Thursday, June 8, 2006

I am loving life right about now. I’m in Northern California in a little town near Sausalito with a population of about 200. I posted an ad on Craigs List saying I was willing to exchange administrative services for room and board and, lo and behold, I got two responses the very next day. One was from a man who wanted to know what kind of artist I was, my gender and age, what could I afford to pay, etc. The other was from a woman saying she was running a few small businesses from home and would welcome the help. She included her home and cell phone numbers in the response. I called her, we spoke on the phone for about ten minutes, I drove to her home the next day with my suitcases in my trunk. We hit it off immediately. She used to book bands so she has that musician/creative vibe and is very smart and enterprising.

After we chatted for about half an hour, she asked, “So, do you have your things with you? Do you want to move in now?” “Sure,” I said, “that would be great!” And I did just that. She lives on the top floor of a small house nestled in the hills. One side of the house has breathtaking views of rolling hills with all kinds of foliage growing on them. The other side faces the ocean. There is a large, L-shaped living room with a pot bellied wood burning stove and a huge balcony that wraps around the living room.

I have my own room and bathroom but, since there’s no bed in the room, right now I’m sleeping in the living room on the sofa. I discovered a thick comfy mat and tonight I’m going to put that on the floor in my room and sleep on it. One of the good things about being small – I don’t need a lot of space to be comfortable. It’s great to be able to go into my room and close the door and just have some time to myself and to sleep late if I want.

When I first arrived, I stayed with a guitarist that I thought I would be working with on the tour. The plan was that we would work out the songs during the day and perform at night. He said he had a two-bedroom apartment with a very comfortable futon that opened into a very comfortable bed, which was indeed true. What he didn’t mention was that it was located in the living room, not in the second bedroom, as I’d wrongly assumed, which meant I had no privacy at all. After three nights of that, I was ready to keep it moving! Especially since we didn’t click musically, although he’s a wonderful musician and has some great ideas and I’m looking forward to the completion of his CD.

I spent one night in Sausalito at a house where about four artists of various sorts live. In addition to them, there were several other people who were just passing through and camping out in the living room in sleeping bags. One of the occupants of the house is a percussionist that I met through MySpace. He accompanied me on a couple of the shows. After the show was over, we went to his home in Sausalito. There were several people hanging out in the kitchen, including a woman playing the guitar and singing. I stayed in the kitchen to listen to her song, which was very clever. After, she handed me the guitar and I sang a song. Then the percussionist took the guitar and sang. Before long, we were passing around the guitar and someone would start a song and the rest of us would join in and sing along, even though we’d not heard the songs before. It was a lot of fun.

Then we started talking about life, etc. One of the guys was talking about 80s rock bands and musicians and when I didn’t know who he was talking about, he was so offended you would have thought I’d insulted his mother. When I said I’d missed the whole Hendrix craze, you would have thought I’d slapped him! He all but insisted that I immediately travel to Seattle to visit the Hendrix museum. I was about to write him off entirely but I’m glad that I didn’t because shortly after, he was talking about how one day he’d be enjoying the finer things in life and “basking in the yolk of it all.” I couldn’t get that phrase out of my head and finally I gave up trying and decided to make it into a song. I pulled out my laptop and, long after everyone had gone to their respective beds or sleeping bags, I was stretched out on a cushion on the kitchen floor, headphones on, composing my new song. I spent most of the night there and finally fell asleep there, until I was wakened by one of the occupants coming into the kitchen to make her morning coffee.

The shows have been going very well. Everyone who comes seems to have a good time. Unfortunately, I’ve only been playing small venues so, even though most of the people buy CDs, there haven’t been enough people for me to really make any money. My new housemate knows lots of venues because she used to book bands and next week she’s going to start taking me around to different spots.

A new MySpace friend who came to my Monday night show at Brainwash is a producer/engineer and, as such, knows lots of musicians in the area, so he’s going to put together a list of musicians he thinks may work well with my type of music. I have to start getting ready for the Temple Bar show on July 12th, which means putting a band together and having at least three rehearsals.

More soon...

© Daughter of the Sun. Reprint by permission only.

May 3, 2006 - I just got in from playing in the subway station. I like the F line at the 23rd Street station... More...

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...

More Journals