Greetings!
I decided this blog will transition to a quarterly update, sorry for being so lame about keeping up with it.
I do have a new little project going with my friend Sarah who lives nearby and with whom I share passions for cooking, sewing, crafts, and fart jokes.
Check it out! Warning: there are some cuss words and quasi offensive material in here...so read at your own risk!
www.ginraisins@blogspot.com
Well, I made it through the first half of winter. Solstice is always a speaical time for Alaskans where we can breathe a sigh of releif that the days will get longer and within a few months the light will return to our afternoons again!
I had a pretty busy but wonderful December. I bought my first guitar. It's a gorgeously made Martin 00-15 all mahogany small body. It's a very nice instrument which I got for a huge discount. I know that it might not have been worth eating lentils and rice for that month, but it's something I can learn on, write songs on, and cherish forever! I play it everyday for at least 1-2 hours before work, after work...and sometimes I run home on my lunch break to work on a song that's been stuck in my head.
I never thought I could love something as much as my autoharp, but I'm REALLY enjoying learning this new intrument.
The holidays rounded out nicely too. Thanksiving was nice and low key spent with friends in town. I was lucky enough to go home for Christmas to see the family...a VERY long overdue trip. I wished I could have stayed for another week or more, but alas I had to get back to work.
New Years Eve this year was the best ever. I was asked to play bass with an old time band "Elbow Grease" for a square dance held at a local church hall. It was great to get more bass practice and learn some catchy old time tunes with very talented musicians. Playing music for people is something I really love, and something I want to do ALOT more of it in the future.
I'm looking forward to 2011, and sending my strongest hopes and wishes of good health and recovery to loved ones who are struggling. Everyday I wish I could be there with Jamie, who is so strong and inspriring right now through her struggle with Leukemia. I'm so glad I got to spend Christmas with her, even though it was brief. But knowing my parents and how amazing they are, I know she's in good hands. Another person that has been in my thoughts is the "father of Alaska Bluegrass" Carl Hoffman from Fairbanks who suffered a head injury this fall and who still is recovering from his fall. Hearing other freinds and peers dealing with health issues it makes me so thankful that I am healthy and doing ok up here on my own.
Let's hope 2011 is a year of rapid recovery and astounding comebacks. Miss you all, love you dearly, and I hope to see you soon.
Best,
Amanda
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Fall Time in Juneau Town
Hellllo Friends and Family,
Still loving my new job at the Juneau Douglas City Museum :) It's a lot to learn, but I'm taking in as much as I can about the Museum and working for the City and Bourough of Juneau.
It's hilarious the amount of details that go into buying cases of copy paper, but I've been doing the best I can getting used to the process! One of the administrators for Parks and Rec told me it took him 2 years to really know everything...and our curator of public programs (who's been here for 6 years) says she's still learning!
But I have a pile of random tasks within a single day, so I keep busy and never get bored. The Museum is in an old library, and our staff consists of me, the director, 2 curators (one for collection and the other for programing) and an intern from Virginia. It's awesome to work in such an adorable little place, with a small staff.
The director told me 76 people applied to this job, so i feel pretty lucky to be working here!
Fall is rolling in and the leaves are beginning to fall steadily. I forget how quickly fall comes and goes in SE AK. I'm looking forward to winter and skiing, but for now with all the cruise ships gone I'm just enjoying the quiet contemplative season.
I've been still playing music, and writing more songs too! I'm attempting to bang out some chords on the guitar to practice singing, but really it just makes me miss my autoharp. Someday I will get another one...but I really really miss my sparrowharp. My good friend Alicia had her fiddle and guitar stolen out of her car in Portland on a road trip to West Virginia...I felt her dissapointment and that horrible feeling of violation when someone steals from you...Well someday I will pick up a harp again. I still have my bass and I'm loving it more than ever with new strings on it thanks to Scott and Brooke!
I'm planning on developing another blog with my buddy Sarah Ritter who lives nearby. We both love cooking and we have similar taste in basically everything, so watch out for that if we make it happen. Last week, for example, we watched a Werner Herzog documentary and made red velvet cupcakes with garbanzo beans instead of flour. They actually turned out! Crazy!
Halloween is approaching, and Thanksgiving too...just looking forward to everything!
I'll be in Seattle in Decemeber for Christmas! YAY! and then again in February for a bluegrass festival in Bellevue. I'm hoping for a tropical escape sometime soon, but we'll see how much cash I can sock away to make that happen.
