Awesome online sound clips of Central American flutes

Clint Goss sent me this link to a set of instruments housed in the Princeton Art Collection. The link shows pictures of several clay flutes and ocarinas, along with a map of where they originated in central America. There are sound clips for each instrument.

Link: http://princetonartmuseum.org/Jaguar/jaguar.html

Good Heart Journey to the Sutter Buttes

Stan Padilla Invites you to Join Him With a Good Heart Journey to the Sutter Buttes

WHEN: Sunday, March 30, 2008
TIME: 7:00 am - 5:00 pm

The Sutter Buttes have been recognized as a sacred place for generations. The Buttes, the geographical, spiritual and magnetic center of the Sacramento Valley bio-region, is a very serene and contemplative place. Join in this pilgrimage with like-minded people for a day of walking,exploring, and contemplation. This will be the only private walk which Stan will be doing this Spring. To make reservations for the March 30th walk, please contact Stan as soon as possible. The walks fill up fast!

If you do go, don't forget to pack a few flutes to play along the way.

Reservations are made by sending a check for $50 per person to:

Stan Padilla
P.O. Box 3097
Auburn, CA 95604

All reservations must be paid in advance.
For more information:
Call Stan at (530) 637-4158 or email atstanpadilla@hughes.net

A map of meeting place, time, and other information will be sent when areservation is made.

The Middle Mountain Foundation is sponsoring an open walk on March 16th. To make reservations, contact www.middlemountain.org

Azteca Mexica New Year Ceremony

Mark your calendars. The Azteca Mexica New Year Ceremony is planned for the weekend of March 15-16, 2008 @ the National Hispanic University in San Jose, CA. Xavier Quijas Yxayotl will be playing on Saturday at Noon. Every year, this is a specatular event. It's an opportunity to experience the culture of native Mexico, and a great opportunity to see Xavier perform.

Here's a complete agenda for the event:

Saturday March 15

• 6AM - Sunrise Ceremony
• 10 AM - Ohlone Nation
• 11 AM - Zuni Nation
• 12 noon - Danza Azteca, Naming Ceremony, Guest Flute Player Xavier Quijas Yxayotl
• 10 AM - 5 PM: Arts & Crafts Vendors, Children's Activities, Community Resource Booths
• 6 - 8 PM: Silent Auction for the Peace & Dignity Journey: Winner Announcements

Sunday: March 16

• Official Schedule still being confirmed
• More Danza Azteca
• Danza Maya de la Yucatan
• More to be confirmed...
• 10 AM - 5 PM: Arts & Crafts Vendors, Children's Activities, Community Resource Booths

For more information contact:

Yei Tochtli Mitlalpilli

Calpulli Tonalehqueh

408.510.1377: cell

Weekend Events: Feb 22 - 24

You can alway check out the Northern California Flute Circle Calendar to see what's happening further out, but I encourage you to login every week to review what's coming up for the weekend events!

NOTE: If I missed an event for the weekend, please add a comment with event info so that others can know!

Saturday, Feb 23

• The Marysville Indian Pow-Wow, Noon - 6pm
  Allyn Scott Youth & Community Center (YES- the event is inside!!)
  1830 B Street (Hwy 70)
  Marysville, CA 95901
  Loping Wolf Clan members will be attending and playing the flute
  

Sunday, Feb 24

• Joaquin Clan Flute Circle2 PM

Yosemite Flute and Art Festival, September 26 - 28

Mark your calendars! The First Annual Yosemite Flute and Art Festival is scheduled for September 26 - 28, 2008, in the town of Oakhurst, CA.

This event is being presented by our friends in the Yosemite Flute Circle. The Northern California Flute Circle is going to help sponsor this event, and everyone is invited to come enjoy the music surrounded by the beauty of Yosemite.

Details are still in the works, but you can count on some great live music, excellent flutes for sale, unique arts and craft, brilliant workshops and beautiful surroundings. Plan on staying for the weekend to get the full experience. This is the first year of the event, but this will grow into an annual event at Yosemite.

For more detail about the event, contact Rick Dunlap at: yosemitefluteandartfestival@gmail.com

Weekend Events: Feb 15 - 17

You can alway check out the Northern California Flute Circle Calendar to see what's happening further out, but I encourage you to login every week to review what's coming up for the weekend events!

