06.02.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:27 am by mb
Hi Everybody!
I’m so excited to let you know that we’ve finally got the new site up and running!…the URL will be the same, http://www.marybethmusic.com but (crossing my fingers here) all going well, it should look and feel brand new. More fun to visit. More informative and easier to navigate. It’s been such a pleasure to take a closer look at everything, revamp, freshen, restore, rethink… And I can’t wait to hear from you all and jump on in a much easier fashion to drop a note, or write a blog, or put up a fun demo track for your comments.
We’ll have LOTS of great new features, including downloadable single tracks and albums, more detailed info on all kinds of things, like the new kids album and the workshops that I’ll be co-facilitating this fall. It’ll be easier to see when and where this summer’s shows are and to share pics and comments.
There may be a few aches and pains, as in most moves. If you’re interested in keeping an active RSS feed, I may have to ask you to sign up for it on the new site. (This will be a the second time for some of you — it’s unclear if the RSS subscription list from this site’s blog will carry over properly). The mailing list, too, will reach many but not all of you. Please sign up on the new list if you want to make sure occasional updates make it your way.
Thank you for your patience and for all the great comments and visits to the old site over the years.
much love,
mb
Five Things I’m Thankful For Today:
1. Fun at the park with Daisy. Swings haven’t been so exciting in years!
2. My sister Susan’s progress over the past few weeks.
3. Mailbox money!
4. Work nights at great coffee places.
5. Snuggling with my honey on the couch, watching the Six Feet Under DVD.
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02.20.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:11 pm by mb
We’re in Santa Fe for a week for a photo workshop of Mark’s…Daisy’s grandparents have met us here, so I’m finding myself with a beautiful open expanse of free time each day. It’s a little weird. I’m kind of freaked out. It’s been so long since I had hours in a ROW to work on anything. The last ten months have trained me well in jumping on the opportunity of a free moment. My productivity has leapt to new heights with the ever-tightening amount of time available to me. So to find myself here with time gorgeously, luxuriously languished upon me, I should be crazily productive, right? Instead, I’m feeling a little…paralyzed.
At home, I find myself writing furiously in the 40 minutes or so that’s free after getting basic life stuff managed and before Daisy wakes from her nap. When she’s awake, I jot down (important! magnificent-feeling!) ideas on scraps of paper while feeding her, finish songs with her sitting on my lap or crawling around my feet, organize projects while she nibbles on puffs in the highchair. But here, in this quiet coffeehouse with the classical music playing and not a soul needing one-damn-thing from me, I’m doing everything but what I thought I’d do, what I really would like to have done by the end of this week. I have a book proposal to finish, meditations and visualizations to finish for a site I’m launching, and an artist cards project to — yep, you got it — finish. All things in the final stretch. Exciting, cool projects that I couldn’t put DOWN a few weeks ago. They kept me up til 1, 2, in the morning as it felt like I channelled information directly from sources much more brilliant than I could hope to ever be.
But what am I doing now, in the land of enchantment and free time? Clearing out my email in-box. Organizing my word docs so that my recipes and songs-in-progress are no longer a big entangled mess. Figuring out what the F keys do on my macbook. Checking to see if Victoria’s Secret website has that mascara I like. Or if there are any great glittery closed-toe gold heels on zappos.com (Yes to both, btw.) I’m obsessive-compulsively checking email about every seven minutes. (So please email me). Oh my God, I just checked it again, because it sounded like a good idea. Nothing exciting, btw. I have done SO much maintenance in the last three days, I feel like my entire digital life is tight as a drum. No stray threads, here. No, sirree.
What’s the resistance about? Some of it is surely task related. I love the big idea part of a project, the thrill of the first big waves of thought, the illumination, the discovery, the yes yes yes chain of momentum that often builds before the (often caffeine-fueled) frenzy dims. I usually find less excitement in the nuts and bolts part of the project. The research, the little obstacles (what!? my brilliant domain name is TAKEN??!!), the actual doing. The little jolts of popping energy come less regularly here for me. It feels a bit more like, umm, work.
I suspect the other piece of the resistance is the bit about fear. As an artistic project nears completion, it will likely be presented to the world. The world, being the opinionated place it is, tends to respond. Response comes in the form of applause, demands, frowns, confusion, even silence…any or all of these may be daunting to the artist.
But what are we supposed to do? Scribble away in obscurity, hoping that some self-starting relative will take it upon himself to publish our stuff after we’re gone? Pretend we don’t care what people think when we release our works? Market ourselves like fiends, self-promoting so that there’s no way we’ll be ignored (if not loved)?