Hope everyone is healthy and happy down in the states!
More soon!
Love,
Amanda
Still loving my new job at the Juneau Douglas City Museum :) It's a lot to learn, but I'm taking in as much as I can about the Museum and working for the City and Bourough of Juneau.
It's hilarious the amount of details that go into buying cases of copy paper, but I've been doing the best I can getting used to the process! One of the administrators for Parks and Rec told me it took him 2 years to really know everything...and our curator of public programs (who's been here for 6 years) says she's still learning!
But I have a pile of random tasks within a single day, so I keep busy and never get bored. The Museum is in an old library, and our staff consists of me, the director, 2 curators (one for collection and the other for programing) and an intern from Virginia. It's awesome to work in such an adorable little place, with a small staff.
The director told me 76 people applied to this job, so i feel pretty lucky to be working here!
Fall is rolling in and the leaves are beginning to fall steadily. I forget how quickly fall comes and goes in SE AK. I'm looking forward to winter and skiing, but for now with all the cruise ships gone I'm just enjoying the quiet contemplative season.
I've been still playing music, and writing more songs too! I'm attempting to bang out some chords on the guitar to practice singing, but really it just makes me miss my autoharp. Someday I will get another one...but I really really miss my sparrowharp. My good friend Alicia had her fiddle and guitar stolen out of her car in Portland on a road trip to West Virginia...I felt her dissapointment and that horrible feeling of violation when someone steals from you...Well someday I will pick up a harp again. I still have my bass and I'm loving it more than ever with new strings on it thanks to Scott and Brooke!
I'm planning on developing another blog with my buddy Sarah Ritter who lives nearby. We both love cooking and we have similar taste in basically everything, so watch out for that if we make it happen. Last week, for example, we watched a Werner Herzog documentary and made red velvet cupcakes with garbanzo beans instead of flour. They actually turned out! Crazy!
Halloween is approaching, and Thanksgiving too...just looking forward to everything!
I'll be in Seattle in Decemeber for Christmas! YAY! and then again in February for a bluegrass festival in Bellevue. I'm hoping for a tropical escape sometime soon, but we'll see how much cash I can sock away to make that happen.
Hope everyone is healthy and happy down in the states!
More soon!
Love,
Amanda
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
I got a New Job!!!
Hi Family!
I was recently hired on as the new administrative employee at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum!!! It's an adorable little museum in downtown Juneau (next to the capital building 3 minutes from my apartment)!!!
I start next week. I still get all the good benefits of the state job I had before, but this is a little better as far as healthcare, and hourly wages!
And the best part is I get my foot back into the arts and humanities! It will be kinda nice to get out of renvenue and PFD.
Hope everyone is doing ok. Love y'all...
-Amanda
Thursday, August 19, 2010
"Summer's Almost Gone, and the Winter is Coming On"
Update on the Summer in Southeast Alaska
I’m walking away from the Jeep parked on Basin road around the corner from my apartment, hauling my upright bass back inside and I notice that the majority of cars parked along the side of Mount Juneau are covered…in LEAVES!
That’s right, our Alaskan summer culminated in a blast of 85 degree weather this last weekend, and now I find myself thinking about investing in leather boots and sewing new buttons on my weathered wool peacoat. Summer is always crazy, the band family is spilt up burying ourselves in work, spending time down in the lower 48 with family and, in Scott and Brooke’s case building a glorious cabin in Montana. They just returned and it was jarring to realize that a mere two months ago I was driving them to the airport.
With a tan that I know will fade in a few weeks, brown hair that must have turned a few shades lighter growing out to rest on my shoulders and no-see-um scars dotting my arms and legs…I can look back and say I had a superb summer in Juneau.
I’m still working for the PFD (Permanent Fund Dividend), and getting used to being a State employee. It’s not the most creatively stimulating thing in the world, but music and art in the community are keeping me pretty busy in that department.
The beginning of August I traveled to Anchorage for two days with another good musician friend from Juneau and I drove to the Anderson Bluegrass and Country Music Festival in Clear, Alaska. It’s located about an hour south of Fairbanks and has a pretty fair turnout of people camped out near the river and the trees surrounding the Festival site. The musicians had our own spot in a cozy alcove near the river and the trees, and for the first weekend in August the weather was amazing. The interior sun hit highs of what felt like 90 degrees and I stayed up until 7, 8, and 9am playing music and having way too much fun with people I get to see maybe once or twice a year.
