Recap on just a Couple Days - music, art, and baby goats
So much goes on in my life, I've noticed, yet I don't feel an urge to chronicle it in my journal like I did when I was an undergraduate. I'm less lonely, I think, or maybe I'm less prone to self-reflections. I'm more focused on the immediate, and I'm trying to make a life for myself that is stable, meaningful, and impacting.
+ Last week I visited Dr. Mary Moss at her goat farm. She had three beautiful baby goats to play with and feed. It was the best kind of therapy for me to hold a fluffy newborn goat in my arms as it suckled from a bottle. Dr. Moss wants me to come more often, and I think I'll take her up on it. Her place is so very calming, and it isn't a horrible burden to get there-- it's only about 45 minutes up the road. I recorded her at the farm, and I'm going to do my next podcast on her. At first I thought it would just be about her goats, but the more that I went in, the more I was sold on the story behind the farm and Dr. Moss' mission to make it this safe haven for goats, for young idealists, and for herself. She's making no profit off her work-- not monetary profit, anyway.
+ I have another journalism assignment I'm working on. This one is for the local paper that pays its writers shit and produces close to the same thing, but one needs to build up a resume somehow. This'll be my 3rd piece for them, and I'm doing it on hydrobiking-- essentially it is what it sounds like, you bike on the water. I'm going to try to churn it out as quickly as I can in lieu of all the other things creeping into my life.....
+ The brewery will be open by the end of the month, so there's a lot to do..... However, not just yet. I still have to wait until final inspections and building stuff finishes up before I can begin to put up the gallery, the flags, the pictures, the glassware, etc. etc. etc. then there's all the event planning, coordinating, merchandising, blah blah blah.
+ My band played at a beer event last weekend, and it went very well. We played between two very well-established bands in Knoxville. After the show, we had so many people complimenting us. I even had some hipster girls try and buy my cardigan off me. It felt good, and we made a lot of money. Next we're playing at a huge street festival that's going to have almost a thousand people. We're even going to have belly dancers dance with some of our songs! Sunshine Station is definitely starting to hit its stride. I'm going to try and get us booked at some of the bigger venues now in the city. Ideally, I'd like us to do a Winter/Spring Tour and hit up a few places out of the city. Unfortunately, we have such a difficult scheduling conflict with all that-- none of us are young and unambitious. We have jobs and families. It makes it hard to travel. Also, we'd need a van or something to make it work.
+ I also sang at Walt's this weekend. Walt's is a homestead in the middle of nowhere which has a secret location no one is allowed to give out. It's by invite only. This was my 3rd year there, and I got along pretty well. There are a lot of show-boater musicians who need to learn better manners when it comes to jamming. One in particular managed to annoy nearly everyone in the campsite.
I wrote a song while I was there which is my second song I've ever written. I think it went over well. I sang about how, despite how much I try to be above petty things, I still get into arguments with people in my head.
See, I was standing on the platform by the shed that overlooked the river, and even in the midst of nature, I got a sour expression my face and couldn't help but get pissed off at some people. It made me realize I had a problem getting out of my head and separating myself from unintelligent behavior, so I wrote the song.
+ Jess came over to paint with me today. I'm getting close to my biggest painting project yet. It's a collage of sorts of all the various aspects of nature in the mountains that I like. A stream runs through the middle with lots of underwater fern branches, and there are tadpoles that escape the scene and swim into other parts of the painting like the Spring side, where I painted a thick old limb of a red bud tree with moss on it and small pale pink flowers. I painted a cold winter night when the sky is clear and you're looking up at the branches of trees with show stuck on them. I painted a knobby oak tree with vibrant orange mushrooms growing up it. I painted a tangled cluster of 'wine berries,' or 'wild raspberries' that grew in the woods of Virginia when I was a child. I painted little yellow wildflowers, and finally, a fat little crawdad clinging to a rock.
I hope it turns out good. Right now it's only halfway there.
+ Last week I visited Dr. Mary Moss at her goat farm. She had three beautiful baby goats to play with and feed. It was the best kind of therapy for me to hold a fluffy newborn goat in my arms as it suckled from a bottle. Dr. Moss wants me to come more often, and I think I'll take her up on it. Her place is so very calming, and it isn't a horrible burden to get there-- it's only about 45 minutes up the road. I recorded her at the farm, and I'm going to do my next podcast on her. At first I thought it would just be about her goats, but the more that I went in, the more I was sold on the story behind the farm and Dr. Moss' mission to make it this safe haven for goats, for young idealists, and for herself. She's making no profit off her work-- not monetary profit, anyway.
+ I have another journalism assignment I'm working on. This one is for the local paper that pays its writers shit and produces close to the same thing, but one needs to build up a resume somehow. This'll be my 3rd piece for them, and I'm doing it on hydrobiking-- essentially it is what it sounds like, you bike on the water. I'm going to try to churn it out as quickly as I can in lieu of all the other things creeping into my life.....
+ The brewery will be open by the end of the month, so there's a lot to do..... However, not just yet. I still have to wait until final inspections and building stuff finishes up before I can begin to put up the gallery, the flags, the pictures, the glassware, etc. etc. etc. then there's all the event planning, coordinating, merchandising, blah blah blah.
+ My band played at a beer event last weekend, and it went very well. We played between two very well-established bands in Knoxville. After the show, we had so many people complimenting us. I even had some hipster girls try and buy my cardigan off me. It felt good, and we made a lot of money. Next we're playing at a huge street festival that's going to have almost a thousand people. We're even going to have belly dancers dance with some of our songs! Sunshine Station is definitely starting to hit its stride. I'm going to try and get us booked at some of the bigger venues now in the city. Ideally, I'd like us to do a Winter/Spring Tour and hit up a few places out of the city. Unfortunately, we have such a difficult scheduling conflict with all that-- none of us are young and unambitious. We have jobs and families. It makes it hard to travel. Also, we'd need a van or something to make it work.
+ I also sang at Walt's this weekend. Walt's is a homestead in the middle of nowhere which has a secret location no one is allowed to give out. It's by invite only. This was my 3rd year there, and I got along pretty well. There are a lot of show-boater musicians who need to learn better manners when it comes to jamming. One in particular managed to annoy nearly everyone in the campsite.
I wrote a song while I was there which is my second song I've ever written. I think it went over well. I sang about how, despite how much I try to be above petty things, I still get into arguments with people in my head.
See, I was standing on the platform by the shed that overlooked the river, and even in the midst of nature, I got a sour expression my face and couldn't help but get pissed off at some people. It made me realize I had a problem getting out of my head and separating myself from unintelligent behavior, so I wrote the song.
+ Jess came over to paint with me today. I'm getting close to my biggest painting project yet. It's a collage of sorts of all the various aspects of nature in the mountains that I like. A stream runs through the middle with lots of underwater fern branches, and there are tadpoles that escape the scene and swim into other parts of the painting like the Spring side, where I painted a thick old limb of a red bud tree with moss on it and small pale pink flowers. I painted a cold winter night when the sky is clear and you're looking up at the branches of trees with show stuck on them. I painted a knobby oak tree with vibrant orange mushrooms growing up it. I painted a tangled cluster of 'wine berries,' or 'wild raspberries' that grew in the woods of Virginia when I was a child. I painted little yellow wildflowers, and finally, a fat little crawdad clinging to a rock.
I hope it turns out good. Right now it's only halfway there.