The Leaves of Twin Oaks
Summer 2001 - No. 95
Table of Contents
The News of The Oaks
FEC Celebrates 25th Anniversary
Comings & Goings
Update from Woodfolk Asylum and
Walk-in Cooler
An Otra Request from Valerie
Twin Oaks in Bloom
Wigwhat?
Nathan's Top 5 for Twin Oaks
Conference Mania 2001- Women
Conference Mania 2001- Communities
Credits
Photography - Frodo, Valerie, McCune
Editing - Sky with help from Valerie & Mala
Layout - Sky
News of the Oaks - Mala
Music blossomed at the Oaks during the spring; on almost any given night, you could catch one of our four new bands (with significant member overlap) rehearsing up at Tupelo. A related development was the resurgence of coffeehouses (at which, oddly enough, one can find beer but no coffee). The four bands, which performed under the names Soul Couch, Electric Couch, Sonic Cloudscape, and Unbalanced Chakras, all included resident Ezra on bass. Three of them also featured the vocals of Jaz, who’s becoming quite a celebrity; besides wowing Oakers with her sultry vocal stylings, she’s now deejaying on Charlottesville’s WNRN from 12 to 3 on Thursdays.
This summer, acapella music took front stage. A round-singing group began meeting in Kaweah in the evenings, and now is also doing open sessions over hammocks in the courtyard on Saturday afternoons. The Saturday sessions coincide with the end of the Saturday tour, so our tourists leave with a final image of happy communards singing as they weave. Coincidence or an elaborate recruiting ploy? You be the judge . . .
The arrival of new member Sean, bike nerd extraordinaire, improved our transportation scene considerably. Sean (who until recently worked as a bike courier in Chicago) can be found in the bike shop until midnight most nights, rehabilitating our long-neglected fleet. In other transportation news, little red Lucille suffered a sad demise and was replaced by a turquoise Ford Escort we christened Escargot.
The controversial arrivals of a donated microwave in ZK and a satellite dish mounted on Ta Chai (to speed up our internet connection) pitted technophiles against Luddites. The microwave controversy had an ending rather shockingly uncharacteristic of Twin Oaks; an anonymous saboteur decided that “direct action gets the goods” and cut the microwave’s cord. The satellite fared better; it went up, then came down, then went back up. Now it seems to be there to stay, and it no longer takes internet users 20 minutes to open a web page.
Membership, family, and housing issues came to a head this summer, the controversy revolving around interpersonal conflicts at Tupelo and the rejection from membership of one of two parents in a family. The rejection was ultimately overridden amidst heavy lobbying on both sides of an issue that left many people feeling hurt and frustrated.