JAMAICAN DISCO PARTY DRUNK JAMARAMA DING-A-LINGA DING DONG!
September 30, 2007
tonight, i played at a jamaican/cowbuy/hip-hop bar in galveston called yaga’s. it was the loudest bar i have been in since college…i mean loud like the loud where you have to shout at the bartender, “I’ll have a ….” and they yell back, “WHAT?” and you just settle for a beer. so loud that my hair was not only standing on end, it was on tippy-toes!
college age people drunk out of their minds, the loud thump thump thump of heavy bass roaring through the amps…when i hopped on stage to do soundcheck, they kept the music ON full throttle while trying to get my guitar/vocal levels…so people could keep dancing!…i had to chuckle when the soundman put on headphones to hear what mix he was getting on me in his head, since there was no way he’d have heard me otherwise
i went outside and called lance and told him i was DOOMED.
he said i’d be fine. i told him he should trade places with me immediately and come see how HE likes being on the wrong stage and i would be MORE THAN HAPPY TO BE WITH THE KIDS, at home,
reading books…he said that sounded GREAT! but, really, come on, you know we laughed (me nervously) since this ain’t no star trek episode!
i was a little giddy with fear but feeling fearless in the world of bump and grind, the smell of salt water in the air, knowing a very nice hotel room (provided by the club) was waiting for me to rest my weary ears…..so i returned to the bar’s stage (which looked like a dock, complete with decorative ropes and life rings). i decided i was gonna rise to the occassion so i could buy groceries for my family! i would revel in the JAMAICAN DISCO PARTY DRUNK JAMARAMA DING-A-LINGA DING DONG!
before i dug in, the co-owner, a nice woman named aubrey who was, i swear, MAYBE 24, came up to me on stage, to let me know i was going to be playing for college kids who liked to dance…did i do dance music, she asked?
i started to mentally spin, and i said, “uh…no.” (i guess i was, at least, dressed the part cuz she actually PERCEIVED me as someone who does dance music….woo!)
she smiled and said, “ok, well, it’ll be fine!”
they stopped the music, with about 8 people on the dance floor looking up at me with a “HUH?” expression on their faces… i busted into “mother’s little helper”, trying my hardest to create some sort of a dance groove, to which, almost immediately, a 55 year old drunk man jumped up on the stage and started shaking, I’m NOT kidding, his gianormous ass right into my guitar, as i hung on, now, to my guitar, praying, “dear god, let me keep my sanity…let me do my best” and then the dude’s wife came and coaxed him down. i felt like a panda at the zoo…with nuts everywhere!
bathed in an orange spotlight…singing my heart out…the dance floor cleared…the bar stayed sort of steady for about two songs, then everyone went outside.
i actually said, on the mic, “well, now i can finally say i’ve cleared a room!” and then i started talking to the empty dance floor about my “band”, and how sad the accident was, that i was dedicating the evening’s performance to them…shoutin’ out, “Johnny, this is for your broken femur!” and kickin’ into a jam. it became a hilarious carol burnett show, me making up stories, short intros, singing songs, babbling to myself (and the sound man.)
i was supposed to do TWO 45 minute sets….but i courageously (and smartly) performed one long 90 minute set because, as the night wore on, more college kids started stumbling in (and i mean STUMBLING). they started filling the joint, so i knew there was NO WAY in hell i could take ANY break and then get BACK UP THERE on the stage… i knew the MINUTE i stepped off, someone would turn that super loud dance music on, and my getting back on after THAT would spell DISASTER with a capital “d”.
Dash Riprock came in. He’s very tall, I’d say 6’ 4”, with long, curly blonde tendrils cascading past his sunglasses. He stayed for the first 55 minutes, watching and listening to me perform, sitting on steps across the dance floor. At one point, he put a $5 bill on the monitor for me. Then, as I ended a song, he approached with a question, but I couldn’t hear what he said…I leaned forward with an, “Excuse me?” and he repeated, “Are you married?” I enthusiastically responded, “Yes! With two kids!” and he said, “I really like your style. It’s like mine. Who’d a knew ya had kids?” and then he
left.