Maybe the job today is just to do SOMETHING. Do the NEXT thing. Relax the focus off the eighteen things that all need to be done yesterday and do what I can, do what sounds GOOD to do right at this moment.
Okay. Off to work on a chapter. Or something. After I check email.
xo
mb
5 Things I’m Thankful for Today:
1. Helpful, loving, generous family members.
2. Daisy’s goofy bedhead smile when she wakes from her nap.
3. Good parking karma
4. The sweet herb-bundle guy who gave me such fragrant sage yesterday.
5. The delicious dinner we had last night at Coyote Cafe.
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09.17.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:58 pm by mb
Lately, Mark’s been sharing a lot of ideas he’s excited about on how to live a better/more efficient/more effective/more pleasant life from a site he discovered called http://www.lifehacker.com. It’s great stuff — pragmatic approaches, innovative ideas, cool tips. Some of the lifehacker ideas have made me think about the things that work or don’t work in my life.
If I have an idea worth living by lately, it’s the 90 percent rule. It started coming to light when we installed a new built-in closet for me a few weeks ago. As I pulled all the stuff out of my old closet and started organizing everything, I realized how many items were things I really rarely wore — evening gowns, out-of-season pieces, weird sparkly holiday crap, stuff that really should go in some kind of costume box. I asked myself what I accessed the most, and it was stuff like workout clothes, pajamas, well-fitting gap khakis, a couple great sweaters that feel great everytime I put them on. Decent jeans. And the staples, like socks. Underwear. (And headbands. I’m growing out my bangs). It was fascinating to me how buried all my everyday gear was, while there were tons of things on top that had so little to do with my usual life patterns.
I vowed to make a change. I wanted to face the facts. What does the majority of my life require for me to feel good about it? What tools do I need? How do I dress for it? What do I do with my hours? What are the bulk of my food choices? With whom do I spend my time? And toward what end? I looked at the hard truth: I’m living with and holding on to WAY too much stuff for contingencies. I’m storing, managing, maintaining, and moving around all these things that I use incredibly rarely, 10 percent of the time in a very generous assessment. It’s time to break it down to percentages…maximum effectiveness per shelf inch, per hour spent. I am going to pare my life down to the stuff I’m USING, ENJOYING, or ASPIRING TO 90 percent of the time.
Can I really let go of the things I only need once in awhile? After all, most of this stuff didn’t just fall into my life — I bought it, or someone gave it to me, maybe I even made it. If you’re like me, you really think you need everything you have. And then you become more annoyed than comforted by your things, and so you start to think about streamlining. The urge to simplify has probably reached most of us in some way these days, but that nagging sense that “I might need it someday” still causes hesitation for me as I try to clear things out. But the 90 percent rule helps with this. Is this an item I use in my most-of-the-time life? If not, can I borrow it? Rent it? Make it? Trust that I can figure something out when the time comes?
This is trickier than it looks, to start glancing about with a critical eye at all your excess supplies, clothing, tools. It asks you to be realistic about the way you’re really living, and to be honest about how close that is to your ideal life. It made me realize that there are two versions of myself: the one I imagine that I am, and the one I ACTUALLY am. There’s the me that loves the idea of yoga, but not the actual doing of it. (Except for that great part at the end, chivasana, where you get to lie down and relax. I love that part.) I love the idea of a beautifully tailored, perfectly made bed everyday, but the reality is that giving our comfy down duvet a good fluff in the morning is about all I’m willing to do. I love giving dinner parties, but with a new baby in the house and time more crunched than ever, I think it’s probably wise to put the fancy china in the back cupboards for awhile.
I sleep a good nine hours a night (which is awesome for a new parent — I love Daisy more every day!), so my bed, sheets, pajamas, and sleeping companion better all be great. (They are!). I work out a few times a week and tend to do errands in my workout clothes for a few hours afterwards. This makes up the majority of my time in public lately. Are my workout clothes comfortable? Pleasant to wear? Flattering? Well, they weren’t until a week ago. But they are now. (Thank you nice helper girl at Nordstrom.) If I’m going to be living in these clothes for most of my days, I’m not going to wear ratty faded crappy fraying leggings with an ill-fitting top and a fleece with a hole in it. Not anymore I’m not.
Once on Oprah, she had on two guys helping viewers clean out their closets. The guys suggested you ask yourself three questions:
1. Do I love this?
2. Does it fit?
3 Does this support the image I want to present to the world?
That last one really gets me. And fits with my 90 percent approach. It’s not just clothes either. It might be the bike you haven’t ridden in five years, the chip carving set, the rice cooker/juicer/pasta roller machine, the ‘learn to crochet’ dvd, the Anthony Robbins cassettes, the five hammocks in your store room. Even if these things once represented who you were or wanted to be, if it’s not current, it’s time to let it go so that new, better, more appropriate items can be beckoned in (OR so the space exists for you to discover what may be next for you!). I find myself asking over and over: is this supportive of the life I am living and want to live? If not, it’s out of here.
