I've begun the painfully tedious task of converting my journal to (mostly) friends-only. Pretty much anything pertaining to my personal life will be under friends-lock. Random silliness, religious/political views, and other posts that do not relate to my personal life will remain public.

So....uh....who wants to volunteer to make me a purty friends-only banner thing-a-ma-jig? *puppy dog eyes*

The other change that will take place is that all updates related to my band will be moved to gingerpresley, and will be public. If you'd like to keep tabs on my band, feel free to friend that journal. I recently discovered that a google search for my band's name leads to my personal journal, and I'm just not comfortable with that. This is my solution. I hope it works. (I'll probably have to remove that from this post when I get this transition complete, or make this post friends-locked.)

*sigh*

Someone at work has expressed an interest in hiring my band to play for her daughter's wedding reception. We currently only have about 2 1/2 hours worth of material, and would need 4 solid hours for a wedding reception. The wedding isn't until July, so that should be plenty of time to get enough material together.

We definitely need to add some ballads, since we only currently do one.

What are songs that you think are absolute musts for a wedding reception??

I know some of you have been interested in hearing my band's original music, so I thought I'd share this.

A friend used her digital camera to get a video of one of our original songs at our gig last Saturday night. The song is called Open Road. I wrote the lyrics for it shortly before Ryan and I separated.

The sound quality isn't the best, but you'll get the general idea.

To hear/see it, go to Ginger Presley's Myspace and click the "Play" button on the comment left by Clare at 2:44pm on 8/21/07.

Please let me know what you think, we're really proud of the song! :)

I totally forgot to mention my new tattoo and the kick-ass Ginger Presley BBQ the other night. That'll have to wait until tomorrow-ish, I guess. :x

Happy 4/20, to those who celebrate it. ;)

Appropriately, Ginger Presley is playing at a bar called "The Joint" tonight. It'll be dope, dudes. ;p

Playing guitar at Wednesday's gig (on 3 songs) went great, so I shall do the same from here on out! :D

Hi El-Jay! *waves*

Wow, I'm not even sure where to begin...

Life is a wild ride right now, and I'm doing my best to hold on tight and enjoy it.

( Band Stuff )

Ginger Presley had our first "official" gig this past Saturday. It was a total trip, and a great warm up for our official "debut" this upcoming Saturday.

Our drummer, Sally, plays in a band with her brothers called Reimer Revolution (RXR). A friend of their's was throwing a "First Quarter Party" to celebrate Spring in their (very rural) home town. The party was held at the Rod & Gun club in their town, and there were four bands booked to play. We were scheduled second to last, with Reimer Revolution headlining the show.

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Black and White group pics.

And yes, I still want your feedback!

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That's all of them!

These are the color group shots. Again, I would very much appreciate feedback and hearing which shots are your favorites, and which ones you think would be good for posters/fliers/promos/etc.

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Prepare for photo spammage!

The ladies and I went through the four rolls of film that Emily shot of us on Sunday and picked out our favorite shots. I'm going to break this down into three posts and will put all the pics under a cut.

I would very much appreciate feedback and hearing which shots are your favorites, and which ones you think would be good for posters/fliers/promos/etc.

For the first post, individual shots.

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This is an excerpt from an e-mail I received today from a friend. I'm leaving out LJ usernames for now, until/unless the person(s) this is referencing want to own up to it. ;p

It is an interesting contradiction to me that [mutual friend] says you are reserved or uncomfortable 1-on-1 but that you frontline for a band and expose yourself very personally online. Nothing wrong with that, I just think my online and my in-person are probably closer together. Huh, well, everybody's different.

I was going to respond by e-mail, but this is a topic that has been on my mind, so I'm responding via LJ update instead. (I hope that's okay.)

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I'm hoping that sheds a little light on any perceived contradiction. Like I said, I think that, once I get to know someone and feel comfortable with them, my in-person "persona" is right on par with my on-line "persona".

I have met a handful of you in person, and I would be very interested in (and appreciative of) hearing your thoughts on me online vs. me in person.

No pressure, but those that have met me in person (and/or *knew me in real life before knowing me online*) are: adudeabides, *alyska*, *baumsquad*, brierfibre, endersgame3, felipemcguire, iam_misbehaving, jackstikishak, kitchenwitch, luriddreamscape, *stryckie*, *techdragon*, and touretticmonkey.

Those that I have spoken to on the phone, but haven't met in person (but would love to!) are: catalyticdragon and lotus_n_my_hair, are also encouraged to weigh in. :)

If I have met and/or spoken to you and you aren't on that list, please let me know and accept my apology for missing you on a quick look-through of my friends list.

And no, this isn't a sexual post, pervs. That's coming later. :x

I keep a private entry with a running list of topics I intend to post on. A while back, I wanted to write a post on how challenging I find it, at times, to develop and maintain friendships with women in "real life". I have met so many cool women on LJ and elsewhere on the internets, and I've always wondered why women like that don't pop up in my daily, local, life. I've always found it easier to relate to men. Among the people that I consider my "best" friends, only two are female, and one of those is my sister.

