”
“http://www.ventanawild.org/news/se01/jojopan.html”
“http://www.sfpoetry.org/goodtim2.html”
“http://www.festivalofwords.org/winewit.htm”
“http://www.red-coral.net/Grotto29Jan.html”
“http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs03/goodtimes.html”
“http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/archives/art-goodtimes.html”
“http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC05/LaChapel.htm”
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PERFORMANCE info:

Art performs his poetry solo or as part of a performance ensemble group called EAR, which includes Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer of Placerville at wordwoman@mesa.net and and Elle Metrick of Norwood at waterwoman@frontier.net

Contact Art at:
cloudacre@norwoodcolorado.us
or
artg@sanmiguelcounty.org
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UPCOMING EVENTS:

TBA

WRIGHT’S MESA PRIZE will be awarded by the Citizens in Support of Norwood Students for the best reviews of Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me Ultima, following the unfortunate banning of this book by the Norwood School District this past school year.
There will be a $100 first prize and two $25 runner-up prizes. Aaron Abeyta will make the award presentation and read his own poetry following the awards.

November 4-6

HEADWATERS CONFERENCE
At Western State College in Gunnison.
Contact George Sibley at gsibley@western.edu
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TALKING GOURDS

It was in response to Dolores La Chapelle’s identification of drumming, dancing, chanting, gourds, talking circles, bardic poetry and tai chi as seven pathways to lead us out off industrial growth society and back to the rapture of deep ecology that we founded the Talking Gourds gatherings around the region. For over 16 years, folks have been gathering to read their work out loud in Talking Gourd circles, often as part of a traveling poetry gathering of the same name. Poets, storytellers, singers, actors, dancers, journalists, writers, and even diarists bring their words and creations to share. Talking Gourds has been held in Telluride. Up at Faraway Ranch. Out on the Uncompahgre Plateau at Windy Point. At Rockmirth in New Mexico. And at smaller gatherings around the region, including Durango, Grand Junction, Salida, Crestone and Gunnison.

In the process, we’ve helped develop a cycle of earth festival gatherings in which Talking Gourds circles are integral components, including SPARROWS in Salida, Fire Gigglers in the Wet Mountains, Rockmirth in New Mexico, Headwaters in Gunnison, and this fall’s upcoming Festival of the Imagination in Del Norte.

As for Talking Gourds events, this year we are featuring two: Talking Gourds Spoken Word Festival (which happened during National Poetry Month in Telluride) and Talking Gourds in Dreamtime (set for July 14-17 in Paonia)
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PAST EVENTS this year:

September 16-18

FESTIVAL OF THE IMAGINATION
In Del Norte. Contact Stewart Warren at stewart@heartlink.com

June 17-19

FIRE GIGGLERS, Wet Mountains. Contact Mike Adams for more info, firegiggler@earthlink.net

July 14-17

TALKING GOURDS AT DREAMTIME, Paonia.
Bringing the sacred neo-Beat practice of bardic poetry and poetry performance to a wider public event. With legendary San Francisco street poet Jack Mueller as headliner, and scores of Western Slope and Four Corners poets as supporting cast. Performers and practitioners will provide a full range of interactives—workshops, discussion groups, classes, and lectures. Presiding Bard: Art Goodtimes.
For more info, “http://www.dreamthefuture.org/”

May 27-30
MOUNTAINFILM FESTIVAL
Art was emcee at the Sheridan Opera House and the Nugget Theatre for a half dozen programs.
An account of the festival from my weekly column, “Up Bear Creek,” in the Telluride Watch, 6.3.05:
MOUNTAINFILM … And a wonderful one it was. Arlene Burns did a great job following in Rick Silverman’s footsteps. She had a talented crew, including folks like Catherine Soutter, Jamie Morrison, Stash Winslocki and dozens of others, not to mention the hundreds of volunteers. And once again it was a very full weekend of serendipities, new friends and old friends connecting, plus very powerful cinema … My favorites didn’t track the official jury, except for Paul Fusco’s Chernobyl Legacy – a film that every politician ought to be required to see before they even think of resuscitating nuclear power in this country—or anywhere else … Of course, as an emcee at the Opera House and the Nugget, I was limited in what I saw (which is why I was sad they skipped the after-the-festival films this year). But there was a buzz around several films … Simone Duarte’s En Route to Baghdad offered up the amazing life of U.N. diplomat Sergio Viera de Mello, truly one of the great world leaders of our time. And ironically, one of my old seminary classmates, Gil Loescher, was caught in the same blast that killed de Mello. Gil lost both his legs … Velcrow Ripper (now there’s a funny name—coming out of its Goretex at you) had a gripping film in Scared Sacred, taking you to the sites of many of the world’s greatest tragedies and finding redemption and hope amid the unspeakable horrors of the past … I missed Neal Marlens and Carol Black’s The Lost People of Mountain Village, but the word was it was hilarious … Thor Freudenthal had a lovely little short in Motel, where the roles between roaches and humans get reversed … And then there were the speakers. Paul Stamets (borrowed from the Telluride Mushroom Festival and Bioneers) did a dazzling talk at the Moving Mountain Symposium, telling us all the ways that mushrooms could save the world. Including a species of forest conk, found only in the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest, that appears to have significant antiviral promise again the weaponizing of poxes (smallpox, monkeypox). Hence, Stamets’ brilliant conclusion (employing the kind of political aikido Michael Kinsley of Aspen has long preached) – we need to save old growth forests in the name of national defense! … And some personal highpoints – meeting Jon Turk (former Tellurider who left about the time I came to town) and discussing his fascinating new book (which I bought), In the Wake of the Jomon: Stone Age Mariners and a Voyage Across the Pacific. Were the first humans on this continent seafarers, not land bridge hunters? Check it out. Available at Between the Covers … And another high point was meeting Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson, whose incredible coffeetable book Lost Africa is a treasure all its own, also featured at our local bookstore … And all of that is just scratching the surface of a wonderful weekend – an opportunity to learn and view and listen and connect … For me, the Telluride summer is a season that begins with Mountainfilm and ends with Mushroom. My M&Ms.

