Saturday, April 29, 2006

Entry #189

It's 7 a.m., and it's moving day! We're moving from Park Slope to Carroll Gardens in Brooklyn. I'm very excited about our new neighborhood. I'm writing this blog with my voice recognition system! Yeah, I'm up early. We're listening to reggae and packing up the last of our belongings. I recently purchased a digital home recording device! It's a Boss BR1600 CD with eight live input channels, and lots of very cool effects. I'm going to learn a lot, learning how to use it. I can't wait to get to the point where I can just walk over to it, press a few buttons and record the new songs that I hear in my head. Our new apartment has a huge backyard, and is just asking for me to do something very cool in it like plant a bunch of flowers. I'm on my second cup of coffee, which is really cool because I haven't drunk coffee all week. Our cats keep bringing out different toys that have been under the refrigerator or behind the stove or under the couch. I think it's their way of letting us know that we have to pack up their toys. Sometimes I can't believe how cute our cats are. So I canceled my performance at Telemagica Festival down in Southern California. I'm just going to stay up in the Bay Area when I go out there in June to play the Harmony Festival. I'm excited to play music with Gregg, my old guitar player. All right, that's it for the morning thoughts. I'm going back into the moving! Jessica

Monday, April 17, 2006

Entry #188

Hello readers! Spring is here in full force! All of the plants in my backyard are starting to bud and blossom. I've been confirmed for two festivals in California for June and I'm very excited about them. My friend Gregg Tilles will play with me at the Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa; http://www.harmonyfestival.com/ . The exact date and time of my performance is still to be determined but most likely I'll be playing on Saturday, June 10th at noon on the Goddess stage! That's my old stomping grounds. It'll be good to go for a visit. The other festival that I'm playing is down in the very southern part of California in the Jacumba Desert. It's called the Telemagica Festival http://www.telemagica.com . There is a pending Memorial Day show out here in New York on Long Island. I'll let you know as the details unfold. My wrist is healing and I'm starting to play a more guitar again. Thank the Goddess! Injuries suck! They definitely teach you about your body and your limitations and about when you're pushing yourself too hard and not listening to what your body is telling you. Cheers, Jessica

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Entry #187

We just got back from Amsterdam!!! Yes, you should go there if you have the chance. Most of the people ride around on bikes and a lot of the cars are really small like Coopers. The Dutch are pretty fashionable and serious looking. I guess that I come from a fairly smiley place (California) and I've learned living in NYC to keep the smiles to a minimum while walking around. This came in handy in Amsterdam; I put on my very bored and serious expression for those moments where Dutch people might have been looking my way. We walked around the first two days and had a great time. By the end of the second day my feet had run out of rubber on the soles and we found a bike rental for the rest of our time there. Bikes are definitely the best way to get around, just like at Burning Man. We went to the Van Gogh museum and learned more about him. He really wanted to be successful and he worked really hard to make it. His brother Theo supported him and sold only one of Vincent's paintings while Vincent was alive. He actually learned to paint and painted for about ten years before he shot himself in the chest and died two days later with his brother by his side. His brother died six months later and was buried next to Vincent. His brother's wife spent her life working on getting Van Gogh's work known after the brothers died. I guess one of the lessons here is that when you have a calling to create art or beauty, just create it and do your very best to get it to people but don't let the lack of success drive you to the grave. I do understand this. Vincent painted differently to try to be more appealing and sell his work. We also ate alot of delicious food! I'll write more about our trip later, just wanted to fill you in and say hey! Jessica

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Entry #186

Hey peeps! Just a note to say hey! I've officially started working on my third album and I'm very happy about it! See all the exclamation points? New York is a cool place and it's even better when you have a regular yoga practice! I'm recording at a studio here in Brooklyn called Platinum Studios and I've been recording there since October (directly after starting my regular yoga practice). Life is great. There are still all the sad and awful things going on in the world but when you're really doing what you love, those things just aren't as heavy on your spirit. Today we laid many harmony vocals for "Sweet Candy" and it sounds well, sweet! Whoo hoo!!!!!!! Jessica Star

