I don’t even know where to begin, as once again I realize it’s been a bit of time since I’ve updated my blog. This often happens when life takes over and I get blissfully and wickedly wrapped and caught up inside it. I have spent the past 3 weeks preparing for one of the biggest events in a long time… the Urban Arts Event. http://www.urbanarts-tc.com/ which I was chosen to participate in. 30 Local artists were selected, some had 10 pieces involved, some had one, I had submitted 4 pieces and they chose 3 of them. Pretty great odds, but still, I was blown away and a nervous wreck!!! I had some amazing support from family and friends and people I’ve never even met, until that evening.  I arrived there early and I had asked Joe (one of the coordinators) if I could help and he put my friend and I to work right away. I was more than happy to be helping, as it gave me a first hand look at most All of the art that would be on display. Major amounts of space were used and hundreds of art work hung from various pieces of wood. After about an hour I finally got to my 3 pieces and we set those up as well, directly adjacent to the Jazz Band…which was the best ear candy I’ve had in a long time! The event began at 7PM and went to 1PM. I had come with a friend who offered to join me, however she wanted to leave early and said she would gladly bring me back to her place, and give me directions back so I could just hop in my car. Well, I’m a big hot mess when it comes to driving in unfamiliar territory, so to my major disappointment,  my safest option was to call it a night. Unfortunately I really didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye or thank you to anyone….it was just ‘time to go’….I swallowed my disappointment and decided it’s time to get a GPS, because the only person one can truly count on, is oneself. Lesson 1 was gladly learned and it feels really great to just rely on my own self.

The weekend went by far too quick in the cities, my friend and I spent a lot of time near St. Anthony Main in the cities…she’s a huge history buff and enjoyed filling me in on all the spectacular sights I saw, my camera in hand as I snapped photos, ate amazing food, had some great beers, some great laughs, and really great people watching!!! Being near the water has always been where I feel the most at home, as I was raised in a city that was surrounded by water (Upper Michigan). On Sunday Morning I went to pick up my art, thanked Joe (he and April Erickson..both amazing artists, were the coordinators for the event along with a couple other talented souls who also displayed their art)….I couldn’t thank them enough, and explained to them in so many words my quick departure…gratitude is key in my life, and leaving people without thanking them is not my forte…it’s not what I do.

Coming home was an incredibly welcoming experience, my art in the back of my car, next to my guitar….I had run into my very talented friend MJ Kroll who has a House Party this weekend (see my calendar) and asked if I would like to be a part of it….OH HELL YEAH…this girl knows how to rock the best of them. So a gig on Saturday Aug. 21′st…I hope if you are local, you can make it!! Also on Sept. 16th I will be performing a show at BAR FLY… information here… https://tickets.aftonshows.com/SuzenJueL You may purchase your online tickets there.  And while I’m at it, here are a few BIG DEALS that fans can do … to support an artist. POST the event on your myspace/facebook/twitter. Give people flyers to the event, word of mouth is so necessary. When You purchase the tickets for the show….you will be given fliers to hand out…post one at your job, your apt.building…anywhere. It’s SO Easy and well, I can’t do it all by myself!

This is the time of year, my soul soars and my emotions run strong and steady. I’m so aware of every thing that I see, and the core of my soul, is NEVER wrong. However, I have learned, not everyone is ok with my observations,…sometimes I hit the nail on the head so hard it makes my own head spin, not to mention the head of those around me. Knowledge is power though, and those that truly know me, know my soul. I have sadly learned….not everyone has the compassion to deal with such realities and well, that’s ok, I just don’t have any room for the ignorant of the world…they drain me with their need for constant explanations of themselves and their constant need to for petty attentions. I have also learned…in the most amazing beautiful way, I am CRAZY about the world and even though the people I sometimes surround myself, are often large disappointments, there are so many beautiful things around me…how could I possibly allow the black tar attitude of some, to ever stain my view…No way.  So today, as I’m feeding the birds, a hummingbird lands on my finger….perches there and drinks the  nectar I just poured. The sun rose today and the earth turned golden, the sun is brilliant and warm on my skin, my mother loves me with no conditions, my husband is my best friend ever, and would defend my honor come hell or high water and as each day goes by, I adore him more and more.  NOpe…the world is far from perfect, but it’s perfectly normal to me.

