Taos Hippie Homecoming

Hippie Days are Here Again

2009-06-16T12:43:00.001-07:00

Hippie Homecoming, June 21: Body Painting, 10-2 pm, McCarthy Plaza on Taos Plaza, Stick Pony Races, 2-3, McCarthy Plaza. Painted bodies join with "Lady Summer Comes to Town" as "hippie kids and big street puppets strut and stomp around the town" from 2-4 p.m. La Cocina Reunion featuring the Wickham Brothers at Ogelvie's—3 to 6 pm, The Oriental Blue Streaks (Dolly and the Lama Mountain Boys), Taos Plaza Gazebo, 6 to 8 pm. Call 575-758-0998 for more information.

Boogie on down to the FREE Hippie Homecoming Strut and Stomp events on SUNDAY, JUNE 21 beginning at 10 am until 8 pm on McCarthy Plaza (on the southeast side of Taos Plaza) where the Horse Fly office is now located. What better way to entertain your dad than a trip down memory lane on Father’s Day?

Music from the 60s will transport you to times gone by. You can watch well-known local artists (like Ed Sandoval, Elizabeth Jose, Alan Heuer and others) painting live people in psychedelic colors from 10 am to 3 pm (no nudity) followed by a Painted People, Puppet and Hippie parade through town. Stick pony races are a Horse Fly tradition. Pick your favorites and cheer them on or hop on your favorite stick pony steed and race your way to prizes.

The old La Cocina crowd are gathering at Ogelvies for the La Cocina Reunion with the Wickham Brothers music from 3-6 pm. La Cocina was a local bar and restaurant located on Taos Plaza during the ‘60s. Local politicos hashed out the problems of the town over drinks. Hippies mingled with tourists and locals. It was all happening right there, right then. Now it’s the history we’re revisiting like an old friend. You can hear stories from the mouths of those who were there, those who remember, that is.

THE ORIENTAL BLUESTREAKS, once called Dolly & the Lama Mountain boys, are coming back together for a historical summer of love reunion. They were very popular in Taos back in the ‘60s, and they haven’t played together in over 30 years. They’ve added local favorite guitarist Omar Rane to the mix. This music is authentic to the time period and to Taos’ local color. They’ll be playing on the Taos Plaza at 6 pm, Sunday, June 21 as part of the Hippie Homecoming.

And on WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24, they’ll play at the Kachina for the Horse Fly Institute’s BLUESTREAK BOOGIE dance party starting at 7:00 pm (starting early for the old hippies who no longer stay up late). Barefoot former hippies will join belly dancers and all manor of merrymakers. Also featuring Tommy Hancock’s Supernatural Family Band with the Txana Dames, Kit Nelson, Omar Rane and Carlos Rael to rock the house. You just can’t have more fun anywhere for $10 in advance or $12 at the door. What a blast from the past!

Contact: Sandy Penny, Horse Fly: 575-758-0998

Sponsor a Painted Body

2009-05-20T10:20:00.001-07:00

Horse Fly Institute
100 S. Plaza
P.O. Box ll35
Taos, New Mexico 87571

Dear Merchant, Gallery, Art Lover, or Hippie:

The Horse Fly Institute is soliciting sponsors for our Hippie Homecoming event, “a happening” in coordination with the Town of Taos’s “Summer of Love.”

On, June 21, the summer solstice (and Fathers day), we will host Hippie Homecoming and the La Cocina Reunion, a celebration of the past. By reconstructing the bridges between the cultures that existed here during the late ‘60’s, we can come together to revisit the times, share stories and create new relationships…and boogie.

It is our goal to create bustling, vibrant energy focused on Taos Plaza and McCarthy Plaza. We have been planning events for the “Summer of Love.” See attached press release. Now, it is time to implement the plan, but we need your help to purchase the paint for body painting, pay the expenses for the Oriental Blue Streak Band for our “Summer Solstice Strut and Stomp” on the 21^st and the historic boogie on June 24^th.

For $100.00, you can sponsor an entire body, which will become a “strutting” advertisement for your business on June 21. Ask about partial sponsorships or special deals.

The June issue of Horse Fly will commemorate Hippie Homecoming and become a collector’s item. Join us and tell us your ideas, so we can continue thriving and kicking as the “Summer of Love” flows into the autumn of 2009.

We created the Horse Fly Institute as a non-profit organization with the following mission statement:

“We seek to improve community well being through the sponsorship of art, sport, culture, and educational programs. The Institute believes that active citizens can create a vibrant community by exchanging ideas and working toward common goals. Currently, the Institute is actively engaged in publishing stories about cultural history, and promoting events on the Plaza.

We look forward to Hippie Homecoming on June 21, Taos Independence Day of Protest, July 19, and El Cucuy on Aug. 30.

Thank you from the staff of the Horse Fly and the Horse Fly Institute.

