Sooj

I’m heading out to the west coast this month for PantheaCon, a couple of delightful shared shows with Betsy Tinney on cello, and my birthday!

PantheaCon is hosted by the Doubletree San Jose, 2050 Gateway Pl, 95110, and runs from February 17-20.

Ancient Ways’ PantheaCon will experience a full Mythpunk Masquerade invasion this year, thanks to Sharon Knight & Winter, Sooj & Betsy, Dogwood & Johnstone and Tempest!  

Get tickets here! 

We have a whole bunch of wild, witchy, folkloric and fun concerts and appearances throughout the weekend. Listen for the siren call and join us!  I’ll be presenting a themed concert, Shapeshifters & Siren Songs, on Sunday evening.  We’ll also have a big full-band concert together with the whole pack of us, as well as more intimate concerts, some hosted by the CAYA Coven hospitality suite!

From the event website: We are tribes of choice. We come in many shapes, sizes, ages, pasts and futures. We take many forms and many spiritual paths.  But we appreciate our variety and glory in it all. In diversity comes strength.

Join our huge and varied Pagan, Heathen, Wiccan, Reconstructionist, Indigenous, spiritual and magical groups in education and celebration. As usual we fill the whole hotel with over 14 function rooms for workshops, rituals, concerts, and presentations including 4 ballrooms for Vendors along with open house parties.

After PantheaCon, Betsy and I have two sweet shared shows together.  We’ll be in Portland, OR on my birthday!

WEDNESDAY, FEB 22, 7-9:30pm
Faery Queens & Siren Songs: Sooj’s Birthday Concert!
The Sacred Well, Portland
SE 13th Ave & SE Lexington St, Portland, OR 97202
Get Tickets!

Come celebrate Sooj’s birthday with Sooj & Betsy as they perform together in The Sacred Well’s gorgeous new Portland location!  Sooj & Betsy have loved and worked with the Sacred Well team at their Oakland location in past years, and they’re so grateful to have a new Portland location to visit!  We hope you will be, too!  

PLEASE NOTE:  space is limited to 30, and bringing your own chair along just in case is advised.  Seating will open at 6:45pm on the evening of the concert.

The Sacred Well Portland, located at 7927 SE 13th Ave at Lexington, proudly serves the spiritual supply needs of Pagans, polytheists, witches, Wiccans, gem & mineral enthusiasts, and metaphysical/new age communities of the greater Portland, Beaverton, Milwaukie, Clackamas, and Gresham areas. Your magic is our mission!

After Portland, it’s back to our favorite small stage for the first time in a long time!

SATURDAY, FEB 25, 7-10PM
Sooj & Betsy Live at Soulfood Coffeehouse!
15748 Redmond Way
Redmond, WA 98052
$20 suggested donation

Special guests are likely; everyone is welcome!

I’ll head home again for a stay-cation, a little remodeling, and some more recording time at the end of the month.  Wish me luck on not working through the scheduled stay-cation!  

Also please feel free to wish me luck this coming Wednesday, February 8.  I’ll be having outpatient surgery that day.  No crisis, but my PCP & my surgeon say it’s time for my gallbladder to say farewell.  This should be much less invasive than the last time I had surgery, back in 2009.  Unlike then, I currently have insurance coverage.  Needless to say, after that’s been wrangled, if I need to put out the call for help or healing, I promise you all that I will.

I learned yesterday morning that a project very dear to my heart is gathering a whole lot of momentum.  

 
Most of you will have seen my music videos for “Neptune” and “D&D” on YouTube by now.  Film maker Ben Dobyns & Zombie Orpheus Entertainment who helped me bring those videos to life, is now making it happen with a project called Strowlers.  The world of Strowlers is a world much like our own- people who are somewhat different, in this case who have magical talent, are persecuted and held in suspicion while just trying to get through their daily lives.  Strowlers has the potential to be a very powerful story told on film, and I think it stands a chance at helping a lot of people.

