First off, regarding the newly announced 2008 Lotus performers …
I’ve created a list of the albums by these artists that are available via eMusic.com here.
(Unfortunately, not *everybody* expected to come is available on eMusic, but let’s work on that, mkay?)
That would mean you could sample a few songs from the majority of the artists expected to play this October at the Lotus — for free! Whoo-hoo!
More to come … keep checking back….
I’m not sure if they’ve posted them on the Lotus Festival website yet (although if they haven’t, they must be having technical difficulties there because it’s past the deadline they said at the concert), but here’s a tentative list of the artists appearing this October in Bloomington.
detektivbyrån ~ analogue electronic waltz from Sweden
Sogbety Diomande’s West African Drum and Dance Company ~ Cote d’Ivoire (sorry, I can’t figure out how to make the little angle over the o)
Etran Finatawa ~ African tribal fusion music from Niger
Etugen Ensemble ~ Mongolian folk music
Julie Fowlis ~ Scottish Gaelic folk song
Frigg ~ String folk music from Norway & Finland
Bill Harney & Paul Taylor ~ Australian storytelling and didjeridoo
Gaida Hinnawi ~ Arabic song from Syria
Little Cow ~ Ska/rock/funk/Gypsy fusion from Hungary
Lo Cor de la Plana ~ Polyphonic song from Occitan/southern France
March Fourth Marching Band ~ Absolute crowd favorite marching band (I describe them as “Drum Corps Without Adult Supervision”!)
La Musgaña ~ Traditional music of Central Spain
Pistolera ~ Latin Alt-Folklorico
Reelroad ~ Modern Russian folk music
Son de Madera ~ Traditional music & dance from Veracruz
Jayme Stone & Mansa Sissoko: Africa to Appalachia ~ Appalachia/Mali fusion
Vieux Farka Touré ~ Desert blues from Mali
Waltz With Me: Annbjørg Lien, Bruce Molsky, Christine Hanson, Mats Eden ~ International folk music string quartet
The Wilders ~ Old-time country (but I think they’re much more fun than this description, myself.)
And as they say … “With more surprises to come!” The LotusFest website is supposed to have updates throughout the summer, and they note that the artist roster is subject to change.
So it’s summertime and my kids have been off school for a month and a half, with me pretty much 24/7. It’s been near-impossible to find moments of quiet here (except for the hours when we’re all asleep … or my insomniac nights when I dare not make noise that might wake anyone else in the house). And surely it’s clear to you that I haven’t gotten anything done on the podcast lately.
But this past Friday and Saturday nights were the Summer Night(-s) of Lotus, and once again, the Lotus has inspired me, reminded me of my great love not only for the music that the organization brings to town, but for the people of this small city: I love the activity of attending these events, of people-watching, of seeing folks in a different context and finding new ways to enjoy them and myself. I especially loved bringing my new friend Pat out for the Saturday night concert, introducing her to a few friends, and watching her delight at the music, too. Since she’s new to town and from the culture-rich city of New Orleans, I’m always particularly delighted when I can help her love her new home a little more.
So because of this weekend, I’m inspired and invigorated to bring my attention back to this languishing blog and podcast, to return to this craft, nevermind the gap between what I imagine it to be and what it is, currently. (I’ve been too busy paying attention to the gap to stay focused on the dream. I’m now publicly stating my intention to return to the dream, to get aligned with the good vibe and each time I stray from it, to purposefully refocus. It’ll take practice to overcome years of negative thinking, but I’m committing — again, today, now — to doing exactly that.)
Serendipitously, I came across a YouTube video this morning of Ira Glass speaking to exactly the monkey-thoughts in my head that I’ve allowed to stop me from working on the podcast. Ira Glass, as many of you know, is the host of This American Life, a public radio hit that 1.7 million people listen to each week. And in this video, he shares with you what he wishes someone would have told him, early in his career. It’s exactly what *I* needed to hear, and will likely need to hear repeatedly through the next few weeks/months/years. Geez, I hope it won’t take me years, but that’s what he says to expect. We’ll see. But the main message is, it’ll take a lot longer if I don’t actually Just.Keep.Working.
Enough of me talking about what Ira says better. Have a listen.
I’ve written and rewritten the opening to this blog post, composed apologies and offered excuses, and now I’m deleting all of that to start again.
If anyone is interested in helping me get this podcast up and running in a more timely manner, particularly if you’ve got experience with Garage Band software (or Audacity), I would love to hear from you.
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Today I had lunch with a dear old friend, Pam MacLaughlin, a wonderful local musician and writer (and now, nursing student). She said something that I expect others of you have already said, but somehow I heard it more clearly: this little “audio magazine” that I’ve had in my mind and been struggling to bring to fruition? I need to remember that an actual PHYSICAL magazine has dozens if not hundreds of workers to get it done — writers and photographers and designers and ad salespeople, not to mention printers and distributors! — and I am trying to do this relatively complex podcast on my own in an unreasonable timeframe, while continuing to parent my children and have a life! She suggested (as many of you have already) that I post individual pieces, which is more managable in terms of time, and that I can still wrap together a series into a larger whole, if I want to, after the fact.
I think I finally get the point. Thank you to all who’ve already offered me this advice.
So today, taking this advice and with permission, today I offer you a song written by Pam’s husband, Joe Donnelly, and performed by Joe, Pam, and their group, Orquesta Son. The song is entitled Sugar Mama and comes from their Sí Quíero disc, copyright 2000. (Click on the link to download the song to your computer.)
