Wednesday, May 3, 2006

II just got in from playing in the subway station. I like the F line at the 23rd Street station because there’s a wall that separates the uptown side from the downtown side, so you can’t hear the trains going in the other direction. And the acoustics are great. My voice carries throughout the entire station. I didn’t get to go until a little past four, so I didn’t make as much money as I’d hoped but tomorrow I’m going to go earlier.

When I was with Columbia Records, they sent me to a vocal coach because they were concerned that, since I had never toured before, my voice might not be strong enough to hold up throughout a tour. The coach they sent me to also coaches Lenny Kravitz. Not that he’s such a great singer, but he does tour a lot. Anyway, so this coach is like the Jack La Lane of singing. He only had me sing for the first lesson, so he’d get a sense of what he had to work with and what he needed to work on. Then he gave me exercises to do to strengthen my voice. He said that I held my jaw tight when I sang, which would be a problem if I had to sing a few nights in a row. My jaw muscle would get tired, he said and my voice would start to give out. I kept focusing on that while I was singing in the station, because I was there singing for three hours straight pretty much. I paced myself and focused on breathing and keeping my jaw muscle relaxed and even at the end of the three hours, my voice still felt strong. My finger tips, however, were killing me. Plus, the crowd was thinning out a lot and after two trains passed through and nobody put money into my guitar case, I decided it was time to pack it in.

I was so hungry when I got home. One of my neighbors was on the elevator and he had a pack of Oreo cookies. When I said I was starving, he insisted that I take two cookies, so I was able to last long enough to make something to eat when I got home. I had spinach sautéed in garlic and olive oil and salmon cakes. Lately I just can’t get enough spinach. I must eat some every day. Now of course I’m ready to go to sleep since my belly is full.

VKS sent word today that the doctor gave the okay for her to travel this weekend, so she’s coming back to New York on Saturday. MRMCS is flying to San Francisco, where he’ll pick her up and get right back on an airplane and fly back to New York. That’s really good news. She sent a long email saying that she’s so grateful to be alive and that she realized that, even if she were to die, she would have no regrets because she’s really happy and surrounded by people that she loves and who love her. It brought tears to my eyes to read it because she’s just one of the sweetest people I’ve ever known. I’m so glad she’s mending and will be returning home to be with her man.

BPA phoned to say she's not going to be able to make it this weekend for the CD Release/Farewell because her mother is going to be in town visiting. She's going to come up for the shindig on the 20th though. I'm looking forward to hanging out with her again.

I think I have a show lined up in Santa Barbara. I’m just waiting for the confirmation. Ideally, I wanted to do something in Santa Barbara after I was done with San Francisco but it’s in between two shows in San Francisco, which means I have to drive down to Santa Barbara and then back up to San Francisco. Oh, well, it’s the life I chose.

I dropped off the master to have the CDs duplicated. They promised to have them ready by Friday evening. I still have to pop in the inserts but that’s not too bad. The most important part of the equation is the CDs which I can’t duplicate myself since I burned out the CD burner on the G4 desktop.

ECB called me yesterday and asked if I would go with her to the Cinco de Mayo festival downtown on Friday. I said that if she helped me put together the CDs later that day, I would accompany her, so I’ll have help putting the CDs together. Tomorrow I have to print out the cover and insert and then take them to Kinko and have them copies, which will be more practical than trying to do them all myself. Just drop them off and pick them up when they’re done.

I’ve already started to pack for California, which is just the opposite of how I usually travel but I don’t want to wait until the last minute this time. The days seem to be just flying by. The end of the month will be here before I know it but I plan to be ready.

Not much else going on. Just work, work, work. I’ve been working with a booking agent, who’s been helping me line up venues to perform in. He also is going to set it up so that I can do a Borders tour in the Fall in the south, which will be great. I may do Chicago and Detroit at the end of the summer, depending upon how things are going in California. So I may not be back home to New York for months! Not that I mind; I’m kind of tired of New York. I’ve been longing for grass, trees, open sky and fresh air, none of which are available in New York.

