...and I'm outta here.

Last night I had the most fantastic evening. I had a show at Coffee Comedy that was going to just be a solo acoustic evening. To my surprise and delight I got a call from Christian saying that he was available to play and would love to join me! Christian is phenomenal. He makes my songs what they are. When I write them they are lost and incomplete, and then Christian gives them an identity. I don't know how he does it, but he does. Last night I played a handful of new songs...new to me, and certainly new to Christian whom had never heard them before. A dontcha know it -- he played them with such beauty you would have thought that he's been playing them for years. There wasn't a huge turn out...only about 20, when before we were averaging over 50 people, but I chalk it up to the season just beginning. For those who missed out last night, be SURE to mark your calendars for our next show: THURSDAY, JUNE 25th. It's going to be at Coffee Comedy and we'll have the whole family on stage: Christian Mahr, Sven Peltonen and myself. The Costa Rica Crew will be in too...so the evening will be quite an event.


When I got home from the gig last night I booked my ticket that'll kick off my winter travels. I leave the U.S. on Friday, October 30th early in the A.M....arriving in San Jose, Costa Rica in the afternoon. I'll be in town only to leave 2 days later for Ecuador. The month of November will have me south america before heading back to Esterillos Oeste where I'll spend the rest of my winter. Wooohooo....bring on the summer, bring on the shoobies, bring on the mooolah!

dreamy.

I'm feeling dreamy today. Maybe it's the overcast, mysterious weather. Who knows. I just woke up this morning feeling...dreamy. Dreamy and content and excited. This song embodies how I feel, and it's just so beautiful...I thought that I'd share it with you. Priscilla Ahn - "dream".



FYI : Christian and I will be playing this evening, Thursday June 4th, at Coffee.Comedy in Sea Isle City {JFK Blvd}. It's $5, doors open at 7:30pm and the show starts promptly at 8pm. Hope to see some of you there!

Audience Etiquette

photo by Sharon Stabley.

Today I'm performing at Coffee Comedy (on JFK Blvd) in Sea Isle City. I'm so excited because it's an all originals show {only a few covers}. I wrote some new songs during my winter in Costa Rica which I am super excited to share with everyone. Coffee Comedy is a great set-up: awesome acoustics, intimate, and it's just the right space for the amount of people I bring in. After some amazing shows this past year, and some not-so-amazing, I realized that some people just have no idea about "audience etiquette". The songs that I write are either directly about me, or something/someone/some situation that I hold close to my heart. Intimate thoughts and feelings that I've composed into a song to share with you. So while I'm singing my heart out and someone's texting or someone's chatting with their neighbor, you can't help but to hurt the performers feelings. It shows that you either a) don't care, or b) i suck. So I strolled the world wide web for some good guidelines and here is what I came across:

Being a great audience member requires respect—respect for the artist/presenter, other patrons and yourself.

The success of a presentation or performance depends in part on the audience members...YOU!

When you help create a supportive and focused atmosphere, you help create the best experience possible for everyone involved.

One of the most basic elements of being a great audience member and one of the most important skills any one can learn is listening.

Remember, everything you do and say has an affect on a live performance. When you are watching a live presentation or performance, the people on stage can hear and see you.

Please avoid activities that will distract from the presentation or performance. Help those on stage give the presentation or performance that you deserve by not talking during the presentation.

Please turn off all cell phones. It is rude to send text messages or talk on your cell phone during a performance.

If you enjoyed yourself, please feel free to applaud at the end of the presentation or performance to show your appreciation, unless otherwise requested by the artists.

If you see or hear something during the presentation that you especially like, let a member of the staff know after the presentation or performance. They appreciate your comments.

Keep in mind, each live presentation or performance is an entirely unique experience. What you are participating in will never occur the same way twice.

Above all, enjoy yourself!

Today is Sunday.

Today is Sunday. I know this because Shawn has to work tomorrow, and I have no gym classes today. So today MUST be Sunday. I'm pretty sure. My {inferior} Moleskin 2009 Daily Planner should be arriving within the week, and until then I will just have to guess as to which day of the week it is (I won't even try for the date...).


Friday evening I had a lovely dinner party! It was a beautiful beautiful SPRING day, spent outside with jeans and a tshirt on, bare feet, throwing the ball for the dogs. Jeff Pace came over in the afternoon and drank some beers and we talked about surfing. Surprise surprise. Later, Catching-up with old friends was long overdue, so Emily Rosenberg & Alex, Jeff & Sharon, Dawn, Paul, Jill, Rochelle, Shawn and I hung out at my parents house (I was house sitting) and drank, ate, laughed, and told {some inappropriate} stories. It was a great time, my only regret was that we all got too drunk, too full and too sleepy...and the night had to end.

