See You Around 2010
I had an epiphany recently, one which left me with the unshakable desire to all but retreat from this online world. That means — hibernate this blog, remove all my personal contact info from all those social networks, stop ‘adding friends’ to anything, and - less gladly but quite necessarily - say a fond farewell to the many many cool people out there that I wouldn’t have had the privilege of knowing by any other means, but who are just too distant and too great in numbers to keep corresponding with.
Since finding out I was pregnant, I’ve felt my priorities drastically shifting and myself moving towards decisions like this, but this weekend it became strangely, suddenly urgent to my sense of well-being that I do this. My sweetheart Larry and our little one, my family and close friends - in real life - these are the people I need around me and really care about, and they’re all I have room in my life for. When the baby arrives, that will only become more true.
Am I going to keep making music? Der, of course! And when I have something worth putting out there, I will, but I don’t need to be an internet attention whore in the meantime to do that (more the contrary, in fact). There was a time when I thrived on being out there, talking to a whole bunch of people, sharing my experiences and learning about all the possibilities out there, but that phase has run its course and left me unfulfilled. Now I thrive on the private, personal, important things, like just being with my honey, going to the lake, strumming guitars in bed, singing to my belly, writing songs, spending weekends with close friends, talking to my mom on the phone, cooking nice meals, playing with our dog, making plans for our future, and just taking better care of myself and those I love.
As far as creative endeavors like music, same thing. I just want to make music. Not blog about music, not email people I’ve never met and probably never will meet about music. Make music. Play music. I’m returning to the simpler ways of the olden days, when music was really about the simple joy of making music, and it was done well, and for all the right reasons.
So this blog will soon disappear. Probably not forever. I may resurrect it (in some simpler form) around 2010 - or whenever I have something finished that I’m really proud of and want to share with the world. Meanwhile, thanks, everyone, for everything! We had good times! But things change (as they should).
I leave you with a favorite Irish blessing…
Shnikeys!
Sorry, people who left comments that were awaiting approval in the past week! Somehow I was not getting the email notifications to go approve them, and hadn’t checked the blog itself in a while. My apologies for the wait. Or the deep, soul-crushing sadness you must have felt if you thought your comment had been sucked out through the internet tubes of darkness, never to be seen again. This is not so. Your comment should now be visible.
Hey, check out my latest pregnant belly shot!
The Big Long Hiatus
Hello my pretties.
I’ve been taking a wee break from blogging, in case you hadn’t noticed.
I’ve been juggling some tricky situations over recent months, and one in particular has sort of prevented me from publicly discussing my personal life, at all, and been exhausting me emotionally to the point where I haven’t been inclined to write anything anyway, personal or otherwise. But that is resolving itself, finally. Hallelujah.
Of course, much of what’s kept me away has also been very good! Some of it wonderful. The biggest news of all is… … …I’m pregnant! And Larry, that special friend who saved my life in Utah, well (here’s the rest of that story that I left out before), he’s not so much my ‘new best friend’. He’s actually quite an old friend, who recently turned into much more, and he’s the daddy to be. I want to say a whole lot more here, about him and about everything, but for previously mentioned reason, I will not right now. (I said the situation is resolving itself, not resolved).
But other than that big announcement, I just want to say I’m alive and well, busy, happy, doing music, still planning to release an EP this year (though later into it than I’d hoped), and I will hopefully start posting more in the coming weeks. There are many things piled up in my head I’ve been wanting to share. I am however officially staying on hiatus, just to take that bit of weight off my shoulders that I don’t need during what’s still a pretty stressful and busy time.
Thanks so much to everyone who has written me with comments or emails expressing concern for my well being, and encouragement and support. You’re awesome.
And as a sort of present to you folks, I’ve decided I’m going to, at last, start posting clips from my improvitape sessions, which I’d been churning out like crazy last Fall but never quite felt comfortable sharing with more than a few musician friends. At this point it just seems silly not to, though. This blog was more than anything meant to document my creative process, the ‘journey’ of me creating music, not just my end results. And as you’ll soon hear for yourself, these clips (which I call songseeds) are hardly finished results. More like idea-doodles in sound. Anyway, stay tuned!
props!
Sup! Before I fly to Ann Arbor for the weekend, I’d just like to extend props to a couple internet friends, specifically whose names start with ‘T’.
Ted Heistman of the blog Free Range Organic Human said some rather nice things about me recently after he finally checked out my Youtube videos. Hey, it’s never too late. Thanks Ted!
Tim Boucher, aka Big Elk, just released what he calls an IP (Internet Package) of all-new, nice clean demos of all his songs. His lyrics kick ass and his style is kinda old-timey mountain folk music meets the guy from the Moldy Peaches. I have it going in the background and I’m digging so far! It’s free to download so check it out (go for the ZIP, it includes lyrics and other goodies). Here’s my favorite track. It’s also in the public domain so if you like any of it, take it and do stuff with it (the songs are super coverable), or as he put it: “$$$ GET RICH OFF ME, PLEASE!!! $$$”.
And lastly but not leastly in the giving of props, much gratitude to everyone who commented or emailed to express concern over my health after my weird near-death episode last weekend. Just to alleviate any worries though, I’m fine! I feel great! And life is good. I gotta go pack now, bye! Love y’all!
The Intergalactic Underground!
This is the best and funniest expression of my own personal philosophy I’ve ever seen!