Saturday (will I see a shadow)?

Summer has been perfect so far: I planted a veggie garden from seeds (I recently picked my first homegrown cucumber!), played some intimate shows beside my favorite lake in Castle Danger, made a 4th pilgrimage to the House on the Rock, I've been making exciting headway in the studio as my own engineer, and I'm looking forward to getting the band back together in September in a new practice space!

This Saturday the 21st: NE Mpls, 2-8pm (I play at 6pm)
While the live show calendar has been in hibernation, I'll come out (as if for my own little groundhogs day) to play an outdoor solo performance this Saturday the 21st. It'll be a relaxed afternoon as part of the Sun Machine Co-op's free annual event in Northeast Minneapolis. The fest will be at the Basin Amitheater just south of Jackson Square Park. I hope you can make it! Here are the details

XOXO!

Snippit

Post mention for "This week in (uploaded) pictures" @ LOL OMG

A Profusion of Blood

The other night, I had a dream that my boyfriend and I were homeless and surfing abandoned apartments and hotel rooms in a strange version of New York City. We were preparing to move on to the next one, and then one morning he was gone. But my sister came to visit me. I told her how glad I was to see her, but she told me that she already saw me last night and was concerned because I was acting weird. I had absolutely no recollection of seeing her, so she took me to the hospital.

Again, another memory lapse as suddenly nurses were preparing me for an urgent and extreme procedure to diagnose a rare, terminal disease. Since I didn't know I'd already been examined, I was wondering how they could be so urgent already rushing around me, I thought I'd just gotten there. One of the nurses was telling me my boyfriend's abandoned car was found and filled with stolen medication to help treat this disease that I had no idea I'd been showing any symptoms of.

The procedure was performed using an instrument that had a clear plastic hose inside which there was a long, sharp needle. In order to diagnose this rare disease, they had to shoot the needle through my neck, into my head and through my brain. If I was positive for this terminal disease, then nothing would happen. However, if I was disease-free and healthy, then the procedure would make me gush blood out of my face. I was preparing (and hoping) for a profusion of blood with a towel in front of me, taking my sister's hand, and bracing myself... and then I woke up.

I didn't like that dream.

Blood Folk Production 1

I hesitate to talk about the new project because I seem to like to break plans as soon as I make them when it comes to releasing new stuff (podcast episode 42 case-in-point) .

What I will say though, is that a song called "Awake" along with a music video is in the works.

I'm breaking the status-quo for myself because when recording, I usually collaborate with a lot of musicians and an engineer, but here it's just me at the control panel of my small-town home studio.

I'm also doing a music video with the release of this single. Music videos seem to be disjointed afterthought accessories to recordings. I don't want to swing that way. For this, I feel like making the visual component as "up-front" as the music.

In the past, video makers have approached me with their ideas for a song, and we roll with that. Going against the status-quo in this regard as well, I conceptualized the "moving picture" pieces of this song, and Cody Weigel (my boyfriend and multimedia musician extraordinaire) is bringing the ideas to life as the artist, animator, videographer and editor.

It might be pre-mature to write about this since I'm polishing up the recording and we're in the beginning stages of the video, but I'm excited and just wanted to keep you in the loop.

XO!
Jenny

June 2010 Update

I'm itching to tell you more about the new project, but I have to hold it in for the time being. In the meantime, here's some news for you:

Summer Solo Keyboard Shows on Lake Superior
Thursday July 8 at Grand Superior Lodge
Thursday August 5th at Grand Superior Lodge
Grand Superior Lodge is in Castle Danger...a more awesome name doesn't exist

Latest Podcast Episodes:
Episode 42 (Video) Tour of my new house!
Episode 41 (Audio) Have I told you about my odd decision to do tarot readings before? Allow me to explain.

XOXO!
Jenny D

Get some musics!

Biography

I recently left my studio apartment in Minneapolis for an old farm house a small, charming town. It's far enough away to feel like I'm in a hidden retreat, yet close enough to the cities to get in on the action. For the most part, I'm happy in my new hermitish ways attempting my first gardens from seed, admiring hobby-farm hay bales, listening to the occasional ship horn, seeing the occasional hot-air balloon float by, collecting antique decanters and experiencing other ways to "martha."

In my new hideout, I have a home studio where I work on my current and mostly solitary music project called Blood Folk. This is an incremental singles release building up to a final full-length album which will most likely be accompanied by a book of words and art. I'm taking a break from the live-band production and hunching over the keyboard to create surreal flavors in the new songs. Or at least it makes me feel surreal.

XO,
Jenny (June 2010)

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Garden

I'm a first-time gardener! My backyard is mostly shady, but I have a tiny patch of sunlight for a tiny garden. I had grand landscaping ideas (including plans to revamp my garden shed as a sweat lodge sauna and/or chicken coup...I didn't see the ideas as completely incompatible as long as the hens aren't in the sauna while it's going. I finally gave up the idea thinking about the smell), but landscaping gets expensive in a hurry. I decided to do a staw bale garden because I've heard that works pretty well, and it's a cheap, cute way to do a raised bed. I'll plant snap peas in there, some tomatoes and other climb-y, vine-y types.

Hopefully I'm not too late to start from seed, but I put jack-o-lantern pumpkin seedlings, chive seedlings, and giant moonflower seedlings in the ground this weekend.