June News

From Gene Burnett

Just a few new videos posted this past month. Two “Sky Videos” featuring a couple of old-ish songs, my performance at the latest Oregon Shakespeare Festival Hip Hop Open Mike (see video embedded above), one Nature video, and two more T’ai-Chi videos.

Still hoping to start recording my next album soon. I have a bunch of new songs that I really like…just need a couple more and I’ll be good to go.

Links to the new videos as well as my “Crooked Love” video playlist are below in the “New Videos” section of this newsletter.

So here we go…I’m going to start with local shows in case you’re in the Rogue Valley and then the usual information about where to find my music, videos, and pictures, including information about new projects.

There is so much to listen to and watch on the net these days…I’m amazed anyone even gets this far in the newsletter let alone watches or listens to anything I’m doing. I’m sincerely grateful for every view, every listen, and every nice comment I receive. I’m happy if anything I post truly reaches even one person. I’m offering all this stuff in a “just in case you’re interested” spirit.

Upcoming Shows:

Monday, June 1^st, I'll be playing at one of my favorite Ashland venues, Liquid Assets. A relaxed living room vibe with great service, excellent food and wine, and a really nice place to listen to music. I'll be playing from 8-10pm, maybe longer...

Monday, June 1^st, it’s time for the annual Bob Dylan Birthday Bash at The Wild Goose in Ashland. All Bob, all night long. No idea when I’ll be going up…It’ll be a little later than usual because I’ll be heading over after my show at Liquid Assets (see above). Things should get going around 8pm. Come early, get a good seat, have dinner and pay tribute to the master!

Wednesday June 3^rd, I'll be hosting my regular Themed Open Mike at The Wild Goose Café & Bar. Usually this happens on the First Wednesday of every month. This month's theme, is our “4^th Annual Songs Of Summer” so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems, originals or covers, that are about or mention anything to do with Summer. We're never too strict or narrow about the themes for this event. The main idea is to focus our attention a little to hopefully inspire and motivate us creatively. These are always fun. No Cover at the friendliest bar in Ashland. Sign-up is 7:30pm. Show starts at 8:00pm. *A heads up for next month: Wednesday, July 1^st, 2015. In honor of recreational cannabis turning legal in Oregon: “Smokin’ & Drinkin’ Songs”

Tuesday, June 16^th, I'll be competing with many other poets at the Rogue Poetry Slam which happens at Northwest Pizza and Pasta in Ashland. Sign-up is at 7:30pm and the show starts at 8. $5 cover, all of which goes to the winning poets. If you've never been to or competed in a Poetry Slam, I highly recommend this one. Come to watch, compete, or be one of the judges. Some people think of slams as hardcore hip-hop events or places where people are mean and talk trash, but nothing could be further from the truth. All kinds of poetry are welcome and people are very supportive. And it's so nice to participate in an event that is all about the words, or in my case, lyrics. For me it's really not about winning or losing, but just the fun of sharing my words with people and seeing what happens.

For more info on these and all of my shows, and to confirm that there have been no cancellations, click here: Calendar  

Since I'm putting this newsletter out once a month, it's possible there may be a cancellation of a given show by the time it happens. Please double check with my web calendar if possible to be sure the gig is still happening. I'd hate to have you come out for nothing. Also another gig or two might be added or times or locations might change, so do check the calendar for the latest info.  

Recorded Music

My newest album is called Crooked Love and like all my other albums (31 so far…), it’s available for downloading free or with a donation at my website: www.GeneBurnett.com

Videos In General

Overall Mission: I post a lot of videos on youtube, over 1000 so far! I'm not trying to build a fan base...In fact, I'm not trying to build anything. I'm not expecting you or anyone else to follow what I'm doing or watch all of these videos. Posting videos is just part of my overall plan to make my music (and my T’ai-Chi and Nature videos too) as freely available as possible and see what freely comes back. I think of each video as sort of like a message in a bottle...and more I toss out there the more likely one of them will land on a friendly shore and something good will come back to me. So here are some video links in case you're interested:

How to Find My Videos: First of all, I've set up a "Videos" page on my website (www.GeneBurnett.com) with a menu similar to what you see below as well as a digital tip jar in case any of you want to contribute to my cottage industry. Every little bit helps and not just financially. 

