Happy full moon in Aries tonight which might mean nothing or it could mean everything. It depends on what your thoughts are on such things. Today’s studio closeup is a past work existing in slide format only. I painted this in the early 2000’s and was trying to paint the feeling of being inside a theater. Recently I had a dream about this piece - that it had hidden parts that would glow in the dark under the right light (it does not) but that would be pretty great wouldn't it. Lately, my dreams have been exhausting so this glow-in-the-dark suggestion was a welcome respite. The square pieces at the bottom are audience members. The yellow space is stage activity and I think that’s an Angela Lansbury comic playing up there. The candelabra on the left side represents theater lighting. Georgia O’Keeffe shapes represent a red stage curtain; the curtain at Riverside Theater in Milwaukee to be exact. Please keep safe and well this full moon in Aries. You just never know these days.

I went the fun route for today's tune because I still remember fun and I still like having fun AND I had so much fun singing this today(!) I really did. This is a song that has all the words about all the things that I agree with 100%. An anthem for the not so perfect delivered in the snarkiest way possible. Please enjoy my "quick track" of Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" and I hope the world has been treating you well. Peace out.

Carolaoke Song #45 - Meghan Trainor - "All About That Bass"

Original Song Reference:

Two more cards from the Bird People Tarot Deck today. I don’t have a lot of words to share today probably because I’ve been completely in my head all week but I’ll certainly take that over the scattered and unfocused energy that was hanging around my neck like an albatross these past few weeks. Please enjoy and please keep safe and well out there!

Upright Meanings:
Cosmic consciousness
Wisdom
Intuition
Devotion
To thine own self be true

Reversed Meanings:
Useless Sacrifice
Apathy
Lack of spiritual attunement
Materialism
Promises not kept

Upright Meanings:
Quick solutions
Sudden changes
Aggressiveness
Unexpected
Ill will, grudge

Reversed Meanings:
News of a disaster
Weakness
Treachery
A quick exit
Confrontation

Today I have “action shots” of a piece I’m working on right now. Winter is coming, which is my happy place so I’m focusing on winter dioramas currently. I’ve included a “lit” shot of what I hope the diorama will look like in final form once one presses the button to make the lights come on. That photo was taken before I painted what you see today.

In completely random news, last night I really enjoyed the episodes of Billions in Season 5, where they tackle the subject of an artist and their art with painter, Tanner. That was incredibly insightful and eerily accurate.

Take care and thank you for stopping by today!

Today’s song is straight out of the Sweet Jelly covers vault. This song was SO MUCH FUN TO DO LIVE! Lots of great band memories attached to this tune! A lot of times, at most of our “venues” we’d play at, I couldn’t hear myself in the monitor no matter how many times I said I couldn’t hear myself. I know it’s always a hardy-har-har when the singer asks for more “me” in the monitor, but a lot of times I was flying blind (deaf) and couldn’t hear myself at all, always hoping I’d catch what I was singing bouncing off the back wall that was facing the stage. In-between people talking, yelling, smoking and carrying on like they do in bars. I mean venues. Once in a while we’d run across a sound guy that was mildly interested in us and really worked his ass off to make us sound good, but that was definitely not the norm. Summerfest! I could hear myself at Summerfest! And it was glorious. So was the private van they provided us to get all our gear to the GIGANTIC STAGE we were on. I think that experience spoiled us all.

Recording is a whole different ballgame than playing live of course, but I’ve really been enjoying hearing what my vocals sound like, deleting what’s awful, but learning from awful vocals and trying to fine tune future vocals to not sound shitty. It’s certainly humbling. Please enjoy my cover of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass”. It was beyond therapeutic to sing this today.

Carolaoke Song #44 - Blondie - "Heart of Glass"

Original Song Reference: