Grace writing this one- I’m so happy we had good friends supporting us this past Thursday at Anna’s. We brought spotlights for the venue, but every time we turned them on, they preferred to flash rather than just stay on, which isn’t exactly appropriate for the Jazz Island. Then the vocal mic at the piano went out for no apparent reason (some tripping over the cord earlier in the night is suspected), so Joe and Whit started “Another One Bites the Dust” and I sang it without a mic until we got a new one. I strangely only got the joke at the end of the night. I was merely thinking that that is an awesome song and it really lightened things up. Then having 3 vocal mics seemed to cause a lot of high feedback, which may have been due to the positioning of the open piano. In any case, none of these factors spoiled the show and we were able to present 3 new originals and a couple new covers to an audience of involved, encouraging friends. Our guest musicians, Vanessa Van Spall, Ian Hisert and Winston Moody were delightful and very easy-going about the quick changes. Unlike the CD Release, we took our time during the break and really got to say hi to everyone. At the end we sang the bartender, Aluma, happy birthday and caught up with some high school friends and neighbors. I was especially touched to have 3 cousins sitting behind the merch table. I felt happy to bring them together to catch up. My mom is one of seven so there are a lot of cousins and it’s hard to get us all together some times. You can see pics of them and you in our photos section. Thanks also to Kristen and Gwen for bringing so many people. The Stockton Asparagus Festival is probably the largest food festival the band has ever played and we were amazed by the kindness of the many volunteers. Large outdoor amphitheaters were raised in honor of Joan Jet, Greg Kiln and the many other acts surrounding the event. My conclusions are that fried asparagus is very good and I recommend this festival as a vacation destination. There were 12 booths in a row for fried asparagus only and the sheer size of the whole event was astounding. We met some great people and played a great set. Whit had no monitor for the whole thing- it kicked in during the last song, but the crowd was still shouting and clapping their hands. Good people out there! Thanks for making it all worth it! We welcome your feedback on how to give you a better show! Thanks again.

Grace writing this one- I am grateful for the Bistro for having stage monitors and good people. We played one song most people have never heard and another song no one had heard before. They went off without a hitch. A woman at the Bistro actually asked me twice whether or not I minded that she was dancing. Of course we welcome it! And we are perfecting the cover tunes for the show this coming Thursday. I want to give everyone new stuff to enjoy. I am so grateful to the many friends who are supporting us that I want to give them as much new stuff as possible at every show. And it’s easier when we get to play at Anna’s, a nice place with chairs and a grand piano! We didn’t bring them to the show last night, but the band has mugs now. They have our picture and lyrics printed on them. We only got 5 of them as a fun experiment, so I’m excited to see what people think. We still have the T-shirts of course, and the T-Shirt maker is in town- Like Minded People- so he may be there to tell us all how he does it. Thank you very much for taking a chance on our music and connecting with us. Please tell us how we can support you in the coming months. I really appreciate how you have spread the word and I am so grateful that you are reading this post! I have a new free pod cast for you of Aeode Muse in the pod cast section and more videos are on the way. Thanks again for letting us into your world! -Grace

The band is truly grateful to Jacob Wolkenhauer for his work and inspiration. His positive words and the joy he gets out of being part of our team gives us great joy in return. He is a talented sound engineer, videographer, instrumentalist and a phenomenol friend. We are indebted to him for his kindness. Thanks Jacob.

Last night I went to an interview with Ani DiFranco at the Palace for the Fine Arts. Jacob and Joe were laughing hysterically and she is very theatrical and funny. I guess I was waiting the whole time to hear some hope regarding the industry and to tell you the truth, she didn’t have hope to give. She had hope for her life and her baby and has earned enough “bread and butter” from her cds that she doesn’t have to worry about the industry shift. She did touch on the fact that she supports other bands on her label and didn’t know how she would do that now. I think she has indeed been a pioneer, but not of the digital age. I think the pioneers of the new mp3 era are slowly emerging and working hard. One such musician working hard is Forrest Day. I believe in the music he creates and am trying to help in any way I can. Have I mentioned that I take the GMAT this weekend to enter business school part-time for marketing? Forrest is a talent that is garnering attention regardless of virtually zero marketing and zero tangible product. The music is just that good. I like it so much I want the whole band to get more out of it. The music is about energy, not image. Granted, the band consists of a bunch of guys in their 20’s in collared suits singing harmony over hip-hop carnival riffs. And speaking of image, I cannot express the joy it is to read a women’s magazine and see no articles on how to lose weight quickly or please your man. I’m talking about wedding magazines, specifically Modern Bride. It sounds so barbie and sexist, but unlike Cosmo and 20 other mags I consider toxic to the female psyche, wedding magazines have women of every color and every size distributed throughout the magazine. They have have articles about staying healthy and bringing families together. They talk about exspressing one’s self and making the most of one’s budget. Strange that such valuable material would be enveloped in the guise of outdated traditions originating in the silliness of “bloody bedsheets”. No I’m not grosss; I just majored in Shakespeare and can’t remember if that should have been a dash or a semicolon. Thanks for listening. I hope to see you soon. -Grace