October 2007 Newsletter

Archive Item:

In addition to the hundreds of kites, tools, photos, and books in its collection, the Drachen Foundation's archive also includes what is known at the Study Center as "the black files." Contained in 21 three-drawer filing cabinets are thousands of documents, photographs, newspaper clippings and letters. Two of the gems contained here are the files of Ed Grauel and the correspondence files of Margaret Greger.

Alexander Graham Bell Cygnet Kite Centennial

It's a long way to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck, Nova Scotia-almost as far east as you can go on the North American continent. But if you can get most of the way there, like participants of this year's Dieppe, Canada, International Kite Festival, then the four-hour drive to Baddeck is well worth it. Read More

"Finding Religion" in Bali

I really didn't expect this, but my visit to the 29th annual Bali National Kite Festival brought me face to face with a kite culture so deeply rooted that at least one of my hosts insisted that "Kite is God!" In a culture where every activity is begun with a ceremony and a prayer, I began to see where my host Bagus was coming from. This is a deeply spiritual community, where ties to God, family and community are readily apparent. Kites here are a direct tie to all three. Read More

Anna

On Friday, August 31, celebrated kite artist Anna Rubin opened an art show at gallery Das Zentrum in Radstadt, Austria. Another celebrated artist and kite maker, Tal Streeter reviewed her show for the Drachen Foundation. Read More


Paul MacCready Passes Away

In the fall of 2006, several Drachen board members were honored to visit Dr. Paul MacCready to talk about the use of kites to tap windpower. MacCready, an aeronautical engineer is celebrated for many of his aeronautical inventions. Read More

Bintulu International Kite Festival

It takes 36 hours in airplane and airport transit from the Drachen office to touch down on the shores of the thrid largest island in the world, Borneo. Simply a dense jungle from the air, Drachen was visiting to photo-document another group of "wau" kites and begin a survey on the fighter and single line kites of the Republic of Brunei. Read More

Gary Hinze (San Jose, California), a long time researcher and passionate chronicler of the world of kites, has surfaced once again! As we enthusiastically went to press last newsletter on the acceptance of what we thought as an unusual one of a kind Japanese design, Hinze opened up his newsletter, and went to work to prove to us that we knew more than we thought about this one artifact-note his documentation. The value of the items we collect are only as valuable as the people who work with them. In Gary's case, he did what good investigators or scholars do, they gather information and cross reference it. Having as much information as we can about kites is one mandate, but being able to find it, and cross reference it with other sources and apply this information is what scholarship and knowledge is all about. Bravo, Gary! Read More.

Calendar:

October 1-6: 30th American Kitefliers Association’s National Convention in Ocean Shores, WA

October 5: Masaaki Modegi and Charlie Sotich book signing breakfast in Ocean Shores, WA

October 12: DF Sponsors teachers workshop at Pacific Northwest Art Instruction Seminar in Portland, Oregon

October 26-28 : Scott Skinner attends Aomori Kite Festival in Aomori, Japan

Capturing San Francisco
To mark the centennial of the 1906 earthquake, and a seminal event in the history of kite aerial photography (KAP), the Drachen Foundation collaborated with Bay Area photographer Scott Haefner to re-photograph Lawrence's view of San Francisco. Included here is a short film about this attempt.