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JOURNAL
September 2012
brave girls art

Brave girls are everywhere. Making music together in the Gorgeous city of Minneapolis, coaxing stories out of passersby on the highline, bicycling from Amherst to Milwaukee, making art with goups of teenagers. Collaboration is brave. Inclusion is brave. But I maintain that there is plenty to go around and we just have to quit this stupid scarcity mentality and share whatever we've got.

I had an incredible time in Minneapolis.What a great city. I mean, I've always loved it because my husband was born and raised there, and most of his very extended, very Irish Catholic family is still there, but I was really really smitten this time.

The Dakota is a lovely club, really great food, ambiance, welcome. Keri Noble and Chastity Brown are awesome cohorts. We were joking backstage about how awful women CAN be to each other, ironically it is often women who are most brutally mean to women. Why? Why is that? (Don't get me started about the Lilleth Fair!!!)

So we had a blast. It was a thrill getting to know their music, vibing and jibing with them on stage, singing harmony. Boy would I like to do more of THAT!

(that's Chris Kluwe rehearsing his bass part on "There's More True Lovers than One!") AND we raised over 21,000 dollars for the Marriage Equality Campaign. Not bad for a grass-roots effort on a Tuesday night.

I also discovered some great local cats who learned the music beautifully and quickly and rocked the house. Tommy Barbarella, Enrique Toussaint, and Matt Novachis.

Back in New York, I got to do a another little songwriting forum at NYU on Friday with my "co-professor" Phil Galdston. Dr. Brooke in the house!

And then, I got to see more favorite creative chiquitas! And stir up even more creative inclusive girl juju.

This is me and Amy Williamson at the Maya Stein "type-rider sessions" on the Highline!. (You may remember Amy as Becky Miller-Morton, our first Champion of Normal. She also is the energy behind "brave girls art." Just the kind of thing we're talking about. Girls making art with girls!) And man she whipped my marketing plan into shape in an afternoon!!

Maya Stein....

just rode her bike from Amherst, MA to Milwaukee, WI, the original home of the typewriter. Her quest was called "Type-Rider" - read more about it here. She gathered stories all along the way on her quirky, turqoise standard typewriter. Now you can find her most weekends, somewhere between 14th and 17th on the Highline in New York.

Go visit, and write yourself into the story. She is a poet, bright light. Writing yourself there is a great exercise in distilling what matters.
And then have dinner at Cookshop. Yummy for post type-rider distilled beverages and fine hearty fare. Art needs energy.

Cheers, more very soon!

jb

Musik ELLES

Mais... Quel Chaleur, quel generosite, quel festival!

 

Vraiment, Musik"elles" etait une evenement extraordinaire pour moi. OK, ca va sans dire que j'adore chanter avec mon pote Nolwenn Leroy.

 

On a fait une petite interpretation de "The Water is Wide" - (ouf! comment j'adore mettre deux voix ensemble en harmonies proches....)

tres serieuses

 

Les musiciens? super serieux aussi, vous voyez!

 

L'equipe du festival est sans match. Les loges etaient, chaqu'un decores avec amour et detail.

 

Dans le mien, y'avait des chaussures anciennes au mur, comme une installation musee! Petit chandelles ont parfumees l'interieur, jolies chocolats, petits cadeaux partout.

(Ma nouvelle soeur!)


Meme un petit mot ecrit par main par La Directrice du Festival, BRAVA!

Daniele Molko, le coeur du festival. Je t'aime!!

 

In English now, the story continues.... I met a little goat named Billy.

 

We chatted each morning on the path by the river Marne.

 

Billy told me about the ghost in my beautiful little hotel. Incredible restaurant, fabulous wine list.
But something went wrong in chambre numero 1....

 

Alain Stivell thought the wife did it.

 

Christophe Miossec wasn't so sure

 

My fireman friend Jeremie told me he thought it was suicide. Love or money? I asked. He said, MONEY, or the guy wouldn't have been so considerate as to do it in the bathtub - easy clean-up for the wife?

 

Laurent Voulzy was only sure that there was a SONG in it - I think it must be a waltz.... (Il me semble que tout mes morceaux en francais commencent commence dans un baignoir...)

 

But Billy was right, on my last night, the ghost pushed me to the other side of the bed. And I'm not a real believer.... I must have trespassed.

 

Mostly, I can't thank you all enough. Meaux me manque terriblement deja!!!!!

 

Mille mercis aux Musik ELLES, (et bravo, les mecs etaient aussi tres charmants et chalheureux!!!)

 

SECURITY!!!!

 

AND NOW!!!! MINNEAPOLIS. I'm here for this incredible gig tomorrow. More details in the morning. Keri Noble, Chastity Brown. TRUE REVELATIONS. So excited. to play.

 

xoxoxoxoxo

jb

chris kluwe

I can't believe Squam is over again. I don't even have much to show for it. Just a heart full of love. A feeling of plenty, and plenty more to go around. hanging out, (ok there were cocktails too) - and dancing crazily with that many artists, and creative spirits just does that.

I do have some things to chat about.... a few things in the hopper.

 

First, I get to sing a couple of songs with my pal Nolwenn Leroy in Meaux, France. at the Muzikelles Festival.


I don't know much about the festival, but I know Nolwenn's had an AWESOME year, her latest record is beautiful and MASSIVE.  And I know, me + France = good.

 

Here's a video from our last little duet "Aucune Idee"

 

Then Next Tuesday, Keri Noble, Chastity Bronw and I will get cranking on the Marriage Equality issue in Minneapolis, MN.

 

If we're very very lucky, Chris Kluwe might come sit in on a tune. Yup. He plays bass.

Chris Kluwe, for those of you out of the "amazing-football-dudes-who-stick-their-necks-out-to-support-gay-marriage" loop, is a punter for the Vikings, and has been quite vocal lately.... check this out:

 

And then there is some exciting stuff brewing here at Bad Dog Records.  More very soon.

 

Cheers, and a fine St. Emilion.

 

JB

anniversaire

It was my anniversary this week. I was lucky enough to go back to the place my husband and I were married. We had lots of plans, but then, we were so content just... eating, drinking, sleeping, swimming, eating again, sleeping, - (repeat) - that we let go. We basked in the glow of the magical light of the South of France and did... well, nothing.

It was good.

 

that old devil moon put on a show...

 

this guy sang us all our favorites.

 

They were still playing Petanque in the village Square...

 

You see, when we got married, we had plans to drive around the south of France, maybe Italy, an adventure honeymoon - happy go lucky. But my husband got a little toothache that Saturday - THE Saturday. By Sunday afternoon, it was bad enough that we had to find a FRENCH DENTIST who would work on a WEEK-END .

We ended up in Cannes (yup, that one) -there was (Pas Possible!!) a dentist, working, in France, on a Sunday! There in the waiting room was a little boy balling his eyes out, he'd just knocked out his front teeth falling off his bicycle. There was an elderly couple, (stale baguette, cracked crown,) and us, the honeymooners.

Our french dentist - (I wish I remembered his name) - reported what Pat had suspected - Root Canal. He drilled a hole to relieve the pressure, found some antibiotics and pain killers. We flew home the next day and taxied right from the airport to Pat's romantic honeymoon oral surgery.

And so you see, I am happy to report that our somewhat delayed anniversary/honeymoon was a success. We flossed carefully each night, went easy on the Tarte Tatin.

We stepped lightly on "break your neck" road.

 

We smiled as directed. (all the good photos are by Richard Sahel)

 

And I am still madly in love. Happy anniversary.