I've also set up some blogs that make navigating and viewing my various videos much easier. You can go to any of these blogs and see thumbnails for all of the videos posted there. Scroll across the thumbnails and you will see the titles of each video. Click on it and a page will open that will let you watch the video right there without going to youtube. My latest videos are always in the upper left hand corner.

To see all of my Music videos in one easy to navigate place, click here: The Unforced Videos

To see all of my T'ai-Chi videos in one easy to navigate place, click here: The Unforced Movement

To see all of my Nature videos in one easy to navigate place, click here: The Unforced Nature

For a quick and easy way to sort through, listen to, or download all of my albums free or with a donation, click here: The Unforced Music

To see my regular blog “The Unforced Life”, click here: The Unforced Life

To visit my youtube channel and possibly subscribe, click here: My Youtube Channel

To see all of my youtube playlists click here: My Youtube Playlists 




New Videos

My “Crooked Love” youtube playlist. Includes videos for all the songs from my latest album:

Crooked Love Playlist

My “Doubles Hitter” youtube playlist. Includes videos for all the songs from my previous album:

Doubles Hitter Playlist

Here’s my song “Here I Am” and some great footage of trains and graffiti:

Here I Am

Here are my songs “In My Light” and “Little Secret” and some beautiful Southern Oregon sky:

In My Light

Little Secret

Here’s my performance at the OSF Hip-Hop Open Mike:

Crazy World

And two new T’ai-Chi videos:

T'ai-Chi Cane Principles

T'ai-Chi Tip: Softer

And one new Nature video:

Vultures Over Ashland

Pictures


I've stopped posting as many pictures on facebook, (for many reasons), and started posting them instead on Flickr, which I like much better.

Here's a link to my "home page" at Flicker: Photostream.

I have many photo galleries there but a few of my favorites are:

Small Miracles (mostly Nature related stuff)

The Dish Whisperer (I started posting a daily picture of my dish stacking work over a year ago. I recently crossed the 1200 straight days mark. I have no idea how long I’ll keep doing this. I’m so used to it, it hardly takes any effort at all to continue. I made a video for my song “I'll Do The Dishes Tonight” that featured a slideshow of the first year. I made it through my second year recently, and hope to create another video slideshow set to another of my songs. Stay tuned…)

"Head" and "Boot" (devoted to our two gerbils)

"Humor" 

"Me Playing Music"

Bathroom Pond Mural

Weird Book Covers

Trippy Clouds

Yellow Fungus 





Website

I continue to offer all of my albums for downloading, free or with a donation at my website: www.GeneBurnett.com I started doing this about 7 or 8 years ago and considered it a 5 year creative experiment. Well the 5 years passed and I decided to start calling it my "ongoing creative experiment" as I have no plans to stop. Since I returned to my folk roots and stopped climbing, or trying to climb, the industry ladder, I've been enjoying music in my life more than ever before. And enjoyment, rather than achievement or worldly success has always been dearest to my heart anyway. So now I focus totally on what I love most: writing, recording, performing and sharing what I create. If other people like it, so much the better, but getting other people to like me or what I do is no longer my goal or focus. I'm out to please myself first. I want to do my music exactly the way I want to do it and see who likes it that way, not figure out what people will like and try to do it that way. I put it out there freely and see what comes freely back. So far so good. I've never had more success and appreciation than I have since I started doing it this. Go figure. 

Thanks, as usual, for your support and well wishes even if you don't make to any shows.

