You Are My Flower

I still can't quite grasp that I am playing the role of Maybelle Carter in the Mill's production of Keep on the Sunny Side. She and her guitar playing are legendary. Her style is the basis for the modern country music guitar sound. No pressure, right?!

For whatever odd reason, I have always had an affinity for Johnny Cash and June Carter (before it was cool). I knew of June's mother, "Mother Maybelle," but had no idea of the magnitude of the Carter family's influence on country music, and music in general. The more I learn about A.P., Sara and Maybelle, it becomes even more humbling to play the role of this amazing woman. I am grateful to Tom Width and Drew Perkins for having the confidence that I could do the part justice. The callouses on my fingers attest to my desire to convey an accurate portrayal, and while I have a long way to go to attain the virtuosity of Maybelle Carter, I have learned to play several songs in her style, which is another challenge unto itself.

Our very talented cast (Drew Perkins as A.P., Jackie Frost as Sara, Ali Thibodeau as Janette, and David Janeski and Lucas Hall in multiple roles) had a great opening weekend and I hope the success continues. Janette Carter's daughter Rita Forrester came from Hiltons, VA to see the performance on Saturday night. What a wonderfully kind and gracious woman. It was an honor to meet her. My parents, Wes and Janette (same spelling, no relation!), were also in the audience for all three performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. It was a treat to have them here.

I think "You Are My Flower" is my favorite song in the show. It's part of a 3-song medley, so we only perform a section of it. It was one of the most difficult guitar parts for me to learn musically, but that's probably why I like it so much now, and also why I find it so gratifying to play.

I love this video of Sara and Maybelle from the Johnny Cash Show. They are both very stately and stoic women (Sara sings "wear a happy smile" and "don't forget to smile" with a completely straight face); but toward the end, we catch a glimpse of the sparkle in Maybelle -- she is truly enjoying herself, but with her typical humility and humbleness. This is probably one of many reasons why she was -- and is -- so well-loved by so many, including me.




You Are My Flower
Adapted by A.P. Carter

The grass is just as green
The sky is just as blue
The day is just as bright
The birds are singing, too

You are my flower
That's blooming in the mountain for me
You are my flower
That's blooming there for me

The air is just as pure
The sunlight just as free
And nature seems to say
It's all for you and me

You are my flower
That's blooming in the mountain for me
You are my flower
That's blooming there for me

So wear a happy smile
And life will be worthwhile
Forget your tears
And don't forget to smile

You are my flower
That's blooming in the mountain for me
You are my flower
That's blooming there for me

When summertime has passed
And snow begins to fall
Just sing this song
And say to one and all

You are my flower
That's blooming in the mountain for me
You are my flower
That's blooming there for me

NOTE: Just realized that today is Helen Carter's birthday -- Maybelle's eldest daughter. Maybelle was about 8 months pregnant with Helen when she went with A.P. and Sara to Bristol, TN to record their first record on August 2, 1927.

Earthquakes & hurricanes & fires -- OH MY!

It was quite a week in Ol' Virginny!

The 5.8 earthquake in Mineral (about 45 miles NW of Richmond) last Tuesday was crazy... I was sitting at my desk at work (downtown Richmond) when it happened. We've had a lot of construction going on around our office building lately, so at first I just assumed the rumbling was something related to that... that is, until the stuff on my desk started to dance around and my coworker Liz yelled to get out of the building. That evening, I was at rehearsal at Swift Creek Mill Theatre in Colonial Heights (south of Richmond) during the first major 4.2 aftershock. I completely slept through the other one around 1 a.m. There was another early morning aftershock (4.5) on Thursday, which I also slept through.

Hurricane Irene wasn't as brutal to Richmond as Isabel was in 2003, but Richmond suffered the highest percentage of power outages during Irene (371,000 people in Richmond, 973,000 total in Virginia). Robb and I were part of the small percentage of the city that didn't lose power. The lights flickered regularly and power would go off for 30 seconds at a time, but came back on again. We are so thankful that nothing major happened to us. My coworker Tony's neighborhood south of the river was hit hard. One home had its roof completely knocked off (see photo). Lots of downed trees and blocked roads. We had a dead branch come down in our front yard, but that's nothing compared to what some people are dealing with.

Robb's sister Jennifer and her family, as well as his mom and step dad, live in Gloucester County, near the coast. His mom and step dad evacuated, but his sister stayed. They are without power, but no major damage. Gloucester had a horrible tornado rip through the area last spring causing over $7 million in damage, so a lot of people were still trying to put their lives back together after that.

