EDIT: Realized I had the wrong date for the meeting. It has been moved forward. Please re-mark your calendars.

Okay, we DO have a new venue! It is listed both on our MySpace page and on the front page at http://www.houstonpaganpride.org. I haven't been there myself and, in fact, have never heard of it. But we'll be getting a look at it on August 24th at the next Volunteer meeting. So come check it out. Please note that we will NOT be opening up more vendor space at this time as we need to get through one festival and see how we fit first. It may or not be possible at future events. We'll just have to see.

Also of note is the revised schedule. Now that our lovely Rain Riversong has confirmed our line-up, I have the new schedule up on the website.

To close, don't forget to see the fabulous Slinky or magnificent Margie at the next meeting to get your very own, VERY cool purple Pagan Pride silicone bracelet. These things are just TOO awesome and fun! I bought three! A steal of a deal at $3 and the sales help fund your local Pagan Pride. Word is we'll have small sizes for the kids as well as the adult sized ones available at the event, too. Come get some!

Aazari Cantharess
Mad Artist/Drummer Chica
Official HPPD Web Witch

This could be good news or bad, depending on your perspective. This may be our sign that it's time to grow again:

Well folks, for those who haven't heard, we now have no venue for our event. In a complete show of their lack of loyalty to HPPD, Last Concert Cafe has double booked us in favor of a paying group from Spain. This is a bit hurtful to the committee considering I've heard more than once how we try to support them and their events for allowing us to have PPD there free of charge. And this is, by all reports, the THIRD time we've had this kind of issue with them. *smirk* Seems our loyalty to them was a bit misplaced, no? Needless to say, I'm booting them right off the MySpace friends list for this rather UNfriendly act.

So, here we are left hanging with just over a month to event. But never fear. Your hard working committee is at this very moment looking into the options and we have some good ones. Just be aware we may come to you all asking a small donation to help us pull this off. With such short notice to change the venue, that may become a critical part of being able to keep our festival on the same date so that we can keep our musical guests. There may even be a possibility to open vending applications back up at the last moment if we score an adequate venue.

So, stay tuned to the website and MySpace for news as it's made available! And, if you would like to make a donation to help us pay for our venue or have space you would be willing to let us use, PLEASE contact Local Coordinator Margie Margie2207@aim.com OR Regional Coordinator Slinky slink72@yahoo.com . Together we can pull this off despite this obstacle!!

Aazari Mad Artist/Drummer Chica
Official HPPD WebWitch

Just a quick note to let folks know that I've updated some of the info on the Houston Pagan Pride site for 2008. There is information available for vendors on the Vendors page now. I'm hoping to have more 2007 photos in hand soon so I can update the galleries. Other than that, get yer shiney hineys to the next meeting and help us put together an awesome festival! The date for the meeting is in the upper left corner of the navigation bar on houstonpaganpride.org.

Aazari

The lovely and wonderful Rain has put together the schedule of entertainment and, without further ado, here it is!!

12 PM	Tom the Folksinger
1 PM	Drumming
2 PM	Dance Instruction
3 PM	Ceili (Open Mike)
4 PM	Wyrdgrl
5 PM	Ted Miller
6 PM	Khandroma
7 PM	Drumming
8 PM	Ritual
9 PM	Soul Fixx (formerly Soul Fusion)
10 PM	The Wartime Social
11 PM	Drumming

As you can see, by popular demand, more time slots have been allocated to drumming so that those who can't stay late or have a limited window in which they can participate can still come and get their groove on with us! Bring your drums and have some FUN! I know I will!

Aazari

Web Witch & Mad Artist/Drummer Chica

    Well, here we are fast approaching Houston Pagan Pride 2007 and things are grooving along! First and foremost, we have a new local coordinator! Our beloved Slinky has become so involved with being regional coordinator for the Pagan Pride Project that she decided the local event deserved to have someone whose time wouldn't be so split. So it is that Rev. Erin Forestwoman, formerly our Vendor Coordinator, has become the Local Coordinator for Houston Pagan Pride.   To take her place as Vendor Coordinator, CMA vending guru Armand has stepped up to the plate. We also have some other new folks on the crew, including myself as the official Houston Pagan Pride Web Witch. I will have a whole list of the new contact information as soon as our new domain is set up. (That's the other news coming. )

    Well, with so much new stuff going on, how can we not have a new and spiffy website? Dear Slinky confessed she hated the Geocities site because it was horrible and cranky to deal with. So what to do? First of all, hand the site management over to me. I handle a 250+ page art site just fine, so a few pages that don't need near constant upgrades year round shouldn't be a problem. Add to that the fact that I'm an artist and that equals new custom graphics (some of which you are now previewing in this blog) and a whole new site design overall. I'm also adding new features, like this blog, that the old site didn't have. All of this will be hosted on server space provided by our own tech wizard Jerald and fall under the new domain of HoustonPaganPride.org.  It's a work in progress at the moment and will go live as soon as I have all of the required information for the pages and the FTP info is in my hot little hands.

    We've had our first meeting and I will keep things updated as more information comes in. Vending spaces are already all taken.  We only have 8-9 spaces maximum at our venue and we try to have a variety of vendor types to keep from having to much of one thing. So if you missed the chance, please try to get in on it next year!

Stay tuned Houston area Pagans and prepare for a new year of Pagan Pride!

Jolie (AKA Aazari the Mad Drummer Chica)
Official HPP Web Witch