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Subject: I went to the Fall Fund Raiser (not the Fun Raiser - that was last year)
From: "Butterfly Bill" <butterflyb...@grapevine.net>
Date: 2 Oct 2006 16:44:05 -0700
Newsgroups: alt.gathering.rainbow
The announcement said that "playing live Reggae at the Fall Fund Raiser for the Rainbow Guide" would be "Robby Redlocks and the Jah Volunteers Reggae band".
But I started reading the Applegate Community Yahoo group starting about Tuesday of last week and saw thread of messages about the band's bus having mechanical troubles. The messages had ended on Friday morning . I called Robert on the phone Friday morning, and he said that "there are about 15 people here", but the "still hadn't heard from Robby yet, but he said he's be sure to get here".
I left Muskogee on Saturday at sunrise, and finally arrove at Applegate about 14:30. There were indeed several cars and vans, and as many dome tents set up when I descended into the meadow below his trailer. One of the cars had Ohio plates, and later on Robert told me that he had been told by them that they had responded to one of his internet ads. At the most populous point there were 15 or 16 present (all adults, no children). There were 9 sitting around the fire ring after it had gotten dark.
The venue for the event had not changed too much from what I described in my post about the Fun Raiser last year, except that a big stone lined fire pit had been prepared, and for the stage they had laid logs on the ground, covered them with plywood, then put a Rainbow kitchen style log and tarp roof over it. They hung tapestries at the back, and wrapped the roof support logs with white Christmas tree lights. There was also a clean and just rented portapotty.
The reggae band never showed up, nor did they even try giving Robert a telephone call. But among the assembled guests were myself with my 5 gallon drum, a didgeridoo player who know how to make clashing harmonics with his vocal chords as he blew, Sonny Two Feathers who was there last year, and who is a quite able djembe drummer, and a man who was called by the others P.J, who had a sitar and played it into a microphone going thru a reverb box with lots of fine controls that could be played on the fly, and could play it like Jimi Hendrix could play a wahwah pedal. He kicked MAJOR ass.
Sonny made up a name for us, the Prophets of Trance, and introduced us for out premiere and farewell performance. We started at dark thirty and played for maybe two hours. There had been some periods of good drumming earlier that afternoon.
There was some food in the barn kitchen this time and there was a brother named (IIRC) Marty, and he was an able Rainbow cook. The food came late in the morning and at sunset, like at a gathering, and I had come forearmed with an ice chest whose contents I utilized earlier in the evening.
The sitar player with one of his friends, and the car from Ohio left early Sunday morning. The day was mostly sitting around the smoldering fire or over in the shade of the trees talking. I sacked out early Sunday evening.
The income for the Guide this year was $20.00, which is an increase of infinity percent over last year's intake of $0.00. Again, the guests were mostly impecunious Rainbows who did what they could. (I went for the trip, myself.)
(I also tried to pass by Ray's Store on the way back and proceeded west on Highway 76, the came to a bridge under construction with no signs that I could recognize as pointing out a detour.)
– Butterfly Bill