Fire Up For Fall: Week Six

After an emotionally rough weekend, I’m looking forward to some normality this week. I’m glad I have FUFF to help me focus through the week.

1. What have you done to achieve your goals this week?

. Do at least one random act of kindness a week. Check!

b. Lose 8 lbs – that’s just one lb a week for the remainder of the challenge. Down another .5 this week for a total of 4.5 for the challenge. I’ve seen lower numbers all week, but TOM is knocking at my door, so I’m pleased to have any loss to report at all.

c. Practice piano at least 3 times a week. Check! The puppy is no longer as terrified of the piano as he was.

d. Read 15 books Still 5 of 15. I don’t think I’m going to make this one. My reading desire has all but fled. We’ll see how this week goes.

e. Plan at least one date event with B each week. Check! We did a dinner date on Wednesday and then an at home dinner and movie date on Friday.
2. What have you done to make yourself feel fabulous?

I let myself sleep in this weekend. The puppy has been getting us up earlier than we are used to getting up. So it was nice to sleep in and not worry about it.
3. Do you listen to music when you work out? What gets you fired up?

Sometimes I do. I hate the feeling of having ear buds in my ears. But it only seems to bother me if I’m working out indoors. I don’t actually care if the music “fires me up” or not as any music provides a distraction for me. Some of my favorite albums are Christopher O’Reilly’s True Love Waits and Hold Me To This – both piano arrangements of Radiohead, and Mumford and Sons Sigh No More. I listen to a lot of Irish traditional music too. Every now and then, I’ll even listen to a bit of pop or rock.

4. What’s your guilty pleasure music? How does it make you feel?

Country music hands down. When I was training as a classical musician, pop/rock could be tolerated  but country music was for the uneducated masses and to be avoided. Yes, I was a huge music snob. I really never listened to anything but classical or traditional music until I was in grad school. That’s when I started listening to country (really more like Southern Rock, I still can’t stand the twangy, whiny songs) and found that I like songs that are easy to sing along to and easy to get.

5. If today were a song what song would it be?

The above is probably my favorite String Quartet of all time. And this movement is my favorite. But the whole thing is fabulous. It’s the perfect song for a cold and cloudy day.

Positive Picture:

early morning fog on the alpsee

I’m not normally a fog and dreary day kind of girl, but I’m embracing that right now. I am however a sad song kind of girl, all the time. So if you ever need a melancholy song, give me a shout and I’ll share some of my favorites.

~The Countess~

Music Mondays: Cloud’s Cry

Cloud’s Cry offers passionate music that truly is a plea straight from the heart. The music features soaring lyricism, complex instrumentation, and exquisite harmonies. The band was started by singer-songwriter/classical composer/mom-extrordinaire Mandy Campbell. She leads the band with her vocals and adds her touch on the viola, harp, and penny whistle as well. Her husband Chris adds driving rhythms with a powerful and forceful guitar. Mandy’s twin sister Maggie provides back-up vocals and anchors the band from providing a solid bass to solo lines with her deft touch on the cello. Maggie’s husband Jon is the bands everyman throwing himself into rhythms on a cajon, harmonies as a back-up singer, and playing the violin and viola by turn. Mandy’s older sister Morgan also plays violin with the band. And I have been asked to play the piano for the group starting in late April of this year.

Cloud’s Cry is releasing their first cd, thirst for rain,  later this Spring from FeverDream Records.

~The Countess~

The song is my lover

A waltz when she walks in the room
She pulls back the hair from her face
She turns to the window to sway in the moonlight
Even her shadow has grace
A waltz for the girl out of reach
She lifts her hands up to the sky
She moves with the music
The song is her lover
The melody’s making her cry
So she dances
In and out of the crowd like a glance
This romance is
From afar calling me silently

A waltz for the chance I should take
But how will I know where to start?
She’s spinning between constellations and dreams
Her rhythm is my beating heart

So she dances
In and out of the crowd like a glance
This romance is
From afar calling me silently

I can’t keep on watching forever
I give up this view just to tell her

When I close my eyes I can see
The spotlights are bright on you and me
We’ve got the floor
And you’re in my arms
How could I ask for more?