I was lucky enough to get to play Bluegrass with the musicians who inspired me to pick up the bass in the first place. I remember my first folk festival in Juneau 2008, watching all the pickers and hoping that one day I could stand with them and play.
After the festival I spent an amazing couple of days in Fairbanks with some of the crew who attended the festival. I got to see more fine interior folks and spend some time at Ivory Jack’s bar in Goldstream Valley, and the Golden Eagle in Ester, a trip to the Chatanika river, and late night hot tub soaks. The people up there are amazing, kind, generous, and fun…and I didn’t want to leave!
With sad faces we departed for the big city and after spending a great night with Kate Sangster at her gorgeous home in Anchorage, I headed home for Juneau.
I don’t really know where I will be or what I will be doing with my life, but what I do know is that I love Alaska, and it get’s deeper and deeper into me the more time I spend here. I was so excited to return to my friend community in Juneau, and I love having pockets of fantastic friends tucked into different parts of the state.
As summer winds down, I have things on the back burner, plans yet to be hatched, and the best thing to look forward to, SEATTLE AND PORTLAND for Christmas! Everyday I wake up excited to see everyone down south in the Northwest!
I will update again soon!
Love you all, Take care!
-ajc
I’m walking away from the Jeep parked on Basin road around the corner from my apartment, hauling my upright bass back inside and I notice that the majority of cars parked along the side of Mount Juneau are covered…in LEAVES!
That’s right, our Alaskan summer culminated in a blast of 85 degree weather this last weekend, and now I find myself thinking about investing in leather boots and sewing new buttons on my weathered wool peacoat. Summer is always crazy, the band family is spilt up burying ourselves in work, spending time down in the lower 48 with family and, in Scott and Brooke’s case building a glorious cabin in Montana. They just returned and it was jarring to realize that a mere two months ago I was driving them to the airport.
With a tan that I know will fade in a few weeks, brown hair that must have turned a few shades lighter growing out to rest on my shoulders and no-see-um scars dotting my arms and legs…I can look back and say I had a superb summer in Juneau.
I’m still working for the PFD (Permanent Fund Dividend), and getting used to being a State employee. It’s not the most creatively stimulating thing in the world, but music and art in the community are keeping me pretty busy in that department.
The beginning of August I traveled to Anchorage for two days with another good musician friend from Juneau and I drove to the Anderson Bluegrass and Country Music Festival in Clear, Alaska. It’s located about an hour south of Fairbanks and has a pretty fair turnout of people camped out near the river and the trees surrounding the Festival site. The musicians had our own spot in a cozy alcove near the river and the trees, and for the first weekend in August the weather was amazing. The interior sun hit highs of what felt like 90 degrees and I stayed up until 7, 8, and 9am playing music and having way too much fun with people I get to see maybe once or twice a year.
I was lucky enough to get to play Bluegrass with the musicians who inspired me to pick up the bass in the first place. I remember my first folk festival in Juneau 2008, watching all the pickers and hoping that one day I could stand with them and play.
After the festival I spent an amazing couple of days in Fairbanks with some of the crew who attended the festival. I got to see more fine interior folks and spend some time at Ivory Jack’s bar in Goldstream Valley, and the Golden Eagle in Ester, a trip to the Chatanika river, and late night hot tub soaks. The people up there are amazing, kind, generous, and fun…and I didn’t want to leave!
With sad faces we departed for the big city and after spending a great night with Kate Sangster at her gorgeous home in Anchorage, I headed home for Juneau.
I don’t really know where I will be or what I will be doing with my life, but what I do know is that I love Alaska, and it get’s deeper and deeper into me the more time I spend here. I was so excited to return to my friend community in Juneau, and I love having pockets of fantastic friends tucked into different parts of the state.
As summer winds down, I have things on the back burner, plans yet to be hatched, and the best thing to look forward to, SEATTLE AND PORTLAND for Christmas! Everyday I wake up excited to see everyone down south in the Northwest!
I will update again soon!
Love you all, Take care!
-ajc
Friday, June 11, 2010
JUNE!
So i'm about to turn 25, and it's a little scary to say the least.
It's summer in Juneau and that means lots of sunshine and LONG days. I have to remind myself that 4 hours of sleep on a weekday is not enough, and to make sure to get more rest. It's so difficult as it can stay light out until 11pm...and there's lots to do!
