There's bikes in them there racks...

We were in Des Moines, Iowa last weekend and as we drove in there at 9pm at night one of the first things I noticed were the new bike racks that the city had put up. Complete with BIKES!!!! Such a crazy good idea and so amazing to witness Des Moines as it changes so dramatically. It's inspiring to see a city be so committed to art and fitness and to put their money where their mouth is. The downtown area has come alive with art and green space and of course, to me, it makes it a happier place to be.

And no, I am not getting to paid to promote Des Moines...lol.

I just love to see how art can change a place and it's a great reminder too.


xxM

Wide open...

Driving out here on highway 74, barreling towards Iowa City to set up for a festival today. I sometime wonder how many hours of my life have been spent sitting in a car. Definitely sleep better as a passenger in a car than I do in a bed most times.

It's a strange grey day out here...the color of the sky compliments the yellow of the corn though and everywhere I look, it looks like a painting. The trees are slowly changing their colors and I actually find myself excited by the thought of fall and then...gasp....winter.  The fun aspect of winter. Talks of skiing, or learning how to ski, sledding and snow living sounds so exciting to me right this minute....give me a few months in snow and check in with me again....but right now, as giddy as a 5 year old!

Who knew.

Xxm

My drum gonna make ya...

Damien Rice has a song about playing a drum. It's a hypnotic tune that draws me in everytime I listen to it. The music is intense and the lyrics seems to match the tune...even though I had no clue what it was actually about. I would sing along making images up in my head...or not at all. Just happily.singing along feeling the energy of the tune and the way it felt in my body.

Recently I found out what the lyrics were about and in some strange way I think my body knew it.

Instinctively.

(Go look it up, I'm not gonna tell you!!!)

I am sitting here amidst 9 drummers. All absorbed in what they are doing with their hands. Their bodies. Making music as though they have no other choice. It has to come out of them. It's the only way.

It reminds me of the power of music...the power of letting your brain connect to your hands, connect to your drum, connect to the world.

Bloody awesome.....

Back to smacking the skin....(ha ha...oh damien would laugh!!)

Xxm

Music by Fire....

(photo by Jamie Price)


Went camping this past labor day weekend with a bunch of great mates. The weekend was spent sitting by the fire playing music or sitting under the stars chatting it up. It was an awesome and awe-inspiring weekend in so many ways. I felt blessed to get to do it, with such an amazing community that I am slowly being more confident to call 'my own'. I usually work most weekends so it was nice to have a free long weekend to just go and 'play' and to be inspired to pick up my guitar and PLAY whilst there was a nice surprise.

This weekend we are in Ohio for the Ohio LBA festival - check it out here: http://ohiolesbianfestival.wordpress.com/ We play Saturday night and will have a MuseKraft booth there all weekend, so come find us if you are around!
peace mates

xM

Magic...

We are in rehearsal mode for the live cd recording in November. I am writing a few new songs and trying to lock down the old ones that will get put onto it. Here's your chance to not only pre-purchase a copy of the new cd (and therefore help get it recorded), to attend the concert BUT...you can also help choose the songs that will go onto the cd.

Leave me a note here to let me know which songs you would like to hear.....would love to know why too, if there is a 'why'.

Our good mate Jamie Price, djembe drummer extraordinaire and fine personage, is joining us for a few songs at the live recording. It's sounding bloody amazing laying her into the tunes and the energy is always high and exciting. Magical even.   This is from a rehearsal a few weeks ago....just wanted to share.

Will surely get some new footage up soon and give you a sneak preview of what we are working on over here.

xM

Thankfulness....

Dionne took this photo last night before our show in Cincinnati. It was my 'pre-performance' nap, or catch up moment. Packing, driving, unpacking, setting up, sound checking, setting up, writing set lists that never get used.....this is the minute I try to take to let it all go and just be. To sit in the energy of the room I am about to play in and put my intentions out to the world.

It was an awesome show.....if I must say so myself. I watch folks in the audience as they moved their bodies to my tunes, as they raised their hands above their heads and clapped, as they laughed and were silly with me, as they wiped tears from their eyes and as they stood to their feet in appreciation at the end of the show.

