Margaret: A scrapbook found in the bottom of a garbage bin
December 28, 2014 6:59 PM Subscribe
It began over 20 years ago when Chicken John Rinaldi (one time San Francisco mayoral candidate and GG Allin Guitarist) found a scrapbook in the bottom of a San Francisco dumpster detailing the strange and tragic life of Margaret Rucker, poet and daughter of early Everett, WA pioneer Bethel Rucker.
It wasn't until last year, though, that Chicken's friend Jason Webley (previously: 1, 2, 3) mentioned in passing that he's from Everett, and they looked at what remains of the scrapbook together.
Margaret Rucker came from wealth and privilege, but her poetry is suffused with melancholy. She was 43, with two young boys, when her husband shot himself in front of her. She was the only witness. The scrapbook had her obituary - she died 9 years later in Burbank - but no cause of death or hint of who put the scrapbook together or how or why it ended up in a San Francisco dumpster.
Jason became entranced, as Chicken had before him, with Margaret's story, and put together first a concert in Everett, then a (wildly successful) Kickstarter, and finally, an album and tour beginning on December 12th (Margaret's birthday).
The album contains songs about Margaret's life, as well as some of her poetry set to music. In addition to Jason Webley, the album features songs by his friends Jherek Bischoff, Led to Sea, Eliza Rickman, Shenandoah Davis, Lonesome Leash, Zac Pennington and Mts. & Tunnels, and writing by Chicken John and Jason, telling the full story of the scrapbook and their subsequent investigation, as well as identifying just exactly whose scrapbook it was that Chicken found.
Reviews: The Stranger, Glide Magazine
From the Glide Magazine review:
"This author cannot remember another artistic adventure in recent times with such power. It prompted this author and his five companies to head out much later than is advisable with a small baby in the house, solely because the show left us needing to discuss it, discuss why Margaret is so powerful, discuss what it is to be human."
Oh, and in case I buried the lede: Go here to listen to the songs.
Margaret Rucker came from wealth and privilege, but her poetry is suffused with melancholy. She was 43, with two young boys, when her husband shot himself in front of her. She was the only witness. The scrapbook had her obituary - she died 9 years later in Burbank - but no cause of death or hint of who put the scrapbook together or how or why it ended up in a San Francisco dumpster.
Jason became entranced, as Chicken had before him, with Margaret's story, and put together first a concert in Everett, then a (wildly successful) Kickstarter, and finally, an album and tour beginning on December 12th (Margaret's birthday).
The album contains songs about Margaret's life, as well as some of her poetry set to music. In addition to Jason Webley, the album features songs by his friends Jherek Bischoff, Led to Sea, Eliza Rickman, Shenandoah Davis, Lonesome Leash, Zac Pennington and Mts. & Tunnels, and writing by Chicken John and Jason, telling the full story of the scrapbook and their subsequent investigation, as well as identifying just exactly whose scrapbook it was that Chicken found.
Reviews: The Stranger, Glide Magazine
From the Glide Magazine review:
"This author cannot remember another artistic adventure in recent times with such power. It prompted this author and his five companies to head out much later than is advisable with a small baby in the house, solely because the show left us needing to discuss it, discuss why Margaret is so powerful, discuss what it is to be human."
Oh, and in case I buried the lede: Go here to listen to the songs.
The show they put on is incredible, though I think the tour is over now. I don't love every piece on the album, but Margaret's story is both sad and lovely, her poetry is beautiful, and Jason's song Pyramid alone was worth every cent I gave to the Kickstarter. I'm glad to see this on Metafilter.
posted by Caduceus at 8:17 PM on December 28, 2014
posted by Caduceus at 8:17 PM on December 28, 2014
Ah, the cost of cutsey hipster art projects: they decided it would be a great idea to have a show were everyone got to rip pieces out of the scrapbook and take them home... including large parts that they never recorded anywhere, apparently. So it turned from a fascinating document on someone's otherwise forgotten life to a bunch of scraps that no doubt were stuffed in drawers and mostly thrown away.
posted by tavella at 8:26 PM on December 28, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by tavella at 8:26 PM on December 28, 2014 [3 favorites]
Ah, the cost of cutsey hipster art projects: they decided it would be a great idea to have a show were everyone got to rip pieces out of the scrapbook and take them home
Well, not they. He. Chicken John did that ~10 years ago after accidentally drinking a bunch of copper sulfate and thinking he was likely to die.
He mentioned at the show that he'd been kicking himself for it for the past year, and that on occasion Jason has helped him with the kicking.
posted by Myca at 8:36 PM on December 28, 2014
Well, not they. He. Chicken John did that ~10 years ago after accidentally drinking a bunch of copper sulfate and thinking he was likely to die.
