My fairy godmother wears man-jeggings...

Also commonly referred to as "meggings". It's a terrible truth of my life.
I realize I have been seriously negligent to this blog, but read on and you will surely agree I've had little time and perhaps more pressing things on my mind than blogging.
Speaking of, I'm needing some serious positive vibes guys. Please send some my way if you can spare it. I really need this to be a good year, but it's hard to see the sun through the storm right now.
I'm not sure where I left off, but Dune music, oh how I miss you. Dune is where I was working- it's an umbrella record label over an educational collective called Tomorrow's Warriors. Basically I got to pretend to be the production manager as the former left about 2 days before I got there. So my job entitled working with the wonderful Adam who knows everyone in the music business as he worked for Sony music for years and is a HUGE music fanatic. He is the communication and marketing fellow so I got to update the website- also the video is new- it's awesome. http://dune.posterous.com/who-we-are-and-what-we-do
Any posts from June-August 15th are written by yours truly.
http://dune.posterous.com/
I updated websites, met with people, contacted important people, updated info, send important papers to other important people. I also got to do the usual intern stuff, which included mainly making tea and hanging around the office with all the fabulous dune staff while the incredibly slow internet uploaded or downloaded or whatever needed to happen internet-wise.
I also got to work with venues such as the infamous Ronnie Scott's to set up gigs for our musicians.
The final gig (for me) was the Denys Baptiste Quartet (<3 have a listen, Denys is a bloody genius) at Ronnie's. It was perfect, everything was right, the sound quality was to die for, I had a friend come along- as it was my last night seeing my lovely employers at Dune it was nice to have someone else there with me- we all drank, listened, watched and were taken away. Denys's new album will be out in October and I highly recommend having a listen, it'll transport.
The day before the gig- Thursday and my last day in the office the Dune crew threw a small cake-and-champagne-party for my farewell. And boy was it difficult to say goodbye. No tears were shed, but I got a beautiful card and they all made speeches about, well basically how awesome I was at my job. It was hopeful and yet beyond bittersweet.
I don't know what else I can say. Transitions are weird, to quote my dear Sarah. I've done it enough times that I fooled myself into believing that I didn't need time to transition back to being in the US of A and into my "normal" routine.
This trip was also unlike anything or any moves I've done before.
I had my future in my hand. Then it evaporated in front of my eyes.
more to come. pictures as promised long long ago. But I can't try to explain everything now, or ever really. It was a perfect summer.
I'm keeping this blog thing up- might as well eh?
If you can spare some positive vibes, direct them toward the sailboat house, PDX. We could really use them.
much love.

Hare Krishna

Take trips get high
Laugh joke and good bye
Beat drum and old tin pot
I'm high on you know what

