A Celebration of the Life & Spirit of David Gypsy Chain
"We would feed our souls, and Barry and I would try to help us maintain in
this difficult time... music can do that."
Giving his life to the Headwaters Forest campaign, David was slain when a man
known as A.E., a logger working an illegal Pacific Lumber timber cut, felled a tree which
crushed the life out of this exuberant 24-year old activist from Texas.
Following this week's memorial services in Humboldt County, Country Joe and "The
Fish" will perform to celebrate the spirit of life and activism against corporate greed and
violence. Other local musicians and perhaps some surprise guests will perform or make
presentations during a potluck dinner.
Friends of David Chain will call in and talk about his life; videos from the current
activities at base camp will be shown; and members of the legal team will update us on
the state of legal initiatives against Pacific Lumber and the logger responsible for killing
Gypsy.
The Earth First! Media Center was founded in 1995 by Andy Caffrey, a veteran Earth
First! activist who moved to Southern Humboldt last year. Working to explore computer
technology, e-mail lists, and web sites to expand the range of environmental and social
organizing activities, Caffrey specifically founded the Media Center as a way to help get
the word out when Earth First! experiences times of crisis.
In 1990, he made the Redwood Summer video and toured the U.S. for two months
telling the true story of the car bombing ofJudi Bari and Darryl Cherney. Within one
week of David Chain's death, the Media Center has gotten the word out over the
Internet to over 100,000 activists around the globe. On the Media Center web site,
the Media Center has published
the complete transcript of the video showing the enraged logger shortly before he killed
David. At the concert THIS SUNDAY, Caffrey will be experimenting with a two-hour call-
in fundraising marathon with the goal of raising over $10,000 for the wrongful death
lawsuit in the name of David Chain.
Earth First! Media Center
"I envisioned a totally organic event like a wake. Not strangers in the
audience but family and friends. Not a venue, but a familiar place...."
On Sunday, October 4, Country Joe MacDonald and Barry "The Fish" Melton make
a rare concert appearance together at the Mateel Community Center. These artists are
coming together to join with our community during this time of tragedy -- the death of
David Gypsy Chain.