Robin Renée @ Tall Tales and Short Stories Today

Today’s blog tour stop takes me to the website of Tall Tales and Short Stories from South Jersey.

Tall Tales and Short Stories from South Jersey is a collection of short stories and slice-of-life tales from members of the South Jersey Writers’ Group.

But today, Marie Gilbert’s interview with me is featured on the site.  We cover a lot of ground in this one, including serious topics like the career pitfall of feeling less than enough and advice for young performers in a shaky, changing music business world. There are also fun references to my (very) early bands Solar Explosion and The Half Mann Band, J. R. “Bob” Dobbs, and The Barry Gibb Talk Show.  Balance in all things, yes?

Here’s the interview!   Super G Interviews the Very Talented Robin Renée

Check it out today.  Tomorrow I’ll be a guest on the GAR! Podcast with hosts Ray Cornwall and Glenn Walker.

Thanks for reading & listening.

 

My Belated List

Even as I am moving along into 2011 armed with optimism and new resolve, I find myself still looking back, trying to make sense of 2010.  Everybody may be sick of all the Top 10 Whatever lists we get pelted with in December of each year, but mine formed late.  So here it is.

I won’t  pretend that 2010 was an overall good year for me.  I am moving past it enough now, though, to have lost interest in enumerating the painful spots.  I would rather remember the important positives.  I’ve noted them in my cumbersomely titled Top 9 Very Good and/or Extraordinary Experiences of 2010, in chronological order.  I enjoy the Number 9 and multiples of 9.  I’m weird like that.

Top 9 Very Good and/or Extraordinary Experiences of 2010

1)      Recording with Producer/Musician/Composer Scott Pearson – February 7-9

It is not often when I hear the language that a song speaks to me, and find another person who hears more or less the same thing— plus huge leaps through a library of sounds just on the tip of my imagination.  In these sessions, we recorded two songs that I promise you’ll get to hear one day soon.   Scott Pearson is brilliant, insightful, and has hilarious stories to tell.   Add to it that getting to his Cary, NC studio involved driving through a blizzard, having my car buried in snow on a cul-de-sac in Alexandria, VA, and a tow truck to free the vehicle before another few harrowing hours of driving on ice, and you have a formula for quite the memorable time.

2)      Visiting with Anasakta – April 23-25

I met this Canadian mystic when he became friends with my former housemate.  His insights on Self-Realization are extraordinary, and he believes in my wisdom and inner awareness in the bhakta/tantrika realm more than I can fathom.  We talked for hours, laughed a lot, interviewed each other on South Street in Philly, and he even put up with my inexplicable obsession with Canadian folk singer Stompin’ Tom Connors.

3)      Gunnison Beach Party – July 24

Anyone who knows me at all knows that being naked in the sun is one of my favorite life experiences.  I have been part of a large group that gets together annually for a party at Gunnison Beach, the clothing-optional beach at Sandy Hook in New Jersey.  This year the weather was truly perfect and being in the midst of this social experience while making moments to commune personally and directly with nature was profound.  Being in the ocean to me is to be enveloped in the essence of Goddess.  My longtime friend and spiritual sister, dancing rabbit, stayed for the weekend.  Any time with her is never short of healing and magic.

4)      Rocking out with the MMB on my Birthday – August 27

For the last few years, getting the chance to perform with the Mutant Mountain Boys has been a highlight of my musical year.  We’re a bluegrass-styled band that pays tribute to Devo and the Church of the SubGenius.  The group is a brainchild of my banjo-playing Devo freak friend, Samantha.  This year we played on opening night of the annual DEVOtional at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland.  We performed what felt like our best show yet, and saw some excellent out-of-the-box bands.  That was a great way to celebrate another trip around the sun.

5)      Kirtan Cleveland, August 26 and 29

The Cleveland area was good to me in 2010.  Frank Barnett was a champion of the kirtan chanting community there, and he coordinated my first NPR station interview for the afternoon of the 26^th.  It was a challenge and a joy to roll with linking my love of Devo with devotional chanting.  The kirtan on the 29^th had Samuel Salsbury on violin and Joe Culley on tabla, and lots of enthusiastic people at Studio 11 in Tremont to share the experience.  The fact that Frank passed away two weeks later makes these moments so much more precious.

6)      Recording “Hare Krishna Christmas” – November 8

Last year, I finally got back in touch with my inner comic.  I have always loved parody, naughty limericks, cartoons, and all manner of zaniness.  Though “Hare Krishna Christmas” has humor, it also emerges from a heart sincere in love of Consciousness and blended spiritualities.  Finally, I followed friends’ advice and recorded this tune that has lived in my head for years.  I had never before begun a recording session by having to multitrack harmonies with the lyrics “Ding Dong Ding.”  Engineer/Musician/Composer Jack Walker and I tend to crack each other up no matter the recording project of the day, often with Warner Bros. toon quotes:  “This time, we didn’t forget the graaa-vy!”

7)      Silent Retreat – November 29

On this date every year, I have private, 24-hour long silent retreat.  I talked about it quite a bit in the previous entry.  This time around the silence was not so pleasant as it was functional.  Pain and thoughts and questions came up and morphed into much needed calls-to-action.

8)      Kye’s Birthday Parade Surprise – December 11

I really don’t know how I would feel if I were surprised by scores of people in costumes with twirling ribbons who came dancing and marching up the street to the front of my Las Vegas abode to do the box step and shout cheers for me on my birthday.  I do know that it was amazing to play The Cat in the Hat in this display for Kye Brackett.  Kye is one of the many extraordinary beings that make up the chosen family of people for dynamic and authentic living we call freedomcommunity.  I was overjoyed in this procession at the creativity and penchant for the absurd, and was moved to tears by the outpouring of love.

9)      Tears of Joy at the End of DADT

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was a terrible policy.  I was angry about it when it was instituted, and always thought it should go away.  I admit I never truly understood its impact until I heard the ecstatic and exhausted tears of joy and relief when a good friend called to tell me it had been repealed.  The repeal of DADT meant that she will be able to continue to live with the love of her life, a career military woman, without lies of omission and fear.  An impending promotion will not mean separation and emotional chaos, but a new home and a next phase in the lives of two people dedicated to one another.  Oh, Happy Day.

Happy New Year to you.  Here’s to a 2011 full of love, health, growth, fun, and music.