NOTE: If I missed an event for the weekend, please add a comment with event info so that others can know!

Friday, Feb 15

• Main Street Cafe in Georgetown, 9:30 AM - Cliff Habig with his cowboy poetry, harmonica, and Native American flute, accompanied by Marion "Doc" Cole and Mignon on their NA flutes and drum.

Saturday, Feb 16

• Valley Clan Flute Circle, Napa, 3-5 PM

Sunday, Feb 17

• Loping Wolf Flute Circle, Lake of the Pines Clubhouse, 1-3 PM

Sacred Mountain Drums Online Drum Making Video Series

I stumbled onto an excellent 5 part video series on how to make a Hoop Drum. It goes through the complete process of building a drum.

For the complete video on DVD: http://www.sacredmountaindrums.com/

• Video 1


• Video 2


• Video 3


• Video 4


• Video 5

Sponsor a participate on the Longest Walk

Just a reminder that the Longest Walk starts on February 11. It costs about $10 a day to sponsor a walker. Longest Walk participants will embark on a 5 month journey from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. arriving on July 11th. The Longest Walk south route is being led by AIM co-founder Dennis J. Banks. It is an extraordinary grassroots effort on a national level to bring attention to the environmental disharmony of Mother Earth, sacred site issues, and to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the original longest walk. If you are moved to help the success of this event, you can get more information online at their website: http://www.longestwalk.org/

Ronald Roybal on Youtube

Ronald Roybal has added a Youtube site where he has posted several video clips of his guitar and flute music plus short clips from his DVD: 'The Blood Cries Out".

Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/RonaldRoybal

New Sierra Clan Forming!!

It is with great enthusiasm that we're proud to announce the formation of the new "Sierra Raven Clan" of the Northern California Flute Circle. This clan is led by Cryss Blackwolf and will serve folks in the living near Sonora California.

Cryss has been playing Native American Flute for a while and I met him for the first time at the Moaning Caverns Concert with Mary Youngblood. Moaning Caverns is in Cryss's "backyard" and when he witnessed how many folks attended the event, he was excited about starting a new flute circle in the region. The Sierra Raven Clan held their first small event at Cryss's house earlier this month and is gearing up for their next flute circle. Cryss has also started a website and a blog for the Sierra Raven Clan. We've also setup a page on the NCFC Website for the Sierra Raven Clan, plus you'll find all of their events on the NCFC Calendar page.

Related Links:

• NCFC Sierra Clan Page: http://www.naflute.com/sierraravenclanpage.html
• Sierra Raven Clan Webpage: http://www.sierraravenclan.com/index.html
• Sierra Raven Clan blog: http://ravenclan.blogspot.com/
• Cryss's email: sierraravenclan AT naflute DOT com

Calling Back the Salmon Ceremony, Pictures

Here's a nice online video capturing the events that took place during the Calling Back the Salmon ceremony at Bridgeport this summer. The event was lead by the Tsi-Akim Maidu tribe elders.



http://syrpa.lindberglce.com/parkvideos/Salmon_Ceremony.htm

Weekend Events: Jan 25 - 27

You can alway check out the Northern California Flute Circle Calendar to see what's happening further out, but I encourage you to login every week to review what's coming up for the weekend events!

NOTE: If I missed an event for the weekend, please add a comment with event info so that others can know!

Saturday, Jan 26

• Valley Clan Flute Circle, Napa, 3-5 PM

Sunday, Jan 27

• Joaquin Clan Flute Circle, Modesto, 2 PM

Weekend Events: Jan 18-20

You can alway check out the Northern California Flute Circle Calendar to see what's happening further out, but I encourage you to login every week to review what's coming up for the weekend events!

NOTE: If I missed an event for the weekend, please add a comment with event info so that other can know!

Saturday, Jan 19

• NoNahme Clan Flute Circle, Golden Gecko, 1 PM
• Mary Youngblood Concert, Placerville, 7:30 PM

Sunday, Jan 20

• Loping Wolf Flute Circle, LOP Clubhouse, 1-4 PM

New forums up and running on the Flute Portal

I wanted to let everyone know that there are new forums up and running at the Flute Portal. I encourage you to login and check it out. This will be a great resource to ask questions, get answers, meet other people online and just talk about this instrument that we all love so much.

