The mid-September 2023 weekend event was lovely. Hiking, cycling, boating, jams, food & drink with friends and family, camping. And of course, a night of great bands. After it was all said and done though, I couldn't help but look forward to what it might become next year.
Which brings us to today. Here we are and here we go. Camp Featherburn 2024 will be held over Friday-Sunday, September 13-15, coming with a bolstered lineup of bands and a bunch of new fun.
I've been thinking. About adventure. I traveled to Erie last week to run a theater improvisation workshop for students at Collegiate Academy High School. Two groups. Three 70 minute sessions each. The grant committee sought proposals for projects that would integrate emerging technology. Without getting too specific, my pitch was to somehow integrate ChatGPT…
Read MoreIt never actually feels like Eye of the Tiger when you’re doing the sit-ups. Movies are stupid that way. Sit-ups feel like sit-ups. Every time.
Read MoreMichael, you were on my mind all weekend. It felt strange making my way to Buffalo to play music without you here. I met all of these lovely people. I told them what a light you are and how much you mean to the Buffalo music scene, but I wish they could know you.
Read MorePicture Day took place the other week and the edits are in! Feels great to have a fully-functional band in place and at the same time, some nice pictures that accurately represent us. It's been a long time since we've last had that and too many chutes and ladders to account for, I think, in an email that isn’t a lengthy biography. It’ll have to be enough for the moment, just to relay some of the collective excitement about our current configuration…
Read MoreAt its core is a deep sense of play. Through the process we have been monkeying around with all things associated with camp and camping…
Read MoreWe were about to tank our Black Friday show at McCleary’s…
Read MoreIt's been too long. Here’s hoping you’re happy and healthy at present. Though the team and I are excited to get back to all things Featherburn, I also feel an awkwardness in writing after such an extended silence. Lend me some grace please as I try to cut through it - the bottom line is still gratitude and excitement.
Read More"Woodshedding" is a term used by musicians to mean rehearsing a difficult passage repeatedly until it can be performed flawlessly. "The woodshed" in metaphor means any private place to practice without being heard by anyone else, based on the assumption that an actual woodshed would likely be in a remote location, away from the main house. - Wikipedia
Read MoreTook our first stab at informational writing a little while ago. On our mini-tour last year, we made friends with Ryan Gurnett of WNYMusic and were invited to contribute an article on their site about creating a band EPK (Electronic Press Kit), which is basically our online portfolio. It’s here:
Read MoreBack in July I sent a request to our community for their personal thoughts and feelings pertaining to the protests and conflict spurred by the death of George Floyd and the continuing racial unrest present in our country. I promised to create a piece of work (most likely a song) that in some way would use the words of those willing to share. Here’s the email as I wrote it:
Read MoreWe managed to gear up for one touring venture this season before the great slowdown. I’ve got people in Erie Pa and Buffalo Ny, so I figured it’d be right to get up there to play and make the most of the love and attention of those I’m close to. If you’ve never had a chance to take your band home to play for your friends and family, I recommend it for a few big reasons.
Read MoreChurning over the idea of social responsibility these past two months, here’s a cover mashup of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On and The Knife’s Heartbeats laid under some Father’s Day DIY Slip’n’Slide footage. It was a troubling time. While protests were mounting around the country, there were those of us who were picnicking with family. Some things take time to process, but here’s a piece for a bit of light in the meanwhile.
Read MoreShut down, shut in, coping. Partly with the changes in my own life, but also recognizing the realities of the medical workers, police, fire departments, the people working hard so I can still have food, water, electricity, gas, news and the comforts of our home alive – all of them out in the open and facing the dangers I huddle from. Skipping the weird psychology involved in that, I want to offer up some light…
Read MoreAlthough it was largely Featherburn scarce, 2019 was a year to remember. I spent the first quarter of it closing the production of Indecent by playwright Paula Vogel at Baltimore Center Stage. The better part of the rest of it, I was either by my father’s side as he was passing, or I was leading the necessary logistical cleanup afterwards. Performing Vogel’s play was an incredible experience. It spoke eloquently and defiantly to power, telling the story of those subject to hardship, danger and death by way of racism, sexism and heterosexism; telling about the power of art to bring change; a piece of theater so beautifully-written and transformative, we the ensemble bowed nightly to standing crowds of a thousand or more, moved (at least many of them) to tears.
Read MoreI broke the bed yesterday. My nephew Cole and I broke the bed yesterday. Jumping on it. Taking turns jumping on it, rather. Pretending to be Olympic stunt bed-jumpers, complete with imaginary crowds, commentators, judges (9.7, 9.5, 9.5, 9.6), and even an imaginary stalker who, when caught, would be (imaginarily) hurled screaming into the building across the street. We would alternate between competition mode and training mode, humming the training sequence music for Mike Tyson’s Punch Out on Nintendo – the part when the game would show Little Mac preparing to enter each next division of difficulty. And then we'd back up, pretend to do preparatory stretches and loosening motions, get a running start and jump into various spins and flips onto the mattress. We (I) broke it good, being reckless, on repeat. Why wasn't I sorry?
Read MoreI don't know what the difference between a billboard, a beaver and a builder, a menu and a page, page content and a widget, and I just keep kicking around, discovering tiny clues, an hour at a time.
Read MoreI climb the stairs of Franklin & Marshall’s “Other Room Theater” on the morning of Wednesday, September 13th, 2016 with unusual quiet. It’s with presence and pause that I unlock the door into the drama space, wherein live decades of ghosts of homegrown art. On a regular day, the spirits that move here swirl and writhe through this room infused in white hot words spoken with the faith and abandon that only the young and the most brave can summon.
Read MoreThe band and I have been hammering away at the music for a year and a half now toward our long-standing goal of building three hours of original show-ready material. We're getting there, but it's been quite a process. There are stand-out moments, for sure. I find, for example, that I'm always a bit beside myself when I enter the practice room with a new song sketch. At once, I feel both nervous and excited to pitch new music out to Tim, Claudia, Tom and Jim. The anxiety comes from vulnerability.
Read MoreSame friend, different question - This time, it's "Why is your music valuable to your community?" Are we writing a manifesto or what? I have both witnessed and experienced the transformative power of music and art; the power to deepen, soften, steady, make still or spark the heart; the power to create compassion and healing, inspiration and movement, curiosity and awe, recognition, appreciation and most of all, love - all according to the needs of the moment.
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