For right now, however, I’m going to take a hot shower and get into bed. Who would have thought performing in the subway station could be so exhausting!

More soon...

© Daughter of the Sun. Reprint by permission only.

April 24, 2006 - I found a numerology site and, according to their calculations, I’m at the end of a cycle. I‘ve past the harvest and I’m about to lay down new seeds I guess to prepare for the coming Winter. More...

April 10, 2006 - I’ve been spending a lot of time online, working on my MySpace page, making new friends through MySpace as well. By the time I get to California, I’ll already know lots of folks there. More...

April 2, 2006 - I can’t believe it’s April already. The year is nearly half done, although some more optimistic than I am at this moment in my life would say the year’s barely begun. It just seems that time is marching along faster and faster each year. More...

March 23, 2006 - Not much new to report. Still laid up with my broken toe. More...

March 16, 2006 - What a week it’s been! A broken toe, post-Philly drama, TTT came into town, west coast tour in the works, April concert to plan, new band. More...

March 10, 2006 - It was a pretty smooth drive with almost no traffic even though we left the city at 5 o’clock. We reached Philadelphia at about 8 o’clock. It reminds me of a lot of other small towns I’ve been in, like Troy and Albany. More...

March 8, 2006 - This evening I’m off to New Rochelle to perform at a Habitat for Humanity fundraising event. I’m taking CDs, which I will autograph and sell and donate half the proceeds to Habitat for Humanity. They’re going to New Orleans to rebuild some of the homes that were destroyed by Katrina. More...

March 2, 2006 - I am so over the cold and ready for the Spring. It’s hard to believe it’s right around the corner. The groundhog saw his shadow last month, which supposedly means Winter is hanging around a bit longer but I remain ever hopeful. More...

February 25, 2006 - Another late night… What else is new? I performed at Bellizzi’s tonight. Two sets. I ran through my entire arsenal of songs and even threw in a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s song, “True Colors.” I don’t really like doing covers but the woman who hired me for the night asked me to and you have to give the people what they want, especially when they're paying. More...

February 19, 2006 - Another all nighter… My plan was to get into bed by midnight at the latest but I wound up staying up and setting up my page on MySpace. It turns out there’s another artist with my name (Setra) who’s already on MySpace so I couldn’t use my own name. I had to sign up using Daughter of the Sun instead. It took a while to upload the music and the photos, once I figured out how to do it. More...

February 16, 2006 - Hurray! The snow is almost gone! Just the way I like the snow. A lot of it comes down, it stays for a few days and then it melts and is gone; and not a moment too soon. I ate the last of the food today, which means I have to go grocery shopping tomorrow. I haven't weighed myself but I have a feeling I've gained at least a couple of pounds. More...

Snow - I have about five days’ worth of food, and I’m prepared to hibernate until the snow melts. My car is parked across the street but I don’t know which mound it’s under. It was kind of nice being home alone and doing whatever I wanted to without having to answer to anybody or even speak to another person. I turned off the ringer on the phone and just spent some time with myself. More...

Guero's - I just got in from Guero’s. What a night. First off, it turns out they didn’t have a PA system, an amp, a microphone or microphone stand so I had to pack up all that stuff and take it with me. I lugged it all a block and a half to where I’d parked my car Monday evening and when I got to the parking spot where I’d left my car, my car was nowhere to be found. More...

MTV Comes - The MTV folks came and went Monday. It was all quite fun. I was up and dressed by the time they arrived at 9:00 AM. “We have to film the entire day,” they said and they made me put my pajamas back on and get back into bed. Then they filmed me getting out of bed, going into the kitchen and having my first glass of water for the day. More...

MTV- I sent off a CD and letter to MTV for their Made series. Sunday afternoon I got a call from them saying they want to film me for their “A Day In the Life” series. More...

Insulted - I got a call from a woman today who books acts at a café in Montclair, New Jersey. She wanted to know if I was interested in performing a short set of about 3 or 4 songs at her café on Tuesday. Not only was she not offering to pay me but she wanted me to buy an entrée while I was there. I was highly insulted. More...

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