"Seed the ToTeM" Party FAQ
What is the ToTeM?
How will these parties provide "seed" for that?
Why are there three parties?
What should I bring?
I'm a musician (or singer)--do you want me to perform at this event!?
Who [or what] is "Hummingbear"?
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The Temple of Transformative Music [ToTeM] will be a place for the study and expression of music which supports visionary consciousness. We will focus on live performance, not studio production; acoustic instruments (mostly), and real-time interaction with our emotions and psychic perceptions--which necessarily reduces or eliminates the division between audience and performer. The purpose is not entertainment, but healing and transformation.
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We don't yet have a physical structure, or even a location for the Temple, so we must plant the seed of Transformative Music and start growing one. This series of events provides this seed in several ways:
First, part of our process at each event will be a music-based ritual of transformation, i.e. a microcosmic model of what we might hope to accomplish on a regular basis when the Temple is fully manifested, so we have a point of resonance on which to base our efforts.
Second, guests will be contributing musical instruments, and perhaps other gifts (see below), which will be the core of the Temple's physical properties.
Third, and most essential, we will experience the joy of being a community, so we can attract more joy and more willing participants.
Why have three parties?
Everything comes in threes, so here are three reasons:
- to celebrate the three occasions-- (1) Hummingbear's 60th birthday; (2) Spring Equinox, (3) the birth of the ToTeM,
- to provide places for all my far-flung friends and allies to get to, and
- because three magical workings make the charm.
WHAT TO BRING
We are asking for gifts for the Temple (or you can consider them birthday presents for Hummingbear, if you prefer).
That doesn't mean that you have to spend a lot of money.
The best gifts you can offer are services
(web design, non-profit organizing, helping with logistics for the parties themselves, scouting locations for the construction of the Temple, and other nuts-and-bolts backup work) to help the ToTeM project move forward.
We do want to collect beautiful, sweet-sounding, and ritually-approprate instruments; but they don't have to be expensive.
Resourceful people make instruments from cheap or free (found) materials: see, for example,
www.rhythmweb.com/homemade/index.html,
www.craftymusicteachers.com/otherinstruments/index.html, or
www.wannalearn.com/Building_Musical_Instruments/
If that's too complicated, a lot of music can be made on small instruments (e.g., shakers, ocarinas, tambourines, and all kinds of bells and whistles) which you can acquire for the price of a nice dinner. The first online catalog I checked,
Lark In the Morning, has about 20 items for $20 or less;
and many local retail music stores have similar selections.
(More expensive instruments will be welcome, too, of course, but if you'd like to donate something major, like a Steinway, it might be better to wait until we have our long-term home for it).
Best of all, when you donate an instrument to the Temple, you aren't giving it away-- because all donors will be founding members of the Temple, and will have frequent (I hope) opportunities to regroup and play the instruments--all the Temple instruments-- again!
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We want everyone to perform as part of the ceremony and energy-raising, and we will consecrate each of the Temple instruments with a ritual performance.
There will be a jazz jam and (probably) a drum circle at each event, so those of you who can, bring your ax and Real Book. And it would be great to feature a few songs suitable for the theme of the event; let me know if you want to sing one. (I have some selections in mind)
Most important, we need a core group of inspired improvisational healers to work these musical rituals on a regular basis. If you think this might be your calling, contact me right away so I can have a better idea of how to plan the seed rituals to include you.
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Who is Hummingbear?
Hummingbear and friend
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You may know me as Alan. Or, because I've asked my friends and musical colleagues to help spread the word about this celebration, you may have gotten an invitation when you don't even know me.
No problem!
If we haven't met yet, feel free to get acquainted with my ordinary-reality side at Alan Young's Home Page.
If you are astrologically inclined, you can examine my natal chart here.
Twenty years ago, after gaining some skill with shamanism, I decided it was time to take on an identity which could thrive in non-ordinary worlds. "Hummingbear" started as a semi-humorous, semi-magical way to describe the Tuvan throat-singing which was then the center of my Transformative Music practice (and remains a significant part of it).
People hearing the name often mistake it for "Hummingbird," which is fine: I share the Hummingbird's love of pollination, and I'm kind of tickled when someone overlooks my lack of bright feathers and inferior metabolism.
I've grown even more fond of the "Bear" identity since reading this wonderful book about a musical bear.
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