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	Back Cover Ad Alan Seale

Advertising Deadline

for the October 2004

issue is

September 20, 2004

For More Information call

(505) 471-5177

Do you have questions about how to hook up a solar energy
or wind energy system on your home or ranch? Are you wanting to use rammed earth, strawbale, or adobe as a building medium? How about reducing your gas or electric use through passive solar hot water heating?

The spirit of America was founded upon groups of people both indigent and colonial whose knowledge of the natural world allowed them to flourish using little more than simple tools and creative hands. This independence from the constraints of a larger, more complicated society is the inspiration for this year’s Solar Fiesta 2004.

The New Mexico Solar Energy Association is broadening the basis of its annual renewable energy educational fair. As well as solar and wind energy, and passive solar building and technology, they will include classes that broaden our knowledge base such as the growing and uses of bamboo, basic homesteading skills, solar cooking, alternative fuels, and other sustainable living techniques.

There will also be classes in how you can reduce your use of electricity in your home environment. Becoming energy aware is the first step in determining how much energy you actually need when considering the installation of renewable energy, and the added benefit is a sometimes greatly reduced utility bill.
Beginning one week in advance of the Fiesta, NMSEA combines forces with Solar Energy International to present a comprehensive weeklong workshop on solar energy.

The class starts with three days in the classroom including visiting instructors, tours of local Photovoltaic (PV) systems, and hands-on labs. The topics covered will include PV components, designing, sizing, siting, and stand-alone and grid-connected systems. Safety and energy efficiency will also be covered. The last two days will have the class installing a PV system.

The SEI Solar Workshop will be held September 20-24, just prior to the NMSEA annual Solar Fiesta. For more information and to register for the class, contact Solar Energy International at www.solarenergy.org or (970) 963-8855.

Solar Fiesta 2004 will be held Saturday and Sunday, September 25 and 26, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center at the corner of Menaul and 12th in Albuquerque. This stately structure boasts walls of rammed earth, natural stone floors, and a 10Kwh photovoltaic power system; it is permeated by the essence of the Native American spirit.

The Solar Fiesta Workshops and Exhibits for adults and children are designed to encourage independent living practices in both the rural and urban environments. There will be a Rally for Renewables and a Super Solar Silent Auction.

The Fiesta is organized by the New Mexico Solar Energy Association and is being sponsored by PNM, the New Mexico State Department of Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources, New Belgium Brewing, Southwest Windpower, Matrix Solar Technologies, Dankoff Solar, Sandia National Laboratories, Kyocera Solar, Direct Power and Water, AAA Solar, and Sacred Power. Costs of the Solar Fiesta are very low in order to encourage family participation. The exhibit area is $3 for adults, and $2 for seniors. Kids and teachers are free with school ID. The hourlong workshops cost $5 each or $20 for an all-day pass. Parking across the street is free of charge. There is a separate charge for the SEI Solar Workshop.

For more information on Solar Fiesta 2004 contact NMSEA at (505) 246-0400 or visit www.nmsea.org. (The NM SEA is a not-for-profit 501c3 educational organization.)
 

Paul Horn: Journey Inside Tibet
 

Paul Horn began performing in the late 50s as a straight ahead jazz flutist. As a studio musician he recorded with Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Quincy Jones, Joni Mitchell and Ravi Shankar. In the late 60s he studied with the Maharishi in India alongside fellow pilgrims, The Beatles. His seminal 1969 album, “Inside the Taj Mahal,” sold over one million copies, featured space as an equal partner to the musician and launched a whole new genre of music.

Paul Horn’s story is an inspiring odyssey of world travel, expansive musical creativity and spiritual transformation. For four decades Paul Horn has grown his audience even as he changed creative directions through jazz, fusion, pop, new age and world music. With forty albums over a career spanning four decades, Paul Horn has recorded in sacred spaces around the world, including the Taj Mahal, Great Pyramid in Giza, Temple of Heaven in China, cathedrals in America and Europe, Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley and the Dalai Lama’s Potala Palace in Tibet.

“It is entertainment,” Horn says, “but music can be more powerful, it can uplift
people’s spirits, raise their consciousness, release stress, help in spiritual ways.”

Paul Horn earned his Bachelor of Music from the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory, followed by his Masters at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. There he played with the famed Chico Hamilton Quintet. In the early 60s he moved to Los Angeles and formed the Paul Horn Quintet. In LA he was in great demand as a session musician; recorded solo albums for World Pacific, Columbia, and RCA; and was selected as the subject for David Wolper’s TV documentary “The Story of a Jazz Musician.” He has scored films and appeared as the featured soloist with symphony orchestras.

In 1968 he sought more than fame and fortune and flew to India to study with
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Meditation opened doors to the inner world and his life was transformed. On a return trip to India Horn visited the Taj Mahal. He was granted permission to play his flute inside the palace and, accompanied by a film crew, rolled tape for this extraordinary experience.