He mentioned at the show that he'd been kicking himself for it for the past year, and that on occasion Jason has helped him with the kicking.
posted by Myca at 8:36 PM on December 28, 2014
Which link is the scrapbook?
posted by discopolo at 9:12 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by discopolo at 9:12 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
Yeah, Chicken John talked about the decision to give away the scrapbook in pieces at some length during the Seattle show. He was suffering liver failure and had no one to give the book to that he trusted to carry on the story. Having a show where the scrapbook was taken apart and dispersed was his way of discharging the responsibility he felt towards it. I don't think he made that decision lightly and he'd have never done it if he had known he was going to live.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 9:45 PM on December 28, 2014
posted by vibratory manner of working at 9:45 PM on December 28, 2014
This is fabulous. I live right across the way in Mukilteo, drive Rucker ave. on a weekly basis. Never knew much about the family.
thanks for the post!
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:57 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
thanks for the post!
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:57 PM on December 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
Glinn: (Not sure about the music quite yet.)
Caduceus: I don't love every piece on the album
Totally. I really like Jherek, but I have a lot of trouble with Night, and I find the quirks of pronunciation on the Lonesome Leash stuff a little grating.
My greatest hits: My Love Left Me In April, Lark Of My Heart, Dear Margaret, Possession Sound, Pyramid.
posted by Myca at 11:10 PM on December 28, 2014
Caduceus: I don't love every piece on the album
Totally. I really like Jherek, but I have a lot of trouble with Night, and I find the quirks of pronunciation on the Lonesome Leash stuff a little grating.
My greatest hits: My Love Left Me In April, Lark Of My Heart, Dear Margaret, Possession Sound, Pyramid.
posted by Myca at 11:10 PM on December 28, 2014
I was at the Castro show last week. It was wonderful experience.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 11:26 PM on December 28, 2014
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 11:26 PM on December 28, 2014
I grew up in Mukilteo (waves at OHenryPacey).
We used to hang out at "Rucker's Tomb" and get drunk in my misspent youth. I wish I had known about Margaret's story and her poetry. Everett in the 80s was sad, drab, lumber town with a tacky mall and more mentally ill homeless people than any town its size should have. There was always a sense of hopelessness there, like it was where people passed through life anonymously and forgotten as little more than paid drones in blue collar drudgery.
Thank you for posting this. It somehow redeems Everett for me to know that something creative crawled out of it eventually.
Other than Kenny Loggins, that is.
posted by evilcupcakes at 12:03 AM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
We used to hang out at "Rucker's Tomb" and get drunk in my misspent youth. I wish I had known about Margaret's story and her poetry. Everett in the 80s was sad, drab, lumber town with a tacky mall and more mentally ill homeless people than any town its size should have. There was always a sense of hopelessness there, like it was where people passed through life anonymously and forgotten as little more than paid drones in blue collar drudgery.
Thank you for posting this. It somehow redeems Everett for me to know that something creative crawled out of it eventually.
Other than Kenny Loggins, that is.
posted by evilcupcakes at 12:03 AM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
He was suffering liver failure and had no one to give the book to that he trusted to carry on the story.
No, this is an example of the failings of hipsters, not an example of the melancholy of one's fragile life and the decisions one makes and later regret! It's about hipsters, dammit.
posted by maxsparber at 6:11 AM on December 29, 2014 [2 favorites]
No, this is an example of the failings of hipsters, not an example of the melancholy of one's fragile life and the decisions one makes and later regret! It's about hipsters, dammit.
posted by maxsparber at 6:11 AM on December 29, 2014 [2 favorites]
How the flying fuck does anyone “accidentally” drink copper sulfate? It's bright bleeding blue, and would be ever so slightly tart. I'm surprised anyone could get it past their teeth without a vicious gag reflex. Someone wont to do that shouldn't be in charge of a pair of shoes, let alone a historical document.
posted by scruss at 6:47 AM on December 29, 2014
posted by scruss at 6:47 AM on December 29, 2014
So from Chicken: The Story of Margaret Rucker this Saturday Castro Theatre:
posted by straw at 7:18 AM on December 29, 2014
... I was drinking a bottle of Vitamin Water. Someone in the shop was mixing copper sulfate with water and brushing it on copper to make that greenish patina. They were mixing it in a plastic Vitamin Water bottle. ...Careful when you're drinking those newfangled multicolored drinks. Or letting people in your shop mix up nasty shit in recycled bottles.
posted by straw at 7:18 AM on December 29, 2014
He really should have given that scrapbook to the historical society or had it scanned in.
posted by discopolo at 7:55 AM on December 29, 2014
posted by discopolo at 7:55 AM on December 29, 2014
How the flying fuck does anyone “accidentally” drink copper sulfate?
This is the sort of question that has an answer.