So far June has been great, the folks came to visit which gave me the refresh of love and family I needed for the season, and we had a great memorial day weekend! The band played bluegrass at the Alaskan bar, we took a whale watching musical private cruise down the Lynn canal with the Chisholms and the band family and watched baby humpaback whales breaching with Coronas in our hands and smiles on our faces. My mom and dad helped me put some nice touches on my apartment, which looks better than ever!
This week has been extremely busy! There was a visiting cermaics artist from Colorado, so plenty of reason to celebrate out at Jr and Alli's home on Auke Bay. Kate Hamre and Aoife O'Donovan, two musicians were in town teaching the Bluegrass Camp for Kids. I hadn't seen Kate since October, and it was great to play music with her and catch up on life! Aoife is a musician from Brooklyn in the band Crooked Still, and I have never met such a warm, down to earth, talented gal! She even did a solo show at the Alaskan for us!
This weekend should be more fun, musicians from Elfin Cove, Anchorage, and here in Juneau are playing, and I plan on dancing through to my birthday on Sunday!
Hope everyone's doing well! I will post some pictures soon ;)
love,
Amanda
It's summer in Juneau and that means lots of sunshine and LONG days. I have to remind myself that 4 hours of sleep on a weekday is not enough, and to make sure to get more rest. It's so difficult as it can stay light out until 11pm...and there's lots to do!
So far June has been great, the folks came to visit which gave me the refresh of love and family I needed for the season, and we had a great memorial day weekend! The band played bluegrass at the Alaskan bar, we took a whale watching musical private cruise down the Lynn canal with the Chisholms and the band family and watched baby humpaback whales breaching with Coronas in our hands and smiles on our faces. My mom and dad helped me put some nice touches on my apartment, which looks better than ever!
This week has been extremely busy! There was a visiting cermaics artist from Colorado, so plenty of reason to celebrate out at Jr and Alli's home on Auke Bay. Kate Hamre and Aoife O'Donovan, two musicians were in town teaching the Bluegrass Camp for Kids. I hadn't seen Kate since October, and it was great to play music with her and catch up on life! Aoife is a musician from Brooklyn in the band Crooked Still, and I have never met such a warm, down to earth, talented gal! She even did a solo show at the Alaskan for us!
This weekend should be more fun, musicians from Elfin Cove, Anchorage, and here in Juneau are playing, and I plan on dancing through to my birthday on Sunday!
Hope everyone's doing well! I will post some pictures soon ;)
love,
Amanda
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
No Facebook
I am without internet at my apartment. I am an employee of the state of Alaska, which as you can guess has blocked the website from accessing at my desk.
sigh.
so it seems I am at a crossroads. I go buy internet or become like the seasonal workers I used to be and go to the Silverbow to choke down 4 dollar bagels every other day in order to reconnect with my social networks via their wifi signal.
I feel pretty out of the loop...
If anyone reads this, I am embarking on my most challenging endeavor yet this year: I am playing bass with the Great Alaska Bluegrass Band this weekend at the Breakwater Restaurant and Hotel. I am extrememly nervous, but those of you who know me well enough have seen me under pressure and coming out ok on the other side.
Cross your fingers that my own will fly up and down the fret board as Jack Cooke's did when he stood behind Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys so many years ago...well, at least I'm hoping I can keep up with the T-GABB boys for 2 nights.
Wish me luck.
Also my folks are coming to visit in a few weeks, and I want to sob uncontrollably just thinking about how good it will be to see family. It will be the best start to summer imaginable!
More soon,
xoajc
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Folk Festival Pictures
http://www.davidsheakley.com/p666127023/h2c7324bb#h202e3f3d
The above link is to David Sheakley's website with photos of "It's a Dandy" performing at the Alaska Folk Festival.
Allison Mapes on Guitar, Me on upright bass, Jeremy Kane on mandolin, and Andrew Heist on the five string fiddle.
It was fun....I will post more pictures of the fest here very soon!
Love,
Amanda
The above link is to David Sheakley's website with photos of "It's a Dandy" performing at the Alaska Folk Festival.
Allison Mapes on Guitar, Me on upright bass, Jeremy Kane on mandolin, and Andrew Heist on the five string fiddle.
It was fun....I will post more pictures of the fest here very soon!
Love,
Amanda
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