The bad news is I developed a respiratory illness and then laryngitis shortly before the benefit concert for Hazel’s House Rescue – and wasn’t able to sing Cat Nap Blues! The band played the MP3 file instead.
The good news is the event was great fun, everyone enjoyed the music of the band, Ten O’Clock Hill, and we raised $452 to benefit the work Brittany Hazel is doing to help the homeless cats, sometimes dogs, and even a bearded dragon or two in the Willamette Valley.
So, here are a bunch of photos of the event.
Me and Brittany HazelThe Band, Ten O’Clock HillFriend Margaret, who found the venue for us, George and meRaffle prizes, with many more followingMore of the band in this wonderful venue – Chehalem Winery Tasting Room, Newberg, OregonMy husband drawing and presenting raffle prizes (every one went to a good home!)The elegant Mardi Gras mask went home with a cowboy!And here’s his mother wearing it
If you ever want to celebrate something newsworthy (like the release of my single) I encourage you to consider combining that celebration with a fundraiser for a good cause. I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
One day early spring, 2022, my cat was sitting on the kitchen counter, as she often does.
Yes, my husband and I let Linn on the counters. We tried keeping her off for a while, but at one point George just looked at me and asked, “Is her being on the counters really hurting anything?” My response: “No.”
She’s been prowling the counters as she wishes ever since.
By the way, if you’ve ever wondered why counters are called that, here’s what Google tells me: “It entered Old French sometime in the 1300s as contoeur (from comptoir), and was used to describe the table where sales and banking occurred, where things were counted by a counter. The counter (person) used the counter (object) to count upon.”
But, I digress. Back to Linn sitting on the kitchen counter that one early spring day.
A line of lyrics popped into my head. Cat’s sittin’ on the counter. Just a-singin’ the blues. Cause someone came along, and interrupted her snooze. The line came with a melody, a traditional blues riff. I added a few more lyrics and sang it to George. He chuckled.
So I added a few more lyrics, and George chuckled more, then a refrain that she had the Cat Nap Blues. Suddenly it was an entire song I’d never even intended to write.
Here’s where it gets weird. My car was being serviced at Erickson’s Automotive, the only auto shop I’ve ever 100% trusted. Bill Erickson is in a band called Ten O’Clock Hill and I love their CD, Good to Go. Because I knew Bill is also a musician, I sang a few bars and wondered if the band might want to play around with Cat Nap Blues. They did, and we started rehearsing the song together at Ron Stearn’s home studio in Beavercreek.
Then…the band told me they know the legendary Dean Baskerville, a music producer who has worked with the likes of Sheryl Crow, and that he would be in Oregon in October.
All of a sudden I was making a professional recording, in a professional studio, of the only song I’ve ever written both lyrics and music to.
Dean BaskervilleTen O’Clock HillDead Aunt Thelma’s Studio Jerry Wilson, Videographer and Cover Art Creator Cover Art by Jerry WilsonMe – First Time in a Professional Recording StudioMe and Hubby
Because of my cat.
Wow, that is something to completely revel in!
To celebrate the release of Cat Nap Blues February 18, I’m hosting a benefit concert for Hazel’s House Rescue, where we adopted Linn in 2020, at Chehalem Winery Tasting Room in Newberg. Here’s the flyer with all pertinent information. You can make donations here: https://paypal.me/LauraHandke or at the live event. The raffle prizes are super fun!
Come join us! Have a glass of wine, enjoy the music of Ten O’Clock Hill, and help the homeless kitties of the Willamette Valley all at the same time!
After she is tragically orphaned, young Abella loses the ability to speak her truth and express herself. She is sent to live with a reclusive uncle she’s never met, and her only friend is her horse. Abella endures heartbreak, loneliness and questions who she truly is inside. Eventually, she meets friends and animals who help her not only regain her voice, but also uncover her strength and purpose. Purchase How Abella Found her Voice for $4.95 here: https://laurahandke.com/product/how-abella-found-her-voice-e-book/
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
This is my second rodeo with Milwaukie’s Chapel Theatre, a charming venue in an old church. The festival concept is SO cool, and all about community building. Local playwrights submit short 10-minute plays, directors apply to direct, and actors submit on-line auditions. So none of us have any idea what play we’ll be in or who we’ll be working with ahead of time. This season they accepted 10 out of 52 submitted plays.
The Card is a dark comedy about three people who work in the same office. Two blank cards are being passed around – one is a congratulatory card for a co-worker who will be leaving the office for a promotion and the other is a sympathy card for another co-worker whose mother passed away. Someone thought she was signing the congratulations card when it was actually the sympathy card, and chaos ensues.
My character, Harper, is “always happy, extremely happy, all.the.time” and therefore quite disliked. Fearless leader (and prop expert) Drew Dannhorn directs. My fellow castmates are Rhona Klein and Pam Quinlan. Rhona also wrote a play featured in the festival, and Pam is a Portland-based stand-up comedian.
The Chapel Theatre website has a full list of all the plays both evenings. If you come see The Card, hang around and say hello after the show – I’d love to see you!