GB

www.GeneBurnett.com

The Guru Papers

And The “One-ness” Experience

I highly recommend "The Guru Papers~Masks Of Authoritarian Power" by Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad regarding religion, cults, one-ness experiences, the split in modern people between "good" and "bad" selves, the futility of trying to eliminate the "bad" self and how trying to do this feeds susceptibility to things like cults, drugs and other so-called addictions.

For instance we are all capable of having what the authors call a "One-ness" experience, where we experience the interconnectedness of everything, the "all is one" moment. We are, of course, equally capable of experiencing our separateness. Where this split exists in a person, the kind of split which says that love, one-ness, whole-ness, etc.. is "good" and separate-ness, ego, personal enhancement are "bad", then it naturally follows that one should live all the time in the "good" or One-ness experience. It further follows that it's possible to do this, that there are people who do, and of course, one should surrender to these people and do what they say in order to arrive there ourselves. The problem of course is that ego, selfishness and self-enhancement are deeply wired parts of us have major survival value and will not just go away, no matter how hard we try to banish them. The stage is then set for endless inner conflict, purges, true believing, etc.

The authors advocate for a more balanced approach, one that jives well with my Taoist leanings. It's fairly simple really. We all have selfish as well as loving impulses, One-ness as well as separate-ness experiences, competitive as well as cooperative natures. No one part of our natures is where we should live all the time. Rather let each kind of experience or aspect of our nature's manifest as it does, when it does, and embrace the whole of our natures. I find this true of so many aspects of life. Not black or white, or even gray, but black AND white in a dynamic exchange. It's not easy though. It's much easier to see the world as Good versus Evil than to embrace the ambiguities and tensions between the different sides of ourselves.

The authors apply this dialectical approach to all kinds of life arenas, including addiction treatment, religion, cults, etc.. I liked the book a lot and plan to re-read it down the road.

I'm not a purely scientific or spiritual person, nor am I purely reasonable or intuitive. I don't trust any particular model to bring me to some absolute Truth. I think there are many valuable and useful lenses to look through in this life and some of the ones I look through contradict each other. But surely the scientific, logical one is extremely valuable and I always, at the very least, find it interesting. Again, to me it's not a question of being totally materialist or totally spiritualist, where one is "true" and other must be banished. I think the "Truth" is an unknowable mystery, but the more points of view I try on and understand, the better a sense of it I get. And when people start to frame what I consider crackpot ideas "scientifically", I think they should be held up to the very standards they themselves evoke.

I don't believe in the whole enlightenment project either, the idea that a person can reach a place where they "live" in the "one-ness". And, even if it were possible, I don’t think it’s desirable or healthy, and I certainly don’t think being able to do it means you know how to take or lead me or anyone else there. One of the phrases of the late J.Krishnamurti's that I especially liked is: "The *truth is pathless land. No one can lead you there."    *Meaning here spiritual truth, the ultimate nature of reality.

I do think one-ness experiences are real. I've had some myself. I do believe in a kind of ultimate one-ness or interconnectedness of everything. I do think there is a mysterious wholeness that permeates everything. But I also believe in separarate-ness, at least relative separate-ness.

I think a good actor or a charismatic leader isn't doing something supernatural. And yet I also think there is something miraculous, mysterious and magical in a good performance of any kind. And by magical, I don't mean unexplainable, I mean magical in the sense of seeming to have more energy than the sum of its parts. People used to say about The Beatles that something happened when all four of them were in the studio together that didn't happen with any other combination. People said it was palpable the minute the fourth one showed up. I'm sure there's a neurobiological explanation for this that I would not fault, and I still think it's magic or magical too.

("A line from my fabulous song, "Digeridon't": "It's true on some level when you say, 'We're all one', but it's not on the level where any work gets done..")

I don't think I can live in the "one-ness" or that someone else can show me how to. I don't believe that it's even desirable. It's like having an orgasm and deciding that because that was wonderful, I should "live" in "orgasm-ness" all the time. Orgasms are like peak experiences or one-ness experiences to me. They're to be tasted and enjoyed, not held onto or willed into being.

