We’re playing this Wednesday night at Sam Bonds in Eugene.  StackCats made a poster, so I’m adding it here: 

Show starts at around 9PM with StackCats, and we’ll follow at about 10ish… The set includes a couple of the newest tunes we’re recording, Earthling and Tula Luna.

And as always…We’ll be looking for all of YOU!

We’ve also recorded a version of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”…and it is now posted as well.  We have such fun with it live that we decided to go ahead and break with tradition a bit and record a “remake”.  Let me know what you think of the new tunes!

CDBaby wanted individual images for each song and I decided rather than just post more rather boring photos of the band (does the world really need more photos of musicians?) Instead, I’d make an image for each song.  Well, this turned out to be quite a time-devouring endeavor… as you can imagine… but it was also a lot of fun.  I do like playing with color, and I had general ideas for each song.  (White Rabbit actually took the longest, because I sketched a rather groovy rabbit, but all my drawings kept turning out like cartoons, so in the end I just created a rabbit aura and went with that.)

Each image is also downloadable with the corresponding tune, so you’ll have my digital “artwork” in all its 300 dpi glory if you so desire.    Sarcasm aside, I am keeping my eyes open for a visionary artist who might want to create some imagery for the songs we’re currently recording.

Yes, we’re recording “Tula Luna”, “Seven Wonders” and “Earthling” now, but we do also have some shows coming up, so that will probably delay the completion of the recordings a bit.   Very excited about the new recordings!  Once they’re mixed and mastered,  they’ll be posted at CDBaby and all the affiliated places alongside the rest of the tunes.

Speaking of shows, there have been some private gigs which we, unfortunately, couldn’t invite you all to, but we are doing a festival in Lincoln City on Saturday Sept 1st.  It’s a weekend long festival starting on Friday, I believe, and running through Sunday.  Right now, we’re scheduled to start at 5PM on Saturday.

We also have a tentative public show on Wednesday evening Sept 19th at Sam Bonds.  I hope this is a benefit, but I don’t have all the info on this one yet.

~Keep that love mojo flowing!

In addition, Brian and Pete on guitars makes the live sound more beautifully textured, and more like the recordings.  The guys have developed some very cool twin guitar parts that are bigger than they’ve been in the past.  And we have some new Celtic inspired tunes,  and are allowing some of our older originals to develop with more harmony work.  One of our newest songs which hasn’t been performed live before will be in the set at the next show.

We’ll be looking for YOU at the next show…Jan 14th at Cozmic Pizza.  Cover is 5.00 and we’ll be playing with Kokobola.  Expect us about 10:30 ish…but you may want to get there early to enjoy the music, the fun crowd, and delicious food.

We are doing a benefit At Cozmic Pizza the night of January 14th, 2012.  There are several jamming bands up before us, starting at 7PM, and time being laid back..I’d expect we may go onstage at 10:30PM or 11ish.

Really looking forward to introducing those of you who haven’t seen the new line-up to Pirate Pete, Dr. Bird, and Sir Ian of Loveland..and of course Brian “Stunner” and I will be there with proverbial bells on..ready to have some fun and rock!

We’ll be doing some brand new Psychanaut tunes, as well as a few of your Scarlet favorites, plus a remake or two…and it’s all in support of, Occupy Eugene, which is, well… ALL of us, the 99%…will be a fun, rockin time to celebrate together and share some love & music.

Other bands are Kokobola, Jillian, Jonezer, and then topping off the night, the guys and I.  (They’ve billed us as Scarlet Jinn & Psychanaut.)

And did I mention that Cozmic Pizza makes a great pizza?  OMG!  You can get a decadent one with pesto or roasted garlic, with margarita sauce, or any of a bunch of gourmet varieties they have there – if you’ve eaten there, you already know, but if you haven’t, you really should!   My favorite is a deceptively simple vegan pizza with whole wheat, their delicious tomato sauce, black olives and mushrooms. Yum.

But I digress.

It’s a benefit -cover is $5 bucks on a sliding scale up to whatever; bring your friends, and, as always, we’ll be looking for YOU!

xox

Scarlet

PS) If you want to follow my other blog, just email me and I’ll send you the URL.

Tell a caterpillar it is really a butterfly and it will never believe you! 

~ Daily Guru

For those of us who follow the “Royal Road” of Direct Experience, accounts of other people’s insights, legends, and myth based religions have little appeal.  We may resonate with the person(s) who had the original insights, but we understand that each time someone has a direct experience of consciousness, Oneness, divinity…LIFE, (whatever you choose to  call it) there are inevitably blind followers who create empty rituals and adulterate the original insights.

You can tell how far the followers are from the original vision by the rigidity if their rules and the intensity with which they defend their position.

While Direct Experience is a living thing, followers create religions, which are dead.

