Saturday, December 5, 2020

December News

From Gene Burnett

My new album “From The Temple To The Street” as well as last year’s album project “The Way Of All Things”, as well as the rest of my recorded music, is available for listening or downloading free or with a donation here: www.GeneBurnett.com  It’s also available at many e-retailers of music.

FYi: My site has been updated and our new player and download system is much better than the old one. Just click on the “Download or Play Songs” button for any album on the Musical Recordings page and a player will open that will let you listen to that album. There’s a little arrow at the right of each tune. Just click that arrow to download that song.

The pandemic hasn’t affected my T’ai-Chi income at all. I teach one-on-one in the park as part of my “low overhead” strategy in life, so I was able to keep going full force. But my music income, such as it was, dried up nearly completely. This will be the first year that I make less than I spend on music. My albums are simple but they do cost money to make. So if you’ve gotten any value from my music, please consider buying one of my songs from your favorite online music store or tipping me at my website or paypal me here. https://www.paypal.me/GeneBurnett

My music is free on my website, over 30 albums, please take all you want.

All I’m asking is that if you feel it and can swing it, please make a small donation or buy one of my songs from any of the various online retailers of music.

If you have Spotify, look me up and listen to one of my albums or songs there. The streaming income is minimal but every little bit helps.

And while you’re at it, buy a song from one of your other musician friends. It only costs a buck, it gives them a little encouragement and support and, you get a song that you like to listen to for the reset of your life.

As usual. I have been enjoying recording videos for our “Virtual Sunday Night Open Mikes”. I miss the bar but I don’t miss the noise. It’s nice to record in a quiet environment and it’s easier to pretend people are listening when I record my sets at home. I posted another 5 of them this past month, each with a different theme. I also posted 3 new T’ai-Chi videos.

This year we decided to try a virtual version of our annual Ashland Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration. I stepped into the “host” role. People submitted video presentations on the theme “How does your tradition help you balance the need for solitude with the need for community and connection?” Some of our presenters didn’t have the technical ability to shoot and post videos so I shot some of them myself. I posted an opening video, a presentation on Taoism, and a closing video and each one features a song. I then compiled all these videos into a youtube playlist which we all shared with our contacts. It was only a little rough around the edges and I think we put together something pretty nice.

For info on all of these videos, including the youtube playlist for the whole celebration please see the “Videos” section below…


So here we go…I’m going to start with local events 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:

None!

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: 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. Paypal 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 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 

To see a youtube playlist featuring all my Pandemic Open Mike sets and songs click here: Pandemic Open Mike Sets & Songs

And here are links to my individual album youtube playlists. 

From The Temple To The Street
The Way Of All Things
Slow Down Fast
Thunder Moon
Love & Heartache
Better Off Broken
Crooked Love
Doubles Hitter
Already There
Why Start Now?
Where I Belong
Have A Wonderful Miserable Life
Too Busy To Worry
No Other Life
See No Evil
Brand New World
Up For Grabs
Flow More ~ Force Less
Undiscovered~Parts 1 & 2
Maybe Nothing’s Wrong~Parts 1 & 2
Without The Moon
Nothing’s Impossible Now
You Are Wrong
My Song Now
Terms Of Surrender~Parts 1 & 2
Undiscovered Country
Plan B
Where Will You Sleep Tonight?

 

New Videos

I’m going to do something a little different with this section of the newsletter. Rather than provide individual links to each video, I’m going list the titles to the videos followed by a link to a blog I’ve set up for that category of video. Just click on the link and you’ll go to either my Music videos blog, or my T’ai-Chi videos blog or my Nature videos blog. Once there you’ll see a wall of thumbnails. The ones in the upper left corner are the most recent posts. You’ll be able to scroll over any of these thumbnails. It will flip over and show you the title of that video. Click on it and you can watch that video without leaving the blog. This method is much less time-consuming for me and actually, I think, more convenient for you. It might sound complicated but it’s very easy. Give it a try.

9 new Music videos:

Pandemic Sunday Night Virtual Open Mike #33
Pandemic Sunday Night Virtual Open Mike #34
Pandemic Sunday Night Virtual Open Mike #34 w/Robert Doctor
Pandemic Sunday Night Virtual Open Mike #35
Pandemic Sunday Night Virtual Open Mike #36
Pandemic Sunday Night Virtual Open Mike #37

Opening~37th Annual Ashland Interfaith Celebration

Representing Taoism~37th Annual Ashland Interfaith Celebration

Closing~37th Annual Ashland Interfaith Celebration


These and all my music videos are right here: The Unforced Videos

 

3 new T’ai-Chi videos:

One Leg Balance Drills
Returning To “The One”
Martial Arts Training Methods, Principles, & Philosophy


These and all my T’ai-Chi Videos are right here: The Unforced Movement

 

No new Nature videos:

But all my Nature Videos are right here: The Unforced Nature


And here’s a link to the youtube playist for the 2020 37th Annual Ashland Interfaith Celebration: 2020 Interfaith

 

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 3000 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.

"Humor" 

"Me Playing Music"

 Trippy Clouds

 Hydras

 

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!

GB

www.GeneBurnett.com


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