He also left a flyer. He does Haunted Houses around the country. First thing he’d said to me, when he first came in and I was getting set up (mind you, with the ka-thumpa-ka-thumpa going on), first thing he says to me was, “I’m number 3 in the country for this sort of thing.”
posted by Sara Hickman at 12:48 pm
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my brain, roger, says:
September 28, 2007
i liked these gentleman:
richardson
kucinich
obama
joe biden
not necessarily in that order
i’m in galveston waiting to do a gig.
i like that richardson said he is against torture, he would shut down guantanamo, and that he would end the war and he is AGAINST eavesdropping, against the homeland security act
john edwards needs to stop smiling so much. i think he’s probably a sincere person, but he smiles too much and it comes across as
silly (probably the same problem i have as an artist.)
altho john e. just said essentially the stuff richardson just said. good for him
obama comes across as in-touch, honest and and well informed. i like how he comes across as passionate about this process. i like, too, that he stands up for himself on the podium when someone misquotes him…you can sense the anger in his eyes for being misquoted, but he keeps his cool and uses the anger to push himself forward with ease and focus. he doesn’t lose sight of the bigger issue: being a servant of the people.
kucinich is well-educated and has a lot of knowledge…just flows out of him…but he needs to stop saying the kucinich presidency, that kind of plug….i recognize that all the candidates are desperate to get us to remember their names and vote for them….but it just sounds
whiny, to me, anyway. he also has a good sense of humor
man, that hillary is smart, i’ll give you that…she can think on her feet, you just see the wheels spinning…and she can not answer a question by asking a question or leaving you hanging. hmm.
what a weird time in the world.
i hope that the little white dog i saw evading the evening’s traffic finds food. he was beautiful. a ghost in a city of neglect. if i had been in austin, i would have scooped him up and took him home, but i couldn’t figure out how to get him into the hotel without someone noticiing, and he seemed skittish, at best.
then i saw a carriage drawn by a drawn horse, and he was getting pissy, backing up, causing the man with the reins to pull the whole shebang over to the curb. i wanted to get out of my van and march back and say “let the poor creature go to pasture and relax on sweet grass, why doncha…”
the one time i did that in new york, i got an ugly response.
oh, and one time in dallas, i was offered a free ride to an event in a buggy and i turned it down. i have never ridden in one of those contraptions. i don’t care if i sound
punky about this. it is wrong to have those horses standing all day on hot, texas concrete, slugging people around who are giddy with ignorance of the plight of the creature pulling them around to see schlocky sites.
i guess this leads me back to presidential candidates. i don’t want someone who goes with the flow, and hops in the carriage and expects me to think the way things are are fine.
i want someone who gets OFF the damn carriage, unhooks the horse and says, “hi-yah! there’s a new sheriff in town, and we’re cleaning up this mess.” and that person finds new means for energy, replaces the manure of the past with integrity, can saddle his own horse but treats it with respect and remembers to water, feed and brush it down.
someone who knows the merits of hard work and stays after hours. someone who isn’t in it for the money, the lobbists gifts and promises, someone who sees the tenacity of poverty and racism and sexism and figures out how to advance education, teachers’ pay, health care for all, and puts jobs back into the hands of the american people.
only then can people return to self-respect by having jobs they enjoy, and have pride in, and all the CEOS are just one office down the hall, not living in grandiose mansions, spending the people’s money who are hoping to send their kids to college, to retire, to have a vacation now and then.
i have decided no one is reading my blog, so i can just go on ad nauseum, here in my hotel room, by myself, wondering, once again, how to make the world a better place and feeling like the hole in the bottom of the sea. ….. i am just one grain of sand on an enormous, never ending beach of sand, everyone blogging and talking and drinking starbucks and listening to starbucks music and i’m just over here blah blah blahing…
happy, but blah blah blahing about whatever, and wondering: does it make a difference?
i hope i talk with my kids tonight. i’m out here missing my kids, gonna go sing and, yet, wondering…will they call me back?
i’ve decided i’ll dedicate tonight’s show to mia erichson and jerry haynes (mr. peppermint)
and i’ll blog about that some other time.
posted by Sara Hickman at 06:00 pm
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Ricky on “Good Morning America!”
One of my best friends forever, Julie, sent me this link because her husband, Ricky, was on “Good Morning America” this morning!
History Pop Quiz
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3664047
Check it out!
I’m in Galveston for my show tonight at YAGA’S…first time to ever play in Galveston…I hope folks come out!
Had a blast at the Carnes private event I played in Houston last night.
Tomorrow…back to Houston to play at Bruce’s Loft, a house concert.
Right now? I’m about to go walk the Strand, enjoy the smell of the salty air, and find the club I’ll be at tonight. Also, I’ll be looking into Tina’s and The Admiralty, both owned by the parents of my friend, Wendy.
