 Good morning from Slap City. It's windy today. There's nothing I can do about it. Hopefully the audio won't be too bad We're about to go get a cup of coffee I respect all the power invested in me Be part of my enemies on the black bags Over the heads of the dead dying The more I understand about their human race The less I comprehend about our purpose in place And maybe there was a clearer line Curiosity would satisfy Maybe for someone who's never heard of this place before, what is the Oasis Club? We're technically I guess a snowboard club that comes from Halloween to the Starship And this is no drama, safe neutral zone So coffee from 7 to 10 in the morning? And then the schedule up there, there's live music tonight, which is Wednesday We start everything sunset Breakfast we have on Sundays and that's nightish We institute the ish aspect of our functionality Our stronger features are reliable Just being here one morning, hanging out This seems to be the social place of the morning I love morning here because of the energy And we have pretty good started energy We have pretty much represented most of the major camps that deepens Like Katamari or Mojo's camp or even each Jesus So this is definitely a local spot Yeah, it's kind of cool that people are here In the summertime after all the snowboard leaves And once they are, that's when the poor community And then having a place to hang out at least once a week for a cup of the summer And it's the first time last summer, let's see what goes good And that was some of the strongest coffee I've had this morning We do pride ourselves on our coffee making videos Alright, we're indoors, it's a little bit less windy We had a very amazing time at the Oasis Club for our morning coffee And we met the coffee master himself, Sai And so Sai has been here, let me close this window real quick Sai has been a resident of Slab City for how long? Somewhere between five and six years Although one and a half years I was gone It was supposed to be a road trip for three months Turned into a new year and a half But I'm back now So I've been here for about four or five years You're a local resident So what in your opinion is your favorite part about Slab City? Besides the Oasis Club? The Oasis Club has been my morning ritual every single day I work on Wednesdays and there's other volunteers for the other days But I'm there every single morning whether it's my work day or not And I have no problem filling in if someone's sick or if someone doesn't want to work But my other favorite part My favorite days would be like Saturdays Where it's the ranch where anyone can go up It's open mic, anyone can go up and play whatever music they want They can play music from their phone and sing to it or whatever There's one guy who came over, he did stand up comedy It's all open mic That's a nice day where people can enjoy music All different kinds of music from different people And it's where the majority of the community can actually get together and see people Because some people don't like to get out They don't like to stay home And they don't want to go and visit their buddy all the way across from the other side of Slab You know Saturday is the perfect time to get everyone together And I'm going to turn around and show everybody we are actually parked at the range If you guys have seen In of the Wild This is the open mic night talent show type of thing If you've been here you probably driven by But Cy has been nice enough to offer to drive us around So we're going to take a quick tour, check out some cool spots And more behind the scenes Which you wouldn't really see on Instagram Or glamorized in social media Alright so Cy has taken us over to an interesting place behind us This is the This is the laughing dog cafe or the internet cafe Every morning they have a coffee from 7am to 11am Hello, hi, yes I love you Wack it a wag it a wag it They have a coffee every morning And they have internet, wifi Each day the password usually changes You have to ask for the password And you can come and plug in And charge your electronics and hook up on the internet You're never going to believe this But somebody recognized me at the slabs, do you live here? Yes I do How long have you been living here? Almost two years And you said you recognized me from when? Since the yellow bus, yes in 2018 There you go man Early 2018 My school bus is just behind us It's behind the pirate camp here Oh okay But yeah I've been flying since then And when you started to get the boys back to you I was like yeah It's been a 25 year dream of mine Now I'm off the sauce What's your name? My name is Flux I go by Flux out here Yeah I know I understand We're getting into the whole how it works, the dynamic Everybody has a slab city nickname So Flux, very nice to meet you man We're getting a tour from Psy And we were over at the Oasis Club for breakfast Yeah, yeah It's always the boys that volunteered there last year Nice, there you go So we're just kind of getting beyond the You know the touristy stuff The coming you see the east Jesus The Salvation Mountain And we're talking to people who live here like yourself And Psy And getting to know the bike shop And the internet cafe And the other places