From Gene Burnett
Summer is definitely over! Cooler, rainier weather has returned
and the tourist season is winding down in Ashland. Of course, we still have
holiday festivities to come but most of the out-of-town influx has died down.
I’m looking forward to the more internal days of Fall and Winter.
I have about a dozen new unrecorded songs and hope to begin
recording soon…not sure if I’ll have the new album done by the end of the year,
I’m not in any hurry. It’s just always nice to have new songs “in the can” so
to speak. I’ve been fighting some kind of throat infection which has left me
feeling fine but with a pretty croaky voice. I might end up recording these new
songs next year…we will see.
We had a sad day last month as one of our little gerbils, the
one we named “Boot” passed away, leaving his brother “Head” to soldier on. He
lived over 2 years which is about 4 times as long as they live in the wild.
Although he was pretty frisky and happy most of the time, he was the less
healthy of the two. In the past he had had a couple of episodes of some kind of
illness where he barely left their nest. “Boot” was a great pet and will be
missed. Every death, no matter how small, is a reminder to me that life is
short and fragile and best savored now…
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 won’t be teaching 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.
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
800 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:
The
last of the videos I shot of me in the studio recording songs for my latest
album “Already There:
Nobody
Knows (I tried to
get as many life philosophies as I could into one song…)
Nothing's
Gonna Be All Right
(Bringin’ the pain yet again…)
A
couple of Nature videos:
Pacific
Crest Trail Hike
(Samarra and I went on a great hike
together…)
Downtown
Starlings
(We have our business and they have
theirs…)
A bunch more “Sky videos” which
feature my songs set to video I shot of our beautiful Southern Oregon skies:
Fuck You Up (Life’s gonna FYU…)
Fuck You Up (Life’s gonna FYU…)
Where I
Belong (One of my
favorite of many songs about playing music in the world…)
It's
You (Another one
about the loser in everyone…)
Tornado (I’ve always been fascinated by
storms, especially tornados…)
Angeltown (One of my prettiest ever songs…hard
to play and sing…somehow I did my best take ever in the studio! Love it when
that happens…)
Let's
Just Be Blue (Love the guitar
on this one. Actually sounds like I can play the thing…)
Heart
Broke (Simple and
true…)
Now Is
The Time (I wrote this
for a female voice several years ago…)
Heaven (A song about a gambler who dies and
doesn’t quite like the afterlife…)
Here’s a link to my “Sky Videos”
youtube playlist if you like this sort of thing:
A T’ai-Chi video:
Pictures
I've stopped posting 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 700 straight days. 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. If I make it through this second year,
I may write a new “Dishes” song or use some other song I’ve already written to
make another video.)
"Head" and "Boot" (devoted to our two gerbils)
Upcoming Shows:
***There’s a new Monday Night Open Mike at Paddy Brannan's Irish Pub and
I’ll be hosting it along with my friend T-Poe. We’ll get started around 9:00pm
and go ‘til we’re done. Bring us your songs and spoken word! This is a bit of
an experiment…As of this writing we are planning on going at least through
October to see if it catches on. Please call me at 541-488-1926 if you want to
be sure it’s happening.
Wednesday October 2nd , 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 "Songs of Fall
and Falling” so musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems
relating to Autumn and Gravity. 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 November 6th, 2013 “3rd Annual Political Songs“
Monday, October 7th, 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 8-10pm, maybe longer...
Friday October 11th, I'll be playing at Paddy
Brannan's Irish Pub with my good friends Robbie Lindauer
backing me up on guitar and Mark Arinsberg on cajon. 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. I've done several shows here with Robbie and
it's becoming one of my favorite places to play.
Tuesday, October 15th, 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 which 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.
Wednesday, October 16th , 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 October 26th, I'll be at The Downtowne
Coffeehouse in Talent, playing from 10am-Noon. Great acoustics,
super friendly neighborhood scene.
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 5 years ago and considered it
a 5 year creative experiment. Well the 5 years are up and I've 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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