I am still submitting my art to local art shows, and my music to local venue’s. If you are local (FRom the Twin Cities Metro) feel free to pass my links along. But More than ANYTHING ELSE….As a great musician once wrote.. “Don’t let nobody drag your spirit down!!!”  For every one bad egg in your life, there are 11 more that are good, and don’t you ever forget it!!! Sometimes birds can still fly with tattered wings, sometimes babies laugh when we cry, sometimes the sting of the bee is what cures you.

Spread your heart….be compassionate…be loving….and never criticize what you don’t understand, because under that buzzing mound of stingers and bees, is the sweetest honey…and only those that dare prepare themselves for it, will ever know it’s sweetness.

PS . for those wanting Pickles from me….Let me know, I’ve got quite a few jars made!!! Sorry,but it’s not free! All ingredients are from my garden. Dill pickles…garlic, fresh dill…sometimes tumeric and curry…..You pay the shipping and donate what you want to…I’ll mail them to you  (juelresistance@gmail.com  for paypal deposit…put in your note PICKLES)

Good day everyone! Some of you might be aware, that this page is going to change soon, as Graeme is working his azzz off on making this more geared towards the ideas I have, and he has…which are collaborating quite nicely, I must say!!!

I took a little break from songwriting for awhile and suddenly seemed to get spit on  by my personal inner muse, who decided it was time to break the dry spell and pop out a few new ones…and after writing these new pieces, I realized a new theme was unfolding…and has been for quite some time…it’s just I don’t always notice these things, as they take their time, weaving themselves into my soul.

Rides. Rides, and more rides! Hangin’ On For The Ride, Did You Enjoy the Ride, Nothing Like I had with You, and He Wore Me Out….those are the new additions to my songs, and I must say, it’s probably the first time I’ve been pleased with all of them. Bluesy type feel, heavy lyrics, vocal stretches that are a bit new to me, and well….more guts than I’ve put into my music in awhile. I guess age has a few benefits eh? We really start finding our voice as we get older…perhaps wiser as well.

Bruce Springsteen once said “An artist/musician must always be troubled by something, that’s how the writing continues’… I agree 100%, sadly…but it is true. I once put on my profile “Always at a crossroads’ because I always am. I’m always contemplating the next step, always wondering what direction life will take me next. Sure I believe I make my own path, and my path is in the hands of my muse..she never lets me down, never never never…although when she disappears for awhile, I do get a bit worried, I mean, she is the essence of my soul, she is me, she is a vessel for me, inside me…and inhales those wonderful words and textures that surround me, or that I may sometimes miss. It’s more like absorbing a bunch of colors hoping that they’ll come out as a new color, and when they do, it’s truly the gift of the day for me! And when they don’t, well, nothing wrong with a little mud in my music eh?

And getting back to the TROUBLED BY SOMETHING statement, HELL YEAH! I’m always troubled. I’m used to this. It is as much of my life as breathing and I don’t have a clue what it’s like to live a life of never worrying or never contemplating. I must say though, it is nice to have those days where nothing bothers me. I think we hide things under our surface sometimes…so they can age, ripen, and eventually fall into our bowl of mental soup. If the ingredients are just right….or maybe I should say ‘just write’…well then it’s done…whatever creative thing my soul is cooking up, must come out somehow…be it a song, or a drawing, a painting, or just a random thought that I get to write down, to chew on at a later point. All little gifts my muse delivers…sometimes they make no sense, then another gift comes, and another, and eventually I see it as I am meant to see it and it all makes sense.