One positive thing is that all the rain has seemed to put a damper on the 6,000+ acre fire in the Great Dismal Swamp in SE Virginia that has been burning and growing for three weeks. Smoke is still visible but no flames have been spotted, and the fire doesn't seem to have spread. We could smell the smoke here in Richmond prior to Irene.

Seems like the only thing we need to check off the natural disaster list is a volcano! (And maybe some locusts...!?)

We're grateful for all the thoughts and prayers -- Robb and I feel extremely fortunate in all this!

Oh, MONEY.

I have never been very good with handling it. There's a song by Twin Cities band, Greazy Meal (popular in the late 90's), that has the lyric, "I don't like money, but I sure like what it buys." Ain't that the truth.

I will also admit that over the years, I have racked up some hefty credit card debt, particularly when I did AmeriCorps*VISTA and my monthly income was $700. I'm still paying for those groceries on my Citibank MasterCard. My divorce also took a toll on my credit. Plastic is NOT my friend.

The pastor at my church is doing a three week series called "ATM" -- Attitude, Treasure, Mission. The underlying theme is that we need to re-think money, particularly its value and purpose in our lives.

I totally get that. I fully understand the benefits of living a life of generosity and selflessness. But how can I truly give AND live generously if I am still, quite literally, paying for past mistakes?

I can make budgets and expense lists till the cows come home. The majority of my income is spent on "necessity bills" and "debt bills." After that, if I have anything left, I give to charity, and (maybe) buy groceries and cat food.

When the economy tanked, Theatre IV was in the same boat as many other nonprofits, which forced some difficult decisions: layoffs, pay cuts and increased employee out-of-pocket health care. For many of us, that translates to salary levels at or below where they were five years ago.

I realize that having a lesser-paying job is still better than having no job and that all things considered, I am incredibly blessed and face better circumstances than many. But for someone like me, who has never been particularly savvy regarding money matters, I am finding myself constantly stressing about it. Usually, most of my money is gone the Monday after payday (which is every two weeks).

On the drive home yesterday, I was wishing I could figure out how to sell more drawings or stained glass to supplement my income. But then I realized that if I want to sell more art, I have to make time to create it. Another scarce resource these days.

I'm in rehearsals right now for "Keep on the Sunny Side" at Swift Creek Mill Theatre. When the show starts, the extra income starts. However, the four weeks of rehearsals are unpaid and it's a 20 mile drive to the Mill five or six times a week. When the show is running, it will still be three to four times a week. I haven't done the math, but I'm guessing it's pretty close to a wash in terms of extra income compared to money spent on gas... or "money out the tailpipe" as my grandfather put it.

Yes, I would like some cheese with my whine, thank you.

This is pretty much a vent session. I know many other people are in the same predicament. I just wish one of us had a universal solution.

¿Qué pasó a abril?

What happened to April?

I just looked at the calendar and had a small panic attack. There are four days left in the month. What?! How is it possible that May starts this Saturday?

My mom told me about a NOVA special on PBS recently. In it, scientists explained their discovery that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. This means that time is quite literally going faster but we don't notice because it's all relative. (Right, Mr. Einstein?) Something like that. Anyway, add to that the fact that practically everything in our daily lives is designed to move at the fastest speed possible, and in the time you took to consider it all, it'll be time to flip the calendar again. Next thing we know, it'll be December 31 and we'll be reflecting on the blur that was 2010.

But before that, I'm forcing myself to take a look at April. It was a good ol' month, despite the fact that I have to refer to my planner to actually remember what I did, in addition to the usual 9-5...  

A Grand Night for Singing opened at Swift Creek Mill Theatre on April 1st. The callouses on my fingers reminded me that it was not a joke -- that I was, in fact, playing the harp in an 8-week show with some amazingly talented actors and musicians.

Robb & I went to church on Easter Sunday, and thoroughly enjoyed the STOMP-like worship service. (This is an old pic; I couldn't find one from Easter.)

 I saw my coworker Jeanie in a great show at Richmond Triangle Players, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove.

 

I participated in Chalk Up the Town in Carytown.


I helped Robbie clean out a bunch of stuff from his apartment and move it into storage, which included parallel parking Theatre IV's production van (I'm still quite proud of this accomplishment).

And finally, my last stretch of my 10-week Spanish class came to a close with a tasty meal at Chicken Fiesta in the west end.

I guess that's what happened to April! Bring it on, May.

