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Harbor Alumni Starts New Religion-
Fellowship
of Fortuna
L.A.-based Gordy
Grundy recently created it, which is based on luck and chance.
Don't think of it as a cult, but rather a "co-ed fraternity."
By
ALEX CRAWFORD, Sports Editor
Newport
Beach seems poised to become a Mecca of sorts for a new religious movement.
They call themselves the Fellowship of Fortuna and leader/creator Gordy
Grundy is a Newport Harbor High graduate. Grundy is a Los Angeles based
arts columnist who is just putting the finishing touches on his work.
He calls it a work in the school of Phenomenology, or creating a cultural
phenomenon. The new art-centric religion is based on luck and chance.
In the words of Grundy, “it’s a good luck cult.” They
base their philosophical thought on the Newport aesthetic, wisdom learned
from the two Dukes, John Wayne and Duke Kahanamoku.
The “Fortunates,” as
followers are called believe in a “better than mantra” that
states, “I want to leave everywhere I go, better than I found
it. I want to leave everyone I meet, better for the encounter.”
At
first glance this group seems like a new age religious movement or
some kind of a cult. But the website states that it is neither a church
nor
a cult, rather a “co-ed fraternity.” Also, according to
the website they have a car club, a yacht, a space and science senate,
a
surf team, and a sports team The Falcons of Fortuna.
With
all these factions of the Fellowship it seems as if it is more than
a cult or a religion. Is this all some kind of joke or fun fantasy that
Grundy has of creating a community based on luck? It seems at first
like
all the ‘seminars’ and ‘clubs’ on the web page
are just for show. But then something will happen that makes it seem
more serious than that. The videos on Youtube are like Russian propaganda
films with their “better than” mantra and their constant
repition of “we all have luck.” More remains to be seen as
this “good luck cult” is investigated further in part two
of this story.
______________________________________________________
Inside
the Good Luck Cult; Part Two:
Interviewing the Fortuna Leader
After
many warnings, an editor meets up with a supposed cult leader and learns
that he's not so much of a creeper, but a talented artist... By
ALEX CRAWFORD, Sports Editor
The
Fellowship of Fortuna; on the outside it appears to be some form
of a cult drawing followers in with the promise of good luck and
good fortune. After the previous article on this subject, I was determined
to find out what was really going on and I met with FoF (Fellowship
of Fortuna) founder and leader Gordy Grundy, a Newport Harbor graduate
as previously mentioned. When I told my classmates I was going to
meet with the founder of a supposed cult, many people warned me to
be cautious.
But
Grundy is not the creepy cult leader you expect him to be. Born and
raised in Newport, Grundy reminisces about pranks him and his friends
used to pull at Newport Harbor back in the “good, old days.” He
wore a blazer and a dress shirt both emblazoned with the FoF logo
and explained to me “the Fellowship of Fortuna is not a religion
or cult, but rather a way of looking at life…like Confucianism.” He
calls it a “touchstone, designed to be used the same way one
reads a daily horoscope. For the lift, the fun and the inspiration.” So
all the crazy ideas people were getting about a cult leader form
Newport and some crazy cult that meets in the backwoods of LA were
not true.
The
FoF is just a way of thinking and in many ways is an art movement.
Contemporary Art Month named them the Peoples Choice Award Winner
for Best Show. Not show as in TV show but show as in art show. In
the show they had artwork promoting the Fellowship displayed. They
had their first exhibit in Texas and it was a hit. In addition Grundy
has made some pro-FoF videos and put them on Youtube.
But
now Grundy explained that he wants to do a new type of show. He explained
that it would be an empty room with a beer keg in the middle, and
then on each wall there would be a flat screen TV and on each TV
would be some kind of sing along song playing. So the whole basis
for the art show would be to have people drinking, having a good
time, and singing along to these original videos. Grundy told me
that no one has really done anything like this before. “It’s
going to get big. No one has ever seen anything like this.” Ms.
Tulsa Kinney, editor of Artillery Magazine elaborated on this point
saying “conceptually, Gordy Grundy's work has always been ahead
of his time, often at odds with trends within the art world.” He
even did a favor for us Harbor students and put some Newport-themed
desktops up on the FoF website, FortunaNow.com. Just click on the
little blue dot in the lower right hand corner.
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