I don't believe it's good to be anything "all the time". I think life is a mysterious movement that is always throwing us for one loop or another as the waves come and go. Many different responses to these waves of life seem to be needed if one is to survive very long. I like having a range of responses available to me, from anger to one-ness to selfishness to altruism to laughter to competition to love to hate to indifference to awe to sadness to cooperation to whatever. If I want to meet the next thing that happens fully, I think the only way I should characteristically be is ready. I do try to cultivate as much readiness as I can. But I can't see being any other way all or even most of the time.

I think we as a species are longing to escape from the human condition, what with the awareness of death, and the endless task of resolving the contradictory aspects of our beings: animal/civilized, feeling/thinking, competitive/cooperative, selfish/giving, the whole raft of consciousness/free-will side effects.

It's very attractive to surrender this impossible-to-resolve tension into the "certainty" of a mass movement, or cult group, since to accept the unresolvable-ness of life means to accept our ultimate lack of control. To do this is a kind of surrender too, but it's a much harder kind that involves constant attention and work, like walking a tight rope. So while I do think that there are people who are very seductive and skilled at weaving certain "spells", I also think they are exploiting a deep human weakness that lives in all of us.

Personally, I've benefitted a lot from owning up to this weakness and gradually cultivating more and more tolerance for being a human being, with mixed emotions, mixed motives, mixed thoughts and a mixed nature. The more I can live with the unresolvable tension of being human, the happier I feel. The more I cross the line between seeking resolution and forcing resolution, the less happy I feel. And in general, I feel less interested in escape, and therefore less susceptible to the "spells" that I encounter people trying to weave.

Dylan...

And Shakespeare

I think Bob Dylan is a lot like William Shakespeare. Here’s why:

They both get into different head-spaces and riff poetically within them with complete commitment and abandon.

They both create many memorable characters but no one in a Shakespeare play or a Dylan song is as interesting as Shakespeare or Dylan himself. It's like the author becomes the thing of interest, not the pieces of the puzzle. In fact the pieces of the puzzle, in total, seem to make up the multi-verse or parliament of the author's worldview.

Dylan and Shakespeare are also both innovative users of words. They change the way people use language by the way they use language. Plus there is an embodied poetic sensibility to almost everything they write.

They both borrow from existing forms and plots and use them as templates to express their art and as foundations to break new creative ground.

They also both transcend their medium. To call Shakespeare a “playwright” or Dylan a “songwriter” doesn’t do justice to what they do. The crazy and yet refined abandon with which Dylan occupies creative space is not like many other "songwriters". But to call him a poet is also inaccurate. My brother once told me about a review in which he was called one of the most important "users of words in the 20th century". I guess that's about right and would work for Shakespeare too, whose work goes far beyond “playwright”.

May News

From Gene Burnett

Hi friends, Spring is in full bloom here in Ashland and we’re getting our usual unpredictable Southern Oregon spring weather. Spring came a bit early this year but then backtracked and provided some late Winter weather. Now it seems back on the path to Summer. Practicing and teaching in beautiful Lithia Park is one of the great blessings of my life. And I’ve been doing it there for over 15 years.

Lots of new videos posted this past month. Several from my “Songs About Fools & Foolishness” Themed Open Mike, a few older songs finally committed to video including one I really like featuring some great footage a friend of mine shot of graffiti and trains, three more Rogue Poetry Slam performance videos and a few more T’ai-Chi  videos.

Still hoping to start recording my next album soon. I have a bunch of new songs that I really like…just need a couple more and I’ll be good to go.

Links to the new videos as well as my “Crooked Love” video playlist are below in the “New Videos” section of this newsletter.

So here we go…starting with the usual information about where to find my music, videos and pictures, including information about new projects, and then followed by information about local shows in case you’re in the Rogue Valley.