Troubles can come in the mOst unusual ways!!! An old friend from the past, raises their head, someone you may have forgotten….and they bring into your life, a little swarm of memories, some good, some not so good…and there comes more lyrical emotionally packed sentences…phrases, pictures and eventually a finished product…of sorts. Troubles can also come by allowing your mind (GOD HELP YOU IF YOU DO) letting your mind wander in the wrong direction, creating scenarios that will never happen…it’s a fun little mental game for a few minutes, but dwell too long and well, you just gave your mind some CRAP you don’t think you need….but the mind or our muse has a beautiful way of taking all the CRAP OUT of our minds and creating something fertile, something useful, something beautiful!!!

The New songs will be on the cd I am currently working on. This will be my 4th ‘professional CD’….and of course, who knows what ‘random’ number it is…I’ve made quite a few CD’s and recordings over the past 25 years or more…I mean, well, I shouldn’t say a few….I can’t recall, there have been many and I am thankful for my lil muse for being so complex and amazing.  Just realize that when I refer to my inner muse….it’s me, I mean, don’t be thinking I’m all crazy that way…..then again, I guess that’s already been established…nothing plain or ordinary about me, but that doesn’t mean I’m a freak show either!! Just a little off the beaten path, I suppose.

There is a lot going on this summer….and I encourage you to keep checking out the links I’ve put up on the side, for new music, updates etc….

My fan page on facebook is the primary one that I use and I would be honored if you would like to Join it !

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=129165623776368#!/pages/Suzen-JueL/45430674299?ref=ts

Adding to the rest of all this…my passion for bird watching has kicked up full notch!!! I have quite a few pics in my Bird Folder on Flickr.com/suzenjuel if you care to look…I have several nests on my house and the barn swallows of summer have begun their brooding and nesting…it’s quite amazing, watching them. I also put a bird feeder out in my garden….a few birds came the first few days..a.nd after a full week, they emptied it out. NOW…..I have to refill it every other day!!! I guess WORD OF MOUTH works even in the Birds Lives….. Feel free to Spread the seed of my music around…that is if it inspires you in any way, or makes you feel good, or anything… send it off to a friend.   CD’s are on itunes and this website as well…please, don’t take my music for free, it doesn’t help me one bit. This is my career and it’s what I do. This is my livelihood , whether it brings in copious amounts of cash (can’t hurt to dream) of $10, it’s all put to good use, trust me!!!

Have a fantastic week all of you and thank YOU for reading me again!

-Suzen JueL

I’ve thought about updates…they’re not much, really. 140 characters or less, is pretty standard. I’ve even heard people say “Well, no need to call him or her, I just check their facebook status.” And I think, “HUH?” wow…but it’s true, isn’t it? But what does a status really say? “I’m making dinner and it sucks,”…or “Will that person in front of me stop driving like an IDIOT!”…Granted, there are many that I find of interest. Like when a musician friend of mine might be  performing and where. Is it in the Virtual world, or local? Maybe I can catch the performance. Or perhaps a social networking guru wrote an article or released their lastest ipod thoughts and it might be of interest. Oh, and Humorous youtube videos ALWAYS ROCK!’

So what’s my REAL Status update? The one with more than 140 characters. That’s difficult for me, because I’m quite vague online. I feel no need to get into personal things, my marriage, my kids, my family…I don’t share on social networks…it’s personal to me, and out of respect for them, I don’t go on and on about their personal lives either. My friends…they’re personal to me, sacred. Posting fun things, is one thing, but posting personal things about personal issues, is never going to happen on my facebook or any other social network out there.  What i CAN talk about is life…the lessons in it, things I discover, explore, show’s that I have coming up, performances I want to share, photo’s I like to experiment with, what made me smile…etc… But when I really think about it…that IS what a Blog is for, isn’t it? Just to write. It’s more like society has started Journaling online. Things we would normally write in our diary, we tend to publish online, maybe for no other reason other than…we can.  Maybe someday I’ll write about all those personal things, but meanwhile it just seems appropriate that what I write, pertain to what I’m known for…that only makes sense. I write…lyrics mostly…with this BIG GOAL of writing a book. I don’t know what it’ll be about really, there are so many directions it COULD go in, so what would be the focus? I don’t know…my life is only beginning…perhaps I’ll write ‘the book’ when I’m much much older and ready to pass on…