Friday, January 20, 2006

Entry #185

Hi there! I thought I'd write a message just to keep you updated with what's going on in my life. I've been recording preproduction for my third album at Platinum House Studios here in Brooklyn. It's really fun and it's a lot of work! It's pretty amazing to be able to speak a musical language of sounds with someone, communicate the ideas I hear in my head, and have them understand it and be able to create tracks of music so that we can both hear it. This week we worked on," The River" and "Sweet Candy". It's going really well and I'm really happy that this is happening in my life right now. Actually, I'm very grateful. I moved to New York a little over three years ago and now I feel like the time that I've put in here is starting to yield sweet fruits. As I said in a previous message, it takes time to get used to the pace and to build friendships and connections. One of the big reasons I moved here was to be surrounded and immersed in the energy of manifesting my dreams. If you know anything about New York, you know that most of the people who move here, especially entertainers, are here to develop their careers and take it to the next level. I know for me, there are a lot more reasons why I need to be here. There's not a lot of room to slough off and be lazy when you live in NYC (unless you have a lot of money). I was perfectly happy living near the beach in northern California! I was happy, but I was not fulfilled. It was as if my future self was calling to me, urging me to walk the path that I'm on right now. Let me tell you, I am so grateful that I listened! Yoga is definitely helping me to stay sane, I recommend it. It's to the point now where we're going to yoga as often as possible. I'm learning about goals and processes and loving the process of getting there and knowing that the goal is just part of the journey, not the end. Yoga is helping me to learn this. All of my fairy best wishes to you for your journey! ~Jessica Star~

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Entry #184

Hi peeps! What's on my agenda for the New Year? I got my Dragon's Lair cd to people at Sony and their feedback to me was that they think I'm a strong songwriter and they'd like me to focus on writing songs for artists they're producing! I love writing music! I love to write in all different styles so, this is perfect. I'm officially apologizing for not playing out in the last few months. As I said in a previous entry; I've been healing my wrist from tendonitis. I am going to yoga and being very gentle on my wrist throughout the day (and night) and it is healing, it just takes time. I played guitar yesterday and sang and it felt so good (in my heart-not on my wrist). I'm definitely not typing or knitting until it's really healed but I'll play some guitar just to stay in tune (I'm typing with one finger on the good side and using my voice recognition system). I haven't written much cause that's "typing" and a no-no for now. When I start gigging again it will probably be as a vocalist with a full band. As far as all else in my life~ great! Winter has encompassed N.Y. and I'm once again, in love with this city. If I'm going to spend years on this planet living somewhere, I'm grateful it's here. It's really a bit of a love-hate thing but as of today, I'm happy I'm in NY. People know how to dress here! I don't always dress stylish when I go outside but it's nice to know that this is a place where you can really do it up and you're right with the way of life here. It's taken me a few years to actually feel like a New Yorker. My experience, moving here from the West Coast is that my metamorphosis has come in increments. A friend of mine, who I reconnected with in New York, told me that if you really want to do something with your career here, you have to give it at least 10 years. Before I moved here, I was planning on staying for about two years. As I sit here drinking Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, I realize I do love it here and I might stay for 10 years! Last night was the winter solstice, and the longest night of the year and our yoga teacher had us focus on our goals and intentions for the New Year. From now until June, the days will be getting longer and the natural energy for creating your life in the way you want it is synchronistic (more daylight= more energy). So take some time and figure out what it is you'd like to create for your life in this New Year, set your intention, and create it! And remember that change comes in baby steps; it's a process and the goal is not the end, but part of the process, part of your journey. This is roughly what our yoga teacher said. The New Year brings a new start and fresh inspiration for the things you want to do. Jessica