There is so much to listen to and watch on the net these days…I’m amazed anyone even gets this far in the newsletter let alone watches or listens to anything I’m doing. I’m sincerely grateful for every view, every listen, and every nice comment I receive. I’m happy if anything I post truly reaches even one person. I’m offering all this stuff in a “just in case you’re interested” spirit.

Recorded Music

My newest album is called Crooked Love and like all my other albums (31 so far…), it’s available for downloading free or with a donation at my website: www.GeneBurnett.com

Videos In General

Overall Mission: I post a lot of videos on youtube, over 1000 so far! I'm not trying to build a fan base...In fact, I'm not trying to build anything. I'm not expecting you or anyone else to follow what I'm doing or watch all of these videos. Posting videos is just part of my overall plan to make my music (and my T’ai-Chi and Nature videos too) as freely available as possible and see what freely comes back. I think of each video as sort of like a message in a bottle...and more I toss out there the more likely one of them will land on a friendly shore and something good will come back to me. So here are some video links in case you're interested:

How to Find My Videos: First of all, I've set up a "Videos" page on my website (www.GeneBurnett.com) with a menu similar to what you see below as well as a digital tip jar in case any of you want to contribute to my cottage industry. Every little bit helps and not just financially. 

I've also set up some blogs that make navigating and viewing my various videos much easier. You can go to any of these blogs and see thumbnails for all of the videos posted there. Scroll across the thumbnails and you will see the titles of each video. Click on it and a page will open that will let you watch the video right there without going to youtube. My latest videos are always in the upper left hand corner.

To see all of my Music videos in one easy to navigate place, click here: The Unforced Videos

To see all of my T'ai-Chi videos in one easy to navigate place, click here: The Unforced Movement

To see all of my Nature videos in one easy to navigate place, click here: The Unforced Nature

For a quick and easy way to sort through, listen to, or download all of my albums free or with a donation, click here: The Unforced Music

To see my regular blog “The Unforced Life”, click here: The Unforced Life

To visit my youtube channel and possibly subscribe, click here: My Youtube Channel

To see all of my youtube playlists click here: My Youtube Playlists 




New Videos

My “Crooked Love” youtube playlist. Includes videos for all the songs from my latest album:

Crooked Love Playlist

My “Doubles Hitter” youtube playlist. Includes videos for all the songs from my previous album:

Doubles Hitter Playlist

Here’s my song “Here I Am” and some great footage of trains and graffiti:

Here I Am

Here’s my song “Dock Me Baby” with some footage of the Oregon coast:

Dock Me Baby

Here’s my song “Love Is Here” and some beautiful Southern Oregon sky:

Love Is Here

Here are some videos from my Themed Open Mike event: “Songs About Fools & Foolishness”:

Tourist Town/Things Have Changed/I Was Fooled (And It's All Your Fault) Medley

Green Eggs And Ham (Dr. Seuss Cover)

Move It On Over (Hank Williams Cover)

Gutterball

Loner (Contains Adult Language)

Here are three new videos from the latest Rogue Poetry Slam:

Graceful Loser (Rogue Poetry Slam Version)

Miserable (Rogue Poetry Slam Version)

All Wisdom Does Not Agree (Rogue Poetry Slam Version)

And three new T’ai-Chi videos:

Get A Wobble Board

T'ai-Chi Cane Solo Form (Semi-Instructional)

T'ai Chi Cane Partner Form (Semi-Instructional)

Pictures


I've stopped posting as many pictures on facebook, (for many reasons), and started posting them instead on Flickr, which I like much better.

Here's a link to my "home page" at Flicker: Photostream.

