Posts from — December 2008

Not sure if anyone reads these but hey, it’s fun to share stuff and makes me feel not-so-alone in this crazy journey.

I’ve had the most awesome day in Calgary. Think this city is beginning to warm up to me. Just spent some time on 17th and checked out lots of ethnic food shops. It was fun. You can find stuff here that you can’t find in Toronto. That’s neat.

And to make it even more special, these two boys came to my door this afternoon, probably around 8 and 10 and asked if they could shovel my walkway! Wow, who brought that my way? What a great idea! I told them I could do better than the $5 they were asking for. I gave them both $5 bills (you should have seen their faces) and then I gave them two large Caramilk bars. You know, the ones that are always lots of fun to consume during a good movie. : )

And I’m excited about stuff. My booking agent is turning out to be awesome, I just met the coolest publicist who’s gonna help me out a bit and I’m learning a song by Bob Dylan! And even better news is that I just hired a grant writer to help me with the time consuming job of researching and writing grant applications. Wow. That made my day when I realized that it was actually beginning to happen. And she’s an awesome person too, and a detail person. I’ve been looking forward to finding that kind of person to work with for a long time now. I am convinced that we are only given certain experiences in our lives when we’re good and ready for them, even if it doesn’t feel like that at the time. Good and bad both move us forward.

New Year’s is almost here. Wow, can’t believe I’m waitressing on the one night that would be awesome to go see Hank & Lily perform in Edmonton! Leave it to Murphy I guess. The good news is that they perform again on New Year’s Day, a day I happen to have off. Hummmm…think it may just be worth the drive. : )

2009 is gonna be a good year. Hope you have a super duper fun, healthy and outrageous one. : )

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Rozalind

Howdy Everyone,

I hope you’re having an awesome holiday. : )

I’ve been waitressing at a sports bar in Calgary’s Forest Lawn. It’s been interesting. I’m almost done raising this money for the Banff Centre though. It has been some seriously hard-earned money I tell ya.

I’m off to Banff in just over a week now. I’m so excited to get there and to be focusing on music full-time again. Next album, here I come! And I’ve already had dreams about transcribing these soundscapes for flute choir. How nerdy is that eh? I love it. : )

This link put a smile on my face today. I got #7 for “Edgework” in the Ottawa Citizen. Weird eh? I’m not complaining though…that’s really cool.

Check it out:

The list is published in the Ottawa Citizen and online at http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Double+Pumpers+primal+tops+chart/1117374/story.html

I hope you all have a very Happy New Year. I’ll be bringing in the new year, keeping it real as a waitress in Forest Lawn. Wow. 2009 better be a good one. : )

Rozalind

I am excited for this one. I’m going to Dawson City folks! I’ve always dreamed of spending time there. Can’t wait to see the Northern Lights and be inspired by my surroundings.

I’ll be collaborating with my favourite Canadian filmmaker, Victoria experimental filmmaker, Scott Amos. His work is remarkable. It will be wonderful to have three weeks to collaborate with him and see what we come up with. We will be showing our work at the Dawson City International Short Film Festival. I’ll also be working on recording my new record and creating soundscapes inspired by Dawson City.

This just put me in a good mood.

I just received an email from percussionist Curtis Andrews in St. John’s, Newfoundland, letting me know that the piece I recorded with him this past summer is up on his MySpace page! Wow folks, make sure you listen to the killer technical part at the very very end. It was brutal for me to play but is it ever exciting. Tested me to my limits. It was such a great recording experience to lay down the flute part for this piece. I was literally in the studio a few hours before I had to leave for the Argentia ferry to the mainland!

Here’s the link:

http://www.myspace.com/thecurtisandrews

Wow, I am excited about this album being released. I only wish I could be in St. John’s for the CD Release Party of “The Offering of Curtis Andrews” on Dec 16th at the Elks Club.

Thought I’d share a bit of a personal story with you today.

It’s been a serious week of challenges and the icing on the cake was when I realized that I would not be able to come up with the $1300 due to the Banff Centre for my upcoming residency in time. You see, I’ve been waitressing non-stop here in Calgary ever since I finished the tour, to help save money for the remaining Banff Centre costs that weren’t covered by their very generous scholarship. I was feeling optimistic about it all until I lost my job at the beginning of the week. By last night, I had given up on my dream of going to Banff and was chatting about it with a friend on the phone.

As soon as he heard that I was canceling, he refused for me to give up and offered to help me with my first payment. There’s nothing like a supportive friend who steps up to the plate when you need help. Thank you my friend. You know who you are. : )

I thought I’d share that with you because I think all of us go through those moments when we’re willing to give up on our dreams because the struggle to get there just seems too hard at the time. Remember that achieving your goal is ALWAYS possible and if you want something bad enough, it will happen. Just keep trying and never give up.