Astoria Music Festival Now!!! August 29th. Astoria Park noon-9pm

Hey Loves, I'm excited to be part of this upcoming festival! I will have the honor of show new works alongside some other very talented people!! 27 bands, tons of artists, live performances, Food!!, Outdoors in the wonderful Astoria Park!! 

This is from their media kit.

Astoria Music and Arts, a non-profit community organization, is excited to announce the New World Queens Festival. The Festival is a free event to the public that takes place August 29th, 2015 in Astoria Park between 12pm- 8pm and will feature live music, visual arts, dancers, performance artists, and interactive children's events. The Festival is pet friendly with a focus on Eco-awareness. Astoria Music and Arts (AM&A) is committed to supporting a diverse, artistic community throughout the Astoria/Long Island City area. This marks the 7th year of AM&A's annual festival. "For over 7 years, AM&A has brought music, art, dance, theatre, comedy, and film to the Astoria community, and this summer at Astoria Park we will be throwing the greatest music and arts festival in Astoria!" -Doris Cellar, Director of Operations for Astoria Music and Arts. For any inquiries, please contact the AM&A staff at astoriamusicarts@gmail.com or visit our website www.astoriamusicandarts.org. 

here's some of their other links.  Facebook, twitter, instagram

Goddessey (Title of my latest series).

A study in the way the Goddess/muse/witch/love/woman has guided the world, society and man through their journey, through their tribulations, through their questions of existence, their purpose, and finally their true selves. For the artist, the goddess is everything around them. The flowing, colorful energy that surrounds us and moves us to do great things. That soft voice in our minds and hearts that make us the hero on the journey, or the villain in our own paths. The story begins with the understanding that their is a prison of mind and body and soul, that the Goddess brings first to light in (She's no prisoner). Followed by the quest one must take on that journey as the goddess guides with color and music. (What lies between). For the hero, self power, must be attained to reach the higher levels of the quest,( Second Ring of Power), and desires of the ficticious or unnattainable must be released. (Margot). One journey along the path is the dark night where the hero must confront himself, and in turn be revealed as he truly is, or fall back from the midnight mountain he reluctant to climb.(Luna). In the end he finds himself whole, bringing back a new form (a combination of Goddess and God), represented by the 2 faces merged, painted and seeing the world anew.  well this is where I am so far.......Lump over the head.

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Rene Magritte

 “Everything we see hides another thing. We always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.”

Back from 3rd annual Oddstock music festival!!!!!!!!

So, here we are back from another weekend. What did all of you guys do this wonderful sun filled three days? Well, if you had the chance to be in New MIlford, Connecticut, you would have had the best weekend of your lives. I usually write about art, but after all that I experienced, I have come back to write about both art, music, and family. 

For the past three years, (this being the third one), The boys at Oddstock, Jeffrey Goreson and Steve Miller, Get together the finest bands around, artists, and fans, put them in a large camping ground, near a picturesque river, and watch for three days and nights the creativity, love and music flow. Besides a large stage, and a smaller inside stage( for late night bands), there is a large bonfire. Not just a campfire, but depending on who is tending to it, ranging from a little 4ft campfire, to one year, 20 feet of warm, stand next to the sun kinda fire.

Check out these bands!!

Now for the bands. Let's just begin by saying, all the bands are amazing!! I couldn't have picked a better line up. The range is from Rock, to old timey, to country grass blues, to punk, to hip hop, to ecclectic....and somehow they make it all flow. My band, Strangebird, had the fascinating luck to get in the last minute and play the late slot this year, and it was worth every minute!! BUT!!!! As a fan of music, I have to say there were many moments where I felt like I was at my first concert. You all know that feeling in your body when you are in the crowd and they are one and dancing and moving to the music, and you just know you are in the right place and time in the universe. I just have to give a special now to some of the bands that did this for me this year, and I recommend you out there to check these guys out.

 The Red Hots ( for sultry singing and a sizzling band),

Quiet Giant,

Queen Anne's Revenge,

Zen Dudes and the Universe,

The Atom Family (Spoken word, Hip hop and Jazz fusion at it's best) New Album out!!!

 Spectral Fangs( another fantastic Duo)

My band with Joey Curry, Strangebird

and so many others!!!!

One of those moments was when Zen Dudes and the Universe were doing there usual seamless performance, and they kicked into a cover of The PIxies, "Where is my mind?', the crowd just lost it, and I truly felt again what it was like to be a fan, a kid again. The reasons for playing music.  I just looked around and saw the same expression on everyone's faces, as they swayed and danced. It didn't stop there. My mind was literally blown over and over again. The Atom Family ( Lead by spoken word artist Atom Rush, who took on the inside stage this year; came in quiet with a mixture of actual jazz musicians, not samples, and spoken word, and hiphop, and then ingnited the crowd!!!!!!). I hadn't seen that kind of energy in a long time. 

One a last note about the performances. I did not see one Cell phone up during the performances I was able to see. People were actually present and enjoying themselves. 

Lastly, I wanna give some love to everyone who made it feel like the largest family gathering in the world. To Jeffery Goreson and Steve Miller, who always are making sure everyone is doing well and having a good time. Kaitlin Anne, Who was running around doing the same!!! The very talented artists and crafters, especially The always warm and ecclectic painter Liz Mullins, who I had to chance to exchange one of her lovely pieces to hang in my studio!!!(I'll post a pic of that later. Thanks you for John Chapman( from a few of the bands out there including Zen Dudes) for helping us get our band up and running.  Well that is all for now, and I can't wait for next years Oddstock!!!