Spring Awakening

I thought I had already posted this but it seems to have mysteriously vanished…

I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus through the past several months, but that doesn’t mean everything has completely stopped. Winter is always a time of hunkering down and working on long overdue projects - right after all of that holiday travel and such has settled down. I’ll be reconfiguring my ubiquitous web site presence -updating information, changing layouts, etc., & bringing my private persona & life out into the public a bit more. I’d love to hear from you, find out what is happening in your world & what you have planned in the upcoming months.

* I’m almost through redesigning my web site, Ishah 'El theatre arts, which is up, and should be finished soon

* I hope to have some new music up soon. Which isn't really new. I’ve got a huge back log of material that needs to be edited, mixed and promoted through out the internet. I’ll also have it posted on my web site.

* Ditto with writing, which I will also feature on the web site.

* Fundraising. It just never stops. If the spirit moves you, please help out. We are a non-profit organization and we subsist entirely on the kindness of strangers - people just like you! (Now doesn’t that sound officially NPR - PBS-ish?) Donations are tax refundable. Please check out some of the links provided & consider helping out: FirstGiving, JustGive & Paypal.

* I have also been selling my own original spice blends for seasoning and cooking. You can find them at: emburke.etsy.com. I’m hoping to branch out & feature some other non-edible creations I’ve got brewing in the back of my mind. My wife, Cheryl, has some great home made crafted items that you should check out here: yarnbee.etsy.com.

* I’ve been checking out scores of sites where creative artists of all stripes mingle & scheme, and it has been really impressive to see the growth of an independent grass roots, DIY industry. I have to say, I for one am glad that I don’t have to go into town to a Tower or HMV record store to find you. Especially at 4:00 am. Now if I could only make it to more of your performances.

* I’m also working on a forum portal for collaborating & sharing, which will be on the web site.

* Collaborating: I’ve been checking out the new collaborating sites for musicians, artists, etc. It has fantastic potential and I’m really excited to try it out & get together (virtually) with some of you. Come look me up at ejamming.com, jamuse.com, indaba.com, jamnow.com, macjams.com & elsewhere.

* I’m curating a featured film & visual arts afternoon every third Sunday of the month (excepting this month, which will happen on the fifth Sunday, the 30th) at the Ark Five Collge Episcopal Center, 758 North Pleasant Street, in Amherst, MA. 2:00 to 5:00 pm. Details will be posted here as they come. Hope to see you there.

* This Saturday I’m joining up with a bunch of friends to try improvising some loosely scripted noise. It should be great fun! I’m hoping that we will record it but I suspect that may not happen.

* Speaking of improvisation & fun, Joe Edelman, an event and community artist who works with communication technology, public space, and fun, is planning on doing some large scale improvisation in the community here. It will be very fun, interesting, inspiring & probably create some well need creative enlightenment. I’ll post here when it happens. Maybe you can join us.


* Come on out & find me on some of the other sites I’m on:
FaceBook, MySpace, MusicForte, isound.com, ReverbNation, & elsewhere.

I can’t guarantee that you’ll discover anything new or different from one site to the other, but it would be great to have your friendship & support elsewhere!

Thanks for all of your support, your kind & generous words and most of all, your friendship. I really appreciate it!

Regards,
Elliott

onward, undaunted & delirious

True to projection & promise, I haven't written much. Not that there isn't much to tell, just that it's mostly clerical & tedious. Great fun- like watching an epic Warhol-produced film of the stock market enacted by kabuki actors. Tedious and strange. I- we- have been forced to take a winter break and to regroup. While it's a good time to consider what to do in the coming year, and how to go about doing it, it also places us back in the crux of where we were a year ago, when we were beginning to lay this all out, and that feels like a set back. Theatre works on a long term planning scale- most of us have impressions with the immediacy of it's arrival & the temporary quality of it's brief visitation. Somewhere beyond that is months- often years- of planning which falls into the "administration" category. I actually like that aspect of it all. Well, to an extent. There is something creative in itself that comes with making & mapping plans, but then there comes a divide so abrupt that it becomes a challenge to live between the two worlds of creativity and business. Which is where I am today- back in front of the easel with the giant flip pad, pointer in hand, jousting at projected crudities turned inert & two dimensional with the aid of pie charts, bar graphs and power point presentations. How does it get from here into a living, breathing, exciting reality? While it has been work of a nature which I'm not particularly familiar with or fond of, it has been fun, and that is partly why I started this organization- to do something that I enjoy as well as something that others would appreciate. But there are grant proposals to be written, funds to be raised, prospects to contact, facilities to inquire into & all manner of groundling troops and brass to muster and polish so that we can surmount the misty hills and gold capped mountains of dreams. And always, the seemingly infinite purgatory of meetings to endure, which, while often dramatic rarely leaves one with inspiring fodder to dramatize about. O Beatrice, mediator & intercessor of souls in peril, where have you fled?