From Gene Burnett
Well, the Winter weather is really coming on strong this year…at least strong for Southern Oregon. Temps have been consistently lower than in recent years and there’s a big snowstorm coming as of this writing. I’ve been teaching outdoors all year round for many years so I’m no stranger to strong weather. I layer up, get out the glove and sock liners, and keep moving. I figure if the worst you can say about your day is that your fingers and toes got cold, you’re doing pretty well. I might have a few “All Weather T’ai-Chi” videos next month.
I guess this bears repeating: My new album “Love &
Heartache” is finally up on my site. It is also available at CD Baby and will
be available at other e-retailers of music soon, if it isn’t already. Here’s a
link to the album page at my site: L
& H If you click on this link, you’ll get a player that will play
the album for you. If you’d like to download any of the songs free, there’s a
link to do that on the page as well. There’s also a digital tip jar.
I posted a bunch of new videos this month: 19 Music videos! (18
sky videos for all of the songs on “Love & Heartache” plus one from our
local Winter Solstice Interfaith Ceremony), 3 Rogue Poetry Slam videos, and one T’ai-Chi video. See links
below in the Videos section of this post.
So here we go…I’m going to start with local shows in case
you’re in the Rogue Valley and then proceed with 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 January 2nd,
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 play from 7-9pm
Wednesday January 4th, 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 will be“Dreams
& Wishes”, so
musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems, covers or
originals, that are about or mention dreams or wishes in any way. 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 community events. 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, February 1st, 2017: “6th Annual~Love Songs”
*A heads up for next month: Wednesday, February 1st, 2017: “6th Annual~Love Songs”
Tuesday,
January 17th, I'll
be competing with many other poets at the Rogue Poetry Slam which happens at Caldera Tap House 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.
Saturday, January 21st, from 10am-Noon, my good friend Jesse
Biesanz and I are hosting a Hacky Sack session at the Band Shell in Lithia Park.
This will happen on the third Saturday of every month. We both miss the fun and
camaraderie of a good friendly Hack Circle and…more importantly, we miss the practice!
It’s fun, aerobic, cooperative, demands balance, coordination, quick thinking
and accuracy…So whether you’re new to the game, or an experienced player who
wants to brush up your skills, or an expert who just wants to meet some new
players, come on by. Hacky Sack basically involves keeping a small footbag in
the air, usually leather and fairly soft, using only your feet. When there are
more than two players, it’s usually played in a circle. If the circle gets too
big, it is split into smaller circles.
The only rules of this Hack Circle:
1. You’ve got to use your feet to keep the sack in the air and off the ground. No hands! (10 voluntary pushups if you do)
2. If you miss or otherwise screw up, you can’t say, “I’m Sorry.” (10 voluntary pushups if you do)
3. No serving to yourself. (10 voluntary pushups if you do)
4. No hotdogging. Meaning this is not about how many tricks you can do before the sack hits the ground, and it’s not about working obsessively on tricks. Tricks are fine but in general, we want to keep the hack going as a friendly group and keep everyone involved.
See you at the bandshell, rain or shine. The shell provides shelter from the rain and once a circle gets going, you’ll be plenty warm.
The only rules of this Hack Circle:
1. You’ve got to use your feet to keep the sack in the air and off the ground. No hands! (10 voluntary pushups if you do)
2. If you miss or otherwise screw up, you can’t say, “I’m Sorry.” (10 voluntary pushups if you do)
3. No serving to yourself. (10 voluntary pushups if you do)
4. No hotdogging. Meaning this is not about how many tricks you can do before the sack hits the ground, and it’s not about working obsessively on tricks. Tricks are fine but in general, we want to keep the hack going as a friendly group and keep everyone involved.
See you at the bandshell, rain or shine. The shell provides shelter from the rain and once a circle gets going, you’ll be plenty warm.
Monday, January 23rd,
I'll be playing at The Wild Goose Café & Bar. Just me solo from 8-11pm.
Friendliest bar in Ashland. Never a cover at The Goose.
For more info about 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
All of my over 30 albums are 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
20 new Music videos:
One new T’ai-Chi video:
Three New Rogue Poetry Slam Videos:
Let's
Put The Ass Back In Christmas (Rogue Poerty Slam Version)
Rescue Dog (Rogue Poerty Slam Version)
Rescue Dog (Rogue Poerty Slam Version)
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 1800 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)
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 8 or 9 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
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