Here's the link: http://www.fluteportal.com/forums/

Jeff Ball band w/Hang Instrument

Here's an awesome video by Jeff Ball. I love the Hang instrumentation on this song.

The Gift of Vernon

I uploaded a video from the Loping Wolf performance at Auburn Unity Church in September, 2007. This is a song, titled "The Gift of Vernon", which I wrote in memory of Vernon Peckover, my first hospice patient. Vernon and I become friends during his final months at Palo Alto VA Hospice. He was a wonderful man and I was fortunate to share the end of his life with RuthiE Nielson who was his hospice nurse before his transfer to Palo Alto, and who supported me during my time with him. If you know RuthiE then you know what a great champion she is for flute music in Hospice. Thank you Ruthie!

I hope that you all enjoy this performance.

Lakota Nation secedes from the United States

This story occurred on Dec 17, 2007, but I haven't heard about it from any mainstream news organization. I am posting it here, in the hopes that someone will provide some additional information (in the comments) about the truth of the story.

According to the story, several 'representatives' of the Lakota Nation declared that they are seceding from all treaties with the United States and Canada. Upon further research on the web, I learned that the group making the statement is called Lakota Freedom and the leader of this group is Russell Means. There seems to be some discussion about the representation of Russell and Lakota Freedom for the larger Lakota Nation.

It's also interesting, I tried to goto this link today: http://www.lakotafreedom.com/
But I got a message in my browser saying that "HTTP: Bad Request"... Seems like the site has been pulled down for some reason.

I'd like to learn more about this story. It's an interesting idea, seceding from the United States. One which I think the indigenous nations are entitled to if their treaties are bogus, but something that is likely to garner a interesting response from the president and the nation if indeed it's true.

Related links:

http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2007/12/mohawk-warriors-support-lakotas.html
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Descendants_of_Sitting_Bull_Crazy_Horse_1220.html
http://www.powwows.com/gathering/native-issues/42242-harjo-2007-mantle-shame-awards.html

Happy Holidays

NCFC Central wants to send everyone out there in flute land a very happy holiday. Enjoy your family and friends this holiday season. Play the flute, and make everyone's day better...

50th Annual Grammy Awards Announced

And the nominees are (envelope please...):

Best Native American Music Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)

• Oklahoma Style
  Walter Ahhaitty & Friends
  [SOAR]


• Watch This Dancer!
  Black Lodge
  [Canyon Records]


• The Ballad Of Old Times
  Davis Mitchell
  [SOAR]


• Reconnections
  R. Carlos Nakai, Cliff Sarde, William Eaton & Randy Wood
  [Canyon Records]


• Totemic Flute Chants
  Johnny Whitehorse
  [Silver Wave Records]
  
  

Best New Age Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)

• Faces Of The Sun
  Peter Kater
  [Silver Wave Records]


• Sacred Journey Of Ku -Kai, Volume 3
  Kitaro
  [Domo Records, Inc]


• One Guitar
  Ottmar Liebert
  [Spiral Subwave Records]


• Southwest
  Eric Tingstad
  [Cheshire Records]


• Crestone
  Paul Winter Consort
  [Living Music]

For a complete listing: http://www.grammy.com/Grammy_Awards/50th_show/list.aspx

INAFA Convention 2008 Announced

Here is an update concerning the 2008 International Native American Flute Association convention to be held at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point on July 9-13, 2008.

The evening performers list is as follows, thus far ... (each evening features three performers):

• R. Carlos Nakai
• Kevin Locke Joseph Fire Crow
• Sonny Nevaquaya
• Michael Graham Allen (Coyote Oldman)
• Xavier Quijas Yxayotl
• Ash Dargan
• Autumn's Child
• The Peter Phippen Quartet
• Rafael Bejarano
• FIFTH WORLD: The New World Music of Will Clipman, Ash Dargan, and Andrew Begay

So it looks like there will be several group performances at the next INAFA convention. This should be a very entertaining event.

INAFA welcomes performance, presentation, and workshop proposals on a variety of subjects dealing with world music, world flutes, Native American music, Native American culture, Native American flutes, and anything that is of interest to their membership and the convention participants.

For further information, please visit the INAFA Web site at: http://www.inafa.org/2008convention.htm