I have seen the pilot episode of the hoped-for Strowlers series, which includes POC in leading roles, a healthy same-sex relationship, AND rebel librarians. I got to stand on a Seattle rooftop one morning and be filmed for a brief appearance in the teaser-trailer for Strowlers – keep reading and you’ll find out where to see this.  Lastly, I have written two songs for and about the project so far.  I found out today that Ben and his team have launched a Kickstarter for the production of two Strowlers short films: one set in Ireland and one set in Mongolia.  

Filming is complete for the story told in Ireland.  The story told in Mongolia will be told from the point of view of its local cast, including the shamans of Ulaanbaatar, who fell in love with the concept of Strowlers and invited Ben and his team to create a short film with them.  

What I’m telling you is that Strowlers has got representation all over the place, which I think we need now more than ever.  Storytelling is a magic that’s been with us longer than any of our nations have existed, and Ben & his team know how to use that magic for good.  I believe in this project, and I’m so excited to see where it’s going.  I’m also proud to be credited as “songwriter” in the Kickstarter description, something I neither asked for nor expected.  

Bonus:  if you watch the entire Strowlers pitch video for the fundraiser, you’ll not only see my little cameo, but you’ll also hear those songs I mentioned writing!  They’re called “Mirror-self” and “Burn Me Out”.  

Check out the Strowlers Preludes Kickstarter here.

TODAY, ALL DAY, Bandcamp.com, where all of my music can be purchased via download or CD, is donating THEIR SHARE of every single music purchase to the ACLU.
Our founder Ethan Diamond made a beautiful statement about this commitment Read it here.

If you’ve been waiting to order or purchase downloads of my stuff or music that my friends make, today would be the perfect day.

Even better is that this has become a call to action for us musicians, also.  
I just committed to donating MY share of today’s sales as well, and so have over 400 other artists and labels.  I hope you’ll support this cause with me. My download page is here.

This weekend I’m performing Fri-Sun at Glimmerdark in Princeton, NJ!  If you’re here amongst the magical creatures, come and see me!  The event is hosted by the Hyatt Regency Princeton.

FRIDAY

8:30-9:30pm, WITHERSPOON BALLROOM TECH STAGE:
Themed concert, Mythpunks in Neverland!

SATURDAY

1:30-2:30pm, RUTGERS:
Internal Alchemy workshop/presentation/mini-concert

8:30-9:30pm, WITHERSPOON BALLROOM TECH STAGE:
Themed concert, The Good Witch/Bad Witch Revue!
followed by Frenchy & the Punk!  

SUNDAY
3:30-4:30pm, WITHERSPOON BALLROOM TECH STAGE:
Themed concert, Shapeshifters & Siren Songs!

Hi, everyone!

I hope the weather, work, and your blood- or chosen-family are all treating you well, and if not, I hope the tide changes for you soon.

I’m also hoping you can join me this evening – I get to share a concert with my sweet song-sister Bekah Kelso, online, everywhere the signal can reach, just for you.

Here’s the link for the concert broadcast, which will begin at 7:30pm CENTRAL TIME, and wrap up at 9pm Central.

Here’s the Facebook event if you’d like to be part of the discussion there, and also share the info with your Facebook peeps.  Feel free to invite anybody you think would enjoy what we do, together and apart!

In Bekah’s words, we’re gonna music & chill, y’all.

It’s my last concert of any kind for this year, so expect it to be one of a kind.  Bekah and I have been singing together for more than a decade, through years and years of beauty, life changes, and revelations.  I cannot recommend her music highly enough, and I cannot wait to sing with her again, live from her living room, for all of you!  It’ll be a warm and welcoming acoustic concert, and you can watch from any device that connects to the web.  Bonus:  if watching from a computer, you can take advantage of the “chat room” feature on Concert Window, which is always a treat!  Join that flock of friends (some you’ll have met, and some you haven’t yet) and chat with us as we share songs and stories, harmonies and happiness.

Bekah and I each have a song on The Green Album! Have you heard that yet?

