Current Projects #2 - Creativa

I've posted announcements for our monthy creative "Free Slam" event in the past, and we've continued to have a great time getting to know and hear/watch/experience the creative types in our own back yard. We've realized we needed to make sure the event title communicated the scope of what is and will take place. We spent a leisurely Sunday afternoon last month brainstorming (interleaved with talking politics) and - enter Creativa!

The multitalented Cortney Haley has been hard at work creating the Creativa web site, with all the bells and whistles. The logo started with some designs from Jeff Nabors, and Cortney morphed them into the current design.

We gather the last Saturday of every month at Tanze Performing Arts Studio, 1044 Symmes Road, in Fairfield (Ohio, that is). Creativity in all its forms is honored - spoken word, music, visual arts, dance, video, whatever.

Check out Cortney's Creativa video - and stick around for the chicken at the end...

Current Projects #1 - R~U~Us and Bekka Live

Not a lot of blog posts lately, I know. The day job has been taking a lot of time/focus, and we also have a couple of creative projects under way. Most immediately, Monday night (Feb 11) is the debut of our new band, R~U~Us. We've been playing together for a while in various incarnations, but this round is our first public appearance with a name and new goal. This first gig is in support of our most excellent vocalist and songwriter Bekka Eaton. Her day job is as a theater prof at Miami University, and she has been asked to present some of her original music and creative material at the new Miami Hamilton Downtown storefront. So we've been working feverishly for the last couple of months - arranging and learning these challenging, atypical (in a very good way) tunes. I worked with Bekka on a larger production of her original material - entitled Bekkaland - a couple of years ago. It was one of the first events presented at our new local community arts center. This iteration is a smaller scale, more intimate experience, and the kickoff for our group of motley musicians - Deb, Bekka, Janet, Steve, Yvan and myself. We hope to play out and about perhaps a couple of times a month at most. Not a heavy commitment, but enough to keep us learning interesting music. One of the more enjoyable new experiences for me in this project has been writing cello parts for Janet. I know enough music theory to be dangerous, but typically don't use written music much these days. So it's been a healthy challenge to get back into that realm, with the able assistance of Sonar and a few other computer music applications.

Come see/hear us, ya hear!

I've been book memed

Julie apologized for including me - it's OK - mines a low traffic blog, so I don't get many of these. And books are one of my two favorite topics. So the meme instructoins are:

• Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!)
• Find Page 123.
• Find the first 5 sentences.
• Post the next 3 sentences.
• Tag 5 people.

Good thing there was a page limit - most books close at hand were software manuals - those books men never read - and I didn't include the index, so it kept the count low. At any rate, the closest real book was "That Distant Land", a collection of Wendell Berry short stories set in Port William. (I've posted about these stories several times.)

Page 123 happens to be the last page of the short story "Watch with Me":

"Let's go eat!"

"Oh, that was a meal that was a joy to set on the table!" Mis Minnie said. She and her nephew, Sam Hanks, had been telling Granny and me the story of Nightlife's spell and his long ramble through the woods.

And I will tag Deb, Jeff, Brian, Tammy Jo, and (crossing over to MySpace divide...) Randy.