April 30
NATIONAL POETRY MONTH IN FARMINGTON:
Art was featured reader at Andrea Kristina’s Bookstore & Kafe, 218 W. Main, Farmington. Scott Nicolay, organizer.
An account of the festival from my weekly column, “Up Bear Creek,” in the Telluride Watch, 5.6.05:
FARMINGTON … Poet buddy, kava-kava ceremonialist and world expert in Easter Island’s as-yet-largely-undeciphered native script, Scott Nicolay played Virgil to this Dante and led me through the labyrinthine chambers of the Aztec highway into the big F for a poetry reading on the last day of April – National Poetry Month. (Did you notice?) … The venue was dazzling – Andrea Kristina’s Bookstore & Kafé at 218 W. Main Street (505.327.3313). Norwegian Kolbjørn Lindland founded the place, with prominent portraits of namesake aunt and grandma. Great food, great drinks and a wonderful upbeat but bookish atmosphere. Not exactly what you’d expect to find in gas&oil-drenched Farmington … But then neither did I expect to find such a enchanting bed & breakfast as Diana Ohlson & David Beers’ Silver River Adobe Inn – at the confluence of the San Juan and La Plata rivers (1.800.382.9251, www.silveradobe.com). What a wonderful place to relax and wander the extensive personal library (the rectangular baby grand, sized to fit a shipping crate, complete with cabriole legs and a stunning cherry finish, is a sight in itself). Wonderful meal in the morning. Great conversations. A lovely room with large windows full of birds, and flowering bushes, and the kind of small personal touches one expects from people who really care … The reading was a gas. Meeting several folks who’d heard me read a dozen years before and had come back for more. And then talking sovereignty and art and all kinds of lively things with Zoey and Bert Benally, and Bert’s brother Moroni – some of the more radical artist types on the Navajo Rez … Heck, next time I’m going to visit both the bookstore/kafé and the bed & breakfast on my own. If you’re selective, and avoid the horrendous multi-mile highway strip reminiscent of anywhere ugly America, the Big F can stand for “fun”. That’s if you eat & drink at Andrea Kristina’s and stay at Silver River Adobe Inn.

April 22-24
TALKING GOURDS SPOKEN WORD FESTIVAL
The Telluride Writers Guild brought a new version of Talking Gourds back to its first home of some 16 years ago –- the Sheridan Opera house.
An account of the festival from my weekly column, “Up Bear Creek,” in the Telluride Watch, 4.29.05:
OFF-SEASON SUCCESS … Thanks in huge part to Telluride Writers Guild Director Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer of Placerville and Telluride Council for the Arts & Humanities Director Liz Lance, the Talking Gourds Spoken Word Festival pulled off maybe a first-ever April tourist weekend event last week, celebrating both Earth Day (April 22) and National Poetry Month (April). While the numbers weren’t overwhelming, it was an auspicious start to what promises to be an annual off-season ritual – spring poetry in the Rockies. There were bodies on the street, in the shops that stayed open, and digging the Sheridan Opera House buzz with the riveting performances of ‘Burque’s National Slam Team All-Stars – Danny Solis, Don Mc Iver, Esther Marie Griego, and recent Philly transplant Hakim Bellamy … Just as riveting and even more exotic, Shiprock’s Yoolgai poets from down on the Rez kicked things off with rural Diné slam-style performances, featuring Zoey Benally, Scott Nicolay and Tish Ramirez. The two groups won a standing ovation Saturday night from the opera house crowd … And Friday wasn’t too shabby either, with hot performances by our own eco-rapper Charris Ford (fresh from a national radio stint on E-Town), Jane Mc Garry of Paonia with her multimedia owl show, and Colorado Book Award winner Chris Ransick of Englewood … Local performance ensemble EAR (Elle Metrick, Art Goodtimes & Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer) acted as the evening’s MC’s for the first half of Gaia Night, and then legendary North Beach poet/comrade-in-lyric of Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, and Hirschman, Jack Mueller took up the cudgel for the Mountain Free-for-All, with a dozen wild performances from folks like Sarah Pletts of Aspen with her Earth Ball on a Leash, Stewart S. Warren of Del Norte doing a powerful improv rant to congas and djembes, and Tara Miller of Paonia leading the crowd in a tai chi poem/dance … Saturday day was taken up with “interactives” – various kinds of circles, workshops and discussion groups. Early on Saturday Michael Adams of Lafayette led a group of us in tai chi exercises in Elks Park – a kind of visual poetry for passerbys … A great weekend. A new off-season tradition, with thanks to our local sponsors CASE, Ah Haa, and Resort Quest … Talking Gourds Spoken Word Festival. Celebrating Earth Day in Telluride.