I was drinking a bottle of Vitamin Water. Someone in the shop was mixing copper sulfate with water and brushing it on copper to make that greenish patina. They were mixing it in a plastic Vitamin Water bottle. You know where this is going
posted by maxsparber at 8:19 AM on December 29, 2014
This is the sort of question that has an answer.
I was drinking a bottle of Vitamin Water. Someone in the shop was mixing copper sulfate with water and brushing it on copper to make that greenish patina. They were mixing it in a plastic Vitamin Water bottle. You know where this is going
posted by maxsparber at 8:19 AM on December 29, 2014
vibratory manner of working: Yeah, Chicken John talked about the decision to give away the scrapbook in pieces at some length during the Seattle show. He was suffering liver failure and had no one to give the book to that he trusted to carry on the story. Having a show where the scrapbook was taken apart and dispersed was his way of discharging the responsibility he felt towards it. I don't think he made that decision lightly and he'd have never done it if he had known he was going to live.
Oh, I don't know, how about the Everett Public Library, which has a Northwest History collection and two specialist librarians for it? Or if for some reason they didn't want it, there's no lack of other historical organizations in the area. Trust may be a variable thing, but they weren't going to do anything worse than he did. Instead he decided to destroy it because he didn't think anyone else would be as awesome as him, so yes hipsterism.
I'm trying not to be as irritated as I could be, because it would have been destroyed originally, but it's like one of those people who demands their perfectly healthy and adoptable pets be put down when they die, because obviously no one could love them like they did. Even if they were rescue animals in the first place, killing them for ego is still an asshole move.
posted by tavella at 11:24 AM on December 29, 2014
Oh, I don't know, how about the Everett Public Library, which has a Northwest History collection and two specialist librarians for it? Or if for some reason they didn't want it, there's no lack of other historical organizations in the area. Trust may be a variable thing, but they weren't going to do anything worse than he did. Instead he decided to destroy it because he didn't think anyone else would be as awesome as him, so yes hipsterism.
I'm trying not to be as irritated as I could be, because it would have been destroyed originally, but it's like one of those people who demands their perfectly healthy and adoptable pets be put down when they die, because obviously no one could love them like they did. Even if they were rescue animals in the first place, killing them for ego is still an asshole move.
posted by tavella at 11:24 AM on December 29, 2014
Instead he decided to destroy it because he didn't think anyone else would be as awesome as him, so yes hipsterism.
You should save your righteous scorn for the people who threw in dumpster. John at least salvaged it, turned it into a show before parceling out the scrapbook as a mementos of the show at 12 Galaxies. And scanned some of it for posterity. By your measure it would have ended up in storage facility of a non-profit and forgotten.
Also comparing the lost scrapbook of a dead women to killing unwanted animals is not helpful.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 11:41 AM on December 29, 2014 [3 favorites]
You should save your righteous scorn for the people who threw in dumpster. John at least salvaged it, turned it into a show before parceling out the scrapbook as a mementos of the show at 12 Galaxies. And scanned some of it for posterity. By your measure it would have ended up in storage facility of a non-profit and forgotten.
Also comparing the lost scrapbook of a dead women to killing unwanted animals is not helpful.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 11:41 AM on December 29, 2014 [3 favorites]
Oh, I don't know, how about the Everett Public Library, which has a Northwest History collection and two specialist librarians for it? Or if for some reason they didn't want it, there's no lack of other historical organizations in the area.
Sure, but you have to realize - he had no idea that she was anyone anyone but him would give a crap about. He didn't know about the Rucker pyramid or Rucker avenue or the Rucker mansion. When he found the scrapbook, it was pre-internet, and when he gave it away it was (mostly) pre-good-internet.
The Rucker Brothers didn't have a wikipedia page until 2009, and the Rucker Mansion didn't have one until 2011.
It's like finding a notebook in a dumpster in NYC full of information about someone with the last name "Webb," who was born ~90 years ago in Palm Bay, Florida, and died ~40 years ago in Houston, TX. The last name is ... kind of unusual, but not really enough to go on.
Would you, knowing nothing else, think that the Palm Bay Historical society would give a crap? How about the Houston Historical Society? Why is the scrapbook in New York? Who knows?
And also the only reason any of us know who she was is because of Chicken and Jason. Her husband was a suicide. She was a suicide. Her son John died of AIDS in 1993 - it was probably his scrapbook, and it's likely that he was estranged from the rest of the family. All of his belongings were tossed into a dumpster.
So do I wish Chicken hadn't parceled out the scrapbook? Yeah. So does he. But to dismiss this with LOLHIPSTERS is awfully myopic.
