a note from Christine...

    Saturday afternoon...I'm actually getting a weekend.  We have no shows the next two nights and most of the huge deadlines we have been under are taken care of for the moment.  I feel like a "normal" person for a change and it seemed appropriate to take on a weekend project.
     So I dove in to painting my new meditation room.  There is something therapeutic about rolling out fresh paint on a dirty old wall.  This space used to be for business and tasks and communicating with the world but will now become my own private little retreat.  I know that  quieting your mind is not about the place - you ought to be able to do that anywhere and that's what I aspire to.  But I'm eager to have one corner of my life that is not overrun with the debris of day to day responsibilities - no mail, no contracts, no TV (well, only for yoga videos!), no phone, no computer.  This place will be about solitude and conversation with my SELF.  If a song arises and beckons to me, I will follow it here in this room; I plan to find a big comfortable chair to sit in and read my heart out; leave the floor uncluttered and stretch my body on it; open the curtains and stare at the moon that shines in my window when I can't sleep.  This alcove/room used to be a nursery for the previous owners, and then I turned it into an office.  It is about to return it to its original intent.  I think I'll nurture that wee one buried in my super woman, over achieving, grown up body.
     Okay, back to the paint brush.  I'm inspired now!!!
     Christine

Swan Songs fulfills musical wishes by arranging private concerts for individuals facing the end of life, with a Texas artist or style of music that they have requested.

 Check out the feature story about Swan Songs in the Austin American-Statesman.  Thanks to Wes Eichenwald.
    
Print out the flyer on the front page of the Swan Songs website to help us spread the word in the community!

Quote of the Month
"All our progress is an unfolding, like a vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

and a blurb from Chris...

    Sunday afternoon for me, I got out of bed at 11:30, made a French press pot of Sun Harvest coffee, watched Paula Deen make barbecued cabbage, switched over to watch part of the first Jason Bourne film, where he's first figuring out the spy powers that he has retained through his amnesia.  I'm actually a big fan of Robert Ludlum's spy books, I've read them all, and have even read one of the ones he wrote after he passed away!  Really, he left his estate permission to keep using his name on new books written in his style.  Maybe we'll be writing new songs 100 years from now, you think? 
     The garden is doing well this year, the tomatoes are turning red and the peppers are starting to bud out.  The cukes are slow to start, but will be climbing the old wrought iron door leaning against the fence very soon.   New pics posted here.
     The heat is on here in Texas.  We're steadily in the 90's now, and will soon top 100 degrees and stay there for a couple of months.  In time I've gotten used to it and even enjoy the blast when I exit an air-conditioned building...but then I crank up the air in my truck immediately.  The worst is when you fly in from...say...Maine, and you're still wearing your morning jacket from the cold country and you hit the street outside the Austin airport and you realize that you're wearing 3 times as much clothing as anyone else.  It's definitely time then for shorts, sandals and a frozen margarita!!
     See you at the gig.
     Chris