like that You know Yeah Getting a little bit deeper than the surface Right, right, yeah So yeah Right on, right on, cool Thanks for saying hello Yeah you too Jackson Right on, we'll see you around Yeah So you own Bill's bike shop Yes sir How long have you been out here? A year and a half Do you like him? I hate him Do you really? But you know sometimes You know I was living in Phoenix Against a lot of people Okay And they started locking me up So I decided I didn't want that I heard about this place came up here Brought me some money I didn't know what to expect I brought 30 beers Two gallons of water What a mistake But anyways I bought the bike shop And I've been going ever since That's great And how's the business? This year a little slow When I got it last year You know I don't know It's been a struggle this year But I have a lot of You know I buy self-training What I do I'm not a collector or anything I just You know it's about taking care of the kids I've done a lot of wrong in my life And a very bad person Now through the kids They don't pay for nothing I make sure if their bike's broke They don't have one They get one And then if you're a true slabber After you get two summers I give you back Right on And if you're a true slabber You can come up here I'll fix your bag It won't cost you nothing That's amazing Well very nice to meet you Thank you so much For the information And remember the bill The reason the shop My name is Charlie And it's Bill's bike shop This is the guy that started So he passed away When I bought it That was the agreement That I would keep it Bill's bike shop I don't have an ego trip No problem That's awesome That's the reason it's bill And you are located Just right of the internet cafe Yeah All right Thanks Charlie Stay here with the pirates This is Austin's pallet panelist I'm not sure if I was told that Austin Still stays here I haven't seen him since I've been back But he was a really good friend of mine A really smart guy As you tell He loves building stuff And he's really good at it And like He uses power tools But he doesn't use power tools like other people He goes out And he goes to like Swampments And he'll collect parts of power tools And he'll actually put them together And get them working again And build battery packs That they can plug into And charge them there So like He's always got them charged on solar And he's got a really nice setup here And with the layers that he's added To it It stays pretty nice and cool in there Really? Yeah The more layers that you add Space down from each other The cooler it is Because it keeps You have one layer That takes on the majority of the heat And then you have that air space And the next wall It's like an air gap And the wind will push that Warm air out Like a double pane window or something Yeah Interesting So this was all made with Just scrap pallets and wood And whatever the person would find Scrap pallets, wood Scrap nails, screws And like This is pretty much all done Well, yeah by hand Like I don't know if anyone's helped him out for Like last time I checked He did the whole thing by himself Interesting So Guys come out to the slabs Look for the flying flag If it's a windy day Peace sign Otherwise I would say We're on the tour of all tours Of Slab City right now Maybe some Interesting people I really wish he was here Like I wish you guys could meet him He's a really cool guy Yeah, I'm sure Well Austin if you're out there Watching Very cool I'm very impressed He's actually been here Longer than most people in Slab City Even though he's younger than me He technically is I guess he's a Slab elder Yeah He's been out here He's never said he was like real good I go back and forth But every single day As the day says The tables change The galaxies remain And if you feel Sport of loudness This means You're a couple singing The spiritual ways They hate To keep the distance To my spiritual place The temple My dawn When the planets are in place And so I'm relying Like early people are saying Like if you have your own individual camp People will build like a little house Or they'll have a little Line around their property Wherever Or their residence Or they'll have a trailer And a residence line Or property line However you want to call it It's communal camps On the other hand Basically they'll have Like a couple other trailers Or a couple of houses Or like different areas Where people have their own private space Instead of the RV Being their home The RV would be like their room And then they'll have A A more communal space Like where everyone Inside the camp Can actually Hang out wherever I can have visitors over Like the living room Like this one here Would be pretty much Our living room Guys this is Zach We just met A little bit ago And you Grew up in Slab City Yes I did I've been here Since I was Eight or nine Watched Watched a lot of Different Changes In the community It went from Being a complete Anarchist society To more modernized People are starting Real businesses And starting to turn Into Like a modern society town There's still More Freedom here To express yourself People Who play music Or Or artists Or Don't feel comfortable Being male Or female Or homosexual Those things are