Religion clings to the empty cocoon after the butterfly of direct spiritual experience has flown.

For followers, sadly, it is often true that the longer they follow religion, the more rigid they become – and fluidity and openness to the NOW are necessary for Direct Experience.  To be fully awake and alive in the moment is a gift – a moment’s insight can open up a whole life.

In fundamentalism rigidity is a curse and a sadness, leading to intolerance and hostility.  In some “New Age” circles, the rigidity and religious spirit still creeps in, as followers sometimes echo talk of “sacred sites” or “channeling” or “healers” with no Personal Direct Experience.  They say it because they’ve been told, and they BELIEVE, but not because they KNOW it from experience.

“You’ve got to find it on your own, walking along the Royal Road.  It’s why you do what you do… – From Whatcha Do, Jinn-Elliott

 

There really isn’t anything wonderful or admirable about having “faith” in something somebody told you, or that was written on some bronze age scroll…expecially if it contradicts your own direct experience.  Come on.

The beautiful present moment is always right HERE for us to BE and to EXPERIENCE it ourselves.  We really need to stay alive in the moment, and stay present and awake.  And we need to be aware and watch our own inner reality for signs of rigidity, ego, superstition, hostility and religious tendencies.  Because as is often pointed out religion and true consciousness/ spirituality are very different things.

It’s a  conundrum.  For many years quantum physics had been confirming that there are multiple levels of reality other than the material level…the (current) world view will change.  It always does.

Perhaps this will end the domination of stiff fundamentalist/Dominionist style religion and bring about the openness that allows insight and personal expansion.  That’s what I believe is happening now…and the rigid fundamentalist people are clinging ever more desperately to their rituals laws, dogmas and books.  It’s a sign that our species is preparing to finally outgrow this prison.  Look for the most regressive among us to scream all the louder and try to take over our political process even more as progress moves slowly forward.

Yet, as science and genuine consciousness  reconnect, it empowers us.  Remember that during the reign of the Dark Ages, when the church ruled the known world, these two schools were most persecuted: spiritual mystics and scientists.  To finally see these two studies empowered  and rejoined once again is a beautiful thing.

You can make sense of this world view only if you base the world on consciousness.

Consciousness is the ground of all being, and quantum physics makes this as clear as daylight.”   Amit Goswami, Quantum Physicist

But what I’m most pleased about is the new people in my reality who share my feelings of compassion.   IT’s always been my dream to play with creative, conscious people who both know how to rock, and are aware and sensitive.  Do these things always have to be mutually exclusive?

Here’s a couple of quotes that caught my eye today… The first is anonymous, and a variation on a quote about children…if you know the author, please let me know so I  can add their name.

“A hundred years from now, it will not matter  the sort of house I lived in, what my bank account was, or the car I drove… but the world may be different because I was important in the life of animals and the creatures on this earth.”

***

Life is life’s greatest gift. Guard the life of another creature as you would your own because it is your own. On life’s scale of values, the smallest is no less precious to the creature who owns it than the largest … - Dr. Lloyd Biggle Jr., Musician, Author, Historian (1923 – 2002)

Meanwhile several of the most recently mixed tunes have just been mastered, and yeah!  They sound really sweet.  We’re holding these versions back until the whole album is done.  I think it’ll be worth it.

Meanwhile, my new thing is to avoid clocks as much as humanly possible…somehow, I find more  time for songwriting and all that studio work when I just stop looking at the clock.

It doesn’t work so well for performances, though,  LOL. 

My other new thing is to mellow out on the multitasking.  Again, too much stuff happening, and it winds up being like there’s three songs being written at once, three more being mixed, another couple with overdubs ~ and nothing actually done!  So, for the time being, it’s all about focus, vision, and being present in the moment.

Someone recently asked if I miss California and I guess I’d have to say not really.  I’m there a couple times a year but I never miss it.  I’ve lived and performed all over the place, from LA to Maui and some crazy places between… but I do like my current location:to be able to get to a forest for inspiration…and to a river… and to the ocean… well, there’s nothing like it.

Certain places in Europe are calling to me lately, too… but any place I can breathe deeply and sing loud are good enough for me.

Wow, some very cool new energies with the tunes ~ some new musicians and fresh ideas.  There’s a couple of tunes we wrote last year that have gotten an entirely new energy to ‘em.  I’m really liking some of the new directions, even though it may make some of the recordings obsolete.  I love letting the songs just evolve.

“Arriving” is getting (probably) a new name because the hook is different now.    And “Riding the Wheel” got entirely changed, with a new feel that’s just really fun ~ you won’t recognize it from the live show version or the old recordings you’ve heard.  It’s like a new song.

And I’ve overdubbed some very dynamic vocal parts that you can’t normally hear in the live rock shows.  Really pleased with the contrasting bits… can’t wait to hear what you all think!

  more later~