Doug Bryan, in case you’re reading this…I will certainly post something about you soon…! Congrats on your new release!
posted by Sara Hickman at 01:06 pm
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a morning poem
September 23, 2007
quiet surprises
that greet your eyes:
like zipper spiders
through a morning’s window
silently gliding
on silk
love,
sara
posted by Sara Hickman at 08:07 am
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Dear Sara
Dear Sara,
I’ve been meaning to write you for quite a while, ever since we saw you perform at the Unitunes show in Houston this past January. You might remember us as my wife, Leilani, is from the Philippines. She asked you to perform ‘Simply’. Thank you for that.
The reason I’m writing is about children. You sang a song about the Romanian children. You were brought to tears. I’ve never seen that from someone on stage and I admire you for that. In that
song you mentioned many countries. That song brought to mind an experience. I had met what appeared to be a somewhat wealthy woman in Taiwan on my last trip to the Philippines trying to work out our own immigration problem with the embassy in Manila. She had adopted a Filipino child 3 or 4 years earlier. The child supposedly immediately becomes a U.S. citizen. Even with that
legal benefit the child still had to have a visa issued. At that point she could only visit her own child! As you can imagine there many many children there that need good loving homes. The irony is that even when one is provided there are still useless bureaucratic delays from a ‘pro-family’ administration. My two trips to the Philippines were real ‘eye openers’ as I was able to see first hand widespread poverty and over population. I strongly encourage every American to travel outside their ‘envelope’.
My hope is that through your work with children and perhaps with some of your contacts that rule can eliminated or shortened. Many children could find loving parents in the U.S. What a blessing for everyone this would be!
Thanks for reading. Leilani and I hope see you next week on the 29th in Houston.
Your dear friend,
Michael
Dear Michael,
I WOULD like to help children more extensively. I’m not sure how to go about doing that, just yet, except to make my music about these issues and share it at shows, on my blog and
on my site. Currently, I am hoping to go to India with my oldest daughter next spring, to visit orphanages through the Miracle Foundation. I think at this point in my life, with children of
my own and the current performance schedule I keep, that I will continue to try and motivate others to get involved and help make change. But I will certainly do my best to bring the issue you have laid before me to those in the world of politics through my personal encounters and letters.
Thank you for your kind letter,
Gratefully,
Sara
posted by Sara Hickman at 06:22 am
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Humanity and Humility
September 22, 2007
By JOSEPH P. KAHN
Boston Globe
On Aug. 5, Patrick Conway was admitted to Boston’s Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center in acute pain. It did not take long for
doctors to pinpoint the cause: an inoperable liver tumor that would
likely kill Conway within two to three months.
When he got the prognosis a few days later, Conway, who is 56, took
the news hard. ’’I was shocked,’’ he says. Doctors overseeing
his case said their goal was to minimize his discomfort during the days
ahead. Ordinarily, that would have meant giving Conway palliative medication
and sending him home to loved ones. His situation was hardly
ordinary, however, for he had no home to go to. For the past 16
years, Conway had been living on Boston Common. His only family
consists of his friends and allies in the city’s homeless community.
The hospital weighed other options. Conway weighed his options, too.
’’If he’d told us he wanted to go back to the Common to die, we
would have understood and probably discharged him,’’ says Dr. Nancy
Torres- Finnerty. ’’Interestingly, he said he did not want to die on the
streets. Ethically and medically, we felt justified in keeping him.’’
What happened next wasn’t covered in the fine print of medical
charts, hospital regulations, or Medicaid forms. As his support team came to know Conway better,
and as he focused more clearly on the time he had left, an unusual bond formed between
caregivers and patient. The homeless man with virtually nothing to
his name turned out to have a lot to offer others. And Conway, who’d
always hated hospitals, found much to learn also, beginning with how
love and compassion can enter a man’s life in unforeseen ways.
’’I can’t say I’m making up for past mistakes, because I can’t,’’
Conway says, sitting on a park bench outside the West Campus Clinical
Center, where he is being treated. ’’My time on Earth is short, I
know. While I’m around, though, I want people to know the truth about
someone like me, not what they read in the papers. That we’re not
bums or scary people.’’
At shelters, Conway continues, homeless people are often treated like
statistics. ’’I’m very surprised how I’m treated here,’’ he
says softly. ’’They treat me like a human being, not like a piece of
((trash)). Otherwise, I’d be back on the Common.’’
Up in his hospital room, Conway pulls out a card from Kohta Saito, a
third-year medical student and former member of his treatment team
who now works elsewhere in the hospital. ’’You have taught me a lot
beyond the science of medicine,’’ Saito wrote. He also wrote that
he kept a cross Conway had given him tucked inside his pocket.