Saturday was a lounge-filled day. Shawn and I watched movies, laid on the couch, and ate chili...perfect for the crappy-ass , rainy, cold day. Turns out that Friday was NOT the coming of Spring, it was just some kind of sick joke that Mother Nature played on me. I lay bundled up all day until Shawn and I ventured out to make an appearance at my friend Maryanne's Birthday Bowling Party. Maryanne is hysterical. Truly an oddball, off in almost every sort of way, but the most fantastic, fascinating person you'll meet...especially around these parts. So it was not surprising that when we got to Mar's birthday, we were greet with "Gift Bags" (ya know, the kind that you get at birthday parties in 1st and 2nd grade).
Shawn's bag had: wooden cooking spoon, 2PAC Joint Roller, 2 bags of oatmeal, a party hat with 3 goldfish (the crackers) inside, Fantastic 4 sticker pack, among other things.
My bag had: ovulation testing kit, a miniature pecan pie, little debbie oatmeal cream pie, a party hat with 3 goldfish inside, Fantastic 4 sticker pack, decorative candy cane christmas ornament, glow-in-the-dark earrings and hair pins (perfect for the black-light-bowling-alley), and a few other odds and ends.
Shawn and I didn't bowl...I was feeling under the weather, but we enjoyed our goodies and had a few laughs. It was great to see some friendly faces that I've missed during my winter away.

Maryanne and I, Christmas 2008 Party @ Surfer Supplies, OCNJ

Today is Sunday. Yes, Sunday. I'm 100% sure now because I checked on my 'computer calendar'. Shawn and I are sitting next to eachother on our respective laptops, Shawn looking for apartments...me blogging away. We are sipping local AVALON COFFEE 'Sumataran Blend' (our latest addiction!!) and preparing for a day in PHILADELPHIA. We are going to eat some VIETNAMESE FOOOOOD (woohoo for 'Valentinos', Green Papaya Salad, and Vermacelli). Also going to stop at DiBruno's for some gourmet cheese and olives and bread...maybe some good salt, and then the fabulous spice shop two doors down for some essentials. MmMmM. Gotta love it.

Coming up, on FRIDAY APRIL 3rd, I have a show at COFFEE COMEDY in Sea Isle City. The show starts at 730pm, music starts at exactly 8pm. If everyone gets there a half hour early we can chat it up, catch up, and drink some cocktails. It's $5 at the door, and it's BYOB. Woohooo for that!! Coffee Comedy also serves up some kickass caffeinated beveragios and sweet sweets. I'm (supposed to be) playing this show with my right hand man, Christian Mahr. He has yet to return any of my 50 phone calls, or 25 texts, but that's usually the way it goes. I'm pretty confident that he will show up the night of the show. I hope. Cross my fingers.

Christian and I, December 2008, Trinity Pub, Atlantic City

Coffee.Comedy with Christian and Cailin

Thanks to everyone who came out the other night to my show at Coffee.Comedy in Sea Isle City. It was a great turn-out, great vibes, and a great audience, making for a FABULOUS show. It filled up so much that there was standing room ONLY! There were about 50 people who came out, and it truly made it a memorable evening.

I've decided that I'm a coffee shop, small venue kinda gal. I think I'm done with playing bars (aside from our last show @ the Trinity Pub, December 26th @ 9pm). The show on Thursday night was a $5 door charge, but once you were in it was BYOB - which saves the listeners a ton of money, and saves me my ego, because people are actually sitting down listening instead of walking back and forth to the bar. The lights were dimmed, candles were lit, and there was silence. It was an amazing show-- this show and our show from The Hinge in Philly being tied for the best show we've ever had. I was really bummed that Sven had to work, but had we had the pleasure of the crazy man on his djembe - the vibe would have been very different overall. I really enjoyed the one on one I had with Christian on stage. Peaceful, enjoyable and beautiful. A big thanks to the owners, Megan and Rachel who opened up Coffee.Comedy JUST for our show. They got there hours early to decorate and stayed hours late to clean up. The coffee was delicious, and the complimentary desserts were fantastic. Thanks Meg and Rach.

To keep in interesting, and captivating I wrote two set lists. Each set list went cover song, original song, cover song, original song, etc., - and I tried vary the tempos of the songs as well - not too many slow songs in a row. I'm still, to this very moment, almost 'tripping out' (for lack of a better term) on how awesome the audience was. They were really into the music.

My mom played Papparazzi and tried to snap a photo of every person, group, couple that came in. You can view her photos here: http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/page.cfm?siteID=105&pageID=22

Again, THANKS to everyone who came out - I can't think of a better way, or a better group of people, to spend my Holiday's with!