Upbeat Times
SONOMA COUNTY, CA. ~ Wavy Gravy, a kind and gentle soul with a twinkle in his eyes, took some time out of his birthday festivities to meet with Upbeat Times. Te annual birthday con- cert is a benefit for SEVA, the non-profit organiza- tion he co-founded to help cure preventable
blind-
ness around the world. Seated on a comfortable
couch backstage, Wavy and his lovely wife of 51 years chatted with each other about some details regarding the Opening Ceremony of the concert. Dressed in his tie-dyed finery, Wavy talked about some things close to his heart. “Seva
is the
17th
Annual SUMMER Guide #1 Musical Notes in Sonoma County
able blindness. 80% of the peo- ple in the world that are blind don’t need to be blind and can
built in. Because if you’re a
Tibetan farmer and you break your glasses it’s a couple days
2016
by Shekeyna Black
Shekeyna@AMiracleProductionAMP.com
for concertgoers. Kids from the Prescott Circus Teatre, based in Oakland, passed out compli- mentary red clown noses to the crowd in honor of Wavy Gravy. SEVA Com- munications Director, Aaron Simon, who has worked with the non-profit organization for 10 years, explained, “Every ticket that is sold to this concert is equal to a sight-saving surgery, it’s pretty incred- ible.” Visit
www.seva.org to find out more about their vital work. “Camp Win- narainbow is a circus and performing arts camp that I run with my wife, Jah- anara, for close to 40 years. We do nine weeks for kids
Sanskrit
word that means service to humankind and our particular charge is curable and prevent-
get their sight back with a sim- ple cataract surgery. And then, we install intraocular lenses. So they don’t need glasses, they’re
Dada’s Deli Restaurant
journey over treacherous pass to get another pair. What a miracle, I mean ev-
ery ticket to this show is reach- ing around the world to cause somebody to see again. And we’ve done 4 million surgeries since we’ve started and count- ing” Wavy Gravy said with a smile. Wavy Gravy’s 80th Birthday
Celebration took place on May 22 at the outdoor SOMO Vil- lage Event Center in Rohnert Park. Te venue has a capac- ity of 3000 with ample parking
now and one week for grown- ups. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But people ask me, Wavy Gravy what is your greatest legacy? And they expect me to say, 4 million people not bumping into stuff. But the reality is, I think it’s the thousands of children who have come out of Camp Win- narainbow over the years. Tey learned numbers and
letters in school and we teach timing and balance, juggling, tightrope, trapeze, unicycle, tall stilts. Our theater depart-
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Weird Facts & Fun Trivia - 4 If you kept yelling for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would produce enough sound energy to heat up a cup of tea.
There are approximately 100,000 hairs on an average human head.
In 2001, a seven foot bull shark bit off a boy’s arm. His uncle not only saved the boy, but dived in after the shark, wrestled it to shore where the shark was shot, retrieved the boy’s arm and it was sewn back on in the hospital.
There are more English speaking people in China than in the United States.
ment goes from Shakespeare to Improv, our dance department from Jazz to Swing to Bluegrass, to all over the place. Tere’s drumming. And they do it in 17 teepees. We used to travel the show and do a week in New York at Omega Foundation and a week in New Mexico at Lama Foundation but once we found the land in Laytonville that was it” exclaimed Wavy Gravy. Concert attendee, Larry
Harper, a long-time activist and Sonoma County resident reflected on the time he and many others were arrested at a protest in the 1980’s, where Wavy Gravy boosted the moral of the detainees by encourag- ing people to sing a song or do a skit. Harper recalls Wavy Gravy’s rallying call, “You too can be swept up in the tornado of talent!” Asked what inspires him, Wavy Gravy replied, “Te Universe, and all the amazing lives that I’ve brushed, is cer- tainly an inspiration and keeps the light on.” He added, “Music increases the wheels of exis- tence, it is the sound track for this, that and the other thing.
It makes the hard stuff easier.” “People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” ~ A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
Hearn Ave
Bellevue Ave
Todd Rd
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