Anyway if you haven't seen Hair on stage I recommend you should. It's incredible. Especially for those of you who have grown up with a Vietnam Vet in the family- because you will cry through the second act and have a very personal attachment with it. I did.
I'm going to have to lay out my week day by day. So much has gone on, fabulous things but it's all so clustered in my skull at the moment I'm trying to expel it gracefully.
Monday was my day off- so I roamed around the city for a day- prowled around Brick Lane, the street with the most Indian Restaurants per capita in the City and probably in the whole of western Europe, delicious saffron coffee and cakes to be found for only a pound. Lovely vintage stores and market stalls to be found and it's a really young area. The people who live there tend to be a lot like the Portland crowds, which makes me oddly homesick. Not homesick, but I'm okay coming back home because well, I miss it when I see people reminiscent of Portland.
Tuesday, the big day of full time job, started with a lot of research. I was asked by my boss Adam to basically have a look at the website and come up with improvements. The website- dunemusic.com is a blog format that we post updates and news to. It's a nice website but looks a little unprofessional to my eye. I have been searching for web designs that could add a sales component to our website and to add a music player so when people visit the site, they can also hear music.
Which leads me to work on Wednesday which was mianly uploading hours and hours of jazz onto the website- updating the website. In fact if you want to see my work you can check out dunemusic.com and all the posts on that first page were written by ME!
Wednesday night was HAIR! Oh my godness. I'm sure all you... my gorey chums have heard me sing Hair in my little champagne coloured car one or twice or many many many times.
The story of the show is through song- it's all very fluid. It's 1969, Vietnam, the hippies of central park and their stories are all told, most have been kicked out by their parents, free love, drugs and all that jazz. I cried through most of the second act, they were dancing through the audience and it felt like they were all totally passionate about the message of the musical... which is still quite applicable today, but in different ways. If was slightly disheartening to come out of such a moving performance, rejecting capitalism and all the consumerist ideals etc etc. and then walking into the lobby to find overpriced shirts and programs.
It was beyond wonderful. I do love musicals- but Hair is by far and away my favourite, because it's not a musical (like Oklahoma) with all its kitchy-ness.
Thursday and Friday were crazy busy at work with meetings with what may have been everyone important in the jazz world. I've met so many event planners, the venue director at Ronnie Scott's (World Famous jazz/funk/soul club) and set up a meeting with some Scottish video company to do a Dune Music company video!
All that is happening this coming week.
Since it's been a bit since I wrote I need to fill you in on the weekend events. If you have not heard of Scott Macpherson (Sophie Cargill's lovely other)'s band The French Wives- Myspace them... NOW. I'll wait.......
....Good yeah? Great. Saw another band too called Sunbirds who were also wonderful. I've been hanging out with those lads (by the way the Sunbirds guitarist Dean lives with Kai Fish- bassist of Mystery Jets!!!!!) Again if you have not heard of Mystery Jets or Sunbirds go myspace, youtube, or google them. Shoo.
Incredibly talented young folks who make me feel a bit like I haven't done much with my life for being 21.
Pictures still to come, as well as more posts this week- there are 2 gigs I'm organizing for Dune Music coming up this week. Exciting stuff.
Also, have a date with Dean on Monday. We shall see.

We Scots have a bit of a cry when we hear the pipes

It's true, for those of you who watched Braveheart with me last year, you know all it takes is a couple of green mountains claiming to be highlands and some distant sad pipes to make me a sobbing mess. Miss Sophie reminded me that really all Scots have that same appeal. I went to Scotland this past weekend to visit Sophie and Richard, our lovely study abroad students from Glasgow Uni. Richard unfortunately had to go flat hunting in York- which is an awesome place and I'm quite excited for him to finish school there. But anyway-I'll be back at the end of August and hopefully Richard and Teresa will come visit here.
Anyway, the trip was lovely, just Sophie and I hanging out in the West End- both the best part of Glasgow and where she lives, conveniently. It really was a fabulously low key weekend- something I think we both needed. It was also lovely, in reflection, to get to know Sophie as I realized we sort of never really hung out just the two of us back in the states. So all in all- it was a great weekend away. I am quite sad that Richard and Scott couldn't be around, but Sophie's flatmates are wonderfully witty, sarcastic, sweet bohemians, which was wonderful to meet them.
Sorry this post is quite short, but I'm trying to do about 15 other things in order to prepare for my first day of adulthood- first full day of work that is. Not training. Which starts tomorrow-- aggghhh. I will be writing about work so don't fret. Also photos from my trip to wales will be up soon. Promise.

The sun it rises slowly as you walk away from all the fears and all the faults you've left behind

Have you heard of the Sublime? It's a philosophy term, mostly used in aesthetics to describe the elevated sense of being, the loss of all reason and constraint in the face of magnificence. Particularly it is the greatness with which nothing else can be compared and which is beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation.
That is how this weekend felt at Hop Farm in Kent. 2 days of music and people and camping. I ended up not camping with my flatmates, but with our neighbors who needed a loan to buy 2 new tents after their large tent broke, so instead of cramming 3 of us into a 2 person tent, our neighbors slept in one and I got the other for the weekend with one of the girls who was camping with them. It was fantastic.
I love festivals like that, there is nothing like them. Particularly, the magnitude of people there- 6 stages and 4 acres of camping and food and drinks and people.
I don't think I can convey the vastness of this festival but here are some pictures of the groups of campers and of the people around the stage.