Taos Hippie Homecoming – Summer of ‘69

2009-05-11T13:21:00.001-07:00

Taos Hippie Homecoming Events Update

2009-05-11T11:49:00.001-07:00

Taos Hippie Homecoming Tour

Boogie and La Cocina Reunion

Culture Vultures

By Bill Whaley

Below Horse Fly posts a press release re Hippie Homecoming & La Cocina Reunion among other events incorporated into the June 21 Solar Stomp and Strut in coordination with the town's "Summer of Love" promotion. In answer to a question by Mayor Cordova, who asked this writer about the proposed Hippie Homecoming event, I said it was an event much like any reunion, a time to relive shared emotional experiences. Years ago, New Buffalo founder Rick Klein and his sidekick, musician Bob Aldo, approached me about the idea. The time seems ripe--though other more private reunions have been held in the past. Just as native Taosenos have turned the fiesta into an annual homecoming event so the fourth culture deserves a similar opportunity. Many passed through Taos in those days, few were chosen to stay.
The sour-minded naysayers, who deplore the commodification of their alleged culture whether the communard idealism of the sixties or alleged El Norte pastoralism of the mystic past, live in the never never land of passing puritanism or in some aberrant age of present political correctness. As the town's p.r. maven Cathy Connelly says about the "Summer of Love"-- "It's about having a good time." Very simple.
The perils of living in the paradox of paradise means you must keep in mind that the admonition to "Love they neighbor as thyself" has always been a challenge, frequently turning into a crime of passion if not an outright civil war not dissimilar to Afghanistan. The ironies of honoring Dennis Hopper, a pop culture icon of the era, as "Mayor" are lost on nobody and should arouse as much humor in the viewer as it did in Dennis himself. Who said there are no second acts in America? Or third and fourth ones in Taos?
Pop culture and alleged high art fused in the public and professional mind long ago, in the 80s--due to the market. While those of us still in Taos slept through the metamorphosis of the country's economic culture under Reagan, globalization of the culture gained momentum under Clinton. If anything, Taos benefitted from the trickle down of tourism and second home buyers in terms of earning a living. Now the climate in town feels more like the seventies than the nineties.
In a capitalist society, money and nostalgia, filthy lucre and patriotism are hopelessly intertwined: See the war for oil and exploitation of resources, worldwide. Those of us who are entrepreneurs and don't live off the taxpayers a la Los Politicos and the bureaucrats, must try and create some reason for folks to visit and re-visit Taos if we are to survive--including supporting an International Peace Week. The last time I checked, there was little in the way of home-grown economic resources. Just as the practice of agriculture interrupts the pristine natural world and creates a new mix of challenges for the way we define the environment, so hunting, gathering, farming, and irrigation, like the practice of art and tourism, movie making and popular culture, creates a mixed cash and credit economy. The landscape, historic and current culture create the enduring attractions for visitors even as some of us, both natives and newcomers, feel trapped and can't quite get out of this place. The fortunate ones work here but derive their incomes from elsewhere. T'was always thus.
Hippie Holidays
Homecoming Headquarters
Horse Fly Institute 100 S. Plaza
(575) 758-0998
Press Release
Fri. June 19—Wed. June 24
Taosenos: Invite your Friends and Tell Stories.
Events: TAO Masked Ball, Easy Rider Film & Custom Bike Show, Hippie Homecoming & La Cocina Reunion, Davis Photo Exhibit, Blue Streak Boogie, Golf Tournament…TBA
Walk to Your Events From Our OFFICIAL Safe Houses
1. Casa Benavides B&B (One block East) 575-758-1772
2. Hotel La Fonda de Taos (On the Plaza) 575-758-2211
3. El Pueblo Lodge (3 Pleasant Walking Blocks North) 575-758-8700
Activities
June 19, 2009: First "Tao Masquerade Ball." Tickets include a white mask so each attendee can create a unique persona. The Artist Ball style features exciting charismatic party with music by the “Time Machine”. Call 575-751-0071. Location: Taos Art Plaza, 223 Paseo del Pueblo Sur; One Block South of the Plaza.. Check the web for details.
June 20, 2009: 95.9 KKIT/1340 KVOT Storyteller Theatre/Taos Mountain Motorcycle Rally. Easy Rider shows at the Storyteller Theatre. Enjoy a motorcycle rally and custom bikes. Show times start on Saturday 1 p.m.,4:30 p.m., 7 p.m., 9:30 p.m. and continue on Sunday 1 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7 p.m.
June 20, 2009: William Davis Photography Gallery, “New Prints of Vintage Photos from the 60s: San Francisco to Taos.” Gallery at El Torreon, 1017 Paseo del Pueblo Norte, Taos. Shows through July 31.
June 20, 2009: Lions Club of Taos presents KidSight Family Golf Outing. Taos Country Club. Sat. June 20. 9 am. Shotgun Start.
June 21: Body Painting, 10-2 pm, McCarthy Plaza on La Plaza, Stick Pony Races, 2-3, McCarthy Building, southeast corner of the Plaza, La Cocina Reunion at Ogelvie’s 3 to 6 pm, Dolly and the Lama Mountain Boys, Taos Plaza Gazebo, 6 to 8 pm.
June 24: Barefoot Boogie with the Blue Streaks and Pot Luck at McCarthy-Benavides Building (Behind Hotel La Fonda.)
Don't forget your sense of humor

Taos Hippie Homecoming

2009-04-09T13:54:00.001-07:00