News items posted to this page are usually edited versons of Member Mailings.
Four Winds News: 4 August 1999
Greetings All,
Hope this finds you all well and keeping cool. Here's what been happening with the Winds. I was away attending Magic Mountain Music at Four Quarters Farm over the weekend with the clan, a fine time and back home Monday night. A very worthwhile event put up by some good people, anyone interested in the wealth of Spirit Music should consider this festival.
AFRICAN UNITY DAY 1999
Well as it turned out we were able to perform for African Unity Day after all and turned out a fine performance to boot. Our hosts, Nouk, Nefertiri and Imam Siddiq were extremely pleased and appreciative and let us know in the warmest terms. Speaking of warm, the weather was typical of the past month, hot with blazing sun. We are apparently tougher than we look, the stage at Bryant Park, along with most of Midtown, was a comfy 104 degrees! The official Central Park high temp was around 98 for you trivia freaks.
We did our main set and after cowering in the shade for a while except for Jezibell's dance set (very nice by the way), most of us stepped up again after the sun moved off the stage and things cooled a bit for a second, informal set late in the afternoon. It was worthwhile, since there were about four times as many people about. Besides, it was fun. We pulled up some chairs and ran up another hour doing whatever occurred to us. We even put the "The Witch's Song" out to the audience and they assured us they could handle it! Hoot hoot!
We had a minimum of "live performance" glitches, but the effects of our rather erratic attendance were felt in some shakiness and missed cues on the newer pieces. Easily covered and not in any way show-stoppers; but things to remember and keep working on. Same for our constantly evolving "stage presence" skills, some details to work on but improving. All in all a good day for us. Big Kudos for the team that stood up and didn't wilt; Athena, Elspeth, Dayali, Jezibell, Jeanette, Richard Courage, Alexandria, Robert, Lynne and yours truly. Thank you for your dedication and hard work. We also were joined by Ms. Tracy who found us here on the Web and will hopefully be joining us as a regular Member along with her djun-djun! Aieeee-YAAA!
Greetings out to Thunder and Richard I who were up at Starwood, hope it rocked!
BLACK BEAR AND MIA'S HANDFASTING
BLACK BEAR AND MIA'S HANDFASTING
SUNDAY, JULY 8th 1999, 11:00am, Manhattan BeachThis is a private event, no walk-ups, please. Contact us or attend Rehearsals for further information and directions to the site. This event is open to Active Performing Members and invited guests only.
Since we have taken a week off African Unity Day, there is only one more Rehearsal, Friday August 6th, before the Ritual on Sunday the 8th. This is a closed event with no walk-ups since they are catering the event and we need a body count in advance. It is VERY IMPORTANT that Members let us know AS SOON AS POSSIBLE if you are interested in singing this event. It is also very important that you make the run-through Rehearsal:
Friday, August 6th, 7:00-9:00+
CAP 21 Studios, Studio #4
18 West 18th Street, 6th floor, NYC, 212 807-0202We are still working out the final playlist, but Jezibell and I expect it to be short and PROBABLY include:
Let The Way Be Open
Invocation / Air I Am
(possibly) Gifts To Each Other
Lammas Night (supported solo piece by Kurt)
Barge Of Heaven
We Are A Circle
Remember the Way or Four Elements Chant
5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY RECORDING PROJECT
FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY RECORDING PROJECT
SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, Third & Final Recording Session (Planned)This is the next avaliable gap in the busy festival season and Blair's work schedule. We will either be travelling up to Blair Ferrier's lair at West Point to use his studio or renting a studio space here in the city. Late Afternoon/evening session, details to come.
We are looking for a crew of our accompished singers and drummers to put finishing touches on the Project. Contact us or attend Rehearsals for further information.
This session is open to Active Members only.We're looking to head up to Blair's on Saturday, August 14th to finish off Phase One and lay down the last tracks. Most of the folk up for this already know who they are. When the details firm up, we'll get the word around.
