From Gene
Burnett
This has been the coldest Winter since we moved to Ashland in
1999. We had a big snowstorm in December followed by unseasonably cold weather
that's taking a long time to warm up. The snow, since we don’t get it very often
and aren’t used to it, pretty much shut the town down for a few days and then
people slowly ventured out more and more…A couple of days after the main event,
one of my students and I shoveled off the bandshell in Lithia Park where I
teach and aside from a few cancellations, it was business as usual for me
teaching T’ai-Chi in the park. I’m pretty used to weather by now…I’ve been
teaching outdoors here since that first year we moved here. Still this is a
cold one. ;~)
Recently, I launched what I called “The
World's Easiest Fundraiser” to help me pay for one of the key expenses involved in making
my music as freely available as possible. SpecialThanks to everyone who came through
with donations or who bought songs on CD Baby or iTunes! I was able to knock over
$400.00 off my over all deficit of $1,100 that it’s cost me to list all or my
albums for worldwide digital distribution. All my stuff is still available for
downloading free or with a donation at my site, but it’s very nice to have it
available at these major e-retailers of music too. So thanks to everyone who
kicked in! The fundraiser officially ended January 1rst, but you can always
help out anytime. Just click the link above for details.
Lots of new videos this month…I’ve posted a few more new “Sky
Videos”, probably the last of these I’ll be posting for a while. These are
videos of some of my songs I set to sky footage I shot over the Summer here in
beautiful Southern Oregon. See below for the links. I realize they’re very
minimalist and slow moving and not everyone’s cup of tea. But I like them and
what the hell, no harm done. Below, in the “New Videos” section of this
newsletter, you’ll find links to more Nature videos, a few new T’ai-Chi videos,
and more of my Poetry Slam performances. I was also honored to represent Taoism
and play a couple of songs at our Annual Winter Solstice Interfaith Ceremony
here in Ashland. The theme was “Light and Dark” and after a short talk on how I
see Taoism in relation to the theme, I played my song “We’re All Gonna Die”. I
was asked to sing a second song on the spur of the moment and decided to sing
my song “I’m In Love With The World”. Links to both below. It’s always a
pleasure to play for an actual listening audience. It doesn’t happen very
often, and it’s just a couple of songs, but I’ll take it! I also made a short
video of our apartment all decorated for Christmas and set it to my rendition
of “I'll
Be Home For Christmas”.
My friend Doug Cochran recently helped me make a couple of
slide show type videos set to my music as well. There’s “By The Stars” which features art from my friend Erik
Anderson’s book “Vistas
of Many Worlds” and “Free-Range Chicken” which features art from my good friend and
T’ai-Chi student Betty LaDuke.
This part is starting to sound like a broken record, but…My
voice is slowly improving from some kind of throat infection and my high range
is slowly coming back…I have a batch of new songs that I’m very happy with and
I’m hoping to begin recording them soon. I really like these new songs a lot,
but I’ve got to get my full voice back before I go into the studio. I’m hoping
to start soon, maybe this month…we will see.
As some of you know, I mainly teach private lessons but I’ve
started teaching a drop-in T’ai-Chi Fundamentals class every Monday morning
from 9:30-10:30am at the Family Massage Education Center on the corner of
Mountain and E. Main here in Ashland. This is an on-going drop-in class, no
experience necessary. I don't teach any forms in this class, just
relatively easy solo and partner exercises designed to give participants a
better sense of unforced balance, what it is, how to deepen it, and how to
cultivate it. Samarra made me a simple poster for the class that says:
Flow More ~ Force Less
T’ai-Chi For Daily Life
Learn to balance effort and relaxation
Fundamentals Class with Gene Burnett
Nice! That’s more or less what we do in this class. No need to
pre-register just show up a little before 9:30am. The fee for the class is $10.
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.
So…in case you’re interested…
Recorded Music
My newest album, is called “Already There” and like all my
other albums (29 so far…), it’s available for downloading free or with a
donation at my website: www.GeneBurnett.com I like all of my albums but some people
really seem to especially like this one.
Videos In General
Overall Mission: I post a lot of videos on youtube, over
900 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
A few more “Sky videos” which feature
my songs set to video I shot of our beautiful Southern Oregon skies:
Here’s a link to my “Sky Videos” youtube playlist if you like this sort of thing:
5 new T’ai-Chi videos:
Three more Rogue Poetry Slam videos
of me reading my lyrics:
Two songs from our recent Winter
Solstice Interfaith Ceremony:
Our apartment decorated for
Christmas:
One new Nature video:
Three recent slide show videos, two
with art by my friends:
By The Stars
By The Stars
And one featuring an entire Scrabble
game between me and Samarra:
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’m approaching the 800 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)
Upcoming Shows:
Wednesday January 1rst, I'll be hosting my regular Themed Open
Mike at The Wild Goose. Usually this happens on the
First Wednesday of each month. This month's theme is“Dreams & Wishes“ so
musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems relating to
dreams, wishes, fantasies and resolutions. 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 town. Sign-up is 7:30pm. Show
starts at 8:00pm.
*A heads up for next
month: Wednesday February 5th, 2014. “3rd Annual Love Songs”
Friday January 3rd, I'll be playing at Paddy
Brannan's Irish Pub with The Graceful Losers, a.k.a. Robbie
Lindauer backing me up on guitar and Mark Arinsberg on cajon. I’ve decided that
whenever I play with other musicians in a band setting, we will be called “The
Graceful Losers”. We play from about 9pm 'til around Midnight. Stop by for a
pint and some music. I've always liked the friendly and fun vibe of this place.
One of my favorite places to play.
Monday, January 6th, 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 7-9pm, maybe longer...
Wednesday, January 15th , I'll be playing at The Wild Goose. Just me solo from 8-11pm. Friendliest bar in town. Never a cover at The Goose. I usually play here on the Third Wednesday of every month.
Monday, January 6th, 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 7-9pm, maybe longer...
Wednesday, January 15th , I'll be playing at The Wild Goose. Just me solo from 8-11pm. Friendliest bar in town. Never a cover at The Goose. I usually play here on the Third Wednesday of every month.
Saturday January 18th, I'll be at The Downtowne
Coffeehouse in Talent, playing from 10am-Noon. Great acoustics,
super friendly neighborhood scene.
Sunday January 19th, I'll be at North Medford High
School in Medford as part of the Annual Martin Luther King’s Birthday
Celebration. The event is from 2:00-3:30pm. Google it for directions. The event
is free and features other performers and speakers. As I did last year, I’ll be
teaming up with my good friend T-Poe for a song or two.
Tuesday, January 21rst, 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. 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 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
