Well, you've only got two more days to get through and Houston Pagan Pride will be here!! *does the happy Pagan dance!* I just wanted to post a few reminders before the event.

* This year the venue is INDOORS and AIR CONDITIONED!! So we'll be quite a bit more comfy if the weather is icky Sunday!! The venue is The Meridian. You can find the address for the purpose of pulling up maps online at houstonpaganpride.org on the main index page (after the anniversary splash page).

* Vendors, your load-in begins at 10am. Please try to be on time so you're ready to roll at noon when the gates open!

* If you are on a cane or crutches or in a wheelchair, there is an elevator to get you upstairs! Just ask and you will be escorted to it by one of our friendly volunteers!

* Margie has said she wants a VERY festival atmosphere and encourages folks to wear their Rennfaire/costume garb to celebrate 10 wonderful years of Pagan Pride! Just remember that this is a public event, so decency laws will apply. ;-)  Leave your weapons at home, please.

* Entry fee: While there is no set fee to enter, we do suggest a minimum $5 donation or bringing an item from the wish list posted on the main page over at houstonpaganpride.org. Remember, this is a charity event and every little bit helps.  We will certainly not turn away anyone who can't afford the full $5 and will definitely smile upon anyone who wishes to give more than the minimum to help the charity!

* Gates open to the general public at 12 pm

* No food or drink will be allowed into the venue. Food and drink will be available at the festival and vegetarian options will be included for our vegetarian and vegan guests. Alcoholic beverages will also be available.

* The venue does not allow smoking inside, but an area is provided outside for this purpose.

* If you are a drummer, BRING YOUR DRUMS! If you play other instruments, bring those, too!

* Don't forget your raffle ticket money! :-D

* In case seating runs short, it might be a good plan to have your own chair stowed in your car.

*Youth Activities will be closing at 7pm instead of the posted 8pm. Please don't forget to go back and get anything your child left to dry before then!

Above all else, bring your smiles and your joy and your FRIENDS! We want this to be our biggest Pagan Pride ever to celebrate our anniversary! Woooooooo!

Aazari Cantharess
Mad Artist/Drummer Chica
Official HPPD Web Witch

Okay, we now have the preliminary schedule for Houston Pagan Pride Day's entertainment! Please note that, since we are closing the festival down at 10PM this year, you will need to be inside before 9PM. We'll be closing down the gate at that time. Don't be late for this very important date! The gates open at noon and food will be available on site, including veggie burgers for our vegetarian guests! I'll post a full list of the food menu items once that's set if it's possible. Come on out and dance to the beat while you help us raise funds and supplies for Friends For Life and their wonderful new no-kill shelter and animal education center!

12:00-12:45 Welcome and Opening Ritual
1:00-1:45    Tom the Folk Singer- Folk music
2:00-2:45    Ceili (Open Mike! Come show off your talents!)
3:00-3:45    Khandroma- Gothic Fusion Belly Dance Troupe
4:00-4:45    Wyrdgrl- Pagan Rock
5:00-5:45    Ted Miller- Appalachian Folk, Bluegrass & Humor
6:00-6:45    Big Rocket- Rock
7:00-7:45    Contraband- Rock
8:00-8:45    Fall Ritual
9:00-10:00  Open Drum Circle & Wrap-up

Just thought I'd pass this along since I know a lot of our HPPD folks love Soul Fixx!

Hard Rock Cafe Show Benefiting TX Children's Hospital

When:
Friday, August 21, 2009
5:00 PM to 8:00 PM CDT

Where:
Hard Rock Cafe

TX


 Hey there! Hope to see you at this show! The more people that come, the more we can raise for TX Children's Hospital.

      - *Soul Fixx*

Hello all you beautiful Pagan peeps (and all our friends who aren't Pagan, too)! I have some news for you. First off, after the contract was signed with the Meridian, the club got the opportunity to host a MASSIVE charity event for disabled veterans featuring a couple of big name acts. But they needed the same date we had already booked. Our beloved coordinator decided it would be bad kharma to deny both the club and the other charity the opportunity to sell the venue out and make all that money. So, Margie has graciously decided to move our event to the next day to enable the larger charity event to take place as scheduled. So, we're having a Sunday Pagan Pride instead. That being the case, we'll be shutting things down at 10PM instead of midnight because a good many of us will have to be working the next day. The gates will still be opening at noon.

