I will summarize the consensus with the caveat that this is pure speculation based on incomplete information. However, it does seem to be a good fit with the information we have.
- We don't know when the event was initially planned and scheduled by the squatter group. It could well have been at a time when they either assumed the parish income would remain steady, or they assumed they would have some resumption of income to pay the musicians.
- However, by October and November, very little money was coming in. The vestry members actually feel my own estimate of the income to the squatters, for instance assuming $1000 monthly rental for the parking lot, may be too large. I will defer to their judgment.
- Nevertheless, in the vestry's speculative view, the squatter group continued planning for the event, taking out the ad in the Los Feliz Ledger and presumably holding rehearsals with the paid professional (and quite possibly unionized) musicians in the orchestra and choir.
- The vestry speculates that the orchestra and choir were promised payment for both rehearsals and performance after the choral evensong and requiem performance.
- However, despite promises and sweet-talk from the squatter group, the vestry speculates that the musicians began to feel something was hinky and demanded some concrete evidence that they would be paid. In my view and the view of the vestry, there wasn't money to pay the electric bill, much less the musicians.
- The musicians, in this speculative scenario, told the squatter group to forget it at the last minute, convinced they were about to be stiffed (and probably already had been stiffed for the rehearsal time).