As far as songwriting goes, I’m in this shattered glass world. I keep finding pieces of songs in me, and writing them down, sometimes the music, sometimes the lyrics…then it just fades, like a dream. The more I try to remember it, the more it fades. Then it comes back later. I guess they could be full songs, 3 verses is kind of SMALL, but it’s not unheard of. I then forget about them, they didn’t ‘STICK’ .. they’ve got to STICK in order for me to want to do them more, some do, some don’t. I’ve learned, not to try so hard, just let it happen. Various influences in life can interrupt the cycle of writing, seasons change it…this is the time of the year my creative energy runs quite high…so even though I’m at a block with songwriting, to some degree, the creativity is coming out in all sorts of other way, ways I can fine tune, with time…just as I have with other things .. as we all do in life, some things we can fine tune, other things, need fine tuning. Ink drawings, painting, percussion, harmonica, slide guitar, and sooo many new recipes have taken up much of my time. I find it hard to just create NOTHING…time seems wasted to me, but this is simply how I operate, sitting still, isn’t an option with me, something has to be moving in a direction … a new idea, an idea that’s been nurtured and watered and is growing into something tangible…new ideas dropping around that one. And of course, SPRING CLEANING has driven me into madness with colors and directions, textures and smells….visual stimuli all around!

Yesterday my husband bought me two goldfish. They are fascinating to me. They don’t do much, nothing too interesting at this point, but neither do most ‘pets’…it takes them time to show their true personalities…sometimes it’s right away, and sometimes it’s something we’re just not accustomed to seeing…a Goldfish with personality?  Mostly they float…and eat, and then spit their food back out and then eat it and then spit it out and then chase it around a bit. I gave them a piece of broccoli and they went wild on it!!! THIS is amusing to me now.  I read all kinds of things about goldfish ( you just don’t KNOW how cool they are til you start reading about them ) and they can have peas (out of the shells) Broccoli, spinach, and a friend of mine said he gave his little tiny pieces of licorice … ? Hmmmm  .  I haven’t come up with names for them, my husband calls one “Dennis Rodman” because of the bright red cap on it….but I think ‘denise rodman’ is a denise…..if ya know what I mean.

Now add these fish to my Super Jungle I live in…with all these crazy birds outside my window…and it’s spring which  means I can start my color trend of Massive amounts of sunflowers ANYWHERE I can plant them. I am looking forward to posting the photos of the BLOOMS when they happen, which takes about 60 days. So in June…the first week’s worth of sunflowers will start to show. In a few weeks or so, I’ll start a new week or planting them ANYWHERE! haaa, and I mean anywhere! If i see a spot that I can drop a seed, I do. I just keep doing that for about a week straight….I’ve planted these new kinds of sunflowers…Lime Green, and White…as well as Crimson, red, orange, gold, yellow. Some have HUGE centers, some have small centers, some get 8 feet some get 5 feet, some get 3…so it’s going to be stunning (in my opinion) to see where they grow and how they look…(and if I actually got them in a straight line..HA!)  ALL this, for my eyes to be in constant view of Pretty Things…and because the birds go WILD on sunflowers…and the birds are such an incredible little species to me, with all their diff songs.

I’ve been distracted. That could be my status update, in 3 words.

Spring has distracted me so much, that I have fallen into different places in life, for awhile. The outcome, will be a song, or an amazing piece of color, or a new recipe….however it comes out, it’s always better to see it in front of me, taste it in my mouth, have it in my hands, or have it coming out in something audible, tangible….then to have it stuck inside.

Thank You!