“Son” in the name of their group, rhymes with “phone” and refers to the Cuban-style salsa music the group performs, along with mambo, rhumba, son-montuno, and songo styles. The group specializes in the merengue of the Dominican Republic and the cumbia of Columbia. Although most of the music on their Sí Quíero disc is new, dancers can do the traditional steps to the carefully arranged rhythms.
Enjoy! (And thanks again to Pam, Joe, and the rest of Orquesta Son!)
More interviews and more music to come, in smaller chunks and (I hope) a more timely basis. Thank you for listening … and for your patience!
To attempt to insure that I’ve worked out most of the bugs of getting started, I plan to post at least one more episode online manually before syndicating the podcast through iTunes and other means. So, in the meantime, if you’d like to be notified of future episodes by e-mail, send an e-mail from the preferred address to host@ThisIsMyBloomington.com.
I promise (cross my heart) not to sell your address, nor to send you anything else* besides notification of the next one or two podcasts being posted here. In fact, when I enable official subscription to the podcast, I will e-mail you that information and let you know that’s the last e-mail you’ll see from me.
(And, knock wood, I hope to get the next episode up in about two weeks from now.)
*Disclaimer: If you’re my relative or friend already, chances are I will eventually e-mail you again, separate from this promise! But I still won’t sell your address!
Here’s the link to the NEW show. You can listen to it in your web browser by simply clicking the link or you can right-click (or on a Mac, click-and-hold, then select “save”) to download it to your computer and then move it to iTunes (or whatever) and listen to it on an mp3 player. This episode is nearly 50 minutes long, featuring quite a LOT of music as well as an interview with the director of The Lotus World Music & Arts Festival, and a quick review of The Turkuaz Café, my favorite ethnic restaurant in town.
Show notes for EP001:
These first two links will always stay in the left column, but for clarity’s sake, here they are with the first episode that’s relevant to them:
The Lotus World Music & Arts Festival That’s the basic link where you can learn lots more than what I was able to include in this episode (more episodes on the Lotus to come!). You can also find lists of all artists who’ve performed at the Lotus over the years at this page on their site.
eMusic.com is my only revenue source for this podcast: if you click the ad, you’ll get 25 free, legal downloads without any obligation to purchase any more, ever (and I get a wee bonus if you go there from here). For your free selections, you might want to check out:
Balkan Beat Box at eMusic
Seu Jorge at eMusic
Lisa Germano at eMusic
or maybe you’d care to sample other musicians who played at that first Lotus festival back in 1994 while you’ve got a chance to grab some of them for free. (I regret that I couldn’t get permission OR have enough time to let you hear all of them on this week’s episode!)
Guardabarranco at eMusic (Nicaraguan pop/folk musicians. I love their music, but couldn’t reach them to ask permission to use the songs.)
Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill at eMusic (Clare-style Irish fiddle music)
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band at eMusic (R&B, Traditional, Gospel amazing music in classic New Orleans style!)
Ingrid Karklins at eMusic (Latvian style music from an American woman)
Featured musicians’ websites:
Balkan Beat Box is … well, if you ever get a chance to see and hear them live, take my advice and GO! Their music is wonderful on disk or mp3, but there’s nothing that can replace the excitement of standing or dancing in their audience.
The Dorkestra is not playing together anymore, but you can read and hear more at their website.
Sabá is also not playing together anymore, but Shahyar’s current group, The Silk Road Ensemble, has a website.
Lotus Dickey website has info and materials for old-time musicians as well as enthusiasts.
Seu Jorge can be found in many places on the Internet, and I had a very hard time deciding which song to include in the podcast. I very nearly used his version of David Bowie’s Life On Mars (the link is to Jorge’s performance of this song on YouTube. And yeah, I like Jorge’s version much better than Bowie’s.)
Lisa Germano also has a rich diversity in her music, making it difficult to choose a specific cut for the podcast. Fortunately, she’s also given me permission to use more of her music in later episodes, so stay tuned!
Lunch this week came from The Turkuaz Café – 333-7908, 301 East Third Street.
Photos of musicians and Lotus events courtesy of Kevin Atkins.
Thanks, once again, to all the artists who gave me permission to use their work, to Lee Williams and everyone at the Lotus, to Kevin Atkins, Dmitri Vietze and Grey Larson.
And listeners/readers, please, if you have any suggestions or comments, please post them here or e-mail me at host@thisismybloomington.com. Thanks for listening!
Right after my last interview, the respiratory virus that I’d been warding off caught me. I’ve been sick for nearly three weeks now, with the virus triggering a bout of pneumonia. I’m feeling *almost* healthy again, so the episodes should be coming along soon.
I’m not normally a crazy flaky person, I promise.
If I have your e-mail address, as soon as I get an episode posted, I will e-mail to let you know that it’s up. (And after that point, if you want me to stop e-mailing you, I’ll take you off that list, I promise.)
And if you *have* been coming back, anxious for something new to listen to and read, thanks. I’ll do my best to fulfill those desires, as soon as I can.
Although I’d originally intended to delay posting anything until I had a few episodes completed and I could anticipate how much time each episode would take to produce, I decided to post the Introduction to the Podcast, Episode 000.
You can listen to it in your web browser by clicking this link or you can right-click (or on a Mac, click-and-hold, then select “save”) to download it to your computer.
After I start posting regular episodes, I’ll let you know how you can subscribe.
And after you listen to this introduction, I’d appreciate any comments you’d care to leave here. Thanks!
One more thing: the music in this episode is from the Podsafe Music Network, rather than by any local Bloomington group, unfortunately. I haven’t had the opportunity to make the right connection locally yet. But this lovely piece of music is “Joy” by Michael Mucklow.
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