Random miscellany

Nothing much to write about but feeling the urge to write. Trying to keep as still as possible directly under the ceiling fan which is on high because I'm resisting the urge to turn on the A/C in the FIRST WEEK OF APRIL. Oh, Richmond.

Does anyone else think the pollen is out of control this spring?? My red car is now a kind of yellow color. And my nose and eyes are a kind of red color. Kind of like that red bar in the graph to the left -- if you can't read it, today Richmond's pollen count was at an 11.4 on a 12 point scale. AHHH-CHOOOO Looks like we might get a little relief tomorrow.

The period key on my laptop keyboard came off a few weeks ago. For awhile I was able to press the little raised plastic thingy and it would work. It doesn't anymore. So how am I typing all these "." you ask? I copy and paste them each time. I'm kind of getting used to it. Also, my laptop is having an issue with its power source. This same problem happened about a year and a half ago. It got to the point where the A/C (different A/C) connection that the cord plugs into in the back of the computer somehow got separated from the motherboard (or something) and subsequently wouldn't charge the battery. A year and a half ago my computer was still under warranty so the nice Dell repairman came to my home to fix it.  The computer is no longer under warranty, and I'm having the same problem. It's kind of a slow computer death. Wiggling the cord helps for awhile, but eventually the motherboard connection will break completely, then the screen will go dim, then completely dark (cue Chopin's Funeral March). The hard drive is also nearing capacity, not to mention laboring to work, and the poor thing takes about 10 minutes just to start up. All this is to say that, while she's given me a good run (got 'er in aught-6), it's time to start shopping for a new laptop.

I am also shopping for a new home. My landlords next door have put their house (at left) up for sale because they are moving to the West End (in my landlord's words, "the land of plastic menus and nightmares of Cheesecake Factory") so their son can go to a good middle school. They don't really want to move there but are doing so because of their son's education. What a shame that they have to leave the city for that to happen. So, since I've been saying for awhile now that I want a bigger place, I put in my notice that I will be vacating in a few months. I really have enjoyed living in my charming little 1BR Fan apartment. But it's time to move on up (probably not to the East side though... hoping for the Museum District).

I'm flying to Minnesota in a few weeks for my best friend's son's baptism. I've been asked to be his godmother. I'm a newbie in this role so I hope I don't screw up. I'm really looking forward to meeting him. He was born about 6 weeks early and is now a handsome little heartbreaker.

A Grand Night for Singing at Swift Creek Mill is going splendidly. I have contemplated renting a harp of my own so that I can keep my fingers nimble over the summer until rehearsals start for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming... and maybe get a wedding gig or two while I'm at it. A decent lever harp rental (like the Lyon & Healy Ogden model at right) from Virginia Harp Center is under $100/mo.

Hm..... a new computer, a new place to live, a godson, a harp, and a pay cut at work. This will be an interesting next few weeks!

A Grand Night for Star Trek XII

So I'm playing the harp in Rodgers & Hammerstein's A Grand Night for Singing at Swift Creek Mill Theatre in Colonial Heights. I got the music about ten days ago, got a harp to practice on last Tuesday, have participated in four rehearsals and the show opens the day after tomorrow. And just like that, I go from a nine-to-five nonprofit fundraiser to a sleep-deprived gigging musician.

COOL!

I have a tendency toward being a night owl so the late nights don't really bother me.... it's that pesky day job thingy that requires I leave my cozy bed by 8:00 if I'm gonna make it to the office by 9:00. To the parents who are reading this, yes, I know how sleep deprived you all are and I fully recognize that I have no idea what "tired" really, truly is. But, if anyone can appreciate functioning in a bleary-eyed semi-conscious state, it's actors and musicians. (And folks who work the night shift... had to give props to my Robbie.)

Most actors and musicians -- at least in Richmond -- have to hold daytime employment in order to pay the bills. But I've never really heard anyone complain about it... that's just how it is. By no stretch do I consider myself a professional the likes of Audra and Scottie and Sandy and Paul and countless other pals who secure a steady stream of work by putting their acting and musical talents to work on a regular basis. But I am fortunate to get called upon to fill the occasional niche (say, for a harp), and that makes me perfectly happy.

So while I am and will be "So Very Tired" the next eight weeks, I will be enjoying every minute that I get to pursue my true passion for creative expression during the twilight hours with amazingly talented people. If you get a chance to see A Grand Night for Singing, please do. It's two glorious hours of song, dance and witty repartee. The next morning might come a little bit too soon, but it'll be worth it, I promise!