BUT WE'RE BACK!
We're about to hit the road again! Django and I will be flying to London Sunday June 20th to be reunited with Simon who's already been away for four weeks!
Here are a few highlights since my last entry six months ago...
In December we took a trip to LA LA Land and stayed through the holidays. The weather was perfect and we saw lots of friends. Django and I had the never ending flu but we still had a lovely time. Simon took a "side" trip to Denmark to appear on a live tv broadcast with an orchestra backing him!
He is introduced in both Danish and Greenlandic, as this is a Danish program called Julehilsen til Grønland (Christmas Greeting to Greenland)
Here he sings Love Comes Back To You
and The Future
Back in Port Townsend Django shows his ambitious nature.
"Mama, that's not a spoon. You want to get some eatin' done, THIS is a spoon"
Just a cute video of Django challenging his equilibrium back in January
A big milestone. OUR BOY TURNED TWO IN MARCH!
Django got a helmet for his birthday (oh, and a bike trailer too, but who cares about that when you've got such a shnazzy helmet)
Ah yes, the cute kid contest photo. Look at how cooperative this two year old was being, seriously. Unfortunately the (ahem...last minute) online submission wasn't working and we missed the deadline. Maybe next year I'll be a little more organized.
Meeting critters is fun!
The very first haircut ever! May 15th. Good thing I put the BEFORE and AFTER labels. Pretty helpful, eh?
Lately it's all about jumping...
enjoying a little swimming...
painting...
In May, before Simon went on tour, we went back in the studio to resume recording my album after a 3 year hiatus! It was fantastic to give it that focused attention. We recorded in a local studio called Toolshed Sound Lab, here in Port Townsend. We made great progress on 6 songs, had 4 already in the bag and have 2 more to go, plus some more tracking and vocals on the songs we just recorded. At least now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Here's Django visiting while I was doing some vocals.
In between recording and Simon's departure, we moved out of my mother's house where we'd been staying for several months, into a cute apartment in Uptown Port Townsend. We finally unpacked our things from California that have been in storage for over two years. Within two blocks we have a fabulous bakery, a market, local pub, yoga studio, gym, coffee shop, 2 restaurants, acupuncture, nutrition/health shop, and a playground. Now that summer is here, the farmer's market is 1/2 block away. Pretty great spot.
And just in time for our next departure! Luckily we have a friend who will sublet while we're away for two months. Django and I plan to come back for a short trip August-September. But we'll see...
Here we are on the ferry with Simon on his way to the airport mid-May. Next stop Dublin and a five date tour with Ingrid Michelson around the UK and Ireland. (which went great, and the closing date in London had Simon playing solo to over 1,000 people)
THIS WEEK
Things have really picked up and gotten very exciting since last Sunday June 6th when the Sunday Times (London) did a feature on Simon:
An outdoor type - Times Online
On Monday morning he appeared on BBC1 Breakfast TV (which is like the Good Morning America of the UK), and his album was released in the UK on LoMax Records.
He's been getting some really great reviews of his album like this one... (click image for bigger view)
and some big press including this from Sky News, which I believe is available all over Europe.
As you can see, they are really focusing on his Greenlandic side. It is rather unusual (being from Greenland, a country of 56,000!) so it sure grabs people's attention. Besides, what self respecting reporter could pass up the chance to include the phrase "singing Eskimo" in a headline?
Needless to say, it's really exciting and gratifying to see Simon receiving all of this great attention and growing success with his music.
I am really (really) looking forward to seeing Simon again. We've been skyping a lot and I say thank the gods for webcams. It's so helpful for Django to be able to see Simon (and vice versa). I think about the days when one had to wait a month or more for a letter to arrive from overseas, and what that must have been like. We wouldn't have even had word yet, and here we are, ringing each other up casually. Strange.
I am excited to be going back to one of my favorite cities again. I am not looking forward to the 20 hours of traveling with a toddler to get there. Hopefully Django will travel as well as he did last time. Wish us luck!
More soon...
Peace.