So she dances
In and out of the crowd like a glance
This romance is
From afar calling me silently

I can’t keep on watching forever
And I’m givin’ up this view just to tell her

-Josh Groban-

~The Countess~

Musicianal Ramblings: Privacy

This post got its creative start from talking with a friend, who is a fan of the band Celtic Thunder. These guys are gearing up for a US tour this fall. Part of this has involved a lot of public appearances, with PBS, and maintaining a really active forum. I’m deliberately not linking the forum to avoid more issues. Anyways, these guys all have myspace pages and the like. Recently, a fan of theirs got in to the myspace page of one of the guys friends and pulled down pictures of one of the band members with his girl friend and with some relatives. And then posted those pictures for others to see. This set me to thinking about privacy and how little you sometimes have when performing. As a band member, you want to maximize your privacy without offending your fans.

In the years that I’ve been performing I’ve learned that when people see you on stage they automatically think they know you. In the last year and a half I’ve started playing, semi-regularly, with a group of girls, and our darling guitarist who’s male. After our most recent performance I went to the grocery store in the town we were performing in and got stopped by a guy who wanted to tell me how much he enjoyed our music. I was flattered. But it also made me realize how quickly getting recognized and approached could get old. Even bothersome. The catch-22 is that, especially as a folk musician, you don’t want to alienate the people who like your music by being unapproachable. You have to hang out with fans after shows (this really doesn’t apply to me, my band is not at all well-known), and these days, you have to run websites and pages on all of the popular internet sites.

But how much is too much? Where do you draw the line? I’m friends with multiple bands and individual band members on both myspace and facebook. One of the guys, probably the smartest one, has his entire friends list hidden on myspace. If you can’t see it, then you can’t access their friends pages. This helps the friends and family of band members maintain their privacy. It’s a good rule of thumb when dealing with the internet. It follows the adage of not posting anything you wouldn’t want anyone to see. Or everyone. If the information is unavailable then, well, it can’t be used/exploited.

After that, it comes down to restricting the information. But, in a day and age where anyone can google and find photos and way too much personal information, one should always assume that anything posted on the internet can be found by other people. Period. So, if it’s really private, keep it off-line. That’s the safest way to go.

But, there are far more fans out there then band members. To the fans I say this: respect their privacy. It only takes one person to ruin the fun for everyone. In the case of the Celtic Thunder issue, it wasn’t all the fans, it was one. One person who has now made some of the band members question their participation in the forum. So don’t do it. Yes, these guys are public figures, but that doesn’t mean you should be trying to nose in on every part of their lives. There are lines for a reason, don’t cross them.

Another thing to remember is that, just because they talk to you online or after shows, doesn’t mean that you’re “real” friends. Musician’s hang out with fans. That’s the way the business works. Yeah, in the smaller world of Irish and Traditional American Folk music the musicians may learn your name, recognize you on sight, friend you on the internet, etc. But that doesn’t mean that you are really their friend. They still have lives that you know nothing about. Lives that you don’t have the right to know anything about. They may be your friends, but really, it’s more like acquaintances.

Above all, for everyone, it’s best to treat each other the way you would want to be treated, and yes, I just threw the golden rule out there. Seriously, though, I know I wouldn’t want someone searching for pics of me on my family members webpages and then posting them on a forum for the world to see. Especially when it involves kids. It’s just something to think about. Privacy is a big deal. Everyone deserves to have some modicum of privacy. Even musicians.

~The Countess~

Amy B is coming to visit

My friend Amy B. from Pennsylvania is coming to visit me! I’m so excited. She’ll be coming down in August and staying for a weekend. I cannot wait to see her. Meet her actually.

Amy B. and I met in April of 2005 over on livejournal. We met in a community she started as a fan group for the Irish band Teada. What started as simple messages left every couple of months has turned into phone calls and chatting on the internet multiple times a week. (At least when I have internet access) Three years later though and we still haven’t met in person. But we will in August and I seriously cannot wait. For someone I’ve never seen face-to-face Amy knows a lot about me. And so, 45 days from today I will be picking her up from the airport. Oh the fun we are going to have…and the trouble we’re likely to get into!

~The Countess~