’’How often do you get a card like that?’’ muses Conway.
’’I don’t know anything about life on the Common, but he offered me a
glimpse of that,’’ Saito says. ’’You walk through it and don’t notice
the people there, but he told me about their personalities and gave
me a picture of that community.’’
Saito isn’t the only hospital staffer moved by Conway’s circumstances
and by the concern Conway has constantly shown for others. Dr.
Melissa Mattison calls Conway ’’a breath of fresh air’’ and contrasts
him with another patient she had last month, one who in many ways was
Conway’s opposite: conspicuously wealthy, medically treatable, and
suffused with a sense of entitlement.
’’I’d leave the man’s room and head directly for Patrick’s,’’
Mattison says. ’’There he’d be, lying in bed and dying of cancer
saying, ’You should really go home and take a day off. You look
tired.’ Some people have that gift, and Patrick is one of them.’’
And then there’s social worker Sarah Porell, who’s been working
diligently to secure health coverage and hospice care for Conway.
Most homeless patients have substance abuse or mental health issues
that are readily apparent, Porell says, but not Conway. In fact, he’s
defied every stereotype homeless patients often arouse.
’’With the homeless, we sometimes blame the victim,’’ Porell
says. ’’But often there’s a much bigger story there. With Patrick,
it’s the fact that he had an education and a job yet took to the streets after
a traumatic loss. Every time we meet, his story grabs me even more.’’
When asked to tell that story, Conway offers fragments that are not
easily put together. In two extensive conversations, however, he
supplies these details:
Born in upstate New York, he moved with his family to Northern
Ireland when Conway was young. When he was a teenager, he and some
family members got involved in skirmishes with the Irish Republican
Army and several were killed in a London bombing. Conway went a
different direction, though, finishing his high school years, getting
married in 1969, and eventually moving back to the United States,
where he settled in Pennsylvania and found work as a lithography
printer.
After his daughter was born, Conway worked long hours to provide his
wife and child with everything they might want. ’’We had a good
life,’’ he reflects. ’’Our daughter graduated from college and
was going to be a sports medicine doctor.’’
A day after her college graduation in 1991, his wife and daughter
were riding in a car plowed into by a drunk driver. The daughter died
instantly. His wife was in a coma for 30 days, drifting in and out of
consciousness. At one point, Conway asked her if she had any regrets.
Yes, she said, that you worked too much and didn’t spend more time
with us.
’’She was right, too. I hadn’t,’’ he says solemnly. ’’She
died in my arms with a smile on her face.’’
Grief-stricken and guilt-ridden, he says, ’’I sold everything I owned and gave the rest away.’’
Conway’s life was suddenly adrift, as he moved from one place to the next.
Months later, in late 1991, he landed in Boston. On his first
night, huddled on Tremont Street, he nearly froze to death. Strangers
carried him to Mass General. Not only did they save his life, but
Conway had found his substitute family.
Working for a trash hauler was his only real employment after that,
but a back injury ended that job, Conway says. On the Common, he
slept on the steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral and panhandled wherever
the spare change was. Many of his friends, he says, were ’’stuck on
stupid’’ and succumbed to drugs and alcohol, which he also admits
to having abused in his past. He also admits to at least two arrests,
for public drunkenness and assault. ’’I’m not proud of what Idid,’’
he says of the latter incident, which occurred this summer before his
hospitalization. ’’But a man was groping one of my female friends.
I felt it necessary to protect her, so I did.’’
The Rev. Joan Murray met Conway four years ago through Ecclesia
Ministries, an organization ministering to Boston’s homeless that
Murray used to run. Conway was sitting on a grate outside the Park
Street MBTA station, she recalls, and after speaking with him at
length, she’d look for him whenever she took her street ministry to
the Common. ’’Patrick was always taking care of others, mostly the
ones who’d been drinking,’’ says Murray. ’’I got the sense that had
become his mission, to protect others. He is so not like what most
people think of as the chronically homeless person.’’
After Murray left Ecclesia Ministries last month, she and her
successor, the Rev. Kathy McAdams, have regularly visited Conway at
Beth Israel. McAdams is helping plan funeral arrangements and a
memorial service for Conway. Another social worker who’s befriended
Conway, Lenie Kuit of HopeFound, has been assisting with a book
project of his about street life and the homeless. Conway has kept
personal journals for years and hopes the project will be one of his
lasting legacies.