The next meeting is scheduled for August 30th, 5PM  at Late Night Pie. See the My Space main page or website for the address!

Lastly, our wonderful Vending Coordinator, Dark Elf, has said there are still two of the smaller table only spaces still remaining for vendors. If you'd like to vend, get on over to http://www.houstonpaganpride.org quickly to get your space reserved. Time is running out!!

We're excited and hope you are, too! Come on out and help us celebrate our anniversary!

Blessed Be!
Aazari Cantharess
Mad Artist/Drummer Chica
Houston Pagan Pride Web Witch

     Our Stage Manager, Panisch, is very much in need of Roadies to help with loading the bands in and out all through the event. If you've got good, strong back and knees and wish to volunteer to help the musical magick happen, please email Ron immediately at panisch5979@hotmail.com. He has told me that all Roadies will be getting special t-shirts for the event!


     Houston Pagan Pride is pleased to announce that vending space reservations are now open! We will be offering two sizes of space this year! Our venue is INDOORS (The Meridian) so you will not need tents or awnings unless the tent frame in an intergral part of your display space!

8x4 Table Space $30
10x10 Full Booth $50

PLEASE NOTE- Because of contractual obligations and the fact that we are a family oriented event, the following items are prohibited: food and drink of any kind, adult oriented items (pornography, overtly sexual nude art, items which resemble genitalia, etc.), controlled substances or any other item which may be restricted by Federal or Local Government. Anyone found to be selling such items will be asked to either remove them from their booth/table or to leave the event immediately with no refund of their vending fees. If you have any doubts about whether what you wish to sell will be allowed please contact the Local Coordinator at Margie2207@aim.com to be sure.

Please use the following procedure to reserve your space. Failing to do so may result in your reservation being rejected.

1. All interested parties will e-mail their requests to both the Vendor Coordinator
    (kierathedarkelf@msn.com) and the Local Coordinator (Margie2207@aim.com). The
    requests should include:

    * Full Legal Name
    * Address, phone number and contact email
    * Business Name or Craft Name if applicable
    * Size of space you want to acquire
    * Please specify what information you want used for your vendor listing including
         contact information you wish to have on your listing.
    * Website URL for your business (if applicable)
    * List/description of merchandise types or services you will be offering
    * Whether you will need electricity for your booth and what you will need it for
         specifically. (Note that lighting may be poor in certain areas in this venue as it is
         large and indoors and you will likely need lights for your set-up at the least in the
         evening.)
    * Number of people (including yourself) who will be staffing your booth/table.
    * Whether you would like to be on the waiting list for space if you don't make it in on
         the first round. This will allow you to have a chance at any spaces which are not
         paid for 2 weeks before the event.
    * Any other special needs or requests you may have for your booth or table.

2. We will sort requests based on the time stamps of the e-mails. We will also look at
    the merchandise and service types of each vendor. We try to have a variety of
    merchandise available for the event patrons and prevent excessive amounts of any
    one type of item.

3. Those who are approved will receive an email message from the Vendor Coordinator.     The message will contain instructions on where to send payment and other
    important information.

Please note that if payment is not received at least 2 weeks before the event that we will put your space back up for sale to any vendors who may be on the waiting list. Full

Huzzah!
Aazari The Mad Artist/Drummer Chica
Your Friendly Neighborhood HPPD Web Witch

Yes, your web witchy has some nasty insomnia tonight. Anybody got a sledgehammer? Anyway, I just wanted to post a quick update on how the website is faring. Aside from the new splash page, I did some other tweaking. I checked old links and added BlackBerry Circle of Conroe to our Links page. I updated contact info for our coordinators and also added some brief descriptions of the various volunteer duties they oversee. I redid the menus on the main pages because I added a FAQ. The FAQ actually took most of the time and my brain sure does hurt from trying to think of questions people might ask. It's hard for me to think like a sane person.  I added several questions, but I just know I missed a lot of them. So if you'll head over to ye olde FAQ page and take a peek, I'd appreciate it. If you think of something I need to add or think I should revise any questions/answers that are already there, shoot it to me in an email to hppd_webwitch@sbcglobal.net with FAQ in the subject line.