I am constantly humbled when people turn up. When they pay money at the door and come ready to be a part of something. To listen and to send love towards me and my songs. So humbled.

Thank you Cincinnati....and thank you to Ruth & Marsha for believing enough to put their sweat on the line.

Love this life.....

*stuff*

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.  ~Kenji Miyazawa


Don't you just want to track Kenji down right now...and slap him?

When I am going through *stuff* and I read quotes like that, I do. I know it's right. It resonates deeply enough in me to cause such a strong reaction. But still, I don't like it so much. The middle child Capricorn in me wants to tell him to shut the fuck up.

I have lots of mates going through really hard *stuff* right now. *Stuff* that makes my heart ache for them because I know what its like. I might not be going through such hard *stuff* right this second in my life, but the experience of going through hard *stuff* is still close enough that I can feel it when someone else is going through it.

I want to help them fix it and I know I can't.

I want to just make them laugh...and so that's what I know I can do. Anything to help lighten the load of the *stuff* , even for just a second.

I do believe that its how we go through our *stuff* that determines or shapes who we be in the world. We all have people that we know (or have known) that have become angry and bitter souls because of their *stuff*. Or we see them on the street, or driving a car, or in line at a store...you can see it scarred onto their face like a trophy they like to carry around.

It seems like such a sad waste, but I get that it's their journey.

Many times over I have pondered on the realization that fire can help create purity. Can help us find the things that really matter, the things that define us and take us one step closer to the real us.

Do I want to hang out in the fire all the time?

Hell no!!!

But I get it. I see it. I feel it.

I feel the heat of my friends fires and they touch the scars left from my own and make me wince for a minute.....and then I try to help create a space that they can sit in to heal from their burns, or a space that they can rage in the fire, if need be. We all go through the fire alone....we may have people on the sidelines with buckets of water, salve, air, or a good strong cocktail..but, we go through it alone. At night, in the morning, when other people are sleeping, as we work, as we play, as we create...we move through our fire.

When the Japanese mend broken things they fill the cracks with gold because they believe when something has been damaged and has history, that it becomes even more beautiful. Not less. The metal is put through the fire to become pure, to become liquid and poured into the lines to connect side a to side b and then put back on display. I imagine in my head that it's put on an even bigger pedestal than it was on before.

I see my own lines of gold, my own filled in crack lines, my own scars and chips. I can run my fingers across them and appreciate the amazing beauty that they bring to me and to my life, I can also still feel and appreciate how they were created....and I know that they are there because of the fire.

I can appreciate them now.

Not so much at the time, but now.

On the inside of my right arm I have the words 'this, too, will pass'. That is the one guarantee we have in this life...everything will pass.

Sometimes, I hang onto those words with both hands, repeating them as a mantra to my rocking self. Other times, it serves as a reminder that this is it.

Here.
Now.

To be present. To feel the fire. To choose to walk through it knowing that you will come out the other side...different, but alive. 

So, how are you feeling right this second?

Right Here?

Right Now?

And so..it begins.

The live recording is scheduled for November 6th here in Indianapolis and amidst the excitement about the event and the experience of recording a live cd, there are 'things' to do.

Two of those things are:

sell tickets

sell presale copies of the cd

You can do both of those things now!

Head [here] to grab your tickets. A limited number are being sold through Brown Paper Tickets and others can be picked up at Bjava Coffee House (Lafayette Rd). This show always sells out anyway and will surely sell out fast this time....so come be a part of the magic and have your voice be heard on the cd.

The cd presale has also started and you can read more about the packages available [here]. You can buy them via paypal or if you are in the US, send a check. Check out the packages first though and thank you for your support. It makes it happen, you know.

That, and a tonne of sweat and love that is....

And while you are there....check out this funny video we did with Cathy from Indy Indie to advertise the show.

The flowers 'know'.....you know?

I don't usually do this, but this past year I have entered into a few different competitions. Song competitions, show competitions...beauty pageants...haha, okay maybe not the last one. Competitions of the musical kind all over the globe.