We have also been working on designs for the CD/Tape packaging. That's been fun. We've settled down to two designs to develop further. They are #2 and #4 of the sample designs. We hope to have all our graphics organized while Blair finishes the mixdown. Check out:
http://www.imagecraft.com/fourwinds/Discov1.html
CD FINANCING PLANS
To help raise the not trivial up-front costs of producing our CD, House Mother Heather has come up with the following idea for suppporting the effort where essentially our Members and supporters can support the effort and get a few discs for their trouble. This also helps address the issue of copies for the Members.For every hundred dollars a Member or patron invests in the project, they will be paid back from sales and in addition receive a "free" disc. In essence we are borrowing the money and paying the interest with a disc. Investors will be paid off first from sales of the recording. It's not a bad deal, at $15 per disc, it only takes 7 discs to pay off the $100. Actually, 6-2/3 discs but that's a little unwieldy.
We might also consider allowing blocks of $50 where the investor would only be paid back $45, but still receive a disc, but we are cautious of possibly cannibalizing $100 investments.
This has the additional benefit of encouraging our investors to promote the project and sales of the recording.
The ballpark figure for putting this thing together looks like about $2000. That means that we would have to sell 135 discs at the standard rate to pay for production costs. Any investors in the project would be paid back FIRST after expenses. However, since the money has to be on hand up-front, proceeds from sales would start to pay off investors practically from the beginning.
We could also extend the concept to sales. Any Member who manages to bag 10 preorders at the discount price before we have to cough up gets a disc. After they are produced, sell ten at the full price, get a disc.
For those who don’t have the resources to invest tidy chunks of change can still pre-order recordings at the discount rate. Of course, anyone who preorders ten discs, would be the same as investing, except that you'd get 11 discs, we'll keep the money however. They would still come out a bit ahead and still support our effort.
THE ONCE AND FUTURE FOUR WINDS
Over the last few weeks, we've had some very powerful and up-front discussions about a number of issues facing the Chorus. In addition, there have been a number of Members, particularly newer and semi-active Members who have been uncomfortable with how we've been going about things and some members' behaviors. To get an idea of how far we've drifted from the core of our Mission and craft, I was looking up some information from some old documents and check out this language from one of our newsletters just prior to the 1997 Witches' Ball.
GENERAL ORDERS
Remembering last year, for Witches' Ball and all the other events as well, please keep these points in mind.
- Even with the heavy schedule. Try to take care of your bodies and voices, try to get some rest prior to events
- Practice, practice, practice. We are "off-book" for Riverside and Witches’ Ball. Sooner is better.
- Keep your books neat and organized, get binders. It takes way too long to find things between songs.
- Gotta say it, FOCUS. I don’t want to do a lot of yelling in loud clubs repeating instructions. Pay attention in rehearsal to stage instructions and execute them on stage. Our stage presence at Witches Ball (1996) and Manhattan Magick was not very sharp.
- All Members will assist with set-ups and tear-downs
- All of our drummers shall sing or not drum. That's not a guideline anymore, it's a rule. The drummers who are not singing are not linking to the songs well.
- Be kind to and support each other. I value group harmony over immediate excellence. I feel that harmony is fertile ground for sustainable excellence.
Wow.
We stopped talking like that a while ago didn’t we? As Director, I have to take the heat and the responsibility for a lot of stuff I have let slide or tolerated. So what are we going to do to get back to our center? I'm told by one of our Members that someone asked, "has Four Winds gone the way of New Moon yet?" Thankfully no, but "Ouch!" But while we work on figuring things out we've decided to at least try the following.
CLEANING UP THE COLLECTIVE ACT
We are not booking any events between the Handfasting and The Witches Ball at the end of October. We will use that time to re-group, re-train, and review our procedures.
- We plan to tighten up our guidelines on qualifying for Performing Member Status. Actually, that could merely consist of actually more closely sticking to the existing guidelines. Along those lines we, me mostly, have in the past been too forgiving with people who have not really gotten it together and been allowed to perform.
- Make an extra effort to reach out to newer Members and address their concerns. If we have the time, energy and resources, try to also outreach to past Members and where possible, bring them back.
- We will pay special attention to some of our behavior habits which perhaps erode group harmony.