I have many photo galleries there but a few of my favorites are:

Small Miracles (mostly Nature related stuff)

The Dish Whisperer (I started posting a daily picture of my dish stacking work over a year ago. I recently crossed the 1200 straight days mark. I have no idea how long I’ll keep doing this. I’m so used to it, it hardly takes any effort at all to continue. I made a video for my song “I'll Do The Dishes Tonight” that featured a slideshow of the first year. I made it through my second year recently, and hope to create another video slideshow set to another of my songs. Stay tuned…)

"Head" and "Boot" (devoted to our two gerbils)

"Humor" 

"Me Playing Music"

Bathroom Pond Mural

Weird Book Covers

Trippy Clouds

Yellow Fungus 




Upcoming Shows:

Sunday May 3^rd, I’ll be performing as part of a “Night Of Enlightenment” evening to benefit Wildlife Images. Many other performers will be contributing. I’ll play about an hour set at some point during the event which runs from 5-7:30pm. Donations requested for this event which will take place at the Merging Rivers Zen Practice Center at 243 SW J Street in Grants Pass Oregon. For more information call: 541-659-5111.

Monday, May 4^th, I'll be playing at one of my favorite Ashland venues, Liquid Assets. A relaxed living room vibe with great service, excellent food and wine, and a really nice place to listen to music. I'll be playing from 8-10pm, maybe longer...

Wednesday May 6^th, I'll be hosting my regular Themed Open Mike at The Wild Goose Café & Bar. Usually this happens on the First Wednesday of every month. This month's theme, is “Love Gone Wrong”, so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems, originals or covers, that are about or mention anything to do with this theme. We're never too strict or narrow about the themes for this event. The main idea is to focus our attention a little to hopefully inspire and motivate us creatively. These are always fun. No Cover at the friendliest bar in Ashland. Sign-up is 7:30pm. Show starts at 8:00pm. *A heads up for next month: Wednesday, June 3^rd , 2015: “4^th Annual Songs Of Summer”

Saturday, May 9^th, weather permitting, from 3-5pm, I'll be playing at The Lithia Artisan's Market, behind the Plaza in Ashland. Come by and

support local music and art!

Tuesday, May 19^th, I'll be competing with many other poets at the Rogue Poetry Slam which happens at Northwest Pizza and Pasta in Ashland. Sign-up is at 7:30pm and the show starts at 8. $5 cover, all of which goes to the winning poets. If you've never been to or competed in a Poetry Slam, I highly recommend this one. Come to watch, compete, or be one of the judges. Some people think of slams as hardcore hip-hop events or places where people are mean and talk trash, but nothing could be further from the truth. All kinds of poetry are welcome and people are very supportive. And it's so nice to participate in an event that is all about the words, or in my case, lyrics. For me it's really not about winning or losing, but just the fun of sharing my words with people and seeing what happens.

For more info on these and all of my shows, and to confirm that there have been no cancellations, click here: Calendar  

Since I'm putting this newsletter out once a month, it's possible there may be a cancellation of a given show by the time it happens. Please double check with my web calendar if possible to be sure the gig is still happening. I'd hate to have you come out for nothing. Also another gig or two might be added or times or locations might change, so do check the calendar for the latest info.  


Website

I continue to offer all of my albums for downloading, free or with a donation at my website: www.GeneBurnett.com I started doing this about 7 or 8 years ago and considered it a 5 year creative experiment. Well the 5 years passed and I decided to start calling it my "ongoing creative experiment" as I have no plans to stop. Since I returned to my folk roots and stopped climbing, or trying to climb, the industry ladder, I've been enjoying music in my life more than ever before. And enjoyment, rather than achievement or worldly success has always been dearest to my heart anyway. So now I focus totally on what I love most: writing, recording, performing and sharing what I create. If other people like it, so much the better, but getting other people to like me or what I do is no longer my goal or focus. I'm out to please myself first. I want to do my music exactly the way I want to do it and see who likes it that way, not figure out what people will like and try to do it that way. I put it out there freely and see what comes freely back. So far so good. I've never had more success and appreciation than I have since I started doing it this. Go figure. 

Thanks, as usual, for your support and well wishes even if you don't make to any shows.

GB

www.GeneBurnett.com