There were so many people. I had the odd realization that I saw more strangers at Hop Farm than my grandparents probably ever saw in their entire lives.

The first day, Friday I saw Van Morrison, Blondie and the Afro Celt Soundsystem. Afro Celt were the best by far, Van Morrison was cool- not really a big deal for me. The first night I camped out with some kids I met at the show for the evening drinking beer and singing songs.
The second day was incredible, there were so many vendors and so many more people, and at noon I went to watch the music beginning with Pete Molinari. I saw through most of the bands who played next- eating some pie pasty's (meat pies) and surviving the insane English heat (which is very rare indeed). At 3:30 Pete Dougherty began playing, and I am by no means a fan of Mr. Dougherty but it was sort of the start of of the big names who I wanted to see. So when he finished and Seasick Steve took the stage I began slowly working through the crowd. I found myself with a backpacker from Portland (!!) and a group of Uni students from Oxford in the hipster fashion, some of who I met at the Glastonbury after party. They were great gents and we all pushed forward after Seasick steve to see Mumford & Sons- who if you haven't picked up on are quickly becoming my favourite bands. They are stellar, with Midlake and the new frightened rabbit album which is glorious.
Anyway so after Mumford & Sons Ray Davies played- as in from the Kinks, and who wrote Lola. He stole the show- he was incredible with so much energy and spirit and rock and roll 'tude. He told the roadies to fuck off when they asked him to stop playing early. He also made a couple of jabs at Bob Dylan, for living in a gated community and being sort of a prick.
Which is fairly true, Dylan doesn't interact with his audience, and I really had to address the fact that I was listening to Dylan 2010- not Dylan 1969, which was difficult but for a 71 (?) year old that man can play! He was funky fresh, and grooved which was nice to see, and it was great to listen to the crowd singing because he sand is older stuff (Just like a Woman, Forever Young and Like a Rolling Stone!!!) but he sang it so quickly as he does now, but everyone else sang the older versions. It was a bit like surround sound stereo.
My flatmates did not follow me, as they didn't want to see Mumford & Sons (their loss) and neither one thought it would be wise to wear sunscreen so they were very burned and unhappy around that time yesterday. And they didn't hydrate much, so they went to bed quite early. And I think maybe I preferred to be alone at the festival.
There was such a healing energy at the festival this weekend, something I needed. I felt, about myself finally. Moving around a lot takes its toll on fully integrating to a place, but I met really cool people by myself and had a wonderful time with them. That's the stage I always want to get to, but I am never patient with it. Furthermore, I am feeling much better about coming back to the states. There were a few days where I had been scouting for jobs that would keep my resume for a year, and I was very close to telling them to interview me and I'd take a gap year. But I realized at the festival that even being comfortable and even confident in the middle of groups of friends, I still need my friends, but this experience is on my own. I am excited to go back to Portland, but I can appreciate my time here, instead of wishing it could go on forever.
The guys I camped with were 26-27 and it made me realize that life doesn't end young. Not that they were old by any means, but I know there is time to come back here and live my life later, when I can. There is not such a rush to get everything done now. It's revealing and relieving.

The healing energy of the festival is something I don't think could ever be replicated. It was beautiful, magnificent and freeing. It was sublime to stand in the grass and sweat smelling crowd, smelling of grass dirt and sweat myself I'm sure, and loosing yourself to the music and flowing with the crowd and Dylan and Davies and defying any sort of reason or practicality your life has, because concerts are present, the music happens as you see it and feel it, you move it and you loose reason, the majesty of that freedom is sometimes small, or sometimes grand but it's magnificent, it is sublime.
The rest of the photos are of Ray Davies and Bob Dylan. I couldn't get any good ones of Mumford & Sons unfortunately.