I am a T'ai-Chi Teacher and Singer/Songwriter living in Ashland, OR. Please visit my site: www.GeneBurnett.com for more info about my teaching and music. At my site I have over 30 albums of songs available for downloading free or with a donation. This blog is dedicated to musings about what I like to call "The Unforced Life" and newsletter posts about what I'm up to monthly.
They call chasing the perfect opium high, the way it felt the first time, that complete release from all pain, “chasing the dragon”. They do this either because of the fantastic nature of dragons or more likely because dragons don’t exist, any more than that perfect release from all pain exists and chasing either of them is futile. As well as dangerous.
Now, what about cannabis? Those of us who enjoy its effects are usually not looking for “complete release from all pain”. If we are, we will give up on cannabis pretty early and head for the “body” drugs.
But there is something special that we feel when we get high the very first time, or maybe that first year or two, when it’s a very fresh experience, that doesn’t always continue if we become regular users.
And then…often…it becomes more of a habit…still fun…still enhancing…but not like it used to be. For some it becomes a depressant. There is a sense of hoping or looking for the high you used to feel, but don’t as much anymore.
So you’re sort of chasing an elusive high. I say elusive not imaginary, because it does exist. It’s just not as easy as it was in the beginning when it was a gift.
For me, becoming alive in my body, becoming agile and stronger, more mobile, becoming more connected with my community, contributing my talents and the things I’ve worked on and receiving support back…in short, reciprocal involvement in the world; all of these things bring real and deep enjoyment to my body and heart. Cannabis can then can enhance and give a different angle to that enjoyment.
When cannabis was a substitute for all of the above, weed just wore off and stopped working. Now that it’s not a substitute for those things, I have many cannabis experiences that are right up there with my early ones, and now and then significantly better. But it’s not a given. My state of mind going in, the setting, the company I’m in, the strain, and the dose all figure into it.
So what do you call chasing the perfect weed high?
I call it “chasing the bunny” because it seems like it would be easy to catch but once they’re on to you, it’s a little harder than you thought. But possible. Definitely possible. ;~)
My latest album ”Who’s A Good Dog?” as well as my other 38 albums, 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 as well as Spotify. I also made videos for all of the songs. Here’s a link to a youtube playlist with all of them: Who's A Good Dog? Youtube Playlist
And this will not be my latest album for much longer…I’m hoping to have my new one “Almost Ready” up on my site before too much longer. I’m in the final stages of putting together the info needed to get this thing off my chest and into the world, not only on my site but all the regular e-retailers of music as well. I just recently played my first live open mike in over two years (see video links below) and one of the songs I played, a new one called “Switch Hitter” was so well received that I decided to have my engineer tweak the audio a bit to include it as a “bonus track” on “Almost Ready”. So this album will feature my first ever live recording on an album.
As I’ve mentioned a few times here, during the pandemic I lost my mojo for playing in bars and coffeehouses and other places where the music is mostly background. Which means I’m only open to performing in places where the audience’s attention is mine to lose, not mine to get. The open mike I mentioned above was put on by Southern Oregon Songwriters Association and the crowd is almost all other songwriters so it’s definitely a listening crowd.
The upshot of this is that I will not be playing out much anymore…except for those rare shows where people come to listen. I did two “Green Shows” this summer as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and between them my recording budget for this year’s project is covered. And the gigs were really great. I don’t know if I’ll play any more shows this year…we will see.
My “Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike” continues to be my main musical outlet. As of this writing, I’ve posted 30 of them and I’m enjoying it quite a bit. I don’t get a lot of views but I’d like to think that I’m getting as much actual listening as I used to when I was playing out more. I’ve had a few other people post video sets, including my old musical partner Victor Cummings which has been great. I have a folder filled with links to my various musical friends’ websites, youtube channels and such and if people don’t post anything I go find stuff to post and listen to myself.
Here’s the basic info on the open mike:
I post youtube video sets on Sunday nights (usually 3 songs) around 8pm PST USA and share them to my facebook timeline as well. With these posts comes a standing invitation to singer-songwriters and spoken word artists to share a recent video of some of your own stuff in the comments below my posts, as well as a promise that if you post your stuff on the same night I post mine, I will do my best to watch and comment. My Sunday nights are reserved for listening to music, preferably of the homespun variety. So join me if you can either on youtube or facebook.
I posted another batch of videos to my youtube channel this month.
I posted 5 “Sunday Night Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mikes”, each with a different theme.
I also posted 1 virtual and 1 live open mike set for Southern Oregon Songwriters Association (SOSA).
I posted 1 new T’ai-Chi video
And I posted one “Misc” video, a short one of me in costume at the Ashland Children’s Halloween Parade.
For links to all of these and more, 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:
Nothing scheduled at this time…
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 2000 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
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.
I posted 7 new Music videos:
Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike #26 Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike #27 Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike #28 Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike #29 Sunday Stay-At-Homebodies Virtual Open Mike #30
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.
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 way. Go figure.
Thanks, as usual, for your support and well wishes!
