Dead Horseshoes East-Bound-Run-Around

In about an hour we'll be taking off for our trip our east. Tonight we're in Chicago, tomorrow in Toledo, Wednesday in Pitsburgh, and Thursday through Saturday at Delfest in Cumberland, Maryland.

Oh boy, I'm excited to head east- it's been a long time. I'm excited to be in another region, excited to share the road with our good friends, Horseshoes & Handgrenades, excited to see the green Maryland appalachian goodness and contemplate things with a new perspective.

And truth be told- I'm excited to be on the road again. We've truly met so many amazing and inspiring people and I think there are lots more to come. Summer is here- season of barefoot and sunny run-around, festivals on rivers and lakes, sleeping outside, skin darkening and hair lightening...

Growth, renewal, the shedding of different selves and masks, the challenging of perspectives and beliefs and ideals, the challenge to embrace change as uncomfortable or painful as it may be.

It seems as though so many of the people I've been talking to throughout the last few weeks can relate. Things ending and beginning, people moving to the other side of the country, relationships starting and ending, packing up belongings, sorting through old pictures and letters and clothing.. sorting through the physical remnants that have made up certain parts of your life.

And really what I would like to say is that I'm proud of all of us in a sense- we're all growing and moving and paths may seem to be going in different directions and some people seem healthier or happier than others but I promise you that we are all little specks moving around doing the same thing and the bottom line is loving each other, supporting and teaching each other.


These are the things floating around in my head and I know that in a week it'll all be different again. Until then....

Dead Red Conversations (Part 2)

R.I.P. Dead Red (6/10/12 - 5/7/14)

Things come and things go... 

Ironically, as I've started this short series of posts, we've been informed that Mr. Mechanic Man wouldn't drive ten feet in Dead Red let alone all the way to Maryland. She still runs sweet and strong, but seems as though the red rust has gotten the best of Dead Red. And more ironic yet is that Dead Red now really is Dead.

Things come and things go...

And this seems to be the theme standing out to me for most people I know in their lives right now. The passing of things, the coming of things... ever changing and transforming... 

I think we're all just shedding our winter skin... preparing for the humid, hot, grey-blue summer ahead. And this winter was especially bitter, especially dry, especially winter, so our winter skin is thick and strong and chaffed and the shedding of it... it's not easy. And our new springtime summer skin is young and not quite willing to be fully exposed to the baby rays peaking out these early days of spring.

So...

adjust.

So...

adapt.

So...

accept.

Be flexible.

Or don't.

So on Thursday I drove down to Sun Prairie with Tim to look at a van that's for sale by our good friends' house. It's the same van as Dead Red except newer and less wear. I really enjoyed the drive with Tim- just the two of us listening to NPR and talking about mixes and upcoming shows and Tim telling me about this program he heard about how research showed that people with shorter and easier to say names tend to be better liked. I enjoyed seeing the new green grass and the sun at dusk.. dusk is getting longer now with summer approaching. 

And the earth is changing too...

Dead Red Conversations (Part 1)

For those of you who haven't met her yet, Dead Red is our beloved van. Not only is she our bumpy form of transportation, but she is also our office, nap room, feeding place, reading space, sleeping place, and even practice space sometimes! (Ask Dan how he plays bass in the van...)

Here is a picture of us standing next to Dead Red last summer. We were at a fancy country club when she started falling apart a little...

As a band, of course we play shows together and practice together, record, fly on airplanes, we sweat together, we eat together, we have visited probably over half of the Kwik Trips in Wisconsin together, we often sleep on couches next to each other, eat with each other, and so on so forth!

And in Dead Red, we have many, many different types of conversations together.

So I have decided to start a new series entitled "Dead Red Conversations." I wouldn't mind this blog being a little more interactive, so I really encourage you to comment. You don't need a username or anything to do so, but I would appreciate if you say who you are and where you're from.


Topic 1- Quantum Physics
Okay- not as genius as it sounds, but I came up with the idea for the posts after talking about Schrodinger's Cat on the way to one of our shows. Here is a youtube video that illustrates Schrodinger's Cat:

In school my favorite subject was never science- always English. In fact, I really struggled in science and math classes. Over the last year or so, however, I've become really curious and interested in science- especially quantum physics. As I understand it, quantum physics is the study of things on a very, very small level (atoms and particles and so on..) And partly what's incredible about this is that the laws of science are completely different on this level! Things happen that are quite simply phenomenal and mind-boggling.

I am tempted to try to describe, but I should probably be the last person to describe quantum physics to anyone. Maybe if enough people ask Pete to give some input he'll do so :) Our van conversation started off with him describing an experiment he did in college in which he dressed up like Marty McFly from Back to the Future.

Now that I look, Pete does resemble a young Michael J. Fox. We should get him a hoverboard... 

To wrap this up, here are some great sources that have helped a beginner like me with quantum physics:

1. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Marty (I mean Pete) and I both really like this book. 

2. Anything by or about Stephen Hawking

3. The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality- by the Dalai Lama.This one... I'm working on right now. 