I think a big element has been that I don't seem to have a lot in common with the women around here. I don't care to discuss things like celebrity gossip (or any gossip, for that matter), make up, jewelry, TV shows, what brand of jeans is the best, or how fat I feel because my tummy is hanging slightly over my size 0's. (No, I don't wear a size zero. And I don't think I'm fat. Fancy that!)

I often feel a hostile vibe from women, like they assume me to be an enemy until I prove myself a friend, instead of the other way around. I tend to try to give people the benefit of the doubt until or unless they give me any reason to question their motives. (Although part of me wonders if I haven't been projecting a subconscious hostility of my own.)

Anyway. The point of *this* entry was not to get into all that, but to share how being in an all-female band has changed my view of women in my life, in a positive way.

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I think I'm finally learning how to have girl friends, and it is adding A LOT to my life that I've never experienced before. I love girls!! :D

So, yeah. My band (Ginger Presley) got up and played a couple of songs during Booger Presley's set break last night. It was awesome.

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I was pretty nervous, but once we got going, I calmed down a bunch. That was SO much fun. People seemed to dig it, too. We had strangers coming up and telling us "great job!" throughout the rest of the night. :)

The after-bar festivities included a suggestion (by me) that we should play spin the bottle. I've always thought that was a game that should continue into adulthood, lol. My suggestion led to about two hours of various kisses, triple kisses, quadruple kisses, and making out. There are lots of fun pictures from that, too, but I doubt anyone wants to see them. ;)

Today, so far:

1. I have had a window with THIS open on my work computer ever since lotus_n_my_hair posted it earlier today. Harry Potter is hot? Why yes he is! Hubba-hubba!! I keep "accidentally" clicking on that window. ;)

2. I totally busted myself for not showering for work this morning (No, I don't stink. I took a bath yesterday afternoon.), when my supervisor said "Oh! You curled your hair today!" and I responded "No, I just slept with it braided!". Cue awkward glances at my hair from co-workers. Oops.

3. Yesterday, I came across an old friend on myspace. We had been boyfriend/girlfriend off and on in middle and high school, and I remember him as one of the sweetest, most romantic, most gentleman-ly guys I've ever met. It seems as if that hasn't changed. He is melting my heart today, saying sweet things like "If I could blush...images and thoughts of you smiling at me when we were kids, still fresh in my memory!!!". (To which I responded: "No worries, I'm blushing enough for the both of us.) He still lives in town. He's still extremeIy attractive. I wonder if he's into dating married women? :x

4. I'm currently reading Prodigal Summer, a novel by Barbara Kingsolver. This passage in it struck a chord in me:

Since you asked, yes, I DO believe humankind holds a special place in the world. It's the same place held by a mockingbird, in his opinion, and a salamander in whatever he has that resembles a mind of his own. Every creature alive believes this: The center of everything is me. Every life has its own kind of worship, I think, but do you think a salamander is worshipping some God that looks like a big two-legged man? Go on! To him, a man's a shadowy nuisance (if anything) compared to the sacred business of finding food and a mate and making progeny to rule the mud for all times. To themselves and one another, those muddly little slamander lives mean everything.

It puts into words better than I ever have a big part of why I made a commitment to live as vegan a lifestyle as possible and practical.

Yet to come today:

1. Nap? (doubtful)

2. Ginger Presley rehearsal. We're going to play two songs during the set break tomorrow night at Ryan's band's gig. We are SO excited. I am going to be SO nervous, but we will kick ass.

3. Boinking? (more probable than nap)


Happy Thursday y'all.

Just a quick post to mention that I am overwhelmed by all the ways being in a band is (positively) affecting my life. I intend to go into detail in the near future, but am feeling particularly thankful to myself for creating and sticking with this opportunity. This new chapter in my life is an exciting one.

Heh, the chorus to this song (which Ginger Presley is covering, btw) says it well:

Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride.
Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh no.
I've got to keep on movin'.

I hope you're all having lovely weekends. :)

The first thirty minutes of band rehearsal last night were spent shopping for a Keytar on e-bay.

AWESOME.



In other news, I am coming down with a cold. AGAIN. Hold me.

Friday night was the first gig for Ryan's new band, Booger Presley. (Not to be confused with my new band, Ginger Presley, lol.)

They had a huge turn out, and they kicked ASS. It's always very exciting for me, the first time I get to see Ryan perform in a new band, so I had a lot of fun.

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It's pretty cool when, after introducing myself to my class of new hires*, one responds with a sigh of relief and "Oh, thank goodness. I have a friend who works here who said she hopes I get Joella for training." and then another says "Oh my gosh! Me too!"

:D

I guess I must be doing something right!


*Incidentally, between training new hires (which occupies most of my time at work for two weeks) and practicing as much as possible with Ginger Presley, my presence on the internets will be minimal for the next couple of weeks.

I'm attempting to keep up with my friends page, but I'm skimming, so get my attention one way or another if there's something you specifically want me to read/respond to.

All my love to all y'all!! :)

So, I'm totally in a band now. A band that KICKS ASS.

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OMG I'M GOING TO BE IN A BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*dies*







ETA: I will go into more detail after this weekend, when we will be having our FIRST OFFICIAL BAND MEETING OMG OMG OMG YAY!!