Hello, my friends.

The flowering trees are blooming where I live. Lately, I have been living life outside of Rasputina. Last year, I studied a form of music therapy where you play live and one-on-one with ill or dying people. I have been doing that a little bit. It’s a completely new type of playing, with different skills. I formed a duo called “Sparkle-Frau” with a friend. She was turning 40 and I wanted to make her dream of being in a rock band a reality. You should have seen us at the open mic night. We played “Hush-a-bye Mountain” from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and “The Theme from the Thomas Crowne Affair”. I did a solo “Cage in a Cave” just to make sure they weren’t listening. I gave cello lessons to a couple of Hollis’ classmates. I expect a long attention span, which doesn’t seem to exist in little people anymore.

Ah, but just a couple of months ago, we were rocking it out with Siouxsie. That was fun- she was an amazing performer. Sarah Bowman quit — on amicable terms. After the madness of the freak-folk all-stars playing with us at the Dances of Vice Ball, February 2008, we had the lovely Serena Tideman on cello, and dear friend Dawn McCarthy of Faun Fables singing back-up and playing percussion. Although it was good musics, we can’t technically have that line-up again. So please let me know if you are a genius cellist/singer with a free-style schedule and a taste for last-minute, grass-roots, whirlwind tours.

At my homestead, we are practicing Depressionists. We’re practicing for the Depression, get it? We choose not to waste our breath on bogus elections, fake news, celebrity drivel, internet diversion, or tv. We look for ways to be and eat as locally as possible. Touring the nation in a van, with $5. a gallon gasoline? Come on! I mean it — Come on. You will have to get yourself over here to Hudson, NY to see me play. And I’m getting better all the time, I tell you.

Love,

Melora