Every season associates with one of the four elements: summer = fire, autumn = Earth, winter = water. Spring, along with freshness and rebirth, matches elemental air. For purposes of celebration, air includes wind, breath, and sky. Along with light potluck food and drink, we invited our guests to bring a favored breezy poem or song to our cozy Chihuahua Hill enclosure on Friday, March 21.
Weather remained a bit too chilly for us to gather outside in the garden, so we arrayed ourselves and our yummies within. Puffy pastries fit the mood, and a dozen toy balloons reinforced the airy motif. Neighbor Tom read aloud his poem “The Texas Winds.”
Then came verses and lines from Merri Lu, Jan, Ted, Robert, Lynn, Leonore, and Kevin. Armed with his guitar, Ken led us in some suitable songs such as “Catch the Wind,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and “The Wind Cries Mary.” What a blast!
This particular seasonal blowout traces its roots to 1987, when I presented A Certain Air Party for that year’s Vernal Equinox in Austin, Texas.
In the Capital City’s Brykerwoods Neighborhood stood an up-and-down duplex with our unit on the ground floor. Rectangular in shape, the dwelling consisted of a big master bedroom on the street side, a small bedroom in the middle, and living-dining-kitchen areas toward the rear yard. Jack-and-Jill bathrooms served visitors and residents.
My Texas Senate employment at this time meant long days and late hours during the legislative session, January through May. The erratic schedule often required weekend work, so attempting a Saturday evening affair in late March posed a gamble. The bet paid off, however, and we threw open the doors at 8:00p.m. to welcome participants.
Our 3½-year-old daughter, Kristiana, helped greet the guests. She had been born in that house and experienced frequent get-togethers there. Her brother, Sol, would join the family there that summer. Invitees snacked and sipped and circulated through the public rooms and out to the back patio. My stereo system (turntable, amp, two reel-to-reel decks, cassette recorder, speakers) filled the entire space with the themed soundtrack.
I reprised the mix on subsequent occasions, such as Spring Equinox 2011, 2016, and 2021 during my second marriage and in the original Green Man location on the free-spirited Upper East Side of ATX.
I don’t remember any particular emotion from that long-ago evening or its sequels, but the soundtrack still evokes in me intense good feelings. I love the balloon scenes from 80 Days and Mysterious Island, and Harve Presnell’s stirring rendition from Paint Your Wagon always give me goose bumps. Mastered on two 90-minute cassettes and running three hours and ten minutes, here it is:
A CERTAIN AIR
Around the World in 80 Days theme – Victor Young
Air – Water Music – G. F. Händel
Which Way the Wind Blows – Anthony Phillips
Wind From the Indies – David Amram
Blue Skies – Willie Nelson
Blue Sky – Allman Brothers
The Wind – Cat Stevens
Catch the Wind – Donovan
Wayward Wind – Gogi Grant
It’s a Gas – Alfred E. Newman
Our Song – Geesin & Waters
Lucy Sky Diamonds – Beatles
In the Air Tonight – Phil Collins
Wild is the Wind – David Bowie
Under African Skies – Paul Simon
Listening Wind – Talking Heads
Sky Saw – Brian Eno
From the Air – Laurie Anderson
The Truth of Skies – Summers & Fripp
Breathe – Pink Floyd
Sky Pilot – Eric Burdon & Animals
Celtic Air Force – Rare Air
Both Sides Now – Judy Collins
Ghost Riders in the Sky – Riders in Sky
Blowin’ in the Wind – Bob Dylan
The Wind’s Dominion – Butch Hancock
Late for the Sky – Jackson Browne
India Country Side – Victor Young
Cloudscape – Philip Glass
They Call the Wind Mariah – Lerner & Loewe
Fly Like an Eagle – Steve Miller
Let’s Go Fly a Kite – Sherman & Sherman
Windy – Association
Ride Like the Wind – Christopher Cross
Around the World Part 2 – Victor Young
Up, Up and Away – 5th Dimension
The Air That I Breathe – Hollies
Wind Cries Mary – Jimi Hendrix
Andes Breeze – David Amram
If I Had Wings – Peter, Paul, Mary
Hasten Down the Wind – Warren Zevon
Something in the Air – Thunderclap Newman
Obscured by Clouds – Pink Floyd
The Balloon – Bernard Herrmann
Air on a G-String – J. S. Bach
Great Gig in the Sky – Pink Floyd
On the Future of Aviation – Jerry Goodman
Rising Thermal – Eno & Hassell
What other numbers relate to wind, air, breath?
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