I’m sure many freelancers would agree that NOT having to attend a mandatory office Christmas party is one of the GOOD things about working for yourself…. So, when a couple of weeks ago, David asked me if I wanted to have an office Christmas party, I looked at him as if he had grown two heads. He [...]
Archive for the ‘Creative Communities’ Category
The Office Christmas Party
Posted in Creative Communities, tagged Crissey Farm, office party on December 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
More on Fod Fest
Posted in Creative Communities, Music, Performing, tagged Daniel Pearl, FOD Fest, FODFest on October 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The fourth annual FODFest is in full swing, and I wanted to describe what playing at opening night was like so anyone living near one of the 14 concert venues can get a feel for why this is something you shouldn’t miss. The opening night concert had by far the biggest and most impressive venue on the [...]
Myth of the Starving Artist?
Posted in Business Issues, Creative Communities, Freelancing, tagged NEA economic data, starving artist on September 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Over the weekend, I was at a reunion for a summer camp I used to go to, and inevitably, there was a lot of updating of information: where people had ended up, who had kids (and grand-kids, even), who still was in touch with whom, and what work people were doing. “I’m a writer and a music teacher and a piano player” [...]
How Shopping Can Save the World
Posted in Creative Communities, tagged buy handmade, creative gifts on September 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I recently became aware of a sort of movement, if you can call it that: A colleague pointed me in the direction of “Buy Handmade,” a website and organization that is encouraging people to pledge to spend their money on handmade gifts this holiday season. http://www.buyhandmade.org/why-buy-handmade Handmade objects — crafts, art clothing, paintings, photographs, jewelry – make [...]
When It All Comes Together
Posted in Creative Communities, Music, Performing, Teaching, tagged Add new tag, Crissey Farm, open mike on September 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Sometimes, something happens that sort of pulls it all together, and lets you see where what you’re doing makes sense. It’s been an incredibly busy week. David and I got back from Nashville on Sunday night, and went right to work teaching on Monday morning. Then I started on some article writing while he drove up to Pittsfield to pick up [...]
A Chain Letter Backwards
Posted in Creative Communities, tagged health insurance, Lori Hall Steele on September 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I hate to sound preachy, and I don’t think I usually do, but I’m pleading guilty just now. I had intended to spend most of this week blogging about Nashville, Tennessee, America’s “Music City,” which I spent last week visiting… and I will get to that tomorrow, because I have some incredibly motivational and inspiring [...]
Taking Care of Our Own: Blogging for Lori
Posted in Creative Communities, tagged Lori Hall Steele on September 14, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Please read this post. You can help. I actually don’t know Lori Hall Steele. I’d never even heard her name, even though she’s a fellow writer, a member of one of the national writer’s organizations I belong to, and the author of more than 3,000 articles. (She wrote a wonderful story for the Washington Post about a mother’s desire to shield [...]
Getting Gigs
Posted in Creative Communities, Music, Performing, tagged getting gigs on September 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A few years back, David and I had just set up shop as music teachers and the new kids on the local gigging block. We had recently moved into the community, and were trying to make inroads: We did some advertising, we introduced ourselves at the local music shops (and spent money, too), we sent letters of introduction to [...]
Everybody’s Famous in a Small Town
Posted in Creative Communities, Music, Performing, tagged Me and Julio on September 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Today, David and I got to play for an audience that included three cows and a goat. Sheffield, Massachusetts is one of the towns that borders on ours, and today was its annual town festival. We were one of a number of local groups asked to play for an hour, so we carted the electric piano and guitar over, dashed [...]
Sowing Seeds: An Artist’s Law of Attraction
Posted in Business Issues, Creative Communities, Freelancing, tagged Law of attraction, Sowing seeds, volunteering on September 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“Sowing Seeds” is a phrase David and I use to mean “put your energy out into the world.” Our expectation is that if we keep on doing our best work and putting it out there, that good things will come back to us. Call it the “Artist’s Law of Attraction.” We attract back to us the energy that we put [...]