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