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Entry #183

We're back from Jamaica! Rastafari! We had so much fun! If you'd ever like to see more pictures of all the things I talk about, you can go to Ben's web site, which is; http://www.benjaminsanders.com there you will find pictures of Jamaica, a bunch of pictures of my gigs, Burning Man, and all sorts of other pictures that we've taken in the course of our lives. We went down to Jamaica for a wedding that was in Montego Bay, at the Round Hill resort, and let me tell you that place is amazing. We felt like royalty. The coffee that they leave in the room for the morning is Blue Mountain coffee, and that is the best in the world. Looking out of the window, we could see the Caribbean Ocean. Our room was all white, and the bathroom fixtures were from France. The bed was made out of really thick bamboo stained dark brown. I played guitar for the ceremony with my friend Kevin Merritt. We did a piece of music that the bride picked out called, "Shoes" that was written by a friend of Kevin's. The bride, by the way was our friend Pam Siegel and the groom was Alex Bernstein. Both of them are Burning Man people, or as we like to refer to them; Burners. They threw a great party! Ben and I went horseback riding in the mountains, and even in the ocean! It's hard to hold on to a horse with no saddle when you're riding in the ocean! The one thing about Jamaica that can not escape anyone's eyes who visits there is the poverty level. It's really a Third World country. Tourism is I think their main source of income, but a lot of the resorts are all-inclusive so that people that are visiting the resorts don't really even have to leave the resort, because they can eat there and get their entertainment. So the Jamaican people probably don't see much of the money coming from these visitors. The people working at the resorts must have the better jobs, because they always work and they always have something to do. I found it really hard to make any real connections with the people working at the resorts and then later when we went to Negril, the people working the beach. Because they are so poor, their whole focus is on making money every day. When they see tourists like us, they see money, and that's all they really want. We did meet a really cool lady who was selling fruit and she let me know that most of the Americans that she met were really nice. We'd walk down the beach in Negril and any time a local saw us coming they'd bee-line down the beach to meet us, greet us, and then bring us up to whatever it was that they were selling on the beach (work us). They had necklaces, pipes, all things Bob Marley, and all sorts of different things that they make there in Jamaica for sale and everything was very cheap. Living in New York, we always pass and deal with poor people and people that are homeless so being in Jamaica, we were kind of used to giving money to people that don't have any. We would haggle a little over the price of something, but mostly we gave them what they wanted because it was all fairly inexpensive stuff and for them, $1.50 of US money is a lot more to them than it is to us.Plus, I knew that once I got home I'd be glad I'd bought what I did because it's all good stuff and it's from Jamaica! The last day we were there, a dread came up to us on the beach and wanted to sell us stuff, but we just didn't need anything else. So we just handed him 200 Jamaican dollars. His communication to us was very clear to me; we come to this beautiful island and meet his people who are really amazing, it's right for us to help them out financially because it's a lot easier for us to make money in America. We saw a nice Reggae band playing in Negril. If they would have been here, they would have been a good Reggae band in New York City but they were playing right there next to the ocean. We drank all lot of Rum Ting, which is rum mixed with a soft drink they have down there called Ting. After being in Jamaica for about four days, all the voices in my head had Jamaican accents and were speaking Patois. That happens to me when I travel to different places where people speak with different accents. When I moved to New York City, the voices in my head started to sound like New Yorkers. The thing with Patois is that I can't understand most of it! I do love Jamaica. Right around the first time I went to Jamaica is when I first really started to write songs,. I had written a few good songs when I was about 20, but when I went to Jamaica when I was 21, that's when the inspiration really hit me. This trip to Jamaica was completely different than the first time I was there, which was 14 years ago. I was a kid back then and now I'm a full grown woman. My mom had a 10 year old and a 14 year old at my age. It was strange to really feel like an American. We have to lead by example. I was me over there so they got to meet me and equate me with American. Reggae rock on! Jessica

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Entry #182

Greetings all, today I played on WBAI FM on The Light Show with Evan Ginzburg. It was really fun. You can hear the archived show by going on the Internet to http://www.wbai.org and going to the archived shows and going to the one that is today's date; 11-30-2005 "The Light Show". It was really fun to broadcast live that way. When I play music, I become very sensitive to the physical surroundings; the Isle of Manhattan, the body of water surrounding it, and everything moving within it. We're leaving for Jamaica tomorrow morning! Jessica

Monday, November 14, 2005

Entry #181

Hello people! I don't have a lot to say right now, but I wanted to write something to keep updated. I've got a couple of musical irons in the fire, but I'd rather not talk about them, I'm just going to do them instead. As Elvis said," a little less talk, and a little more action"! I think he said that anyway. I've been doing yoga lately, and I love it. I've also been writing a lot of poetry. I think at some point I'll add a page to my web site that is just poetry. I've been really inspired by faeries lately. I even dressed up as a purple fairy for Halloween, and I was very authentic and believable. This weekend I went to a bachelorette party at a drag bar and a birthday party at a karaoke bar. I kept myself in control and didn't drink too much. That's something that happens when you get a little older, and you're wise to the morning after and that awful feeling after drinking too much! No matter how fun it is the night you're partying, you always pay for it the next day. I get a really cool show on cable, called Music Express and they interview bands and musicians. I got home the other night from the bachelorette party and watched an interview with Tori Amos. She is amazing! She was talking about so many things that I talk and think about including God, Native Americans, politics, the Celts, mythology, the energy that actually formed America which was conquering, killing, lying and stealing, and of course music. The end of the year is coming fastly upon us and soon it will be freezing here where I live. Heck, this used to be all glacial ice back in the day. All right, I'm rambling, but I just wanted to touch in and say hi. I hope you all are doing a really great. ~Jessica

Friday, October 28, 2005

Entry #180

Hi! I just wanted to share some inspiration! Check out http://www.woodlandmusic.net and http://www.blackmoresnight.com . I'm finding both of these bands to be incredibly fun and inspiring! Happy Halloween! I'll be dressed as a fairy.. Go figure. If I could get away with dressing that way all the time I probably would. When I'm at Burning Man I do! Jessica