I’m now encroaching upon my sacred hours of sleep, so I’ll sign off. But let me know where the 90 percent rule might make sense in your life (if anywhere). It’s helping me in little ways and I’d love to hear about what you think.
Things I’m Thankful For Today:
1. That I figured out how to clear old bookmarks off my mac’s surfing program
2. That Daisy was so cute and sweet on our walk
3. That I made yummy 15 bean soup and zucchini bread today
4. That it smells and feels so perfectly crisp as fall settles in
5. That the BEAR in our yard Saturday morning didn’t hurt us or come to any harm itself ! yikes!
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08.08.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:58 pm by mb
Hi ho, those who tried to come out and enjoy the music last Thursday night in Heber City, UT…the rain and wind got the better of us, and the show got cancelled. We’re so sorry! It was going to be the first band show since Daisy became a member of our gang, and she was ready to rock! We ended up having a nice catch up meal at the Spin Cafe — which was great! Gelato in Heber! — but were disappointed not to get to play. Next time… (or maybe not — a few years back, the same thing happened!)
Artsfest show on Saturday was terrific! Thanks everybody for coming out. It was terrific to see so many familiar faces in the audience — singing along, helping keep me on track with my own lyrics! We did a few songs we hadn’t done in a while — U2’s All I Want is You, for one — and had a blast. Mark and Daisy ran a tight ship over at the CD table, with the help of Cathy King, and our friends Ryan (and Susie and Lia) kept spirits high and the schedule running on time by being a step-in roadie…thanks everybody!
Coming up, we have a show on Wednesday Aug 22nd at Deer Valley (7- 8 p.m.) and a cool show at The Homestead on Saturday, Aug 25th. Both shows — in grand summer tradition — are Free! Sweet! The DV show will feature my Wild Honey band, and the show at the Homestead will be a different set up — lovely — with Violinist Aaron Ashton and percussion by Daniel Day. Hope you’ll be able to join us.
We’re here in Cadiz, Kentucky, for an annual family vacation at Lake Barkley. We’ve been coming here since I was a kid. I remember stages of life taking place here — fishing off the dock when I was a little kid, roller skating loops around the lodge arc and doing arts & crafts with the recreation crew when I was a grade schooler, trying to be cool and going out for boat rides with found friends when I was a teenager. It’s strange to be an adult here. I feel like everything is smaller. I’m not as good at the (same) video games in the Game Room as I used to be. (Galaga, Pole Position — classics!) Different rhythms seem to rule our days, different forms of entertainment guiding the evenings.
It’s a little tough, finding harmony amongst all the different age groups — we now range from 4 months to 67 — we all seem to have different agendas. Getting the deepest tan, finding the perfect buzz, keeping the baby content, relaxing and reading, having meaningful connective conversations with busy family members. Sometimes it’s been easy — we went out on a pontoon boat yesterday afternoon and had a great time, today at the pool Chris and I were playing and singing a little, which was so much fun. (We were resuscitating some old Ray Charles tunes.)
It’s harder than it used to be to have everybody here for the whole time. Work schedules, puppies, weddings — life — makes it more complicated to get together. Dena, Brad, Billy, and Peggy left this morning, Chris has gigs, Laura has work this weekend, Susan is mad because my parents had to put their collective foot down about her friend heading home, keeping it a family vacation. For some reason, she’s decided this is my fault (my “third parent” status as the oldest child probably putting me into the meanie category) and so she’s not speaking to me. Good times. We’ve joked a few times that we’d make an excellent reality show. No producers necessary — just bring the cameras. Plenty of drama, plenty of excitement, plenty of hysterical moments.
It’s hot as hell. With a wall of humidity that hits you with whomping force. Jumping in the pool helps for a moment, but the bathwater-warm pool temperature leaves you more pruny than refreshed. So mostly, we’re hanging here in the suite with the air conditioner cranked, catching up on the news, magazines, and each other.
10 adults and one baby on top of each other on a family vacation. Priceless.
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05.12.07
Posted in Uncategorized at 3:24 pm by mb
…has arrived. She came into our lives early in the morning of April 3, and nothing has been the same since. She’s very sweet, and Mark and I have a hard time not spending all our time just looking at her…best show in town, as any new