Saturday, September 30, 2017

October News



From Gene Burnett

Our summer forest fire smoke seems like a thing of the distant past…replaced by beautiful fall weather here in Southern Oregon. What a pleasure it is to breathe fully again. My voice has also recovered and I’m well into the process of recording this year’s new album. Should be done and up on my site within a month or so. I will, of course, keep you posted.

Outdoor gigs are winding down…one more Lithia Artisans Market show this month, weather permitting…and one more shot at The Green Show as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. My last one was smoked out. Fingers crossed this one (October 11th) isn’t rained out. It’s a great outdoor stage, newly remodeled, great sound, and though it is late in the season, there could potentially be hundreds of people there. We will see…

The park is going to be doing some major work on the bandshell where I teach most days. This will likely take a few months and during that time I’ll be teaching in a few alternate areas near there. The main issue is rain. There’s only one other covered area in the park and it’s not ideal. So when it’s raining I might have to reschedule or cancel a lesson or two. But no worries. I’ve had free rent at the shell for going on 20 years. I can put up with a few months of inconvenience. I work with what I have and try to find the least forceful way around obstacles. It’s all part of the Taoist “What would water do?” idea.

I was recently a guest on my friend Mark Arinsberg’s podcast. Mark’s a great eccentric guy who seems to know just about everyone in town. He’s a graphic designer, drummer, taxi-cab driver, international traveler, and now podcast host. Here’s a link to the cast page. Just scroll down to episode nine. I think you will enjoy our conversation. Citizen 44


I posted some new videos this month: 5 new T’ai-Chi videos, 1 new Nature video, 3 new Rogue Poetry Slam videos, and several new music videos from my 2010 album “Brand New World”. I’ve also been putting together some youtube playlists featuring songs from other past albums including “live” and Rogue Poetry Slam versions. 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 October 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 8:00-10pm

Wednesday October 4th, I'll be hosting my regular Themed Open Mike at The Wild Goose CafĂ© & Bar. Usually this happens on the First Wednesday of every month. This month's theme will be”Country (ish) Songs” so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems, covers or originals, that are country (ish) 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, November 1st, 2017: “7th Annual Political Songs”

Saturday, October 7th, weather permitting, from 11:30am-1:30pm, I'll be playing at The Lithia Artisan's Market, behind the Plaza in Ashland. Come support local music and art!

Wednesday, October 11th, I’ll be playing the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show from 6:45-7:30pm, outside OSF “on the bricks”. This is probably the best gig in Ashland, certainly my best show of the year. The whole area has recently been remodeled and it’s even more audience friendly than it used to be. My earlier Green Show was cancelled due to smoke. Only rain can stop this one. Fingers crossed.

Tuesday, September 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, October 21st, from 10am-Noon, my good friend Jesse Biesanz and I are hosting a Hacky Sack session outside Caldera Tap House on Water Street in Ashland. We’ll be under the overpass. This usually happens on the third Saturday of every month but this month we’re doing it on the 2nd Saturday. 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 Caldera rain or shine. The overpass provides shelter from the rain and once the circle gets going, you’ll be plenty warm regardless of the weather.



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

5 new T’ai-Chi videos:


1 new Nature video:


3 new Rogue Poetry Slam Videos:


1 new Music Video Playlist with several new music/cloud videos:


Plus…

Youtube Playlists featuring songs from previous albums including “live” and Rogue Poetry Slam versions:


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 2000 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.

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






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

Saturday, September 2, 2017

September News



From Gene Burnett

Last month everyone was talking about the heat, this month it’s the smoke. For those not in Oregon, we are having a really bad forest fire season here. There are fires all around us and depending on which way the wind blows our air quality can go from not so great to pretty awful, sometimes in a hurry.

It’s been so bad that the Oregon Shakespeare Festival here in Ashland has had to cancel several of its outdoor shows including the preceding Green Shows. Unfortunately, my Green Show was one of the ones that got smoked out. I was disappointed but I totally understand their decision. The air was solidly in the “unhealthy” category. Such is life in Southern Oregon. I do have one more scheduled for October 11th which hopefully won’t be rained or smoked out, but we will see.

As I write this, we are also in the middle of another heat-wave with temperatures in the upper 90’s and low 100’s. For me, the heat and the smoke are not so much problems as training challenges. I have to include and work with them, but not be so distracted by them that I forget my main mission which is practicing, teaching and living T’ai-Chi (Unforced Balance) as fully and deeply as I can.

With my main focus on my mission, problems like the heat and smoke are just what I need to deal with in order to enact that mission. I work out more at night and mornings when it’s cooler and sometimes less smokey. I curtail my bike rides until the air clears. When possible I get up and out of the valley for a break. Just today I drove out with Samarra to a beautiful place that was much less smokey and much less hot than Ashland. We hung out for a couple of hours, listened to great music driving to and from, walked out into a creek, chilled out our feet, saw a bear (on the other side), shot a little T’ai-Chi video and got in a couple of miles of hiking as well. With all the suffering and trouble happening down south with the hurricane, I’m grateful that heat and bad air are all I have to deal with.


In other news, last month, here in America, we had a total eclipse of the Sun, in case you’ve had no contact with the internet for a long time. Here in Ashland we had about 93% of the sun’s light blocked out and it turns out that 7% of the Sun is nevertheless a lot of light. It was still a sight to see. The air turned a slightly eerie shade of twilight and shadows started get all crescent-y and it was just amazing to watch the moon pass before the Sun. Samarra had just gotten back the day before from spending a long summer in Europe and Seattle and neither of us felt like braving the trip north to see the totality.  So we just sat in the park where I teach every day, donned our special glasses and took in 93% of the Sun’s light being blocked by the moon. It was quite nice to see, but it was eclipsed by having her home safe and sound.  


I was recently a guest on my friend Mark Arinsberg’s podcast. Mark’s a great eccentric guy who seems to know just about everyone in town. He’s a graphic designer, drummer, taxi-cab driver, international traveler, and now podcast host. Here’s a link to the cast page. Just scroll down to episode nine. I think you will enjoy our conversation.  Citizen 44


I posted some new videos this month: 5 new T’ai-Chi videos and 1 new Nature video. I’ve also been putting together some youtube playlists featuring songs from past albums including “live” and Rogue Poetry Slam versions. 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 September 4th, 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 8:00-10pm

Wednesday September 6th, I'll be hosting my regular Themed Open Mike at The Wild Goose CafĂ© & Bar. Usually this happens on the First Wednesday of every month. In honor of Labor Day, this month's theme will be“ Songs About Work & Working” so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems, covers or originals, that have anything to do with work or working 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, October 4th, 2017: “Country (ish) Songs”

Saturday, September 16th, from 10am-Noon, my good friend Jesse Biesanz and I are hosting a Hacky Sack session outside Caldera Tap House on Water Street in Ashland. We’ll be under the overpass. This usually happens on the third Saturday of every month but this month we’re doing it on the 2nd Saturday. 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 Caldera rain or shine. The overpass provides shelter from the rain and once the circle gets going, you’ll be plenty warm regardless of the weather.

Tuesday, September 19th, 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.


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

5 new T’ai-Chi videos:


1 new Nature video:


My 60th Birthday video:


Plus…

Youtube Playlists featuring songs from previous albums including “live” and Rogue Poetry Slam versions:



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 2000 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.

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






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