Thursday is Music Night

at Heritage Square, and I had the good fortune to attend tonight, despite a little rain and chill in the air (actually, I was hoping to save the goosebumps for my return to Phoenix). The performers were Chuck Cheesman and Matthew Henry Hall, and the music was a mix of acoustic, folk and blues.
Both of these talented musicians write and perform much of their own music, and it is worth the time to listen and enjoy. Chuck Cheesman has a beautiful voice, and the poetic lyrics to several of his selections brought sentimental tears to my eyes.
Matthew Henry Hall was a little more "bluesy" tonight, and engaged the crowd with his humorous lyrics, syncopated rhythms and nonsense songs. Though some of the music was designed for children, adults enjoyed it as well.
I sat and listened to the music and watched the crowd. It is a comfortable place to be, on the outside, both figuratively and literally. It's good to watch people interact and play. A little boy near me was trying to "play the guitar" on a yardstick, he must have been about 2, and he was really into the music. It reminded me of the time when one of my children tried to "play the keyboard" on a large diaper box. Those images stay with me, for me to bring out time to time. Good memories.

Triple Ramble!

My ideas for this blog were totally different today, but due to a memory nudge from Kim Miles, and another one from her cousin Mitzi, I have two different ideas to share.

Kim posted pictures of her visit to Hearst Castle on her blog http://kimmiles-takingthelongwayhome.blogspot.com/, and there were pictures of the pools there. The photos reminded me of the best dream I have ever had, and I wanted to share it with you.

This dream happened over 20 years ago when I was going through a very difficult time in my life. In the dream, my good friend Jim called me up and said "Hey Deb, I met a guy who has a job for you. He wants you to build a staircase-to heaven!" I said, "Do you know the guys name?" Jim answered "Yeah, I think it's God." I said "OK", and got to work building a staircase out of papier-mache which was the medium I was working in at the time. When I got to to top, there was the most beautiful, serene pool I have ever seen. To this day, whenever I think of that dream, and I do remember it vividly, I am happy and at peace. I think that every once in a while, we do get a glimpse of the divine to keep us going, in tough times and in good.

The second thought I have is regarding an idea from Mitzi Miles-Kubota. She has a theory about "Trickle-up" economics. I have placed a link to her short YouTube video here, it's short and to the point, and I think makes a good argument. Baisically she says that it might be a good idea for us to lower our prices just a bit so that regular folk can afford to buy something from us or use our service (whatever business you are in). If people lower their prices just a bit, more people could afford to make even small purchases which will help boost the economy. Sounds good to me, watch the video and see what she says. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzqk_8mks68.

Ok, one last point. My friend Carla from Black Mountain Jewelry Company has written an article for Soft-Flex about how important it is that we, as artists, support other artist when doing shows or gallery hopping or surfing the net. It's expensive to be in this business, but more importantly, it's important to appreciate other artists work so that they may continue to do that which they love also. The article can be found here http://www.softflexcompany.com/spotlightarticle_Aug09.html

Well enough for my soapbox today. I do want to share the Rock People I met today. See if you can see their faces as I did.