coolest gig yet

welp, i kinda gave up on the blog, clearly. it seems that like 2 people read it so its not worth devoting time that i dont have to keep it up to date. but today was just a really fun day i would like to remember so im going to document, and ill throw some cliffnotes in real quicklike.

over this year the band began playing shows! the first gig came when a friend who works at a bar asked us if we were playing still and if we wanted to open for someone. we quickly asked my brother charlie if he would be willing to learn the songs, and to my pleasant surprise he was excited about it! weve played about 7 shows in 4 different venue, and we have grown in leaps and bounds. charlie used to shake uncontrollably on stage and now he dances like the hippy free spirit he was meant to be. i used to be scared to look at an audience and now (when the audience is nice, anyways) i am free to be myself and joke around and talk! we even got my friend chris to start playing drums with us at shows, which really makes us sound like a true band.

i played a show with another band and sang one song. the owner of the venue (the firebird) later said to charlie that it was the best local vocal performance he had seen.

we finished our demo record and put it up for free download at arthurandthelibrarian.bandcamp.com we are too poor and busy at the moment but we fully plan on making a cd, and david deck will be getting the very first copy free of charge for his support and encouragement.

we already have a second albums worth of material and are thinking of saving up gig money and going to a real studio for this one.

we were asked to play at the xmas party for st louis' music magazine 'eleven' magazine! that should be quite fun.

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nursing school is going swimmingly so far! i just finished my third semester, and second semester of clinicals and am looooving it. i am connecting so well with my patients and learning more than i thought i would have at this point...still soooo much i dont know. nurses are amazing. i want to be a good nurse so bad.

we finished 'demos' this year, which was the most stress inducing portion of the schooling.

i am still transporting at st johns, but have recently approached a manager about becoming a nurses aid. im ready for the next step.

school has been so full of tough moments and information that at times i feel very fragile and will tear up at the silliest moments (im like one of those girls who starts crying at a hallmark commercial. its weird). this career is definitely going to give me a thick hide. ...seeing death is a weird experience. i dont have time to explain that in depth unfortunately...

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anyways, today is why im blogging. me and charlie had a gig of a different sort. we played and talked about music to a 2nd grade class at st. stephens. we had prepared 2 songs (cant buy me love, and charlie's jaguar and the fool song) and figured they would be bored after that. boy were we wrong! after our two songs and discussion, almost every kid raised their hand with questions. then they started requesting more songs! we played another song and answered another whirlwind of questions! then they asked for more songs! so we played impending doom. when they asked what the name of the song was charlie said, 'impending moon.' : ) then they asked for yet another song! we didnt have any songs ready that were really 2nd grade appropriate, so we played not in nottingham from the disney robin hood. i changed the lyrics on the fly to, 'cant there be some happiness for me? maybe at st steves.' : ) at that point we had been there about 50 minutes fielding questions and playing, so we said we had to go. some of the kids asked if we were on youtube and wanted to look us up (what? second graders?)

the class gathered round and we took a picture with them : ) a kid looked up at charlie and said, 'can i go home with you guys?' hearts=melted. then as we were putting our guitars away they all clapped and asked for more songs. many of them came up and gave us high fives while 3 of them came up nervously and gave me a hug. oy! more heart melting. one girl came up and said i should be a music teacher and that we were really good at music, and handed me a little piece of paper that said, "you are awsome, Aislin."

it was a good day.

fall semester, new year, tuition paid for, music progress

hah. well since the last time i posted a lot has happened. it is a new year, for starters. fall semester went swimmingly. it was quite easy and i met a handful of cool people who are joining me in nursing school, some of them even working at st johns. so its been a very supportive atmosphere, whenever im feeling lost i have a network to lean on.

im just gonna hit the highlights since my time is brief and im at bread co. i am actually on my new laptop that i got for xmas! i got it mainly to start working on song ideas while aubrey is away. however, me and aubs have still been playing music and recording whenever we are in the same town. we have an albums worth of songs done and will be making a cd soon titled, 'reverend white pigeon speaks on love and the end of the world.' and the cover art will be said pigeon courtesy of miss aubrey, who is quite the artist.

among her other skills, she is a talented networker and knows people at a radiostation in seattle, and a dj at loyolas college radio station. we were played on that station already and hope to get some more air time soon! so yeah, music is going great.

and though it would seem things cant get better, i found out some more wonderful news in this young new year. ive been communicating with a lady through missouri career sources ever since i was on unemployment, and she finally came through for me, and will be assisting me with the REST of my school bills! did i even talk about the labor grant? ohhh my lord. ok, so long story short, i got into a nursing program through the dept. of labor, and they are paying for 60% of my tuition. im not even going to talk about how my advisor didnt tell me about it, but suffice to say not only am i already into nursing school without having to be on any wait lists, i am getting everything. everything...paid for by the govt, because im broke. it seems like a sign from God that im heading in the right direction. before this all happened i could barely tie my shoes without asking someone for help (parents, friends) in areas i didnt understand. but now that ive decided what i want to do with my career, ive felt a weird new confidence that has made me a bit of a man of action. i wouldnt say this is in all areas of life, but its good to know im not completely useless.

those are the biiiig things in life, lots of fun stuff happening on the side, my brother moved into his own place, i started doing events with an improve group, i sold my car (which ive been trying to do for many months), and ive had quite a few fun roadtrips up to chicago.

heres a link to our website and to the radiostation that miiiight play our stuff again (on thursdays from 4-6) :

http://www.wix.com/howardaubrey/arthurandthelibrarian

http://wluw.org/ (click on the cloud at the top to listen)