But what does it really mean? I am unsure but it SOUNDS good. I put 2 of my original songs Pretty Words and Our Little Paradise on the Reverbnations site and added a store where people could buy my songs for $1.00 each. I get $80 cents out of each dollar and so far I think I maybe sold 5 downloads of Our little Paradise and 17 of Pretty Words! Being an independent artist is hard. I guess since you can hear these songs for free on the site people just do that? I don't know. This is what's wrong with being an artist in today's market where the internet makes everything accessible in some shape or form for free. I guess I have to figure out how to get fans that want to help support the starving artist like Amanda Palmer has done or maybe I just need to write better songs (though people tell me that both of these songs are great.)
I once had over 1000 YouTube subscribers. Then YouTube made changes and my subs started disappearing. I have less than 1000 now but I sure would like to get back up there. What artists really need today are fans that will go the distance to support them. That means fans that want to buy the music because they want to help support the music they love, not fans who are out to get all of their entertainment for free.
I will certainly keep plugging away. I think that my songs are getting better and better as I get older but the industry seems to have less and less use for me as I age. I have been taking voice lessons again from the awesome and talented Patti Cathcart of Tuck & Patti fame and I think that she has really given me a lot to think about and made me realize that we can always learn, we can always improve, we can always be better than we were yesterday. Patti says that I need to get all of my original songs recorded n order to start marketing my music and I think that she is probably right so I am working toward that goal as I have written probably over 50 songs. I don't know how many of them are good but my goal now is to start getting them all recorded in a t least a rough cut. My ultimate goal of course is to have 2 or 3 CD's of original music available for sale or at least as demo's.
I did a silly thing the other night but it turned into a profound moment. I sometimes have difficulty sleeping and get too warm in the middle of the night. I often get up at 3 or 4 in the morning and go outside in my backyard next to my koi pond to sit and stargaze. It is very peaceful at that hour and the sound of the water and sometimes crickets is all there is. So the other night, I was out there gazing up at the stars and there was one that was really REALLY bright and I got the notion to make a wish upon it. Something I haven't done since I was a small child. I said the rhyme "starlight star bright, brightest star I see tonight, I wish I may I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight." and then I wished. I wished that people would hear my music. I wished for loyal fans that would support me. And as I finished my wish an amazing thing happened. Just to left of my wishing star, another star fell. To me it felt like the universe had granted my wish and a feeling of being loved washed over me. I don't know if I can exactly explain how I felt but it was a magical moment that I will never forget. I guess only time will tell but today I got the notice from Reverbnations about being number 20. When I checked I was actually number 17. Does this mean that my wish will be granted? I guess only time will tell.
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
1288 page views?
Well I sorta forgot I HAD a blog, I mean really, who cares what I have to say anyway I thought, but apparently someone does because when I logged in today I noticed that my report said that I'd had a total of 1288 page views. What?! So is that 1288 different people? or do I have a stalker that is obsessed with me and just that one person has viewed my blog 1288 times? With my luck, it's probably the latter because NOBODY has ever commented in the years that I have had this blog which led me to believe that nobody ever reads it, but now I feel sorta creeped out, like WHO has seen this blog? So if you would be so kind as to just leave a comment, any comment, on any blog post that would be awesome! Thanks
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Autumn Harvest Soup
Today it is most definitely soup weather. This is one of my very favorite soups. Ingredient amounts are approximate as I don't usually measure when I cook.
1 large butternut squash (or any kind of orange-fleshed winter squash or pumpkin will work)
1 medium sized red onion, chopped
1/2 cup of chopped celery
1 large garnet yam
1 carrot, chopped
2-3 cans or one carton of vegtable broth (chicken broth works too)
1 Tablespoon mole base
salt & pepper
1-2 cups milk or almond milk
1/2-3/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon butter
preheat oven to 350. Cut and seed the squash and roast along with the yam for an hour or so till yam is tender and oozing it's carmely goodness and squash is tender and well cooked. Depending on the squash this can take more than an hour. This step gives the soup a really rich flavor. Scoop squash out of shell and remove peel from yam and set aside. In a large pot sautee the chopped onion, carrot and celery in the butter over medium heat till onion is carmelized. Add broth and squash, yam and mole base and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Use a hand blender to puree till mostly smooth. Mixture should be thick. Add brown sugar, salt & pepper. (adjust these quntities to your liking) Then add milk or almond milk till desired consistancy is reached and heat through. I like to serve this soup with a dollop of sour cream and some tosted pumkin seeds on top.
