DulcetDreams

Camping at Nehalem State Park, Oregon, July 2008

Manzanita Wind Instrumental played by Andy Stone

Stan and I recently took our yearly jaunt over to the Oregon Coast.  We like to tent camp at Nehalem Bay State Park (which has electricity and showers).  The camp ground is between Nehalem and Manzanita just about 30 minutes from Cannon Beach.  For some reason, lots of Boiseans stay at Lincoln City which has always perplexed us, but we are usually considered a bit odd so there you go. 

Our activities consist of eating seafood, walking on the beach (which for me includes writing in my journal and mulling over ocean song ideas), reading, sleeping, driving into town, eating salt water taffy and buttery soft carmels, and fresh local blueberries, drinking good coffee and so on.  After a week of this we drive back home wishing we could stay longer but grateful for the respite.

If you’d like to view the rest of the pics they are posted HERE.

Speaking of Ocean songs, I’ve written quite a few over the years - enough for a full record .  You can listen to a 15 year old version of Manzanita Wind HERE.  I do hope to record it again especially now that my voice has dropped in range and mellowed in tone.  My England friend Andy has been working on an instrumental version of the song you can listen to HERE if you missed the link at the top of this post. 

I just wrote a song called A Simple Life. I’ve seen the title before and wasn’t planning on writing my own version since I’d already written Simple Things that sort of says the same thing but from another era. This time, though, it was born out of a cathartic necessity to declare once and for all that this is the kind of life I want. I don’t want to be consumed with someone else’s intense agenda that’s motivated by (only God knows) what? Even if that person’s doing a good thing and it’s the current trend to jump on board that dream ship.

 But how intense should I let my own agenda become? That is the question. If I put my hand to the plow and try to implement everything I’m reading in order to get my music ‘out there’ — there wouldn’t be a simple anything. Instead, if I do what I can at a healthy and normal pace, excellerating here and there when the energy arises, wouldn’t that, at least, assure a bit of joy in the journey as the saying goes. I hope my instincts are right on this one because I am more inclined to keep a balanced life, incorporating new strategies that work for me, rather than to feed the driven frenzy that I could jump into at anytime.

A Simple Life isn’t about not working. It’s about giving yourself a gift of compassion by allowing time for yourself to work toward your own goals. It’s about not giving into the pressure to look like a good person by always working for someone else’s idea of what’s right. Why get caught up in someone else’s dream unless it’s your dream too? I know that goes against the grain of political correctness and the typical Christian Culture way of thinking because it sounds self centered if not a bit narcistic. To the contrary, honing A Simple Life isn’t about not giving back. It’s about giving your time where your heart nudges you but with boundaries. It’s about showing kindness to yourself and working a little (or alot) everyday toward your goals and then giving back when the opportunity arises but only if your heart is inclined to participate.

Check out Stan working on the worthy goal of our own dream - painting the house by July 4th! Most of the battle is in the preparation: scraping off the old paint, puttying and caulking, then spraying on a primer coat. But even with all the hard work, he’s happy to be working on something that’s ours!  You can view all the pics I’ll be posting if you click HERE!

 Stan and I decided to grill outside for our dinner last night -

I cut up the veggies in big chunks and Stan grilled them with jumbo shrimp, olive oil and seasoning. Stan decided to throw in some cookies (dough is already made) and voila. Add a little french bread and butter and there you go! (someone obviously sampled the cookies already)

Check out Tiger and Phoebe - they stepped up to the counter the minute we stepped away! “Heya Dad, we’ll take a little shrimp!”

Do you ever feel like a drop in a bucket or lost in a crowd, like your voice resonates with the bland sameness of what’s been said before?  After all, the expression ‘there is nothing new under the sun’ was coined for a reason, right? Or maybe that’s a verse in the Bible.  If I remember correctly it’s in Ecclesiastes. 

I wrote a song about this subject some years back.  It had dawned on me that DNA and fingerprints prove that each of us is an original.  We aren’t a copy of someone else.  We may look or sound somewhat like someone else, especially before we tap into our original-ness.  We may try on different types and sizes in an attempt to discover our authentic selves by emulating those we admire.  But when we grow weary of living up to a contrived image, we can finally settle down into who we really are, comfortable in our own skin.  You can almost hear a collective sigh from everyone who knows us:  “There, so glad you settled that. ”

Do you fully understand the value in a true original work of art like a Monet or a Rembrandt?  I’m not sure I get it yet, but I’m thinking about it.  In fact, I’m reworking the earlier version of my song that I named Original to make it a little more relevant — how can I best get my thoughts across without overworking it, if you know what I mean.  “Let me tell you, you are Original Music, a song never sung before — beautiful lines of an incomparable score. . .” 

We are each a One-Of-A-Kind Masterpiece, whose individual worth the markets of the world can’t accurately price.  We may feel worthless from time to time, but if we were up for sale, we would all garner a much higher price than we realize!

Ok, so I’m on a learning curve. Because I’m receiving comment spam I changed my settings and added a few key words to the black list and it deleted all my comments, NOT ONCE BUT TWICE, in one sweep.

So Andy, Jodie, Alisa, Gary, Christy, Ellen and Scott now we can no longer see your lovely thoughts, and I apologize. Bear with me while I learn to navigate in this new beautiful world and discover how to effectively keep the evil infiltrators at bay.

WELCOME! to Dulcet Dreams, my own little music blog !  This is where you’ll find my thoughts and observations as a singer-songwriter.  It’s more than the little bits of NEWSY happenings in the News section of my website.  And here is where you can leave a comment about anything I say if you are so inclined!  I’d be honored to hear from you, — or you can just read and move on – whatever suits you best. 

Oooh my first blog post on my new blog.  Finally decided to jump in to the blog world and have my own blog.  I’d been musing on this for awhile since I usually have so much to say and, although I love the 3-4 minute song format, it does have its limitations.  After reading Andrew Dubbers article “Do I Really Have To Blog” posted on his blog, New Music Strategies, my 85% inclination became 100% confidence and I did it!  Yay! 

If you don’t get a chance to visit that article, I need to let you know that it’s not about the musician’s obligation to blog, but about making oneself more accessible to folks who listen to and return to the music.  I like to write so I love the idea of enhancing my music as ’relationship’ through blogging.   (I know, Relationship is used rather loosely here.  To clarify, I’m using it in the sense of involvement by a communicative connection.) 

So this is my first post.  I’m learning to navigate around in my new little blog world but will invite the people I know, and God knows who else, when I feel ready enough. . . so to be continued as my friend Sharon always says!