We walk through life suffering our small harms, the countless injuries that bear us down, but that nobody else sees or acknowledges. Margaret's grandson, her son's George's son, was at the Castro show. He learned about the life of a grandmother he never met and sat in a theatre with strangers crying over her tragedies. He saw photos of his own father and uncle as boys. It was astounding.
posted by Myca at 1:21 PM on December 29, 2014 [3 favorites]
Sure, but you have to realize - he had no idea that she was anyone anyone but him would give a crap about. He didn't know about the Rucker pyramid or Rucker avenue or the Rucker mansion. When he found the scrapbook, it was pre-internet, and when he gave it away it was (mostly) pre-good-internet.
The Rucker Brothers didn't have a wikipedia page until 2009, and the Rucker Mansion didn't have one until 2011.
It's like finding a notebook in a dumpster in NYC full of information about someone with the last name "Webb," who was born ~90 years ago in Palm Bay, Florida, and died ~40 years ago in Houston, TX. The last name is ... kind of unusual, but not really enough to go on.
Would you, knowing nothing else, think that the Palm Bay Historical society would give a crap? How about the Houston Historical Society? Why is the scrapbook in New York? Who knows?
And also the only reason any of us know who she was is because of Chicken and Jason. Her husband was a suicide. She was a suicide. Her son John died of AIDS in 1993 - it was probably his scrapbook, and it's likely that he was estranged from the rest of the family. All of his belongings were tossed into a dumpster.
So do I wish Chicken hadn't parceled out the scrapbook? Yeah. So does he. But to dismiss this with LOLHIPSTERS is awfully myopic.
We walk through life suffering our small harms, the countless injuries that bear us down, but that nobody else sees or acknowledges. Margaret's grandson, her son's George's son, was at the Castro show. He learned about the life of a grandmother he never met and sat in a theatre with strangers crying over her tragedies. He saw photos of his own father and uncle as boys. It was astounding.
posted by Myca at 1:21 PM on December 29, 2014 [3 favorites]
Given that it included her obituary, including such details as her being buried in the Rucker family mausoleum in Everett, I find it unlikely that it didn't mention that her father was an Everett county pioneer. Given that, it would not be very hard to call up the Everett public library or the Snonomish County Historical Society and ask if anyone would be likely interested in a scrapbook full of photos and documents from Bethel Rucker's daughter. These numbers were quite available on the internet of 2004. Or, y'know, see if there was any family who would like this piece of history.
Basically, he mined it for such bits as amused and moved him for art, and that's fine as far as it goes. Interpreting and popularizing is a great thing. Except that he then ensured that no one else would be able to know or research the bits that didn't strike his fancy by effectively setting it on fire. What remains of her story will be forever his filter, and it is always going to be at least 50 percent about 'how awesome we are bringing this outsider art to life, man!'
You should save your righteous scorn for the people who threw in dumpster.
I don't blame them, because they were likely minimum wage workers hired to clean out a dead man's apartment. Chicken John, on the other hand, knew what he had and destroyed it deliberately. I cannot comprehend how pissed I would be if someone came across a family scrapbook of my family, mined it for cool stories for a decade, and then destroyed it because they thought it would make a cool art project. And her grandson might have been able to look at the work of his own uncle and grandmother directly and held it in his hands, not just a distant interpretation.
posted by tavella at 2:19 PM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
Basically, he mined it for such bits as amused and moved him for art, and that's fine as far as it goes. Interpreting and popularizing is a great thing. Except that he then ensured that no one else would be able to know or research the bits that didn't strike his fancy by effectively setting it on fire. What remains of her story will be forever his filter, and it is always going to be at least 50 percent about 'how awesome we are bringing this outsider art to life, man!'
You should save your righteous scorn for the people who threw in dumpster.
I don't blame them, because they were likely minimum wage workers hired to clean out a dead man's apartment. Chicken John, on the other hand, knew what he had and destroyed it deliberately. I cannot comprehend how pissed I would be if someone came across a family scrapbook of my family, mined it for cool stories for a decade, and then destroyed it because they thought it would make a cool art project. And her grandson might have been able to look at the work of his own uncle and grandmother directly and held it in his hands, not just a distant interpretation.
posted by tavella at 2:19 PM on December 29, 2014 [1 favorite]
Margaret's grandson, her son's George's son, was at the Castro show
Interesting! At the Seattle show it sounded like Jason had information about John because his birthdate was in the scrapbook materials, but with just the name to go on hadn't been able to find out anything about George. I'm glad to hear that existing family was able to hear about it and get in touch.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 1:19 PM on December 30, 2014
Interesting! At the Seattle show it sounded like Jason had information about John because his birthdate was in the scrapbook materials, but with just the name to go on hadn't been able to find out anything about George. I'm glad to hear that existing family was able to hear about it and get in touch.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 1:19 PM on December 30, 2014
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posted by Glinn at 7:21 PM on December 28, 2014