Friday, May 27, 2011

So this is cool - I'm on a podcast?

Remember that set I said I kinda accidentally played last Thursday at Mojo Main?

Apparently you can listen to it here: GraffitiRadio.com

Normally I really don't enjoy listening to myself, but I'm a minute or two into the first song and... it just sounds like I'm having a great time. Yeah, I'm making mistakes because it's Michael's guitar and I don't normally play steel string and I couldn't adjust the strap because it was too difficult and unfortunately all my guitar-playing friends are giants compared to me and I was getting over a cold so my vox mess up but... FUN!!!

The setlist is comprised of:
5 Stages of Infatuation,
The Horseshoe Crab Song,
"the war song" (no good title),
Automatic Toilet Song,
and Half-Decent (with Shane on drums)
...and COFFAY!

Anyway, the reason you can listen to this recording is because Graffiti Radio set up the show and was broadcasting it live. So I guess when you can do that sort of thing, it makes sense to record what you're broadcasting and put it up as a podcast. Huge big shoutout to Graffiti Radio for letting me go on - you folks are completely awesome!!! And thanks to Michael for being the ninja go-between-suggestion-guy.

If you've got a couple seconds, also listen to the other sets - folks did a great job that night!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Whoosh!

The last four days were a whirlwind. In fact, life from this point on until late August is going to be a complete cyclone.


(from toothpastefordinner.com)

A damselfly just landed next to me! So pretty. I'm outside enjoying my porch. It would be a much nicer porch if I had a couple beers and some friends over. Instead, I'm blogging and eating chocolate. Whatever.

Anyway, enough about domesticity. Back to the adventure! Because, as we all know, there is no adventure in domesticity. Which is something that has rather been affecting me in not a good way. Twice in the last week, I've had to truncate adventures due to my nice domestic lifestyle of having a job and a house to take care of.

RARGH

But anyway. I truly am grateful for what I have. Which is chocolate. And a blog.

OKAY, musics!

Thursday, I grabbed a five-song set at Mojo Main, rather accidentally, by which I mean, I didn't mean to. By which I mean, I showed up to hear the Paper Janes and Battleshy Youths and all of a sudden I'm onstage killing time until Glen shows up to drum for the Janes. Thanks to Michael for sneaking that in, all ninja-like, and for letting me borrer his guitar.

Friday, I show back up at Mojo to much suspicion. "Weren't you here last night??" "Yeah, I stayed overnight and ate something I found on the floor for breakfast." Anyway, that was fun. I like matinees at Mojo Main. This time, there were even some people there! Afterward, I got to scootch down Main Street to hear the Paper Janes play in the dark at Central Perk. ^^ Seriously, more shows should be played during power outages, just sayin'.

Saturday, down to the Dupont Nature Center for Peace, Love, and Horseshoe Crabs 2011. Shane was gracious enough to accompany me on the djembe. (He also helped to put a dent in the buffet table, which I think was much appreciated since they had WAY TOO MUCH!.) I missed the daytime portion of the festivities, but I had an awesome time singin' and playin' and carryin' on at the silent auction/dinner/benefit portion. The assistant superintendent of Lums Pond drafted a team of backup singers & dancers for the Horseshoe Crab song. ^^

Sunday, I actually didn't play anywhere, believe it or not.

Monday was Mojo Main's open mic, again, the best open mic in Newark, DE... I busted out a few songs that I don't ordinarily play. In fact, one I've hardly played at all since I wrote it for FAWM 2010.

And Tuesday was a lovely Palk Basement Show, where Michael and I played a pretty-good rendition of "Peter." I love that song. I really do. I honestly didn't practice at all before we went up. I should consider doing that sometimes. Unfortunately, I had to miss the last band 'cause I was basically a hot mess between feeling miserable in the stomach region, and therefore not having eaten, and then all the other life that was happening and me feeling bad and guilty for things, and I just felt like it would be a better idea for me to go home at that point.


So that's what I've been doing. This is actually my last week of teaching lessons for a month... work is promising to get really rough in the next month, and I'm just taking a little breather so I can focus and do things like... sleep. I do like teaching guitar. I only like teaching under certain circumstances... I've never been enamored with public schools. The idea of bringing homework to grade is so repulsive to me. I'd probably be the best teacher ever, actually.

Work is going just fine. I JUST got the summer concert series ALL booked up as of this week, so I'll start promoting that soon.

I gotta give a shoutout to the community of folks I've got around me right now. There are just a lot of musicians around me with really good spirits. I really am looking forward to seeing what is going to come out of this, 'cause I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Tetris on Dulcimer



Here's me messing with the mountain dulcimer, playing the Tetris A Theme. I don't think you're supposed to hold the instrument that way, but I wanted to have fun, goshdarnit!

The dulcimer is actually a really beautiful instrument and I enjoy experimenting with it to see what it can do.




Last night was Mojo Main with Shane. Here's a video of his performance, which went over really really well:



You can hear someone at the very end yelling "400 BABIES," which I loved. So. Much.

My own set was fantastic! We killed "Half-Decent." I think it was about 76% decent, in fact!!




