From Gene Burnett
Fall is fast approaching and couldn’t come a day too soon in
Southern Oregon. We could all use some rain to put our local fires as well as
clean up the air. It’s been hit and miss lately with some days being quite
smoky and others pretty wonderful. But the days are steadily getting cooler and
it won’t be long before we get some much needed rain. The smoke was so bad that
many Oregon Shakespeare Festival shows had to be cancelled or moved to a much
smaller venue. Local businesses have been hurt by the smoke as well. OSF was
hurt so badly that they actually cancelled the remaining Green Shows for
September and October, including the one I had scheduled for October 12th.
But, lucky for me, they contacted me in August to fill in for someone who couldn’t
make it. I was happy to oblige and even though it was smoky and the show was
moved indoors where I played for around 100 people instead of several hundred,
it was still a great show for me, the best of the year easily, maybe the best
in a few years. It was such a treat to play for a listening audience. There is
so much dynamically that I just can’t do in a noisy room where there is no
silence or space behind what I’m doing. I don’t mind playing noisy rooms, I
know how to do it, it’s fun, and it’s still music, which I love making, but I
much prefer a quiet audience. The festival also videoed the show and let me
post it which was a great bonus. Another musical highlight this month was
playing a couple of songs at the “Buck Owens Birthday Bash” at the Wild Goose
Café & Bar here in Ashland. It was a blast in a different way. See links
below in the “Videos” section of this newsletter.
I posted 4 new videos last month, 2 T’ai-Chi videos and 2 new
music videos. See links below in Videos section.
My latest album “Thunder Moon”, along with over 30 others, is
available for downloading or listening free or with a donation here: Musical Recordings Page
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:
Saturday, September 1st,
weather permitting, I'll be playing
at The Lithia Artisan's Market, from 2:30-4:30pm, behind the Plaza
in Ashland. Come support local music and art!
Wednesday September 5th, 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, in
honor of Labor Day, is “Songs About Work & Working” so
musicians and spoken word artists will be doing songs and poems, covers or
originals, that mention or are about this theme 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 3rd, 2018: “Country (ish) Songs”
*A heads up for next month: Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018: “Country (ish) Songs”
Saturday, September 15th, from 10am-Noon, my good friend Jesse
Biesanz and I are hosting a Hacky Sack session outside the former
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.
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.
Saturday, September 22nd,
I'll be at The Downtowne Coffeehouse in Talent, playing original
music from 10am-Noon. Great acoustics, super friendly neighborhood scene.
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.
A Note on Monetization: I won’t be able to monetize my videos on
youtube anymore. Monetization seems to be an option youtube wants to reserve
for bigger more ambitions channels. I’ve always had mixed feelings about having
ads on my videos, so to some extent, this is actually a bit of a relief. On the
other hand, it was nice to make a little money from my videos and nice to think
of “views” as adding slightly to my income. But such is life. I’m happy to be
rolling free and clear of ads. With the help of some savvy facebook friends, I
was able to ad this paragraph to the descriptions on all of my videos at once:
I hope this video has been helpful to you or touched you in some way that leaves you a little better off for having watched it. This is not a big time channel and I have no plans for it to become one. I’m too small to have ads on my videos and I’ve always had mixed feelings about them anyway. If you would like to support and encourage what I do here, you can make a donation to me directly via paypal. No donation is too small, (or too big!) and all donations are very much appreciated. https://www.paypal.me/GeneBurnett
I hope this video has been helpful to you or touched you in some way that leaves you a little better off for having watched it. This is not a big time channel and I have no plans for it to become one. I’m too small to have ads on my videos and I’ve always had mixed feelings about them anyway. If you would like to support and encourage what I do here, you can make a donation to me directly via paypal. No donation is too small, (or too big!) and all donations are very much appreciated. https://www.paypal.me/GeneBurnett
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
2 new T’ai-Chi videos:
2 new Misc. videos:
Album playlists:
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 10 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