And now, I need to attempt to get some sleep. Whee... this should be fun...not.

Blessed Be!

Aazari
Mad Artist/Drummer Chica
Houston PAgan Pride Web Witch

Well, luckily a little tech magick, no small amount of cursing and some virus wrangling has gotten me back to work on the HPPD site! And, with that, I was able to finish the special little gifty I did for the web site for the anniversary celebration. If you want to see it, just go to http://www.houstonpaganpride.org .

I still don't have the confirmation of the venue yet or any notion as to when we'll be opening up reservations for vendors. As soon as I know, I'll post it. I have some other tricks up my lil web witchy sleeves, but you're just gonna have to wait because it's a secret. MUAHAHAHAHAHA! I'll post that when it's done, too. 

Blessed be!

Aazari
AKA The Mad Artist/Drummer Chica
Houston Pagan Pride Web Witch

I just wanted to post something here to keep people up to date. I was going to do a full web update, but the desktop computer where I keep all my web-witchiness current is having some issues and is, at the moment, having a nice long talk with Trend Micro Housecall. *sigh* Any good energies for its full recovery are welcome.

Date and Venue: At the moment we do have a date for the event. It will be happening September 26, 2009 with our usual noon to midnight time frame. However, we discovered today that Late Night Pie has changed its hours and isn't opening until 5pm now. So if you got there for the meeting and wondered why no one was there, that would be why. We ended up heading over to Katz's Deli to gnosh while we hammered out a few details. We're not sure yet if they're going to be willling to accomodate us for the hours we need. Margie needs to speak with the owner to get confirmation. Never fear, though. If that falls through, we're hatching a plan for a back-up. We'll have a venue one way or another and, when we know for sure, I'll update the site and MySpace to reflect where we'll be.

Charity: We will once again be supporting Friends For Life (http://www.nokill1.org ), a local no kill rescue which recently opened a (by all reports) AWESOME new animal shelter/adoption center which also offers community services like pet care classes and dog obedience courses. With this bright new venture, they need our support more than ever!

Vendors: We didn't open vendor registration as we normally do after the first meeting because there may be some changes depending on whether we're at Late Night Pie or the other venue. Margie also needs to speak with the Treasurer and see what we're financially safe to do before a decision is made about fees. I'll get that announcement out as soon as we know for sure and let you know how to go about reserving your space.

Coordinator Assignments & Volunteer Opportunities: There are many returning coordinators and some new ones as well as a couple of open positions and new volunteer opportunities. First, here's the coordinator list as it currently stands:

· Local Coordinator: Margie

· Event Safety Patrol Lead: Liz

· Vendor Coordinator: Dark Elf (new)

· Entertainment: Azure (new) & Rain (co-coordinators)

· Stage Coordinator (new): Panisch

· Front Gate Coordinator: Star Duster

· Charity Liason: Open. Contact Margie2207@aim.com to volunteer

· Raffle Coordinator: Meg

· DecorationsCoordinator: Open. Contact Margie2207@aim.com to volunteer

· Youth Activities Coordinator: Davida Moonsong

· Media Coordinator: Matt

· Pagan Papparazzi: Rocco (Anyone else wanna join him? Contact Margie @ Margie2207@aim.com)

· Web Witch: Jolie AKA Aazari the Mad Artist/Drummer Chica

I'll have full contact info for everyone on the HPPD site as soon as I can get access back on my desktop so folks can email the coordinators with questions on what each position does and to volunteer. If nothing else, show up at the next meeting and we'll put you to work.