1 large butternut squash (or any kind of orange-fleshed winter squash or pumpkin will work)
1 medium sized red onion, chopped
1/2 cup of chopped celery
1 large garnet yam
1 carrot, chopped
2-3 cans or one carton of vegtable broth (chicken broth works too)
1 Tablespoon mole base
salt & pepper
1-2 cups milk or almond milk
1/2-3/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon butter
preheat oven to 350. Cut and seed the squash and roast along with the yam for an hour or so till yam is tender and oozing it's carmely goodness and squash is tender and well cooked. Depending on the squash this can take more than an hour. This step gives the soup a really rich flavor. Scoop squash out of shell and remove peel from yam and set aside. In a large pot sautee the chopped onion, carrot and celery in the butter over medium heat till onion is carmelized. Add broth and squash, yam and mole base and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Use a hand blender to puree till mostly smooth. Mixture should be thick. Add brown sugar, salt & pepper. (adjust these quntities to your liking) Then add milk or almond milk till desired consistancy is reached and heat through. I like to serve this soup with a dollop of sour cream and some tosted pumkin seeds on top.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Cream of Cauliflower Soup
I don't think I've ever posted a recipe here before but my son Devin liked this soup so much he asked me to post my recipe for it on Facebook. I don't know what's cooler. The fact that my son, who generally doesn't like veggies asked me to post the recipe, or the fact that he actually ate it and liked it so much! In any case, I could not refuse the request! :) However, I figured if I was going to take the time to type it all out I should put it somewhere where it won't disappear eventually! So here ya go! Amounts are approximate since I don't measure.
About 1 &1/2 cups of chopped up cauliflower
1 small peeled potato
½ of a medium sized onion chopped.
1 can of chicken broth
1 T of butter
½ to ¾ cup milk
Reserve ½ cup of the chopped cauliflower, chop it up a little more so the pieces are very small. Put in a small bowl with enough water to cover, cover with plastic wrap and cook in the microwave for about 2 minutes. set aside and leave covered so that it continues to cook. Sautee the rest of the cauliflower, chopped onion and potato in the butter in a 2 or 3 quart soup pot at medium heat for about 15 minutes stirring frequently. Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until vegetables are mushy. I use a hand blender to puree this mixture, a regular blender will work too but is messier. After you have it smooth ad the reserved (drain excesswater put first) cauliflower (make sure it's tender, you don't want it crunchy) and then add the milk. and then heat till just heated through, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve. Devin put crushed tortilla chips and grated cheese on top of his first bowl and crumbled cheezit crackers on the second then asked if I would post my recipe so here it is. Enjoy! Soup weather is coming soon! :)
Monday, August 3, 2009
Facebook, MySpace, Classmates oh my!
I don't know why I keep signing up for these sites. Half the time I don't even know how I got there in the first place but I fall for it and sign up. Now Facebook's pretty cool, have made some reconnections there and kind of figured out how it works but I don’t get the games and the scavenger hunts and all that. I don’t have time for that crap anyway so if anyone wanted me to play a game or join a hunt or anything like that sorry if I disappointed you.
MySpace I still can't figure out although now I find out from watching "The View" that for aspiring musicians MySpace is the place to be NOT Facebook. HUH? But I was just starting to get the hang of Facebook and I even have friends!
Now I somehow got hoodwinked into signing up for classmates but what a scam that is. You have to PAY to really send an e-mail, post on someones 'wall', or look at anyone’s stuff, or see who’s been looking at your stuff. And while I might pay for a lot of things that I probably don’t need well, I’m just not paying for that! Still I did send out a few friend requests to a few familiar names. Wonder if I’ll hear back.
So far the only site I really enjoy and really get really sucked into is YouTube. I have a few performance, and other video’s up on my You Tube channel. I like that I get a channel! That sites not so good for hooking up with old friends like these others are but I have connected with many other musicians and potential fans and I love watching the videos.
So if you found me on MySpace or Facebook or Classmates and I haven’t put anything up yet please check back. I’ll figure it out eventually.
I suppose there is something to this networking thing. I could use connections these days since loosing my job. Once my disability runs out (around December) I will be shamelessly contacting anyone who even knows my name or sat behind me in math class to see if I can find a job. Unless of course “The Secret” really does work and I get that million dollar check in the mail in January……..
MySpace I still can't figure out although now I find out from watching "The View" that for aspiring musicians MySpace is the place to be NOT Facebook. HUH? But I was just starting to get the hang of Facebook and I even have friends!
Now I somehow got hoodwinked into signing up for classmates but what a scam that is. You have to PAY to really send an e-mail, post on someones 'wall', or look at anyone’s stuff, or see who’s been looking at your stuff. And while I might pay for a lot of things that I probably don’t need well, I’m just not paying for that! Still I did send out a few friend requests to a few familiar names. Wonder if I’ll hear back.