Outside the hospital one recent morning, Conway sat on a bench
feeding crackers to a flock of birds. On his lap was a health-proxy
form that needed his signature. Asked whether he felt comfortable
with his end-of-life arrangements, Conway nodded and puffed on a
cigarette.
’’Kathy will be the one to pull the plug when the time comes,’’
he said. ’’If the pain gets too bad, they’ll know what to do.’’
Conway was scheduled to be transferred to hospice care Wednesday
afternoon.
posted by Sara Hickman at 02:25 am
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let me know where you want me
September 20, 2007
you can go to my http://www.myspace.com/sarahick site and click on the “eventful” link and you can tell me if you want me to come to your town!
we just added this today, and i’d like to see where my strongest spots are to come and perform.
love,
sara
posted by Sara Hickman at 01:17 pm
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Stop This Madness!
September 18, 2007
Imagine walking into your local library, planning to read a
theologian such as Reinhold Niebuhr or Karl Barth, or a popular
inspirational work, such as Rick Warren’s “Purpose-Driven Life”
or Harold Kushner’s “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”.
Or wanting to read the Koran. Or just to see a copy of the Bible…
But instead of finding such important and popular titles, you
discover that the religion section had been decimated - stripped
of any book that did not appear on a government-approved list.
That’s exactly what’s happening right now to inmates in federal
prisons under a Bush administration policy. As _The New York
Times_ put it, “chaplains have been quietly carrying out a
systematic purge of religious books and materials that were once
available to prisoners in chapel libraries.”
I’ve just sent a message to the Federal Bureau of Prisons
protesting this absurd policy. Will you join me?
Just click here:
http://go.sojo.net/campaign/prisonlibraries?rk=z7wU2861p0BpW
You know, if we don’t stop all this bizarre behaviour now, it is only going to get worse.
SPEAK OUT! Even if your voice shakes…cuz I’ll be right there with you!
Love,
Sara
posted by Sara Hickman at 09:11 am
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Dallas Morning News About Sara’s Performance at ACL Fest
You had a favorable mention in the Dallas paper’s review of
the ACL festival:
http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-aclwrapup_0918gl.ART.State.Edition1.41f2ce7.html
If the link doesn’t work:
“And Sara Hickman blasted folks with one bluesy vocal
punch after another. When she has the space to let go,
she’s frighteningly good.”
Hope all is well with you and your family,
Greg D
posted by Sara Hickman at 07:06 am
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LETTER TO MY MOM ABOUT AUSTIN CITY LIMITS Festival: Second Stage, Day Two!!!
September 16, 2007
Thanks to everyone who I’ve forgotten to mention…what a beautiful day, what amazing people..I hope you got to be there!!!
Love,
Sara
LETTER TO MY MOM ABOUT ACL FESTIVAL’S SHOW YESTERDAY ON THE AUSTIN VENTURES STAGE:
Mommy!
It was so exciting! I was going to wear a hat, and then I didn’t wear a hat and just let my hair blow around
and it felt so GOOD! Everyone in the band was so NICE to work with, so PROFESSIONAL, and we only had TWO REHEARSALS and they aced
everything!! The horn players were so so so talented and great, and having them on stage just made it so bouncy! And David Grissom,
the guitarist, who is a LEGEND, well, not only is he GREAT as a player, but very generous and fun on stage to play off of…Kristin and
Lorrie looked laid back and Austin-y in their cute tops; they sang their pa-tooties off! Eddy played keys and he had all the string parts down,
wow…he looked cool in these black shades, too!
I took tee shirts and Kristin came over early yesterday and helped tie ribbons on them so we threw them from the stage during the show…
I also took beach balls which my dear, dear friend Nina helped me blow up (it was her BIRTHDAY and she still wouldn’t let me blow
them up! and we wrote THANK YOU and SARA HICKMAN’S LOVE FEST all over them in black markers)…We threw those from the
stage too…they were bouncing high up in the audience during the show! One even came right at me during a song, and I just kept strumming, jumped from the mic, kicked it back out in the audience, back on the mic! Woo-hoo!
Thankfully, the stage covered all 10 of us from the blazing sun, but the poor audience was out in it, sweating away…they didn’t care!
They were grooving and listening and laughing and singing along…Not sure how many people, maybe 1200 or so, but it was shifting
among the 70,00 + people so couldn’t really tell, but it was A LOT! I brought the video cam Milo gave us on stage and had the
entire crowd say “AUSTIN CITY LIMITS FESTIVAL!” and when I asked, “Who rocks?” they yelled back, “WE DO!” so I have that all on
tape and it is hilarious and breathtaking to see it all from my vantage point on the stage.