I haven't won any of them.

That doesn't feel good.

Infact the whole concept of putting my talent, and what I do, against someone else's so that a third (or fourth or fifth) person can determine who's better just goes against a deep internal grain for me. Even as I was entering them I was reminding myself of that….and not listening to myself.  I had other peoples voices echoing in my head saying ‘you have to enter to keep up’ and ‘what a great opportunity when you win’ and all the other assorted well meaning, wanting me to succeed and kick some ass friends and supporters opinions.

Isn’t this the way it goes though? We know something in our core but then we defer to what other people say. I think some of it is because I am scared of being the victim of my own opinions all the time and actually DO want people I love to push me to ‘get myself out there’. I was for a moment giddy with the thought of winning too though. I thought for sure, a few times, that I had synched it…and then didn’t. Fortunately I caught myself, most of the time, from going down the ‘I suck’, ‘I have no talent’, ‘who am I kidding’ slope but was then kinda crabby that I had put myself into the situation of even comparing myself to someone else.

My deep belief system is that every single one of us is here to fulfill a purpose of some kind that we can only do. That only I can do what I can do, in the way that I can do it. So there’s no point in comparing myself to other people…because they are doing exactly what they are doing, in the way that only they can do.

I look at flowers, and plants in my garden, and know deep inside that I am as unique and as different as each one of those are from the other. I have never seen two flowers that are identical…and nor would I want to. I sit here and look at the flowers in my vase and I am glad that each one is different to the other, that each one brings something unique to the posey. Each is beautiful and magnificent in it’s own right.

Just as I am.

Just as you are.

The Adventures of One Little Aussie - Episode 13

Okay, so I am a little behind in footage...but better late than never, right?!

Peace,

Martine

Warts and All.....

So, I just announced the presale for my next cd.

My next cd will be a live cd.

Did you just hear me gulp loud?

I am not sure really why it makes me nervous, other than the fact that I have one chance to capture a tune that will end up being on thousands of cds in thousands of peoples ears.

Hmm....why would that make me nervous, right?

It's a thrilling experience in actuality. The chance to capture a moment and to capture the energy of a group of people who are all excited to be there. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to record the cd here in Indianapolis. Every time I have done this show it's been filled with people who are excited to be there. Who are excited to sing with their whole hearts (and voices) and are attentive and beautiful and an absolute thrill to play music for.

And I don't want to let them down.

And I want it to be good.

So...between now and then I will work on my nervousness and instead allow my excitement to lead the way.

Until then, I have set up a cd presale event to raise funds, in advance, to make this cd happen. Check it out here: http://www.martinelocke.com/pages/presale.php . Tickets will also go on sale soon and I will let  you know where you can pick them up AND if you have thoughts about what songs you would like to hear on the cd, then please let me know when you put your order in. I wanna know.

Peace mates,

xM

Declaration of Principles....

The author Paulo Coelho, writer of one of my favourite books The Alchemist, has a blog and recently I was passed a link to his 'Declaration of Principles'.

I was immediately captured by the first one:

1] All human beings are different. And should do everything possible to continue to be so.

I adore that idea and live that belief. I got called 'weird' once and for a while I was a little offended by the thought....and then I spent time asking 'well, isn't everyone like that?'....and now, I just proudly accept the title.

I am happy to be weird. 

Reading his declaration got me thinking about my own set of beliefs in this world and how much they aligned to his. I think like minded people often draw to themselves other like minded people and it didn't surprise me how much I clapped my hands at his beautifully eloquent set of principles. Rather, it made me feel not alone in the world again whilst also wishing that I had've written them the way he wrote them. 

They just make so much sense.

6] Each human being has his own sexual profile, and should exercise it without guilt – provided he does not oblige others to exercise it with him/her.

