Wildfire Weaver

Wow, how time flies when you’re busy! My last post was weeks ago, but luckily it’s been due to being inundated with gigs and a hectic schedule and not my general lackadaisical nature. I’ll be posting about the gigs I had over the last several weeks separately, but the big news is: the Chicago Full Moon Fire Jams were profiled by an Associated Press reporter, Martha Irvine, and her video essay has appeared on multiple news sources nationwide!

Ms. Irvine attended the September FMJ and the footage she’s compiled is fantastic. It’s a great snapshot of what the FMJs are like and of the people involved. I’m so proud to say that I was able to recognize almost all of the faces in the video and can call many of them friends, including: Liz Campanella (one of the founders of the FMJ and Pyrotechniq troupe member) and her husband, Devin Breen (also from Pyrotechniq, doing staff); Mitch Davidovitz (Phoenix Underground); Ryan Brandoff (spinning poi in a fedora), AshleyPants (hooper extraordinaire), Andrea Matteson (of Solaire, doing fans and double staff), Michael Trahey (spinning poi), Lance Johnson (spinning poi) and Amy Willen (providing us all with fire).  And yes, there’s even a quick shot of me, lighting up my fire sword (I’ve nicknamed it “The Beast”).

The video was originally posted on the LA Times website as “Chicagoans spin fire by the full moonlight.” According to Ms. Irvine, after the video was posted, nationally, the video was among the Top 15 videos yesterday and continues to get hits today. It ran in several other news locations, including:

• Yahoo! News: http://news.yahoo.com/video;_ylt=Ahg1x6TZsNRYfkrM6re.mD2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTEyYWd0dGRuBHBvcwMxMwRzZWMDeW5fbmF2aWdhdGlvbgRzbGsDdmlkZW8-#video=22182376 (so far it’s gotten more than 13,000 hits here)
• YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFXU5yqIZCM
• Comcast: http://www.comcast.net/video/chicagoans-spin-fire-by-the-full-moonlight/1602983470/fanNews/newest/
• Mefeedia:  http://www.mefeedia.com/news/33043950
• TampaBay.com: http://www.tampabay.com/components/video/chicagoans-spin-fire-by-the-full-moonlight/620970053001
• WHNT (Alabama): http://www.whnt.com/videobeta/d9a76b8e-92e9-4743-8b04-a62ae8d69f74/News/Chicagoans-spin-fire-by-the-full-moonlight

Doing a google search for “Chicagoans spire fire by the full moonlight” turns up A LOT of links to the video as well, so it looks like it’s getting a lot of traction, too. (Oddly enough, neither the Chicago Tribune nor the Chicago Sun-Times elected to run the video on their sites. I have no idea why, especially since it’s a report on something amazing going on in their own backyards.)

So thank you, Ms. Irvine, for putting together a wonderful portrait of our fire spinning family. We hope you come back again to join us at future jams.

I’m so thrilled that our community has been featured in such a fantastic light, and count myself as immensely lucky to be part of it all. Congratulations on the exposure, Chicago Fire Tribe! You look amazing and deserve recognition for all that you’ve done to bring the jams to where they are today!