April 1
5 POETS WITH DRUMS:
Danny Rosen, Wendy Videlock, Bob Jaeger, Robin Rice and guest Art Goodtimes, poet/politician from San Miguel County and Talking Rhythms. Planet Earth and 4 Directions Gallery, 524 Colo. Ave., Grand Junction. Caole Lawry, organizer.
Caole’s letter to the Grand Junction Free Press after the event:
“I wanted to let you know about a wonderful thing that happened at Planet Earth last Friday night. As you know from the Friday Art Hop story in the Free Press, we had a poetry reading with 4 Grand Junction poets and poet Art Goodtimes from San Miguel County where he is also a commissioner. He was here for Club 20 and left a dinner they were hosting early to come read. Well, they wanted to give him an award and followed him here and presented it on our stage. Ann Mc Coy and Kathy Hall and others were here and what was so remarkable about it is that they honored Art, such a character—formerly from the San Francisco hippie era, and looks like Father Christmas, himself! He is an amazing friendly, jovial, intelligent person that builds bridges with dialog (and poetry). The fellow that gave him the award said he was appreciated as an important voice for politics and the environment on the Western Slope. And Art said to his audience that no matter what your political belief, it is important to listen to each other. Hoorah! The room was full of artists and musicians and poets with these politicians all clapping and happy with the possibility of what could happen if we all work together.”

Feb. 24-27
FIFTH ANNUAL SPARROWS PERFORMANCE POETRY FESTIVAL:
Featuring dozens of Colorado’s performance poets.
An account of the festival from my weekly column, “Up Bear Creek,” in the Telluride Watch, 3.4.05:
SPARROWS … The 5th Annual Sparrows Performance Poetry Festival came off without a hitch in Salida last weekend … Local poets Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Elle Metrick and myself were prominently featured in the program, and Saturday night’s gala performance at the Steam Plant was almost sold out … Other featured folks included Jack Mueller of Ridgway, Danny Rosen of Fruita, Celeste Labadie, Tara Miller, and Jane Mc Garry all from the North Fork, as well as poets from all over the state … A great way to chase away those deep-winter blues with the lyric valuables.
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PRAISE for Art’s Work:

“Art Goodtimes is truly a bard. He has the unique ability to take all of our individual stories—each human story within the on-going story of our place itself—and combine them into a vast epic. He can do this because he is registering more than the ‘merely’ human; he speaks for the land itself.” -Dolores La Chapelle, The Way of the Mountain Center

“The largest applause went to Art Goodtimes, a poet, a county commissioner, and a man with a long scraggly beard who dresses as if he were still in the 1960s and Haight-Ashbury.” -Ed Marston, High Country News

“A hippie with a wild mop of dark hair that reaches his shoulder blades and a ZZ Top beard. Easy to take one look and assume he’s a mere Deadhead who never outgrew the Sixties. But it would be a foolish mistake. Art can argue politics, philosophy, science or economics with the big boys. He’s a walking encyclopedia with a cutting logic and metropolitan lawyer’s smooth command of language. F. Lee Bailey in a Cheech and Chong disguise.” -Kenn Amdahl (The Land of Debris & the Home of Alfredo)

“The Transmissions page is worth the price of admission, which is free; also Napalm Health Spa 2003 which has incredible poem by Art Goodtimes, After the Elections, ‘Waiting once again to vote out the rascals and vote in the lyric valuables.’”
-JB Bryan, La Alameda Press

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LINKS

“http://www.sparrowspoetry.com”
“http://www.western.edu/headwaters”
“http://www.word-woman.com”:
“http://www.chrisransick.com”