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The Falcon Ridge Spirit

Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 07/30/2007 - 12:26

How does one blog Falcon Ridge? I’ve been going to Falcon Ridge since 1994 and hadn’t really thought about that. Even in 2004 when I rushed off from Falcon Ridge to blog the Democratic National Convention, I didn’t think a lot about blogging Falcon Ridge. It is an event that takes place outside, in the mud, without a lot of computers around.

Yet as I wandered around Falcon Ridge, I saw the “Press Trailer” and I wondered, what sort of press releases were available. Did they have internet connectivity so people could file stories? I decided not to check it out and instead to enjoy the event and maybe send in a few pictures from my cellphone, or Twitter a few different thoughts.

On the one hand, Falcon Ridge is a music festival. I imagine that you could blog it by writing up reports of different performers and the songs they song. I’ll do a little bit of that. However, that doesn’t capture the spirit of Falcon Ridge.

There is the dance tent and the family tent. Some people attend Falcon Ridge and rarely leave the dance tent or family tent. I’ll touch on these as well.

Then, there is the midway. There are many food vendors there, and a good food writer could probably write a few blog posts about the food at Falcon Ridge. I’ll touch on that as well. Then, there is the other shopping. You can buy bumperstickers, tie died dresses, toys, musical instruments and much more. You can get a massage, get your face painted, or have a henna design draw on you. I’ll write less about the shopping aspect.

Yet all of this doesn’t come close to capturing what Falcon Ridge is really all about. On the midway, we ran into Dan Navarro. Fiona went up and told him that “Teacher, Teacher” was one of her favorite songs, and he sang a brief phrase from it for her.

No, to write about Falcon Ridge, you need to capture the sense of magic, community, empathy, and friendship that pervades the experience. Hopefully, I’ll be able to capture some of this as well.

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Random Stuff

Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 07/26/2007 - 07:45

In a few hours, we will be heading up to the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. This is a yearly festival that I’ve gone to just about every year since 1994. I think I missed one or two years because of conflicts. Usually, we camp, but last year we could really only take time for the day. Many of my old favorites will be there and we’re really looking forward to the event. Fiona was practicing her contra dancing in the family room yesterday in anticipation.

Kim went out to a political dinner last night, so Fiona and I stayed home for some father-daughter time. First, we made a quick movie. People have been talking about Obama Girl and stuff like that. One person suggested that we need an Edwards Girl, but others thought it sent the wrong message. My thought is that the Edwards campaign is focused much more on the stuff of everyday life, so Fiona has made a video which I think better reflects what the Edwards campaign is about. That said, I believe that Fiona played with Grace Dodd at some campaign event back in 2004 when Sen. Dodd was running for re-election and Kim was running for State Rep. So, Grace got added to the list of people for the playdate.

Click to Play

This video was originally shared on blip.tv by ahynes1 with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.

Besides making the video, we put the bubble on top of the car to carry our camping gear up to Falcon Ridge. We picked more berries, watched the fireflies light up the yard as the bats flitted about overhead. Then we got out the telescope and looked at the moon and Jupiter and its moons. One of these days, I get things so I can hook up a digital camera on my telescope so I can share the images here.

This morning, I checked my email, probably for the last time until next Monday. A friend from my college days, whom I haven’t heard from in about 25 years added me as a friend on Facebook. It is great to be back in touch with him. One email pointed me to a very funny post on DailyKos about Elizabeth Edwards swearing off tangerines and the right going bananas. While it is enjoyable for its excessive puns, it also has a great message about the importance of eating locally grown food. Those who have read my farmers’ market posts will see why I consider it such a great post.

Another topic that I’ve been meaning to write about, and hopefully I’ll write about in more detail, is how we view movies. I’m particularly interested in various groups where people gather to watch movies for political reasons. Have you asked your state representative to go see Sicko with you yet? Kim has asked ours.

I’m on a mailing list of group psychotherapists. (Yeah, I’ve got a pretty wide range of interests). A psychiatrist on the list leads an outpatient group where people gather and watch movies and then related it back to their own experiences. He has published a book, Movie Therapy, Moving Therapy!. There have been some wonderful discussions about movie therapy on the mailing list and it would be interesting to see this melded together with some of the political discussions about movies.

So, that wraps up the random thoughts for this morning. I’m likely to be gone until Sunday.

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Honk for Peace

Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 06/29/2007 - 11:12

In my more cynical moments, I wonder how much difference it really makes to stand by the side of the road holding out a sign advocating peace, or honking as I drive by similar demonstrator. I wonder how much difference all the time and effort that Kim and I, and so many of our friends put in on Ned Lamont’s campaign. I wonder how Ned feels about all the time and effort he put in.

Then, I remember Robert Kennedy’s famous quote:

Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope... and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance

That sort of sums up my reaction to Corey Boutilier’s documentary ‘Honk for Peace’ which Kim and I saw a rough cut of last night.

The film starts off with footage of various demonstrations in New York City. It has clips from various people that had been working for peace long before Ned entered the U.S. Senate race. It focuses primarily on the anti-war component of Ned’s message. During the campaign, one of our goals was to get people to recognize other parts of Ned’s message besides the anti-war part, but since that is what most people focused on, it ended up being perhaps one of the most important parts of his legacy.

The film also explores some of the important aspects of campaigns that people too often overlook. We all show up at rallies for candidates that we support, but we rarely think about the importance of all the work done to set up the rally, whether it is making sure that the banners are up, the seats are set, the press knows where to go, or simply that the right songs are playing. It comes back to the theme of ‘Honk for Peace’. Each of us does what we can to bring a message of peace, each of our actions adds another ripple of hope, and it great to see some of the behind the scenes people get recognized for the work they did.

Corey has just started showing around parts of the documentary and gathering feedback. He hopes to have the film out at one festival or another, perhaps as early as this fall. I sure hope so. I think it is an important film that all of us who will be working for peace in the 2008 elections need to see.

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