Watching the debate around Proposition 8 in California over the past few weeks has been maddening in a 'I can't believe how much time and money people have spent over this stupid thing' (oh so eloquent martine). And I have decided that I am going to get a tshirt made with number 6 on it and send it to all the folks who have spent bazillions of dollars fighting for Prop 8 to be upheld....or should I say, fighting for discrimination to be a right. I am so tired of religious bodies believing that it's fine for them to stand in judgment and condemnation of the rest of the world.

Anyway, my brain is not quite focusing this fine monday morning but hopefully passing on this set of Principles will cause you to have a think..as it did me this morning. Thinking is a good thing....like with anything, in moderation.

To read more of them head over to here: Declaration of Principles.

See if any of them make sense to you and I would love to know what and why.

L&C=M

We just spent the weekend in Des Moines, Iowa doing a couple of shows and it just so happened that the OneIowa organization was doing a rally for marriage equality while we were there.

Now Iowa already has legalized gay & lesbian marriage but it seems in the next election in November that there is some fella running for office that has promised to write the whole 'one man, one woman = marriage' thing into the constitution.
Bloody tosser.

So, here they are, having to fight for equality again. Or at least to remind people not to be complacent in their voting.

I wish I could vote everywhere. I would just spend my days traveling around learning about important things, like this, and then just turn up and vote.

Coz you know there's nothing worse than someone who belly aches about things and then doesn't even bother to turn up to vote.

Lazy asses.

I think this might be our Xmas card this year. Will make sure to send it to all my right wing Christian ex friends who love to think its their job to tell people how to live.

Bloody tossers.

Xxm

The GINORMOUS watermelon...

This is my first ever home grown watermelon. It's so amazing to watch it grow, literally centimeters  every day.

This photo is rather deceptive in that my watermelon is only about an inch and a half long (I know I am confusing those of you who believe in learning one form of measurement or the other...trying to keep it fresh people).

I know I rattle on about my garden all the time and people around me are likely getting sick of it.....in the same way people get sick of hearing about new children, or new puppies...I suspect. But in the same spirit shared by new parents and new puppy owners....I DON'T CARE!!!!

I love it. I love watching it grow. It teaches me about patience and real honest reward for real honest work. I sometimes feel like I work in a 'world' that has a skewed idea of reward....so this is a real balancing work for me. It brings me back to earth, gets my hands dirty and I feel true joy every time I get to pick something that I have watched grow for weeks and

EAT it.

...unlike a new parent...or a new puppy owner.

It's creativity in a whole new form and I feel like this year has been all about that for me. Not limiting my creative energy to just one area. It's been strange, at times scarey, ego challenging and definately has given me pause for thought many times. At the end of the day, I feel like my world is more balanced than ever in the creative...and in all ways actually. I feel calm, I feel inspired, I feel loved, I feel safe, I feel like my input is mostly equal to my output, I feel in awe and I feel energized by this world I get to dream up and live in.

And perhaps soon, I will get to have a watermelon party.

xxM

November 6th

It's official.

November 6th is the date for our live recording in Indianapolis. One night with the indy indie crew...a redux of shows gone by. A room full of amazing souls ready to laugh, sing and become part if my first solo live cd.

Put the date on your calendar now!! Will let you know about tickets soon.

Yay for us....now to dream and rehearse the show into being.

Xxm

Sunflower Envy...

Sunflowers are my most favorite flower in the world. I have them tattooed up my arm, that's how much I love them.

These aren't my sunflowers, they belong to my friend Beth. I have sunflower envy. I planted seeds everywhere around my garden and even though EVERYTHING else is growing out of control...my sunflowers are non existant.

Perhaps next year.

Until then I get to Ohhh and Ahhh at Beth's sunflowers and their 'volunteer' mates and occasionally steal some for home.

Xxm

I Believe She's Amazing.....

I watched this with tears falling down my face. The power of music and dance and beauty and good intention all together in one space. So powerful.

Read more about it and join the movement here: http://www.ibelieveshesamazing.com/

Thanks to my friend Andrea for passing it along...

xxM

The story of the whowho.

My good mate Kathleen, or KC as I have often referred to her on here, is doing a ride across Illinois this week. She is riding at least 513 miles and tell the story of why at her blog www.spokein.com if you have a minute to drop her a note of encouragement, please do, I am certain it will help a lot.