What can you be looking for in the near future from me? Hmm. Mostly I'm expecting to be real busy with work, and to be trying to recuperate from whatever illness is currently inhabiting my trachea, so, I don't know. You'll get a post about Peace, Love, and Horseshoe Crabs, for sure, and then it's hard to say. Sorry in advance for falling off the radar for a little while!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Little updates...

-Got a microphone, finally! Haven't even had time to get it out of the box and set it up for the first time, but... it's here. Not something I ever would have imagined myself doing, intentionally purchasing equipment for the purpose of amplifying my own voice...

-Spoke at an environmental journalism class at UD today. Always, always, always wonderful to share about why I'm doing what I'm doing (even if I don't know exactly what I'm doing). Played a couple of my nature tunes for the group with Shane, which I think makes him the first person ever to rehearse and perform my own original tunes alongside me. Thanks, Shane!

-Been doing worship here and there, which still feels kinda new to me. The plan is to set up my own binder of worship tunes... tho really, I'll end up pretty much memorizing them all since they're all of 3-5 chords each... there's only 1-2 worship tunes I have ever had to look up in order to play correctly... (sounds like I'm bragging, but I'm allowed to do that since it is A) one of God's gifts to me and B) something I've spent years and plenty of my parents' money developing)

-Peace, Love, and Horseshoe Crabs coming up Saturday, May 21!

-I'm taking June off from teaching guitar. My job goes bananas in June and I'd like to focus. I've had so many inquiries from potential students in just the last month... which is wonderful! But summer is, unfortunately, the busy time at work, and I'm learning a little bit these days about the wonders of getting sleep and spending time at home just weeding the garden...

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

The good shepherd (a biblical interlude)

Lately I feel like I've got no forward motion. Like a sailboat on a still and windless sea. Realistically, I actually have PLENTY to be doing - three performances in the next month or so - nothing fancy, but a gig's a gig. I try to do this regularly, but especially in the harder times, all I want to do is press in to the Lord and be in His presence. And He usually shows me what to do. So lately, I've been reading a whole ton in the Bible. Now... look. I know some of the stuff I'm going to say could be old hat, but it's new to me and I revel in it.

For awhile I was reading in John, and of course there's verses 11-12 in chapter 10 that go like this:

I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd gives up his life for his sheep. Hired workers are not like the shepherd. They don't own the sheep, and when they see a wolf coming, they run off and leave the sheep. Then the wolf attacks and scatters the flock.


Thing about these verses is they mostly tell you, "Jesus loves you as one of his own, and is not going to leave you if something bad happens." Which is GREAT! But I was reading in 1 Samuel (I'm addicted to it right now), and I found this image of David's shepherding prowess which I really liked, and which (I suppose?) gives an image of what shepherding was like back then (before border collies and things). It's Chapter 17 verses 34-35, and David is trying to explain to Saul that he is, in fact, qualified to go after Goliath:

But David told him (Saul): Your Majesty, I take care of my father's sheep. And when one of them is dragged off by a lion or a bear, I go after it and beat the wild animal until it lets the sheep go. If the wild animal turns and attacks me, I grab it by the throat and kill it.


Yeah, you might get snatched up by a lion, but guess what? Jesus is coming for you. Relentlessly, singlemindedly, and fervently. And he's going to beat the crap out of the lion what snatched you away from his Father's flock. WITH HIS BARE HANDS.

Booyah. Take that, Bear Grylls.

This post is relevant to my music? Yep. I just couldn't be a crazy music lady without God and His relentless lion-destroying love for me, and I never was a crazy music lady until He convinced me to start making use of the gifts He gave me. It's a good reminder... that I'm not doing this music thing for myself, really. I'm doing it to give glory to what God has done in me. Not something I want to lose focus of.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Storytelling and Facebook Pacts

I've made a pact with Shane to use facebook just for one hour during this week. If one of us goes over the limit, they have to buy the other a milkshake. This is actually REALLY helping me, so let's hope it keeps working. 'Cause, really - that's ten minutes a day for six days, or 20 minutes on 3 days. Honestly, that's enough.

This is important for the musics to happen because if I'm on facebook, I'm not practicing. When I divert time from facebook, it usually goes into practice.




No huge music updates. I set some new goals for the summer. The one I'm most excited about is the storytelling thing. I've secretly wanted to be a storyteller for years. Technically, I did prepare and tell stories around a campfire at Halloween last year, so I suppose I can technically say that I am, but I haven't made any more moves on any more stories since. But, man - that was so awesome. I had a small but wonderful audience and they thoroughly enjoyed the stories. I picked stories that were not too scary, but mostly spooky and funny.

I've been told you need a niche to survive as a storyteller - a focus. I was discouraged by this for awhile, but the answer should have been completely obvious - I'd be nature-focused. Duh. So I actually put a "Wild Tales & Tunes Campfire" on the schedule for a Saturday evening in August for Lums Pond. If all goes well, I think it'll serve as a nice launching point for incorporating more storytelling into what I do. If it flops, it flops.

Obviously, I don't actually think it will flop - otherwise, I wouldn't have planned it - but you can't know these things unless you try. I just think it would be incredibly lame to arrive at the end of my life and find myself thinking about all the stuff I didn't do because I just didn't try. I don't want to wonder how it could have turned out.

Mary Oliver says it best in this excerpt from "When Death Comes":

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.