The party I put together for our larger group Saturday night was such a success. We had so much fun together! A little adult beverage, good (ok, mediocre but so what) food, lots of singing and great music – what a blast! I’ve found my calling for when I finally escape from finish my extended term on the board of directors. I see more social occasions in our future, and a tighter, happier group as a result.

Sunday Main Street sang for the Palm Sunday services at the church where we rehearse. Those of you who know me well know I’m not religious at all, so this was a stretch for me. Truth be told, I did it for my friends more than anything else. It was important to them, so it was important to me. No secret that I’d do anything for them. I’m not looking for a pat on the back for that, don’t get me wrong! I just surprised myself a little by not bursting into flames by enjoying myself. I like to get out of my comfort zone and this certainly qualified! Mostly I enjoyed the company, but you know I also love singing too, and it was fine once I decided to just enjoy the music itself. The two pieces we did were very different from our usual contemporary stuff, but very pretty in their own right. We were honoured to open and close the services as their special guests.

I know a lot of you are religious, and I’ve always taken pains not to let my views ring out too much out of respect for that. I appreciate and defend your right to your beliefs, and I know you afford me the same consideration, right? Right. We’re all good people, and it isn’t an issue. This was just a big thing for me, and I thought I’d share it with you, open book style! :)

You might recall that we were pretty upset when our Christmas concert’s recording was botched so badly that it was completely unusable. This completely made up for that disappointment! Here are a few of those tracks that we have to share with you.

This session was a learning one for us; while we are used to being mic-ed, it was a bit different with super sensitive equipment! Some of the tracks reflect minor mid-song changes that were made in settings, and we weren’t all that concerned about doing “perfect” tracks this time. We’re going back, probably a few weeks after I have my eye surgery… we still have more songs to record. Hopefully we’ll do a couple of these over again too.

I’ve also been suffering with acid reflux (eesh, I’m such a mess, aren’t I??), which has affected my throat and of course, my voice. Not a happy camper about that, believe me! The songs where I’m more “visible” are the ones I’d really like to do over again! Hopefully my vocal cords will heal and my voice will get back to normal soon, now that I’m medicated (some say I should have been medicated all along…)

Anyway, hope you enjoy them!

There are things in this life that make me happy.

My gorgeous daughters. My wonderful husband of 18+ years. (Some) family, and of course, my fabulous friends. Certainly all of those things and more make me happy.

But singing… singing fulfills me in ways unlike anything else. I feel this extreme level of happiness, sheer excitement, and such an amazing euphoria, all rolled together.

Bliss, that’s what it is.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been as happy as I am right this minute. We have all been singing together for a few years now as part of a larger group, but our new quartet is something else entirely. We are coming together so well I just can’t get over it. Every week is better than the last… tonight we were a cappella because dude-with-mad-keyboard-skills wasn’t able to make rehearsal, and we were shocked just how far we’d come in such a short amount of time.

Now someone had better medicate me, because I’m so excited I’m never going to sleep tonight!

Tribute websites and Facebook groups popping up. Constant news coverage, the likes of which we have not seen since 9/11 (understand here and now that I am not comparing the two events in any way), extolling his virtues. Mourning the loss of a legend. People of all ages seen sobbing in the street. I just did a quick survey of my friends’ FB status updates, and found more than a few middle-aged friends still have “OMG MJ I’ll Miss you Soooooo much!“, “The music has died”, etc.

Folks, what is it about Celebrity and Media amnesia? I don’t get it.

Have you all forgotten what this man was? What he did? Have you repressed the crap he pulled – and got away with – simply because he was “Michael Jackson”, self-proclaimed “King of Pop”?

Have the courage to stand up, look it in the eye, and call him what he was: A child molester. A pervert. A twisted, sick individual. A selfish, self absorbed, deviant individual.

Do I deny that his music was profound? That it played a major roll in most of our lives, and aided in the development of our musical culture? Well, I can’t do that, can I. Most certainly the music deserves to be celebrated. Mourned? Well, no – it’s still here, isn’t it? It always will be. But the man? No, the man I cannot mourn. I can’t even scrape up a whisper of sorrow for the loss of life, on even a basic level.

And now look at Joe Jackson – a child abuser in his own right – enjoying his circus freakshow time in the spotlight. The whole thing is just wrong. Why are we paying attention to him? The media is hanging on his every word. Sensationalism sells; however slimy it is.

Media Amnesia is one way to put it – but what we’re really talking about here is hypocrisy. We condemn the criminals that have been put away for molesting (and worse) innocents, because they weren’t anyone special. Michael Jackson is idolized and enshrined though, and his misdeeds conveniently pushed under the rug because he was “special“. He was “Michael“. The only reason I can see that he wasn’t alone in a jail cell when he died was that he was privileged, and he paid people handsomely to remain that way. He remained on his pedestal though, because society allowed it. Hypocrites.

This coming week ShaMoo and I are excited to be breaking ground on a new quartet – one we have been dreaming about forming pretty much since we met.

Singing in a large group is wonderful, don’t get me wrong, but we have very little control over what kind of music we sing. If we love it – great! If we don’t… well, you get the idea. Starting our own, tight-knit group means we will be singing only music that we love, and nothing else! To get that euphoria on a regular basis, and to forge our own musical pathways… well, it’s going to be an awesome