Now, each of the coordinators above usually needs several people to work in shifts throughout the event. This year we've added the Stage Coordinator who will be helping our wonderful performers get set up and clear the stage as the show goes on to keep things running smoothly. He will need a few strong and reliable backs to help with loading all of the equipment in and out in the morning, between acts and at the end of the night. So if you're fit for lifting, please do inquire about being a Roadie.

As you can see, we have a couple of open Coordinator positions, both of which are relatively easy to fulfill. Charity Liason helps gather in donated goods for our charity and ensures they are delivered in a timely fashion after the event. Decorations Coordinator is in charge of making the venue pretty for us. We provide the decor and you get the fun of putting it up with whoever volunteers with you as well as taking it all back down at the end of the event. These two positions aren't a lot to manage, but are VERY crucial to the event. So, if you can volunteer, please do so as soon as possible!

Website: As I said, I had a hangup getting the website updated *scowls at cranky old desktop PC* Once I've figured out what it's problem is and whether it's at least safe to transfer files between it and my laptop (could be a virus maybe... I just don't know yet), I'll get back to work on it. I'm working on a nice intro page to celebrate our 10th Anniversary. And I'll have all of our updated coordinator stuff up ASAP once I'm working. I'll update everyone as I can when things are up and ready. And I'll get the next meeting date up as soon as we set it. We kinda forgot to do that in all the madness... ooops....

Until next time,
Blessed Be!
Aazari AKA The Mad Artist/Drummer Chica
Houston PPD Web Witch

The following items are requested as donations by our charity, Friends For Life. Please bring something from the list to the festival to help us help them if at all possible! Some of this stuff is really cheap and easy to come by even in the post-hurricane world most of us are still living in right now. So, please, do what you can to bring something. All of the local animal rescue organizations are being flooded with displaced animals right now, especially from Galveston, and desperately need help with funding and supplies.

Pet Supplies

• Authority brand dry cat and kitten food

• Science diet brand dry cat and  kitten food

• Purina One brand dry cay and kitten food

• Authority brand canned cat, kitten food

• 9 Lives canned cat food

• Fancy Feast canned cat food

• Small stainless steel feeding bowls for cats

• Cat litter : clay unscented, pine or World's Best brand corn litter

• AD canned food (available at veterinarians w/o prescription) and used for refeeding starved or seriously ill cats/dogs

• Gerber meat baby food –chicken/beef

• Petsmart gift cards in $10, $20 and $25 denominations for our community support program

• Advantage brand dog or cat flea control drops (any size)

Cleaning Supplies

• Kitchen size (13 gal) and yard size (33 gal ?) trash bags

• Bleach

•  Arm & Hammer laundry soap (liquid or powder)

•  Paper towels

• Gel alcohol hand sanitizer

• Towels (used and clean is fine)

• Planet brand surface cleaner (available in natural products aisle at Kroger or at Whole Foods)

• Mops, brooms, dustpans and mop buckets

• Paintbrushes, rollers, pans (any size) for use in our make-ready of our new center
   

Office Supplies

• Paper

• HP ink 21, 22

• Stamps

• Envelopes

• Letter size manila folders

• Pens

Blessed be on your way toward Hurricane recovery!

Aazari Cantharess
Mad Artist/Drummer Chica
&
Official HPPD Web Witch

Okay, our area from Galveston on north has taken a pounding from hurricane Ike. Have we let that stop our PPD? NO! Late Nite Pie is up and running and we are ready to have our event on schedule as planned! WOO-HOO! Gods know we'll all need some relaxation and good times with good friends by then. I believe our wonderful Margie is planning a meeting this coming Sunday (Sept. 21) at Late Nite Pie to allow vendors who were unable to pay vendor fees due to the storm to get those in and finalize some details. I will confirm that (hopefully today) and post this info here and on the web when I have that.

For those of you who are hurting from this storm, know that your Pagan brothers and sisters are sending you love and energy and some of us may be able to offer a place to cool and get a hot shower if you need it and perhaps things like water and ice as our power comes back. Ask in your local Pagan communities. Many of us are willing to give you that precious bit of comfort in these chaotic times.

Aazari Cantharess
Mad Artist/Drummer Chica
&
Official HPPD WebWitch