I text her two days ago to ask her if her bum was sore yet because, well you know, these are the hard hitting questions I ask. She text me back to let me know her bum was doing fine but her whowho wasn't doing so well. We got into this whole conversation about chaffing and such and as we were texting about it (kc riding on her bike the whole time), she looked up and took this photo. It was the town she was going through at the time and no doubt the universe was having a huge old laugh at kc's whowhos expense.

Needless to say, I found it pretty damn funny too.

Go check out her adventure and say hello....she has 84 miles to ride today in honor of her nephew who is a cancer survivor and I know you will do her heart, and her whowho, good to hear from you.

Xx

oh my...

It's been almost a week since my last blog post....so "unlike" me. It's good. But, it's weird. Once upon a time I use to post sometimes a few times a day. It's not like I don't have anything to say these days, because believe me, I do.....I am constantly thinking up weird shit in a *pondering* kinda way or in a *wonder if anyone else feels that* kinda way and oftentimes I think about posting it out to the world.

But then, I just get distracted.

It seems life is crazy full of amazing distractions these days and most times I am merrily humming along to myself (in a Winnie The Pooh kinda way) and then just change course for a minute and wonder what I was going to do in the first place. It's extremely nice to be distracted in such a happy and mind blowingly fulfilling kinda way.

Right now....my life is filled with this.

Ripping the crap out of our second bathroom to make it how we see it....

This is it after we ripped out the tiles, the surround, the bath, the vanity and the wainscoting. (I will show a final picture once we are done). If you look back you will see our kitchen finale picture...that was pretty impressive, if I must say so myself.

Then of course, there is this.....

Playing tennis. Keeps me very distracted.

We have started the Midwest Tennis, Sushi and Sake event that happens once a week....sometimes more. Our mate Jamie plays with an ever revolving bevy of partners that either can't keep up with us or seem to just not come back. I think because Jamie keeps losing (ha ha, had to get that in there) she secretly disposes of them.

This is Jamie with Megan, a very very...most incredibly...famous sand retardist. She is really quite an amazing sand retardist I have heard....and come to think of it, I haven't seen her since this day.

Hmmm....

Ohhhhhh...and sometimes, there are things like this that distract me..:

Isn't she/he amazing? We ran into the beauty at the Irvington Farmer's market on the weekend, which is our local farmers market. They had all these awesome animals to show....even a skunk, which I was rather distracted by in a 'where does it's smell go' kinda way.

And a ferret...which I have never understood in my whole life. Why would you have a ferret for a pet?

So......many things take my mind away into many directions and I LOVE it. Life is crazy happy and full of music and art and creativity and hanging with friends and building community and working hard and aching bodies and days where it's nice to just sit and BE.

I feel so blessed by this life that I get to live. That I get to choose everyday. It's the life of my dream and I know that there will be days when I am sore from playing music and jumping around a stage, which I adore, and then there will be days when I am sore from playing tennis or renovating the darn bathroom.....and then there will be days where I just get to breath and pick up my guitar and play a sweet tune for no one else but myself.

I am in love with this life. Whoever I need to send a thank you note to, please let me know...I will make a really pretty one.

xxM

To drum...or not to drum

I am sitting in the middle of a rehearsal for the indy drumming group Ashre. They have so kindly let us, and particularly me and my non drumming ability, into their rehearsal night to learn and laugh and to continue being a part of the amazing community of them.

We have not so secretly dubbed ourselves the 'cult of divine bliss'.

I have never been very good at drumming. Usually, when the drumming kicks in at festivals etc, I excuse myself. Mostly out of fear of embarrassing myself. But there's no embarrassing here. It's an accepting group of fine musicians who patiently teach me, or let me just be. It's nice to have that kind of musical community. There's nothing attached to this other than the joy of smacking a drum and making a loud amazing noise together.

It's very liberating.

And humbling....

And occasionally 'alternatively rhythmic'....or perhaps that's just me.

Xxm