…and Ado did a SUPERB job running sound and he came to all the rehearsals (Super Pal Universe AND adult
rehearsals…he just gave and gave and gave of himself!) and the girls got to sit on stage with Nina on the bleachers
under a canopy while Lance was out by Ado videotaping and I saw Jon Sullivan, Paul and Joan Hudson, Liz and
Duff Stuart (and their son, Adam) and Ingrid and Veronica and her mom and I had told the head of security that
Winker was my husband and to let him in so he could shoot photos and the head of security said, “Hey, I thought
I was your husband!” and I said, “Oh, of course, you’re my CURRENT husband!” and he laughed and let Winker in
with the papparazzi of six other photographers with these GIANT lenses aimed at me so, silly me!, I just had fun and
made faces and raced up to the edge of the stage playing my guitar and acting all rock-n-roll in my beautiful
crocheted (spelling?) dress I got from TJ MAXX (originally $189, boughtit for $39!!!) and my blue clunky heels with glass
crystal on top and the beautiful blue flower necklace Teresa lovingly gave me and my smile as big as Texas!!!
Paul Pearcy’s drums were crystaline, sparkly blue, too, and he just jammed away, with Glenn Fukunaga on bass
smiling bigger than ME! And, afterwards, Mark Murray was back stage telling me it was the BEST PERFORMANCE
he’d ever seen me give and the audience was SUPER, just loved eveyone so much! We were all sweaty and Pat,
the monitor man, had a cross around his neck and I asked him (before the show), “What church do you go to?”
and he said, “I go to Something-something Baptist!” (can’t remember the name right now) and I said, “Oh, I go to
First United Methodist!” and he grinned and said, “We’re all on the same team!” and I hugged him and I just felt so
much love from everyone’s prayers and I felt WORRY FREE! I just went for it, and if I
didn’t hit a note just right while I was singing, I had decided before hand I would just let it go in my mind right away…I had
decided I was going to be ALIVE and HAPPY and GRATEFUL to be on that stage! I even called Charlie Jones mother yesterday
(he is one of the founder’s of ACL Fest) to tell her THANK YOU for having such a great son and how excited and honored I was to
play on the bill….
So, there you have it. I couldn’t stop hugging everyone yesterday! Three of the Super Pal’s were in the front of the stage, and it
was fun to sing to them during the show….and Mollie and her very nice boyfriend, Pat, came and helped carry guitars and it was one
heck of a great time, one of the best festival experiences for me, ever. (I”ve had so many great Kerrville ones, but it is tremedous to
have this one for my memory bank…) Oh! And Jeff and Sam Carr were back stage, too….where was Kathy…?
I love you, you are a great mom, and I am blessed to call you mom and thanks for always supporting me in my dream, through
thick and thin. I would not be the woman I am today without your love and guidance and for all your help when I needed you.
XOX
Sara
posted by Sara Hickman at 06:41 am
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AUSTIN CITY LIMITS Festival: Update from Today’s Performance!
September 14, 2007
Soundchecked and the kids were looking snazzy…Erin made their clothes and they were FANTASTIC!
Buffy came and did their makeup…they looked colorful!
Ado ran sound…monster sound!
James brought all the gear and got the kids hooked up right!
Lilly (from Pink) came over and after hugs fixed my hair so cute, then proceeded to give my Lily pink hair and io glitter braids! Fun!
Tor made the production unbelievably fantastic by getting ACL to bring in a REAL stage with real gear and an entire alley set up to
kids fun activities, the Paul Green School of Rock (man, are they awesome! Like having Zeppelin down the hallway!), and met Ryan
from the Bummkin Band…nice, cute, tall, great hat and heart! Looking forward to knowing him better…more children’s music…hooray!
Super nice crowd…I hope I didn’t scare any of the parents with teeny tiny ones, but started out with “iolana’….had a dad come up on stage
to hold the cue cards…
Then brought up the Super Pal Universe and we laid into my new song, “You and Me” which crunches hard!
Then a swing/rock version of “Red Wagon”
then I handed the stage over to the kids…they did the Super Pal Theme Song that they wrote (which is so so so so superb!)
and ended with Nadia’s “Love Comes in Colors”…catchy catchy catchy!
Zoom!!!
io, lily and lance were all in attendance, oh, how awesome!
Lance’s birthday, gave a shout out to my man!
Lily filmed the day…I hired her to be our kid vid filmmaker for the day…she did a great piece cuz I saw the footage later…talking about how she was going to set up shots before she took them..such a PRO!!!
