Secret Club advice

[Feb.10/2008: Updated with more Secret Club advice as well as a link to my new Babylon Five Virgin blog]

Above: Tom Jeffers and Sue Posteraro. Sue and Tom came over for dinner last night. After pigging out on Sue's decadent chocolate-iced lemon bundt cake, we listened to some unfinished tracks from the new Dandelion Wine CD. They sound FANTASTIC. Jodi, Allison and I are excited about possibly participating on some of them!

Then Sue and Tom went through some of their concert set for Balticon (where I just discovered that Naomi Novik is one of the guests!), and then spent the rest of the evening playing and singing music.



And this is why I originally was attracted to filk; I love making music with other people. Not for performing in public or for showcasing my own songs (I didn't write songs back then and was terrified of performing in public), but just for the pure joy of it, especially music circles where no one minds if someone else sings along or improvises on other instruments.

Now that I write songs and perform with Urban Tapestry, I find a whole other level of enjoyment and personal growth within the filk community as well, but I will still often seek out circles at filk conventions which are more big singalongs and jam circles rather than "performer showcase" rooms; Steve Macdonald and Dave Clement are great at nurturing these types of circles.

The Secret Club: A Follow-Up

Last Thursday, I posted about The Secret Club that no one wants to join and invited people to submit their own nuggets of life wisdom. Thank you so much to everyone who shared. I know some of you have lost loved ones of your own, and not too long ago.

Sometimes someone will ask me how I can share some of the highly personal experiences that I do, considering how painful some of those memories can be.

My answer:

I do it because I'm hoping that someone out there will find it helpful. So that they'll know that they're not alone, that there are others who have lost someone they loved dearly and survived with their life optimism intact. Because maybe some of what I say will help guide those who aren't in the Club but know someone who is.

I was deeply moved by many of your posts, so am including them below so that they won't be lost in my Livejournal archives, and be more easily found by people seeking this kind of advice.