In August of last year, my husband Mark and I pulled the first season of the TV show “Lost” off our DVD shelf. It had entered our lives via Ashley  --  a sweet, but unreliable babysitter we’d had a few summers ago  --  who thought we might like it and had brought it over for us to check out.   The set of DVDs became marooned on our media bookcase when she inexplicably stopped coming (and answering texts) one day. So, with our three-year-old asleep (and both of …

Daisy and I have been drawing pictures on the iPad before she goes to bed at night. She loves to turn off all the lights and set the background to black on the Fingerpaint app, so the bright lines of our drawings are the only illumination in the room. My mind wanders as we make our digital fingerpaintings. Isn’t this amazing? Isn’t it wild, how the tips of our fingers can create an image as they glide across the sensitive screen? Could we have imagined even a few years ago how easily we …

My life is a mess.   Okay.  I've said it.   Is a music/creativity blog the right place to let this spill out?  I'm not sure.  But the theme here is " Art, Passion, and Purpose," all of which are being heavily affected by the current tornado-like state of my life.   Ohhh honey.  There's a big old mess going on.   Environmentally, mentally, emotionally, physically. . . everywhere I look, there is STUFF needing action, consideration, resolution.  It's …

I saw singer/songwriter guitarist Michael Kelsey play at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City a few weeks ago, and the experience is still resonating with me. We went on a last-minute whim, invited by friends who had extra tickets. Front row tickets, as it turned out! -- Thanks M & K! If you're not familiar with Michael Kelsey's music -- or should I say, The Michael Kelsey Experience ? -- he's a force majeure. With incredibly skillful guitar-playing, percussive popping/slapping/tapping on the guitar, …

I'm practicing up for the summer shows that start on Saturday night at The Homestead in Midway, thinking about how much my hands and voice retain in muscle memory, how much I need the work and polish that practice brings. . .  I miss my old piano friend -- I haven't been playing very much lately.  Daisy seems to sense the importance of the piano in my life and respond accordingly to the attention which shifts away from her when I practice.  She'll usually immediately ask that I play her a …