…she was
so into it!
Super Pal Universe rocked, so solid, and only after a few months together…
You can go to AUSTIN CITY LIMITS FESTIVAL’S website and scroll through today’s pictures and there is one of Nadia/Julie smiling out at you…you can’t miss it! They are stars!
They totally rocked…I felt like a proud mama hen.
Came home, hung out with the kids, checked some email, finished watching “West Side Story” with the girls (of course we love “Officer Kruepke”)
and then we all piled into the van, with our friend, Devin, and went and saw Bjork.
We got carted down to her backstage area and made it in with 100 other people for the opportunity to be on stage with Bjork, but after the first 50 made it, they cut off the
rest of us, so took the girls out into the 55,000 zillion people out front…another security guard was nice and tried to get me set up, but it backfired, too, but we finally found a cool spot to hang and watch Bjork’s set.
Hmm. Wasn’t as fierey as we had all hoped..Although she did do “An Army of Me” and the lasers were cool. God bless Jumbotrons! And we’d brought our chairs.
Caught a few minutes of the Killers. Ended up with friends from Lily’s school and headed to the artist’s tents. Met Mae-Mae Stiles who proceeded to give us some of her amazing, one of a kind jewelry
and she should be designing for Hillary (Clinton AND Swank). She was an angel in the midst of the dust and fatigue.
Got the kids home…had loaded the van with pillows, but they giggled with their heads comfy all the way through the crazy traffic.
Such a well run festival. Thanks to all the people who worked so hard to put it together. Really amazing to be a part of it!
posted by Sara Hickman at 09:01 pm
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Philly/Rockville = 3
September 11, 2007
it was greater than great to spend friday with sean hickey and his astounding, fantastic family…i can NOT say
enough good things about them. especially bam, his mother.
she and i both use the number “3” to express “i love you”, and the minute i saw it written on a sticky note in her apartment, i said, “i love you” and we
both got a twinkle in our eyes. she also collects birdhouses and she is a master japanese brush painter. one heckuva an amazing 70 year old woman!
after the show in silver springs, we went back to sean and janis’ house for a party, and it was so relaxing…full of hilarity and super
conversations. ..ok, and there were cookies present! and i even had a glass of wine! (i know, i was surprised, too!)
one young woman named kat drove an hour with her boyfriend, patrick, to get to the show, and we were just wrapping it up, so
the owner hopped up on stage and asked us to do three more for the “young lady who JUST got here!” and kristin and i burst into “best of times”, to which kat leaned back into her
boyfriend’s arms and sang on the lyrics to him. kristin immediately invited them to the party afterwards, and we sat around laughing and talking about everything from parents
(cuz i have parents and i AM a parent….whoa! so weird to get both sides of it all, now!) to nipple piercings and vampires!!! we were listening to mandy moore’s new cd. very good
stuff. also met jim stephens, who is a cross between ralph fiennes and johnny rotten….with a high, enthusiastic grace inside! he just kept talking about how high he was from the
spiritual aspects of the show…and that was exactly where the conversation went further…taking an audience on a spiritual ride via music via grace. right on, brother!
i have got to figure out a way to get people out to concerts when i tour….the people that come are so enthusiastic and supportive. i just know if the amount of people doubled, it would be bedlam, happiness, noise!
the promoter for the chaplin’s show had called me out of the blue and wanted to bring me up to his venue…so, that’s how i got that gig…only problem was, he didn’t do one ouce of promotions, so i was grateful for my
friends and long time fans who showed up…still, the show in silver springs had me down…there were some temporary worries that the new owner was not going to pay because the old promoter had not left
copies of the contracts, but i had a copy/notes to share, and the new owner was honorable (and a very nice man!) and paid out. whew. that was nerve wracking. i’m glad i kept my cool, and i’m glad kristin was there, too.
she kept me on my feet on stage with compliments and winks!
then, of course this is how it goes!, saturday night was PACKED at the folk-n-great concert, and although the room was really hot and sweaty,
kristin and i had a rockin’ time and sold out of cds at break!! and glen roethel, who opened, was sweet as sweet could be..plays lovely guitar and has the voice of an
angel, and his wife, dawn, is our NEW BEST FRIEND! love her! so, thanks to cheryl and david for a really great “pick me up” for having a packed house and for working hard on behalf of the musicians they host.
by the way, the soup you two made for us all was dee-lish!