accepted here It's a good place To be stuck If you have nothing You know There's food Free food Free water Good people It's just A good place to be Yeah And you came down here With your parents Yes I did My parents own The Ponderosa On the main road Okay Me and my parents Don't really get along They're A little different than I am You know They had different lives Than I did growing up I was basically An animal growing up I took care of myself Had to worry about Where I was going to sleep What I was going to eat And things like that There is Lots of violence And Drugs and alcohol But besides those three things It's pretty good to be here I mean This is Really the last free place To do what you really want to Not be judged By the people around you And then Because you've been here for so long How did you acquire Your own slab here? Uh This actually all belongs To my older brother He's Not like me He's super emotional Like my father And He built my dad's Place for him Over the summer And my dad told him That he could have this Place In return And then When I came home My dad tried to Screw my brother Out of the place And I Was like Go fuck yourself Pretty much So I ended up with it My brother didn't want to Stay And Deal with all of the drama So I did I did him And at some point in time He'll probably come back And then I'll be able To go wherever Nice And What Is it like to live In the slabs Or to grow up And live in the slabs It's a lot different Than being in a town Or in a city There's more sense of community Here More sense of family More freedom to learn And to do things And experience things That you wouldn't experience Anywhere else Like I grew up Pulling child molesters And rapists off of women And watching people's homes Be burned to the ground It's been very interesting Yeah That's for sure Still unlike any other place In the whole country Spent the past three years Traveling Hitchhiking Walked across the country Took six months Walked across the whole thing That's amazing From Sacramento, California To upstate New York High five for that bro That's tough man That is not easy Man And so we're Six months That's wild That is wild What are some of the changes That you've seen here? It's starting to calm down There's better people More loyalty A better sense of family Than there used to be Seems like everybody Knows everyone here too There's a better sense of community People get along Instead of people Beating each other up And lighting houses on fire And talk it out Instead of fighting it out Or getting crazy And shooting somebody Or doing something crazy There's still a lot of drama Like I said There's alcohol and drugs So people do dumb shit all the time But other than that It's pretty chill The summer is a little harder It's pretty hot It's 130 degrees outside People are kind of irritable Uh Shit can get Crazy during the summer The town kind of shrinks Only the real locals stay During the summertime And those people Get crazy during the summer That's when People's homes get burned down People get shot People get stabbed Mobs are made against people And stuff gets crazy You ever thought about leaving? I believe I'm leaving in Maybe another week or two Leaving for good Nobody lives here This is my home This is where it was raised I'll always come back here I'm starting a family of my own I'm gonna have a kid here In another six months And be having a daughter I have to Worry about her And my old lady Take care of business You know what I mean I know Cool Well thank you so much for your time I appreciate it That Was impressive Alright So you go by Panda I do Did someone call you that When you got here? Cause I guess that's how People get their names I had that nickname Unofficially for like Six, seven years While I was doing All of my Prior life circus stuff Lots of parties Things like that Everybody just started calling me Panda Cause I navigated Spaces a certain way And how did you get Into the circus performing? I lived in South Carolina When I started Once I moved out I went to Portland And when I got to Portland I was homeless for about Two, three years But I got out of it By this wonderful company Called Circus Project Circus Project Worked with at-risk youth And Get them off the streets Not necessarily By giving them food Or shelter Or any of that But giving them an artistic vision To help motive power To get all the rest Of those things After Eight month Circus intensive training course Where I worked with People like Stefan First Jim Copan And A couple of other ones Cause they're amazing Me too, just a rock All these people came together To do really, really Excellent training And we ended up performing At the Portland Art Museum After that I went and did things like Burning Man Community Sci-Show Community General Circus Community Did a lot of tours To all three of those things After a while Some things And my own personal injuries Developed So I stepped out of it And became more Like the regular life person But still did things Like burlesque Stuff like that After a while Still trying to be Like that Starving artist Or like Like that I got really disillusioned With a lot of things That happened out there And I remember From my homeless days Seeing the