January 2018: honeymoon in Lisbon & Madeira, student of the year, gym membership!

Below are excerpts from a newsletter sent in January.

You can view previous newsletters here.

Happy New Year!

To the tune of "It Was a Very Good Year":
Two thousand seventeen
It was a very good year...
It was a very good year
For me in my bubble in Washougal.
I married Kelli Rule,
Opened my music school,
I went to Portugal.
This year's been pretty cool.  :D
[see video of me playing and singing it here]

Things are well. I spent 8 days in Portugal with Kelli for our honeymoon: 3 days in Lisbon, and 4 on the island of Madeira. It was fantastic! You can view photos on Facebook here. 


The Washougal School of Music has been growing steadily; I have several new students and have been teaching more than ever before. Thank you Washougal! I awarded a Student of the Year 2017 to a hard-working youngster, along with a scholarship. :) 

Last year my involvement with 4 bands ended...I'm paring down a bit. Still, somehow I'm gigging every weekend night in February! 4 bands left.

And in another major lifestyle change, last month I joined a gym and have been working out 3 times a week! I enjoy it and feel fit.
 

Summer Summary: Marriage, School, and Recordings Published

It was quite an intense summer!

• I got married to the wonderful Kelli Rule -- photos coming soon;
• I attended the epic Oregon Eclipse Festival, and the Oregon Country Fair, for almost a week each;
• intense heat waves and fires, some of which were creeping alarmingly near to Washougal, made for stressful situations;
• my main project the Hot Club of Hawthorne did a record amount of shows in a month, and is releasing a CD; 
• and the Washougal School of Music continued to pick up steam and new students:
• we've had over 25 students, including lots of happy customers; see our testimonials on Facebook;  
• we were featured in a lovely article in the Camas/Washougal Post-Record;
• we're developing an equipment loaning library;
• we added ukulele lessons to our services.

I look forward to the winter, when I can get more focused on developing my curriculum, my websites, and my video portfolio.  And I'm forcing myself to work on my original material, and home recording, too!

Washougal School of Music launched

For the last few months, I've focused on making my teaching endeavor a legit business.   So, I've started building the Washougal School of Music!  At my new residence in Washougal, I have a nice home studio which is perfect to teach out of.  I'm offering individual lessons in guitar, piano, and mandolin.  I currently have two students.  :)  And I'm doing outreach into the community, including playing the piano at local charity events, joining the Chamber of Commerce, and tabling at local bazaars.  I also have met with small business consultants through the wonderful program SCORE, and they have helped me figure out my business plan on how to move forward!

Two places to find us on the web:

• washougalschoolofmusic.com
• wsom.rocks

I couldn't resist getting that 2nd one.  :)

Students are coming in fast!  :D

website updates; new projects

website

I've been taking advantage of time spent indoors during all the snow and ice storms, to work on some long-neglected areas of this website! There is still more to do -- there always will be! -- but so far I've worked on:

• music page: made a table for presenting the different types of info for each band, with all the info in a database. Soon I'll add music players of select tracks in there...right now, it's just a link.
• web design page: for my portfolio, I set up a column on the left, and a big preview frame to the right. Added descriptions and features.
• history page: entitled sections "personal" and "musical performance"; updated both sections
• header: I also final got rid of that ancient image in the header! I'm playing around with slideshows...
• links page: weeded out outdated links.
• added a new background too! Similar colors, but different. :)

I've rediscovered the joy of web design and coding. I'm often reluctant to devote a chunk of time to learning a new web design skill, but I do want to up my game, and maybe get some new clients.

I welcome any suggestions or tips!

new projects

In the last 6 months, I've started playing with 2 different bands:

• Ne Plus Ultra Jass Orchestra -- big band playing elaborate, arrangements of the 20s and 30s
• Bilgerats & Pyrettes -- pirate-themed band, costumes and all! Great singers, and fun people with theatrical backgrounds

See my music page for details and links.

major life changes!

2016 has been a whirlwind year:

• I bought my first car ever. Yep, I didn't have a car until I was 45 years old. It's a Prius, and I love it. This has allowed me to take a lot more gigs, and...
• I moved away from Portland! I had lived there 19 years. My girlfriend discovered she had the option to buy, esp. outside of town. I thought about it, and it sounded good! Portland had gotten kind of crazy and dangerous... And I just don't go out like I used to. We looked in various areas, and decided we liked the town of Washougal, WA (and Camas). We now are proud owners of a lovely home, complete with a studio perfect for my teaching pursuits. I lost all my students, but I believe I will be able to find plenty here. Aside from that, I'm keeping my musical projects in Portland (for now) -- it's only a 20-minute commute.
• I got engaged to the love of my life, Kelli Rule. She is a gem of a human being in all respects. I am beyond thrilled, and extremely grateful. :)

Let the new chapter begin!

We bought a house in Washougal!

website improvements

I've finally got some work done on my website! I'm rediscovering the enjoyment in web design and coding. :) The calendar on the future page is set up like pdxjams dot com was: using a custom CMS, I have band and venue info in a database so it's quick for me to add events using a web form, and the links & images are automatic. Also, I've added a video page and improved the home, music, instruction, and images pages a bit. There are still some things to clean up to restore it to its former glory (and take it to the next level). As I continue to make improvements, I'll add a note on the news page to point it out.