OTHER (BRIEF) NEWS

Remember my Traveling Songs promotion?  As the greatest fan family ever, you’ve all helped me raise more than thirteen monthly car payments for my new touring vehicle since mid-July!  THANK YOU from the bottom of my happy heart!  Shadowfax is going strong, and it looks like that shiny new odometer is already going to read something around 25,000 miles at the end of this year.  Shadowfax is an absolute pleasure to drive!  Thanks also to those of you who’ve sent me your feedback about those Traveling Songs- it means the world to me to know which ones you love, which ones you keep going back to, and which ones you truly love best of all!  If you haven’t heard about this and you’re curious, click here to learn more.

I released a polished version of one of the Traveling Songs, “Moving Meditation”, just a little while ago, as part of a new playlist.  Check it out and listen here.  It’s free to download if you like, but I’m using money from any paid downloads of that collection to beef up my year-end donations to Planned Parenthood, the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, and the Water Protector Legal Collective.  Those donations are looking pretty respectable now, thanks to those paid downloads.  Thank you all so very much.  Not only are you helping to make a difference, you’re doing so when you could have had the music for free.  Thank You!

Before I go, I just want to reassure you all that, no matter what’s in store for us in 2017, I have a WHOLE LOT of music planned for you.  I have a whole lot of concerts, starting with some really fun stuff at PantheaCon in California this coming February.  I have a whole lot of goodness to send your way, I am gonna keep making songs and sharing them with you, and I’m so glad for the connection that we all have through those songs.  2016 was rough on a lot of us.  I just want you all to know that it wasn’t so rough on me that I won’t keep singing, keep traveling, and keep doing my best to give you all something new to enjoy, as often as I can.  You’ve told me, via the internet and face to face, that it makes a difference, so I’m going to keep doing what I do.  We are a community here in this little fandom, beautiful and diverse and strong.  May we continue to be so.  May we thrive.  May we grow in strength.  May we keep learning, doing our best, and learning how to do better when we fall short.  May we do right by one another, by friends and by strangers.  May we conquer whatever there is to come, together.

Movement and dance have really helped me to reset for the past week- for most of my life, tbh. I know I’m not the only one. So here’s a new mixtape and a new song. Grab it for free if you like. Any paid downloads will help me beef up my upcoming donations to Planned Parenthood, the Buffalo River Watershed Alliance, the Water Protector Legal Collective, and other local causes I support. $300 so far, since I launched this yesterday evening; nice work, folks. 🙂

 

Further thoughts prompted by the election results:

Fellow women, my Queer tribe, my witches, my POC neighbors, my Muslim neighbors, I know right now it feels as if the bullies have knocked us down, or that they’re going to very soon.
That just means that it’ll be our turn again next.
The people who want us scared and divided forever are in for a bit of a shock.
I’m not saying you gotta start building the barricade, but I am saying that we already know how to fight for what we have and what we need and what we believe. We already have been. And wouldn’t we rather fight and win than have it handed to us? Wouldn’t we rather survive and thrive, out of love and/or spite?
I’m not saying to go pick a fight with your relatives or your neighbors. I’m saying stay woke, and remember that you’re not alone, not ever. I’m saying that we need to be ready to give ’em hell. To speak up and speak out, to sing and to write and to paint and to create, and to keep on. To vote in the 2018 election, and every midterm and primary that comes along.

Get some rest, take a shower, eat something. When you’re ready to stand again, there will always be a place for you. Freak the fuck out and THEN carry on, when you can.

And yes, I would die for all of you if it came to that. Over and over, for as long as it takes.
We are damn expensive player-characters, and in the words of the late great Drew Hayes, we get the experience points, like it or not.
I think we’re all gonna have a LOT of XP to spend after the next few years together.
So be it. Get your character sheet.

The following words are for any and all of my friends and fans worldwide who are struggling with fear, grief, numbness, or rage today. If this doesn’t describe you, I urge you to attempt understanding and compassion if and when you encounter someone who’s worried or upset about the election results.