dark side of people And still seeing that Same side of people Like employee Working relationships Things like that And it finally came To a point When I went to Walmart To answer a job But not a cute death Because it was just So gritty Terrible feeling To like Even consider that And I walked Right out of the interview Got my backpack together And left Running around the west coast I made it here in Slab City And you've been here For how long? Since September Like the beginning of September Been living at Flamingo Camp The whole time We've had an excellent time Animal rescue And all that kind of stuff And for those Who don't know What is Flamingo Camp Because I just learned today Flamingo Camp Flamingo Camp Animal Rescue We're right by East Jesus We do stuff like Taking stray cats and dogs Not so much them But they're litters If any litters are born like that We'll take those And make sure they get adopted Outside of Slab City So they can get like Nutrition medicine care Or get their space And they can get all that Relying on the community And all that kind of stuff And also not creating More of a dog or cat From out here Will also help give To like Like disabled Or really low income folks That don't want to Miss down like Some of the perks Of the government To get money Will help give them Like water If they're able to So like that It's getting really windy out here It really is It's a winter storm today Welcome to Slab Look at the hail Awesome Panda Thank you so much Thank you for your story Yeah Appreciate it Guys, this is Shane And this is What you call the penthouse Right Well, my friends do Yeah, the penthouse Weed of the Slabs Because it Overlooks everything I kind of think of it More as the art castle Trying to Like Make a place for artists To come And protect their art And stuff Awesome And how many years You've been coming out here To the Slabs? Fifteen Sixteen Seventeen Not really good Yeah Tears But Yeah Certainly On the list of Places I stopped at Yeah I've been around In the United States Yeah Cool Well, I guess I'll Follow you up here Yeah, just keep your feet To the sides Okay And It's kind of like Hopping a wooden fence You never step in the center Of the board Okay Way to the outside I guess it's Probably a good time To tell you I'm not so great With heights Yeah, up here It gets even sketchier There's just Like a wall We can stand It's maybe Eight inches wide Oh my God Maybe you might freak out There's a ladder Going down the other side Alright I've been Meaning to build A porch here But I do kind of Like that fact It freaks people out So You know, half the people Go back there Harder to rob I guess I have to Worry about thieves And whatnot Alright Oh my gosh Your game Check it out Okay One at a time, I guess This is one of the more Challenging things I've done And I'm not too far Up off the ground It's a little nerve-wracking Here You like the handle? Let's take the edge Oh my God Okay I did it I can do this Alright No big deal No big deal So yeah Guys, we No joke We are on the edge Of The water tank in Slab City So Okay, let me just Calm down a bit here Let me get back into my mode here Okay, so Shane, you wanted to tell us A brief little Something about yourself Whatever you want to share Or not Totally up to you Yeah Basically I'm a drifter Been doing it my whole life I balance from Place to place And Try to help people when I can Yeah Absolutely Like help feeding people And But yeah Slab City is one of my spots And It has gotten a lot of Misinformation Over the years With the YouTube You know But I enjoy it Yeah There's really a wonderful Community here A lot of people Never get to see it Yeah And it's not the kind You can video but Yeah What do you think the biggest Misconception is About this place Just that That it's just tweakers And thieves And nonstop violence But That's the way They kind of pitch it But If you travel America All your guys in the neighborhood Had to add tweakers And thieves And all of them Even the wealthier neighborhoods Sure Been around the United States Watched the drugs change The times change And Yeah That's true Yeah I would agree I would say that A lot of people When they say Oh my gosh Traveling around in a school bus Is dangerous What are you doing Something would happen Out in the middle of nowhere And usually I tell people You know it If you're out in the middle Of nowhere You're away from The opportunist Because the opportunist Usually Hang out in cities And things like that They're looking for an Opportunity Yeah So Anyways You see and handle the situation Yeah Mostly I see all the nonsense Here And crazy stuff That does go on In the middle of the night When you know People are just messed up Late at night Yeah You know I see it It's all here From my entertainment And I find it fun And I take it easy Yeah But Everything's Really a matter of perspective Yeah So Tell us about Your What you did here You know Remember calling this The penthouse of the slabs Yeah Yeah The penthouse Sweet So Cause it just up high It overlooks The slabs And has one of the Best views around I really came up here Cause I like Like to Watch The war games At night So The military training ground Over there And the tracer rounds Go off And