- We hope to create a Rite of Welcoming for New Members who manage to hang in there for a while. This was Daya-li's suggestion which we think is very fine.
- Sometime in the Fall we will hold a third Rededication Ritual to renew and recharge our spiritual batteries and refresh our commitment to the Mission of the Chorus.
- We will also make a concerted effort to address any division, real or perceived, between the General Membership and what we've been calling the "Core" Members.
- We will also be encouraging more "cross-training" with the General Membership. Having more folk conduct, lead songs, do solos, teach, etc. to enrich the Chorus and develop Member's skills.
- We will try to encourage more of a spiritual and serious atmosphere at rehearsals to help keep us more focused and productive.
CIRCLE WITHIN A CIRCLE
A major part of the recent discussions have centered around this apparent division between what has come to be know as the "core" Membership and, well... everybody else, but newer and novice Members in particular. Even some old-timers have expressed feeling of alienation and exclusion. Whenever there is a small segment of a group that has been together a long time and accustomed to working together there is always the potential for a clique to develop. I have seen it happen in other groups which have included folks I have cared a lot about.After looking at this, I realize that this is more complex than it appears on the surface. In coming to depend on and to value the opinions of some people who have been very hard-working and dedicated to the Chorus, I have unintentionally allowed this type of behavior to develop. I have been told that I have tolerated improper or insensitive behavior from "core" Members that would have earned others far more severe treatment. It has also been said that this same group is somehow "more equal" than the rest and is "heard" while others are dismissed.
I do think that some of it is true, but not entirely. I want to assure anybody who sees this that there was never ANY intention to treat ANY Member or guest unfairly. However, I must admit that some of the behavior just sort of evolved. I do want to say that any Members' voice tends to have weight in proportion to the participation. And yes, there is a natural tendency to cut the folks who have made large contributions a bit more slack. That doesn't excuse improper behavior in ANY Member, but we can certainly work on respecting and being considerate with one another. What I am trying to say here is that we are all unfortunately human beings, with faults and issues and baggage and hangups.
I do want to share that I did have a subset of the FW E-mail list that was labeled "Four Winds Core". To help me modify MY thought process, I have DELETED that sub-list. We are somewhat lucky that we are becoming aware of our STUFF and have the opportunity to work on it BEFORE we suffer serious meltdowns or burn-outs.
On the flip side, a lot of the above issues are intimately bound up with the evil "C" word. COMMITMENT. The folks who are informally called "core" have it along with the majority of Active and Performing Members. Want to be a so-called "core" Member? SHOW UP. WORK HARD. SPEAK UP. That's how the people at the center of things got there. If we are going to try and reach out to people, they need to meet us half way.
One of the things which occurred to us is that with our rather compressed schedule, we have lost whatever time we spend on basics and making people comfortable. We have been constantly scrambling to prepare for the next gig. For the old-timers, who are already comfortable with the material this is not exceedingly difficult. But for newer folk, the amount of work entailed must seem truly monumental. No wonder they feel like outsiders. This was less of a problem in our first two years with a short list of songs and chants, but now with around a hundred and fifty or so, it’s real hard for new people to get up to speed. The gap is much wider and hard to cross.
This is on top of the standard fact that 50% of all beginners at ANYTHING will quit within three months if it involves any real work or study.
The next couple on months should be VERY interesting. We have certainly have our work cut out for us. But we do expect to have fun and our goal is to make participation in this very special project both more pleasant and more productive.
STRANGE AND WONDERFUL
One last thing, at Sirius Rising one of the performers was a very weird and strange and wonderful self-styled Pagan Bogie Band called Loke E. Coyote. Titles like Bob Marelycorn Must Die, Pagan Zydeco, and Wiccan Witch of The Wild West let you know that this is NOT the usual. For some stuff, including Real Player sound samples, surf out to: http://www.wiccabilly.com
Try to stay cool. Keep drumming, singing and dancing!
Kurt Griffith/Talking Stone,
Choral DirectorMitaquye Oyasin * Blessed Be * Ashe * Shalom * A Salaam * Amen
