Truth be told, being a radio DJ is not something that I was aspiring to. Not on a conscious level anyway…. that’s not to say the idea hadn’t run through my head before, but I never acted on it until recently when some friends of mine launched KRUU, a community radio station in Fairfield, Iowa. James Moore, the station manager and long-time friend, asked me to do a radio show sometime last year, and after several months of invitations, I decided to go for it since I love music, I love Fairfield, and I am glad to be a part of an open community radio station.
I have known James since I was in college in Fairfield, and he turned out to be a constant source of information and inspiration for me. This was during a time when I was organizing a midwest peace conference in which, thanks to connections from mutual friends, I was honored to be able to have several great world-renowned politicians, activists, and musicians on the bill, including filmmaker David Lynch as a keynote speaker.
You might think that Fairfield, Iowa, is the least obvious place for a progressive little radio station, and that David Lynch is the least likely person to be promoting peace, but there is more than meets the eye in the unique mecca that is Fairfield and the unique and enigmatic person that is David Lynch.
Fairfield is host to a wide variety of people from all over the world therefore a vast cultural diversity thrives there. On the town square there are several international restaurants and multiple venues for dance, theater, and world music. Another element that is very strong in the community of Fairfield is the emphasis on spiritual growth, peace, and sustainability, which has been a big draw for a lot of people in recent years. Even Mother Earth News recently named Fairfield "One of the 12 Great Places You’ve Never Heard Of."
I spent a few formative years in Fairfield during pre-school and later returned to attend Maharishi University of Management, and like thousands of other people, I went mostly because of the opportunity to spend a lot of time in deep meditation and to culture my own creativity in an environment that was supportive and friendly. What I found in the time that I spent there was that the town is so rich with opportunities and that there is ALWAYS something happening beneath the surface. And I love that in this town the only time there is any sort of traffic is when hundreds of people are migrating to the heart of the University’s campus for their twice daily meditation.
This is also a reason that David Lynch had decided to speak at the peace conference that I was organizing on campus. He has been practicing Transcendental Meditation for over 30 years and he has never missed a meditation, even amongst his hectic schedule while making movies. He is on the Board Of Trustees for Maharishi University of Management and he had been invited to attend some education conferences in California earlier that year, and he felt a deep desire to do something to help students gain more of the creativity and life benefits that he had gained from his meditation practice.
When David visited the MUM campus he saw consciousness beaming from the students’ faces. He was impressed with their poise and creativity and he knew that their meditation practice was a crucial part of their success. The weekend of the peace conference he decided to launch a foundation that would raise money and provide consciousness-based education to students around the world.
The David Lynch Foundation For Consciousness Based Education And World Peace has been very active the past two years. Around the time that the Foundation had become official (2005), I moved back to my hometown in the Pacific Northwest and all my friends were encouraging me to get on the social networking sites that boomed on the Internet (although I had been unaware of them until that point). Since I had moved nearly 30 times over a period of ten years, this proved a great way to stay in touch with my friends from all over the world and it also seemed a likely way to keep people updated on the activities of David’s Foundation.
It became apparent right away that there were endless musicians on the DLF’s Myspace page who had been directly inspired by David’s work.
Music is obviously something that is very important to David. He and I have been wanting to do more music-related projects that would benefit the Foundation. It is incredibly auspicious that singer/songwriter and long-time TM meditator Donovan has recently joined forces with
David to become the musical wing(s) of the DLF, and there are many
promising possibilities for the future. Perhaps you are someone who
would like to add to this growing wing of the foundation. I would like
to help produce more benefit concerts for the DLF, but for now I am
happy to be able to grow my own musical wings in this way of doing a
regular radio show.
When James first asked me to do a radio show for KRUU, I said no. I probably said something a little more like, "oh, hell, no," mostly because I didn’t think I had the time or the resources to do so. But then I decided that I would do a radio show if I could incorporate some of the great connections that I had made while working with the David Lynch Foundation. Fortunately David said yes, so I immediately dove into it. Over the past month or so I have received some totally fantastic music from bands all over the world that I am excited to play on air and write more about here and on the KRUU blog. There are some great shows that air on KRUU. The No-Fi Field Guide is one of my favorites, but you can check them all out in the archives on the station’s website.
I am not a musician myself, however, everyone that I know seems to be a
talented musician, so I will be playing a very eclectic mix of music
from people that I know, people that I admire, and people that,
through the web of life and the Internet, I have been fortunate enough
to stumble upon. I have always had a deep appreciation for what I
consider to be good music. Granted, my definition of good music is
broad and may not mesh with your definition, although I will be playing
a wide variety of stuff week to week … though you’ll never know
unless you listen.
P.S. If you would like me to listen to your music and consider it for
the show, shoot me an email at erin@kruufm.com.