After she is tragically orphaned, young Abella loses the ability to speak her truth and express herself. She is sent to live with a reclusive uncle she’s never met, and her only friend is her horse. Abella endures heartbreak, loneliness and questions who she truly is inside. Eventually, she meets friends and animals who help her not only regain her voice, but also uncover her strength and purpose. Purchase How Abella Found her Voice for $4.95 here: https://laurahandke.com/product/how-abella-found-her-voice-e-book/
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
I had to have a conversation with my voice teacher recently about a yucky, sticky topic: throat gunk. A plethora of mucus on my vocal folds during rehearsals for the holiday show seriously compromised my ability to sing. A mastermind partner in my Wishweaving Circle had the same issue as she was in the studio recording her audio book.
If throat gunk has impacted your vocal quality, check out the 10 minute video above for advice on how to deal with it.
Two main takeaways:
*If you’re hoarse, don’t sing and limit your speaking.
*As long as you’re not dealing with a sinus or bronchial infection, guaifenesin (I used the Walgreens generic version of Mucinex tablets) will be your new best friend. I also use a saline sinus rinse from time to time.
Whatever holidays you celebrate this time of year, I hope you’ve been healthy and enjoying the season so far. After the Thanksgiving week COVID misadventure, my husband and I, and Linn the cat, had a quiet and lovely Christmas celebration.
Here’s my Christmas dinner Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe because it was awesome. If you make it, let me know how it turns out!
Chicken Cordon Bleu a la Voice Teacher Laura
-Two large chicken breasts, halved/fileted horizontally
-Melted butter with garlic powder, salt and pepper
-1/2 pound thinly sliced ham
-1/3 pound thinly sliced provolone cheese
-An egg or two with a bit of olive oil, whipped with a fork
-Flour, about 1/2 cup
-Bread crumbs (I like Progresso’s, Italian seasoning) mixed with grated parmesan cheese, approximately 1 ½ cup bread crumbs with three over-flowing tablespoons cheese
Pound the chicken pieces with a meat hammer, covering with plastic wrap before pounding to reduce splatter.
Brush seasoned melted butter onto the chicken piece.
Add folded pieces of ham and cheese.
Roll up each chicken piece with the seasoned butter, ham and cheese, and secure with toothpicks.
Roll each piece in the egg mixture, then the flour, then the bread crumb mixture. Put in a baking dish and bake, uncovered, at 375 for about 40 minutes.
I like this with bearnaise sauce (from a packet), Uncle Ben’s https://www.bensoriginal.com/ wild rice, and steamed Brussel sprouts. A lively and tasty combination.
Happy New Year! May your inner and outer voices be completely aligned and ring out with confidence and joy throughout the year 2023 and beyond.
God’s blessings to you and yours.
After she is tragically orphaned, young Abella loses the ability to speak her truth and express herself. She is sent to live with a reclusive uncle she’s never met, and her only friend is her horse. Abella endures heartbreak, loneliness and questions who she truly is inside. Eventually, she meets friends and animals who help her not only regain her voice, but also uncover her strength and purpose. Purchase How Abella Found her Voice for $4.95 here: https://laurahandke.com/product/how-abella-found-her-voice-e-book/
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
The That Holiday Feeling show I was in with the NW Senior Theatre was an absolute blast, until over half the cast got sick, and many of us tested positive for Covid, including yours truly. So, I spent Thanksgiving week sick in quarantine in my bedroom. One saving grace was reading Brenda Novak novels I’d gotten from the library. She’s one of my new favorite novelists, and I think I’ve read almost every book in the Silver Springs series. https://brendanovak.com/
Theatre people have a “the show must go on” attitude that I understand and respect. But, please, not when cast members are symptomatic and come on in and infect fellow cast members anyway. This bugged me when I worked in the corporate environment as well, years before Covid, and one sick person would come to work and infect the entire office. Surely we can be smarter than that now.
Rant over.
The illness threw me off my routine, and I haven’t been meditating like I usually do. Even just 12 minutes a day makes a huge difference in my sense of feeling grounded, centered, and connected to higher wisdom. Hence, the title of this post.
Yet, I can say with the energy I do have right now – there’s a huge project coming up I can’t say much about right now. Maybe come January it won’t need to be so much of a secret.
Other news is I will soon be releasing a single of a song I wrote called Cat Nap Blues. My muse was our cat, Linn, and the band Ten O’Clock Hill made all of this possible. They introduced me to the legendary Dean Baskerville, who mastered the recording right here in Oregon. We don’t have details yet for the release date. Preliminary plans are to have a mini benefit concert in Newberg, Oregon, to support Hazel’s House https://hazelshousepdx.com/, the shelter where George and I adopted Linn.
Keep posted – more details will be coming soon!
After she is tragically orphaned, young Abella loses the ability to speak her truth and express herself. She is sent to live with a reclusive uncle she’s never met, and her only friend is her horse. Abella endures heartbreak, loneliness and questions who she truly is inside. Eventually, she meets friends and animals who help her not only regain her voice, but also uncover her strength and purpose. Purchase How Abella Found her Voice for $4.95 here: https://laurahandke.com/product/how-abella-found-her-voice-e-book/
Please spread the love and pass this along to a friend!
