It's been a while since I've done a post. Life has been keeping me busy. And it's all been good but I love writing my musings and sharing them with you...and you...and you, too.
First up: I'm playing in St Paul, Minnesota this Friday with my good friend, Gary Ruschman. I recorded with Gary last summer. After talking about working together and a lot of emails and demos, we got together on July 4th to record saxophone parts for his album. Allow me to go into a little detail: after three days of rehearsing the Urbandale J-Hawk Marching Band and a 4th of July Parade, followed by an afternoon 4th of July show with Courtney Krause, then I started recording with Gary. We recorded the next day as well. The following morning, we reviewed everything and signed off on it. He left for Minneapolis and I left the next day for Arizona. This weekend won't be much different as you'll see in the next paragraph.
This Saturday and Sunday, English goes into the studio to record our anticipated followup EP. If you've been to any of our shows in the past year, you've heard four of the five songs. It's been nice to write songs together, play them in front of an audience, and develop them. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook because we'll share the recording process with you...and of course, you'll get updates on here too. We'll be announcing some summer shows soon...I'll keep you in the loop.
I've finished two books and I'm slowly making my way through a third one.
I really enjoyed this book. I found this book while in Target in the month of October...in the Halloween section; must have been the orange cover!?! Mark Manson uses a lot of humor and profanity to get his point across: decide what is important in your life and live it. Easier said than done but sometimes you need someone cussing like my mother to get the point across so you improve your life.
Any one that knows me knows that I'm really into the music of Prince. After collecting all of his albums in high school, I got my first bootleg recording of him with the Revolution in 1987 playing the song "Just My Imagination" by the Temptations. That would be the first of many bootleg recordings and video. Most of the bootlegs I have have been officially released now. As a fan, I'm glad because I want everyone to hear what I was excited to be listening to. As I read his memoir, I found myself listening to the music mentioned in the pages. When I finished reading, I didn't feel like I had arrived at anything but simply saw the beginning of something. Had he lived longer, we all may have seen and read what he was wanting to share in book form. One thing I learned from the book is that he was so musically active in high school. Everything I've ever read seemed to glance over that fact...almost as if he went from his aunt's basement to recording For You to being a huge star. The book and the Prince Estate website do a great job of discussing his high school years.
This has been on my "must read" list for years. It's taking me a while because every chapter makes my stomach turn. James Loewen does a great job of presenting the stories left out of most if not all high school American History books...and explains why. The truth is sometimes ugly but that's not a reason to not discuss it. The youth of this country...and all countries, should know what happened in the history of our nation. Good or bad, let's just talk about it. I strongly feel that the more authentic the conversation, the better hope for positive change.
That's all for now. Take care of yourself. xoxoxoxox