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Entry #179

Hi ho people! All is well here. This past Tuesday I filmed a video of me singing some lounge music with a great pianist named Seiko. I might add the video to this site at some point because I think it will come out really nice. I sang some of the songs that I grew up singing. I did New York State of Mind, Georgia, Summertime, On a Clear Day, and Cry Me a River. New York State of Mind brought back the funny memory of when I was in high school in Vancouver, Washington and I was in choir class. I did a solo for the class and I sang N.Y. State of Mind acapella. I remember the funny looks on people's faces. I interpreted the looks as," What planet did she come from?" " That was not the assignment!" I think we were supposed to pick a song out of the choir book or something. Ah, just like me, I did what I wanted to. I think I knew even back then that my life path would lead me to NYC to sing and follow my dream. Then there was that time in drama class where we were supposed to prepare a monologue and perform it for the class in the auditorium.. I was a very serious ballet student at that time and we were learning the corps de ballet parts of Swan Lake.. Well, I borrowed a white tutu costume from the school and performed the swan dance for my drama class. Once again," What planet is she from??" " That WASN'T the assignment!" But it's what I wanted to do and for me, it was wayyy more fun than the assignment! Then there was that guidance counselor back in the 9th grade; I cut our meeting short when I told her I had no desire to go to college because I was going to be a famous entertainer. I don't think I specified "singer" but I might have. I really wanted to be a dancer back then though. I played in the subway twice last week, only for a half hour each time due to my wrist still healing from strain. Bodies~ gotta have 'em. It's definitely getting spooky around here in Brooklyn. Halloween is almost upon us. I really want to march in the Halloween parade this year. It's really fun! I might partake in the N'Awlins funeral with the Hungry March Band! They're a bunch of N.Y. Burners that really are a marching band. Everyone's dressing in back with ghoulish white face make-up and red adornments. I think it will be fun. I adore Halloween. Burning Man and Halloween are my favorite holidays! For those of you who feel sad; me too. Life's about learning and growth is sometimes painful. If you feel sorry for yourself, it's probably time to look around you and appreciate what you do have; also to appreciate yourself more. Keep on swimming! Jessica

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Entry #178

Just a short message today, I'm pretty tired. Last night I played in the "Fran and Jamie Show" put on by my friend Fran. She had two actresses, herself doing comedic things that Fran does (multi-talented) and myself singing my songs and playing guitar as a solo act. Fran came on with me towards the end and played harmonica to Me and Bobby McGee and my tune Sweet Candy. It was a really fun night. Mo Pitkins, where we played, was a nice space. It has two levels with lots of wood. The theater itself holds about 100 people and is just a nice intimate setting. There's even a backstage dressing room WITH a bathroom; and it was clean! May sound funny but, a dressing room and a clean bathroom are indeed pleasant surprises as far as club gigs go. That's it! Jessica

Monday, October 03, 2005

Entry #177

Hi ho party peeps! We went to Northern Virginia this weekend to visit some friends and it was really fun! Our friends took us to Luray Caverns where we explored underground and took many pictures! Check out http://www.luraycaverns.com . We also partied in old town Alexandria and ate mucho seafood and drank large fishbowls full of beer at a place called the Fish Market. The best part was afterwards River Dancing with the girls! Hey girls, are you reading this?! What fun. I love it when you meet people for the first time and you just hit it off. It's very important to get out of New York CityChina Town express from NYC to Washington D.C. I love not driving; especially with the stupid gas prices these days. I urge you to check into grease cars. You know, it's a diesel engine that is converted to run on vegetable oil a.k.a. French fry grease. This coming Wednesday I'm performing at my friend Fran's show at Mo Pitkin's http://www.mopitkins.com from 7:30 to about 9:30! You all rock, thanks for reading my online blog! Check out the store page on this website and go to the bottom; it's my new online merchandise shop at Cafe' Press! ~Jessica~

Friday, September 30, 2005

Entry #176

I just thought of two books that really helped me through some hard times in my life. They helped me come through the passage way into the life I'm living now. These books were," The Road Less Traveled" and," Wild Women Who Run with the Wolves". Both of which I'd picked up at the flea market! So, check them out if you need some inner guidance for outer change.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Entry #175

Tonight I sat in with Pat Cisarano, Kochie Banton, Rick Sabo, Everton, and Tony Mason at the Parkside Lounge! Pat and I did a duet to Redemption Song by Bob Marley. It was awesome and we got video! Life is good, starting to do yoga regularly and let me tell you; YOGA ROCKS! Two classes this week so far and my life makes more sense, feels more hopeful and sane and my body is feeling thankful to me that I took it to yoga! There are a lot of yogis and yoginis in NYC and no wonder. Anything to help you maintain your sanity is prized! Farewell, Jessica