The album, now known as “Inside the Taj Mahal,” was initially recorded as an audio souvenir of his journey. Upon return to New York, tapes of the recording circulated among his friends until a record executive offered to release it. The result remains a seminal album among spiritual and world recordings and is still a best-seller today. That experience changed Paul Horn’s life and his whole approach to music. Fed up with life in the fast lane, Horn toured with pop star Donovan and finally settled in Victoria, B.C., in 1970.

The experience in the Taj Mahal ignited a passion in Paul to record in sacred places. In the late 60s live recordings were done at concerts, not remote parts of the world. It was an entirely new concept to include the environment as an equal partner to the musician. Since then, Paul Horn has visited sacred places in Egypt, China, U.S.S.R., North America, and Europe, recording in each location.

Ever curious to visit new frontiers, Paul set out to visit “the roof at the top of the world” on a pilgrimage to Tibet in 1999. While there he visited the Potala Palace in Lhasa, former home of the Dalai Lama. No musician had ever recorded in the Potala Palace. Just as right intentions guided Paul in his recording in the Taj Mahal in 1968, a sympathetic guard allowed Paul to record in the Potala Palace. On a second trip in 2001, Paul embarked on a pilgrimage circumambulating the sacred Mount Kailaish. Both pilgrimages to Tibet have been captured in PBS’ award-winning documentaries: Journey Inside Tibet and Return to Mount Kailaish, which received Aurora Gold Awards for Cinematography and Original Music, and the Aegis Award of Excellence for a Documentary. Both chronicle his journey to one of the most spiritual and remote places in the world.

While in Tibet Paul and Christopher Hedge made field recordings, much as Alan Lomax did chronicling rural American music in the mid 20th century. They recorded Tibetan nuns praying, children singing, monks chanting and work songs among laborers. Today these natural sounds are woven into a groundbreaking performance, Trans-Jazz Journey Inside Tibet. Not as a backing track, but as Tibetan landscapes recalled on a keyboard, these natural sounds are a part of the improvisation. In performance Paul plays flute and alto sax, Christopher Hedge on keyboards and guitar and Julian Smedley plays violin. Together they weave natural sounds from Tibet as they bring that sacred culture into the concert hall. It is nothing short of an altering experience.

When he plays, the acoustics of a room become another instrument. From his book, “Inside Paul Horn,” Horn summarized his life: “We are journeying externally from country to country, instrumentally reflecting the merging of many diverse world cultures. We are traveling in historical time, from the present to the distant past. We are traveling inwardly as well, through the music of meditation.”

Taos will be the place to spend the weekend of October 1-3, 2004, as three events—Taos Wild Film, the 21st Annual Wool Festival at Taos, and the Taos National Society of Watercolorists Studio Tour—offer Taosenos and visitors a
new blend of natural history, education, and culture.

Taos Wild Film, an International Wildlife Film Festival, will feature four unique presentations of spectacular, award-winning wildlife films from around the world, plus live wildlife presentations. Screenings will be Friday, October 1, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, October 2, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Taos Community Auditorium, plus a special children’s Wildlife Films show for $5 per child at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning. The event is a benefit for Rivers & Birds’ public school water conservation education programs.

Advance tickets may be purchased beginning September 16 from the Taos Center for the Arts by phoning (505) 758-2052, M-F, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., for a minimum donation of $15 per person. Anyone wishing to purchase tickets further in advance or to make a donation may call Rivers & Birds at (505) 776-0095.
The 21st Annual Wool Festival at Taos, sponsored by the Mountain and Valley Wool Association, will take place Saturday and Sunday, October 2 and 3, at Kit Carson Park, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. It celebrates over 400 years of wool traditions in Northern New Mexico and includes a handspun yarn show and contest, a sheep showcase and shearing demonstrations, hands-on activities for kids, food, music, and a silent auction on Sunday. Booths of 60 fiber growers and artists from throughout the Río Grande Valley region will give visitors a broad sense of the art and craft of wool-working today in New Mexico. Entrance to the festival is free. More information may be obtained from the event’s website—www.taoswoolfestival.org.

Organized in 1992, the Taos National Society of Watercolorists (TNSW) is dedicated to promoting the production of professional quality watercolor on both local and national levels. More than half of its members living in the Taos area will graciously open their studio doors to the public on Saturday, October 2, and Sunday, October 3, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Brochures with maps to the various studios will be available in the Taos Chamber of Commerce and at various galleries and bed and breakfasts. There’s no charge for the tour. For further information contact TNSW Publicity Director Dawn Chandler at (505) 758-2229 or dawn@taosdawn.com.

Taos is always a special place, but the weekend of October 1-3 will be a most unusual blend of wild and domestic art happenings. Get Wild and Woolly!