4. Basics of Quantum Mechanics for Dummies - I referenced this blog while writing this post.
5. Cosmos- the show.




What do you think about Quantum Mechanics? Make sure to comment with any thoughts and stay tuned for at least another post or two on Dead Red Conversations!

And All of Life is a Collaboration

Maybe it's spring time, maybe it's discovery, maybe it's the growth of respect or the search for new creativity, but collaboration certainly seems to be in the air.

Call it co-writing, co-creating, sharing thoughts,jamming, networking even... being each others' muses.

I feel like... what an honor. And it's exciting! Exciting to see musicians from different projects working together. It's exciting to collaborate with others across the country (mixing and mastering our album!) It's exciting to share space with someone and truly let them affect you.

We've been getting some rough mixes to tunes on our new album. I have a lot of thoughts- but often I just feel so incredibly thankful to be able to create with Pete, Dan, and Tim- thankful we get to affect each other in so many ways.

I've also been working more with Adam Gruel of Horseshoes & Hand Grenades- our duo titled "Rucksack Revolution." It's been really wonderful working with him, learning from him as a musician and as a friend, as a fellow human being. Sometimes it's good and real necessary to have friends who help us remember what it's like to be human.


And all of life is really a collaboration...

Community! Yeah!

Heeey Jude.

Well, we're home! We flew into Milwaukee last Thursday night around 11, shuttled to Pete's car, and drove home. Even in Milwaukee Pete made the comment, "the buildings all seem so spaced out!" I'm still sort of adjusting to the difference in pace, in lifestyle, but that's a common thing these days.

We played at the Farmers Market Saturday morning. That was a treat as it was acoustic. It was great to play unplugged. It was great to see family and friends and community members.

Saturday night I went to the Oshkosh Music Art Series Concert at the Algoma Club. It's a fundraiser for music education in Oshkosh. Dorothy Zerbe, The Guilty Wanted, and Copper Box played. It's not often that I'm in Oshkosh during the weekend, and it was so fantastic and encouraging to see the Oshkosh community getting together to celebrate art and say that it's important. I was reminded of how incredible our community here really is and how much it has to offer. Leif Larson also painted throughout the night and auctioned off his masterpiece near the end of the evening.

Whoever you are reading this, if we were sitting together with a drink I'd toast with you to lovers of art, lovers of people. It's an incredible thing to be a part of.

"What a long strange trip..." (San Francisco Part 4)

-Thursday night

And here we are in Studio D doing some rough mixes. It's late and we've been sitting in here most of the day. Breaks here and there- we just climbed up to the roof. Climbing on top of roofs seems to be a metaphor for me- a mark of a special night, and a mark of transition, change, growth I hope. Stared up and looked at the stars, the moon, the wall art, the people on the street, the tops of the trees...

Mixing up some of the tunes is a little surreal. Tunes that started blooming five years ago and tunes that were born five months ago. And then here I am. He we are.

And tomorrow everything begins new again. Just as I was starting to sink into this lifestyle. A day on the plane and then we'll be in Wisconsin and what comes next? That is a big question mark and one that even caused me some suffering for a while during our stay here. Just letting that go, and now we go home. 

Nonetheless, our time here has been magical. We have been honest because we haven't known anything else to be.

I tried coming here with a state of mind of effortlessness, welcoming the change, the new- moving with flow of things. And I guess I should approach going home the same way.

Something has been created and we've been not only immersed in it but immersed in a completely new environment. So to go home now and to hear it with fresher ears.... hopefully to hear everything with fresher ears, see everything in a new way...

"Oh, what a long, strange trip it's been..."

The Tenderloin District (San Francisco Part 3)

In the Tenderloin District


I see bright light sunshine, worn down buildings, old men smiling, drug transactions, people and their little dogs, old woman dressed in all red leather with a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and a purple scarf

I hear French accents, accents of all kinds, children, change jingling, dogs barking, voices muttering, voices yelling, horns beeping, outdoor music playing, pigeons cooing

I smell life, I smell restaurant foods mingling, I smell joints burning, I smell bodies unbathed for who knows..

I taste their hunger

I feel my past path ghosts, I feel present, I feel my many "selves"- past, present, future, I feel ghosts from my past, ghosts who surely exist alive somewhere? I feel eyes

homeless folk and junkies and dealers and folks walking their little dogs and the sun on my skin and the cool polluted but still so fresh ocean air

and men calling me "princess" and wishing me well in California. "You a musician? Yeah we see lots of musicians standing in front of here. You sing? Yeah you look like a singer."

and I walked down the street in the morning trying to muster a genuine smile for these people instead of looking so serious and sleepy-eyed

and I tried to think of something to say to Joe at the coffee place while we sat outside- me smoking a cig and him smoking a roach he found on the ground. I tried to think of something to say.. to say.. instead I just sat with him and watched the tourists walk by because we weren't in the Tenderloin- I don't think many tourist folks go to the Tenderloin- not on purpose anyway.

And if I can't muster a smile I try to muster a nod- but not the kind of nod that implies anything- I don't want to do that. just a nod of respect. cause I haven't felt an ounce of disrespect from anyone in the Tenderloin. Everyone's doing their own thing.

And other times i'm aware my smile is in my eyes and that's all that's necessary- that's all that is.