So far the only site I really enjoy and really get really sucked into is YouTube. I have a few performance, and other video’s up on my You Tube channel. I like that I get a channel! That sites not so good for hooking up with old friends like these others are but I have connected with many other musicians and potential fans and I love watching the videos.
So if you found me on MySpace or Facebook or Classmates and I haven’t put anything up yet please check back. I’ll figure it out eventually.
I suppose there is something to this networking thing. I could use connections these days since loosing my job. Once my disability runs out (around December) I will be shamelessly contacting anyone who even knows my name or sat behind me in math class to see if I can find a job. Unless of course “The Secret” really does work and I get that million dollar check in the mail in January……..
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Hero Kitty
She wasn’t supposed to be my cat and she wasn’t supposed to stay for more than a few weeks. We had some friends that got evicted their home and didn’t have a place for their cats. I said I would take the kitties till they got another place where they could have them. Everyone told me not to do it but I didn’t want the kitties to be taken to the pound or taken to an empty lot (believe it or not this was ones of their plans before I told them that they’d better not dare to use such a solution if I knew about it!) Anyway, my friends had no real options so I took the cats in for them. We already had 3 cats that were not happy about the newcomers so we fixed up a nice space in the garage for the 2 new arrivals. I thought it would be a temporary situation but weeks turned into months and then despite my continued ignored pleas for their owners to take one of the cats to the vets because she just seemed sick to me the ailing kitty died. She was pretty old and I don’t know what was wrong with her but this left the other kitty, Sasha, alone in the garage and Sasha, it turned out, did not want to be alone. She was mostly OK out there till her buddy was gone but once that happened she would constantly meow pitifully at the door and jump up to try and turn the knob. She somehow succeeded in knocking over an empty ten gallon glass aquarium which of course shattered all over the garage floor. She even succeeded in letting herself in a few times, a feat that both impressed and annoyed me. So even though our other cats really were not happy about Sasha even being on the property I let Sasha into our house and into my heart and there she will forever stay as she is my kitty now. I’ve made it quite clear to my friends that she will never be theirs again even if they do ever get their shit together. It’s been over 3 years now and they still don’t have a place to live so I think it was a good decision.
Sasha is a very unusual cat to say the least and she won me over pretty quickly. She really acts more like a dog than a cat which is why I often refer to her as my little PuppyCat. She walks on a leash, follows me everywhere along with our dog comes when I call or whistle for her and actually minds me. Once I heard a big racket of bluejays squawking and I went to investigate and there in the very tip top branches of our neighbors 60 foot Maple tree is Sasha trying to get at the birds nest. I hollered at her to come down and she actually minded me! This was my first clue that Sasha was not your usual kittycat.
I think that when Sasha was made they gave her an extra cup of sweetness, and extra cup of brains and 2 extra cups of trouble! She’s not the easiest cat. She hassles our other cats, frequently puts the dog in her place and has eaten several prized goldfish and one small koi! We have to keep her in the house now to protect our pond fish and even had to cat proof the backs of our aquariums as she actually has twice now gotten fish out of the small 1.5 inch opening in the back of the tank. One ended up a kitty snack, the other was saved literally from the jaws of death by my quick thinking. Sasha’s also the messiest eater and drinker I have ever seen. For some reason she doesn’t want to put her face into the cat food dish preferring to swat the food out of the dish and eat it off the floor. She also cannot drink water like a normal cat and insists on dipping her front paw in the water and licking the water off her paw. She then likes to jump up on the sofa leaving a few wet pawprints along the way. She’s such a little butthead but she’s also my little baby and a true hero. She saved all of our lives one night.
So to get to the hero part. It was winter and only a few months after we had taken her in and a little after 3AM Sasha started bugging me. Sasha often sleeps in the bed with us and sometimes she just decides it’s time for a little attention in the middle of the night. She has the absolute loudest purr I have ever heard and generally starts by simply purring in my ear and usually I can pet her for a few minutes and/or let her under the blankets and she goes back to sleep. Not this night. She just kept walking over my head, meowing in my ear and being a general annoying nuisance and I was sleepy! I kept pushing her away but she wasn’t letting up. She seemed to want me to get up and open the bedroom door for her as she kept running to the door.
Finally she got more insistent and started putting her paw on my cheek, she even bit my ear lightly at one point and then jumped right on my stomach a couple of times. I was starting to get really annoyed. Finally, now completely angry I got up and opened the door it hit me. The strong smell of gas! I went out to the kitchen and discovered a front burner on the stove had been left on low but wasn’t lit! I turned off the burner and opened all the windows and made sure my son, who sleeps in the room closest to the kitchen with his door open was OK, he didn’t appreciate being woken at 4:00 AM but when I told him about the gas he understood. Nobody knew when the burner was left on or why it wasn’t lit. It could have been a real disaster considering that our programmable thermostat was set to kick the gas heater on at 5:00AM.