the bombs In the background And making up The automatic On fire in the morning So for people Who don't know There's a Missile range Or a testing Proving ground On the other side of this Where they do Military drills And there's a couple Fake Sort of towns out there Where they do their Navy SEAL stuff And Crazy Crazy bombing raids Sure Sure Yep Yeah Alright Well let's get to The penthouse here So I'm guessing this is The bedroom here Pretty cozy looking Bed I put the big window With Sunsets back here And that's The Coliseum Back here My neighbor DNA's place And He welded Stairsups For people On my Piece of work Over there But So you get the sunset And over the Salton Sea And See all around And Watch Who's coming in And out And we'll go And cut So OSB Two by fours And then Behind you over here Is your Kitchen Or dining room area I guess you could Call it Yeah I found all the windows And the cushions And the garbage Are cheap at a A flea thing And so I was going to Build a couch But then I was like Well I can do Like the RV style Yeah The table drops down And you can Put the cushions down This becomes a bed So obviously Someone would have to Have the nerve to Climb up the Ladder To State your place Yeah Yeah It's on the list Yeah I'm going to Make The thing is about Building a porch Out there I just Kind of like the fact Yeah That Nervous coming Out there It's kind of a Yeah it made me Nervous man And then Over here obviously Hang some clothes And Living room area I guess you could say And this is cool How long do you think This structure will last Here It'll last as long As I'm here And that's why I was going to Put a full bathroom in it But as soon as I'm gone You know Squatters will move in And You know It could get Stripped of everything Mm-hmm It'll be really Hard-formed Because I screwed All the wood in And you screwed Everything screwed together Yeah But Yeah So But is that kind of How it goes Once you leave your Camp it's sort of You never know What's going to happen Yeah exactly Yeah People see it as Abandoned property And theirs to just Yeah Take Gotcha You know I'll do what I can Or I'll see What happens Yeah Well this is I don't want to Invest too much more Effort into it Yeah Yeah Well it's certainly Certainly impressive I mean what you've done You got You know Kitchen area over here And You know What not so Yeah It's pretty cool Yeah it's super cool So Thanks so much for the tour If there's anything else You want to add That maybe I didn't Touch on Feel free to add it Sure Or we can chat down Down On the ground level Yeah Ignore all rumors Slab city And rainbow Okay Everything you see on YouTube You're just People have Misconceived notions Of how it really is Yeah You should Check stuff out more Yeah Stop believing Everything you hear Yeah The reason For yourself Guys the reason I wanted To talk with Shane And some other residents Was To show you guys What is beyond The Salvation Mountain What is beyond The East Jesus What is beyond The tourist attractions And talk to the people Who actually live here Because you know what They're really really nice And actually I've had some of the best Hospitality I've ever had In the United States Right here So Absolutely Yeah So thanks for the tour I come back Year after year I come back I made some of the best Human connections In my life here And rainbow gallery as well Yeah Alright Cool Certainly better than The ones on Mafia Now I gotta figure out How to get down the stairs As you can see from The video There's a lot more than What meets the eye There's more to Salvation Mountain There's more to East Jesus There's cool people Like Connor off to my Left here There's There's the people You're not on the video There's people like Sai There's people like Shane There's all these characters out here So get out of the car Drive past the Salvation Mountain Say hi to people Walk around the neighborhood Introduce yourself Ask before you take pictures Bring Socks or gold out here Bring some sugar and coffee For the people at the Oasis Club And just bring a smile And I promise you You will make some friends You'll have a good time out here So thanks so much for watching the video We'll catch you in the next one And also I just want to thank All the Slab City residents For the amazing hospitality Had a fantastic time Clared it too And we'll catch you guys The next time I roll through town Is on consignment Return to the circus And what is the purpose What is the purpose And would you believe it Would you believe it Are you okay? So wisdom I'll make some I'm into it I'm into it Changing management Whoa And now I'm very quick Quite awake And I'm sick and naïve And I don't understand Which ain't the father And the son Do you believe in the fabulous Of where you are These are my people These are my children These are the ones That I would fight for The song and everything These are my mentors From the family In a hurry Because this is my town A miracle Made up of particles And in this existence I'll stay persistent And I'll make a difference And I will live With the inside of me I'm trans And I'll only make up I am capable Trans and I'll only make up I am capable I am power Trans and I'll only make up I am on my way To a difference