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Wavy Gravy: From Woodstock to EcoVillage |
by Brian and Zachary Scime
"You've got to accentuate the positive," sang Wavy Gravy during a recent visit to EcoVillage at Ithaca. Wavy came to entertain and enlighten the audience, with his lifetime of activism and world change, dating back to the 60's and continuing to this day. Wavy gained fame during the original Woodstock festival for telling the crowd, "What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for 400,000." He is also the inspiration for a Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor.
Wavy Gravy told of his years with the Hog Farm; the Seva Foundation; and Camp Winnarainbow, a circus performing arts camp for kids. He is often arrested for things he believes in, though he discovered in protesting, and political activism the police act differently to a clown. Clowns are safe, the police don’t know how to react to a clown, he said. "I always bring bubbles and balloons. I tie balloons to the barbed wire-it just busts the image."
"I think it’s important, especially in doing difficult stuff like opposing the war, that we use our creativity, our imagination and our humor," he said. While in Sweden for the UN conference on the environment in the 70's, Wavy and friends transformed one of their two buses into a gray whale, with flukes and water spouting out the top. It caught the imagination of the world press and later that week gray whales were declared a protected species.
Wavy says that he originally took up clowning to deal with his own pain of recovering from back surgery. "I could do these little things with the kids and make them happy". He found, "When I made them happy I didn't hurt so much". Wavy then spent seven years at his local children's hospital cheering up kids (and, presumably, himself!). Wavy's life is a testament to fun and joy being a tool for peace in the world.
Contact: www.wavygravy.net
"You've got to accentuate the positive," sang Wavy Gravy during a recent visit to EcoVillage at Ithaca. Wavy came to entertain and enlighten the audience, with his lifetime of activism and world change, dating back to the 60's and continuing to this day. Wavy gained fame during the original Woodstock festival for telling the crowd, "What we have in mind is breakfast in bed for 400,000." He is also the inspiration for a Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor.
Wavy Gravy told of his years with the Hog Farm; the Seva Foundation; and Camp Winnarainbow, a circus performing arts camp for kids. He is often arrested for things he believes in, though he discovered in protesting, and political activism the police act differently to a clown. Clowns are safe, the police don’t know how to react to a clown, he said. "I always bring bubbles and balloons. I tie balloons to the barbed wire-it just busts the image."
"I think it’s important, especially in doing difficult stuff like opposing the war, that we use our creativity, our imagination and our humor," he said. While in Sweden for the UN conference on the environment in the 70's, Wavy and friends transformed one of their two buses into a gray whale, with flukes and water spouting out the top. It caught the imagination of the world press and later that week gray whales were declared a protected species.
Wavy says that he originally took up clowning to deal with his own pain of recovering from back surgery. "I could do these little things with the kids and make them happy". He found, "When I made them happy I didn't hurt so much". Wavy then spent seven years at his local children's hospital cheering up kids (and, presumably, himself!). Wavy's life is a testament to fun and joy being a tool for peace in the world.
Contact: www.wavygravy.net
