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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us November 13, 2004 In an age of technological communication ... Bulletin boards spread the word By Chris Honore Tidings Correspondent All things considered, bulletin boards should be anachronistic - that would be those spots dedicated to letting ordinary folks post all manner of ads, offers and declarations. But despite all the high tech means available to communicate and advertise, bulletin boards continue to thrive, and Ashland has some notable examples. Photos by Andrew Mariman | Ashland Daily Tidings A kiosk on the Plaza provided by the city is a central place for people to get out announcements, pitch their wares and seek out lost pets. The Ashland Food Co-op is an excellent spot to sample bulletin board culture. Near the parking lot of the co-op is a trellis covering a bike rack with a bulletin board at one end, covered with squares of paper, tacked, stapled, and scotch-taped, spilling over to the support beams and headers. It is a veritable gold mine of BB arcana, a riff of overlapping flyers, some the standard 8 1/2-by-11 announcements printed up at a local print shop, while others are your odd cards and scraps of paper with appeals and ads written in black felt tip marker pen. Many of the flyers have the bottoms cut, fringe-like, so an interested reader can tear off a small rectangle of paper with a phone number for further information. And what is interesting, anthropologically speaking, is the subject matter of the announcements and notices, and the language. There are, of course, the pedestrian flyers offering child care, folks searching for a housemate, loving dogs lost and found, a few needing a special home, people who are heading north and south looking for a ride, while others have a ride and need some company. Concerts that need attending, drum classes looking for drummers, motorcycle leathers to be sold cheap, and the rhetorical interrogative: "Need More Energy For the Holidays?" If you like to dance there is "Trance Dance." If you are in need of a place to rent, well, there's a spiffy silver Airstream trailer available. Or if you are looking for a place away from home, how about a Costa Rica vacation house. And not to forget that Pinky the cat is lost and her owner is in the hunt. If you spot Pinky, a tabby, there's a number to call. One flyer insisted that "A Radically Different World View Is Possible" with the caveat that a discussion would explore patriarchal capitalism. There's a reminder that Khempo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rimpoche is in town and will be teaching about Maitreya's "Distinguishing Phenomena and Pure Being." The photo of Rimpoche shows that he has a kind smile. One printed flyer says, "Access the refined energy hidden in your most difficult emotions." Another suggests that the reader might consider the offer to: "Let Us Assist You in Managing Your Life." Some flyers took the esoteric to new heights: "One People One Voice - Monkey Chant Workshop." An adjacent flyer encouraged inquiries regarding "Kundalini Yoga Here in Ashland." While the Food Co-op's bulletin board is ad hoc, there are a few merchants who have them in their stores but try and keep some order to the postings. Bob Peterson, longtime proprietor of The Blue Dragon Book Shop on East Main Street, has a bulletin board of sorts in his front window. Passers-by can quickly get a glimpse of the flyers posted on what appear to be the backs of bookcases. Peterson commented that he always has a space problem, with more people coming in and dropping off announcements than space allows. He said that he gets the impression that there are professional distributors who go from place to place with stacks of flyers. "My philosophy is that Blue Dragon is a community bookstore so I support community events. And if we have room we do personal ads but try and limit them to a couple of weeks. We're pretty mellow about it." Bloomsbury Books also has a bulletin board on one wall near the magazines. It is neat and free of overlapping flyers. While there are far fewer announcements than at the Food Co-op, those posted are familiar: "Got Love?" "Are You Ready For Your Life to Get Better?", "Helga Motley Has Gone Digital." Sheila Burns, owner of Bloomsbury, acknowledged that there was a tremendous number of people wanting to post. "We finally assigned a person, Susan Hoops, to handle the bulletin board." The posted rules at the book store are: "No for sale signs. Events postings only. One flyer per event. Staff to post all flyers, signs, etc. All dated flyers have priority. Feel free to look around." Burns doesn't allow any postings in the window. "If we allowed window use we'd be plastered with flyers." On the Plaza, remarkably, is a kiosk of sorts, with a pointed dome, dedicated to the posting of flyers. It is covered on all sides with a plethora of announcements, many sun-faded, some curled from weather, all competing for space. Once again the themes run the Ashland gamut: Rolfing, a cat found in the RR district, a generator for sale with the promise that it has been used only once, an individual who wants to be reunited with her better half who is in Portland and promises to contribute gas money, an announcement for on-site chair massage, and information about the medical draft, plus countless concerts and band engagements alongside a few limp admonitions to "Vote!" To post a flyer on the side of a kiosk or on a trellis beam at the Food Co-op is an uncommon act of faith. The implicit assumption is that people still use this very low-tech means of sharing information. If you post it they will come. It is a random, artful, and interesting way of finding, selling, and announcing this or that. In the time of eBay, ubiquitous video phones the size of a deck of cards and wafer-thin laptops, the fact that the bulletin board is still with us is somewhat unexpected. 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