When it had first become clear to me that my friends were not going to get it together and take their pets back I had been feeling taken advantage of and put upon by these friends that basically had abandoned their cats with us and I had been questioning if it had been then right move. I had even gone so far as to exclaim to people that maybe it wasn’t worth it trying to do nice things for people when they used it just to take advantage. Now I know that I did do the right thing and that karma is real! I think that I probably saved Sasha’s life by taking her in. She knew something was wrong that night and was just trying to return the favor. Nobody will ever be able to convince me of anything different. Sasha still likes attention in the middle of the night sometimes, but she has never since absolutely insisted that I open the bedroom door. I couldn’t imagine my life without my little hero now and I am thankful that my friends were such idiots, and that I did what I could to help them anyway. Nobody will ever take her away from me. She’s my kitty till the day she dies which will be a very sad day for me indeed.
Sasha is a very unusual cat to say the least and she won me over pretty quickly. She really acts more like a dog than a cat which is why I often refer to her as my little PuppyCat. She walks on a leash, follows me everywhere along with our dog comes when I call or whistle for her and actually minds me. Once I heard a big racket of bluejays squawking and I went to investigate and there in the very tip top branches of our neighbors 60 foot Maple tree is Sasha trying to get at the birds nest. I hollered at her to come down and she actually minded me! This was my first clue that Sasha was not your usual kittycat.
I think that when Sasha was made they gave her an extra cup of sweetness, and extra cup of brains and 2 extra cups of trouble! She’s not the easiest cat. She hassles our other cats, frequently puts the dog in her place and has eaten several prized goldfish and one small koi! We have to keep her in the house now to protect our pond fish and even had to cat proof the backs of our aquariums as she actually has twice now gotten fish out of the small 1.5 inch opening in the back of the tank. One ended up a kitty snack, the other was saved literally from the jaws of death by my quick thinking. Sasha’s also the messiest eater and drinker I have ever seen. For some reason she doesn’t want to put her face into the cat food dish preferring to swat the food out of the dish and eat it off the floor. She also cannot drink water like a normal cat and insists on dipping her front paw in the water and licking the water off her paw. She then likes to jump up on the sofa leaving a few wet pawprints along the way. She’s such a little butthead but she’s also my little baby and a true hero. She saved all of our lives one night.
So to get to the hero part. It was winter and only a few months after we had taken her in and a little after 3AM Sasha started bugging me. Sasha often sleeps in the bed with us and sometimes she just decides it’s time for a little attention in the middle of the night. She has the absolute loudest purr I have ever heard and generally starts by simply purring in my ear and usually I can pet her for a few minutes and/or let her under the blankets and she goes back to sleep. Not this night. She just kept walking over my head, meowing in my ear and being a general annoying nuisance and I was sleepy! I kept pushing her away but she wasn’t letting up. She seemed to want me to get up and open the bedroom door for her as she kept running to the door.
Finally she got more insistent and started putting her paw on my cheek, she even bit my ear lightly at one point and then jumped right on my stomach a couple of times. I was starting to get really annoyed. Finally, now completely angry I got up and opened the door it hit me. The strong smell of gas! I went out to the kitchen and discovered a front burner on the stove had been left on low but wasn’t lit! I turned off the burner and opened all the windows and made sure my son, who sleeps in the room closest to the kitchen with his door open was OK, he didn’t appreciate being woken at 4:00 AM but when I told him about the gas he understood. Nobody knew when the burner was left on or why it wasn’t lit. It could have been a real disaster considering that our programmable thermostat was set to kick the gas heater on at 5:00AM.
When it had first become clear to me that my friends were not going to get it together and take their pets back I had been feeling taken advantage of and put upon by these friends that basically had abandoned their cats with us and I had been questioning if it had been then right move. I had even gone so far as to exclaim to people that maybe it wasn’t worth it trying to do nice things for people when they used it just to take advantage. Now I know that I did do the right thing and that karma is real! I think that I probably saved Sasha’s life by taking her in. She knew something was wrong that night and was just trying to return the favor. Nobody will ever be able to convince me of anything different. Sasha still likes attention in the middle of the night sometimes, but she has never since absolutely insisted that I open the bedroom door. I couldn’t imagine my life without my little hero now and I am thankful that my friends were such idiots, and that I did what I could to help them anyway. Nobody will ever take her away from me. She’s my kitty till the day she dies which will be a very sad day for me indeed.
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