thanks to my brother, carlton, and his wife, celeste, who picked us up in philly and drove us back to D.C. and on to rockville and then waited til after the show to drive us to their abode, where i slept pretty well with a giant black and white cat (jake) sleeping on my head throughout the night. i woke up with puffy eyes, but the point is: i woke up! that means i SLEPT! so…i see…i need to have a furry creature on my head to get me into long term REM!
if you have any ideas of what else i could do besides blog, newsletter, myspace, the yahoo chat room, please…don’ t hesistate to tell me/us!
i’m trying not to spread myself too thin…to make my music and perform live takes a ton of energy, but to make all this work requires even more planning/thought…
i couldn’t do it without gene (webmaster/newslett er/idea man) and lance (my husband/runs my myspace/love and support) and mollie
(assistant) and teresa (who was our assistant/helper. ..want to give her major creds, too) and marty (engineer/lifelong pal)
but mostly you cuz you are the ones who pick me up,
who make me laugh and remind me of the best of
times…! living right before our eyes…
xo
sara
posted by Sara Hickman at 10:03 am
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Rosh HaShana
September 10, 2007
http://www.aish.com/movies/blinkofeye.asp
L’shana Tova Tikateivu v’Tikhateimu. A gut gebencht yahr tzu dir, deine mishpocha und tzu alle Bais Yisroel!
A Very Happy and Healthy New Year 5768 to You, Your family, and to the Entire House of Israel.
With love,
The Saydman Family
~Shirley, Benzi, Leah, Rivka Chana, Yehuda Ezra, Dodi~
posted by Sara Hickman at 07:26 am
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Live on Fox 7, Austin, TX
September 06, 2007
Love,
You know who
FOX 7 Live Music: Sara Hickman
http://www.myfoxaustin.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail?contentId=4269487&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1
posted by Sara Hickman at 03:21 pm
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My Dad’s Advice to Me…
September 04, 2007
Love,
Sara
http://www.goodlifemag.com/archives/2007/09-07/09-07_Family.pdf
posted by Sara Hickman at 12:18 pm
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Once again, I recommend the Tanner Romania Mission!
September 01, 2007
Once again, I submit to you the Tanner Romania Mission, which I have been very honored to support financially, spiritually, and lovingingly since I can’t even remember when…the mid-90’s?
Here is an update on one of the orphans that Sandie and Bruce, the founders, have taken in as one of their own. Following is a short video clip you can watch with photos of the children.
Please, if you feel so called, donate to this amazing home for children, and/or feel free to
contact the Tanners about going over to Romania to volunteer! You will have the experience of a lifetime, I promise you.
Love,
Sara
PETRICA
Petrica came to us in 1999 when he was 6 yrs old. Till that time he was living at the orphanage in a crib with Constantin, one of our other boys, so the two of them really feel like brothers
but have no memory of the orphanage now, in fact they choose to believe that Bruce and Sandie are their parents! Petrica attends public school after several years of home tutoring and
is just starting 6th grade. He lives at Casa Rachel with his 10 brothers. Petie is the sweetest of all the boys, always gentle, helping others, the first to Praise and recognize the blessings from
God, a very, very special boy.
If you feel led by God to help in the raising of Petrica,
please send your donations to:
Tanner Romania Mission
Second National Bank
PO Box 130
Greenville, Ohio 45331-0130
Attention Linda J. Allread,
Customer acct dept.
Thank you and may God bless you all as He blesses our children here……
Sandie Tanner
TO WATCH A SHORT VIDEO OF OUR MISSION, PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW:
http://animoto.com/play/fc816540bc39bd2480af0ed98a72184d
For info on volunteering:
http://www.tannermission.org
posted by Sara Hickman at 07:20 am
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sarahickman.com | Bio | Music | Shows | Press | Store | Community | Zooks
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Whether you've learned about Sara Hickman through her music, her family, her causes, or her films, you know that her originality, creativity, and enthusiasm bring a fresh meaning to the well-worn phrase "living life to the fullest."
What makes Sara tick? What has she been up to since she first hit the ground running (well, at least crawling in the early years)?
Read a complete bio at sarahickman.com.
Visit Start the Dialogue
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Press Coverage
KUT's Austin Music Minute
Jupiter Index interview
Motherlode Reviews
Sara heads the Austin Chronicle Fortunate 500 Music List once again!
Here's the 2006 list.
Listen and vote for Sara on the American Idol Underground, featuring on-demand streams of popular artists like Sara!
Check out this cool map showing where Sara fans are across the nation -- and add yourself to the map!
Motherlode
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Faithful Heart
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Big Kid
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Featuring "Look At Me" as heard on American Idol!
I Am Going On A Journey: the DVD
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