Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra

I'm putting in a plug for the March 30 concert for my orchestra since A) I designed the poster B) I'm in charge of publicity and C) it seems to be really easy to get hits through this blog for people searching for the PSO. We've had several months to prepare and it should be a great concert featuring Dvorak's New World Symphony!

free songs!

Sorry for the lack of new posts, but I'm in Boston and will have some fun things to share when I get home!

In the meantime, did you know that iTunes always has a Free Single of the Week? On the store homepage, just scroll down to FREE ON iTunes in the middle of the page. I usually forget to check it myself, but a several months ago they had Love Song by Sara Bereilles and it became one of my favorite songs before I even realized I had downloaded it for free!

Listen Up!

Tonight one of my favorite bands, Over the Rhine, had a live webcast of their new cd, The Trumpet Child. I say cd, but it will also be availble in VINYL. I want an old record player just for that! So cool if you know their sound. It won't be released until August 21, so it was great to get a sneak preview of another great album. Afterwards, there was a live chat with band members/songwriters Karin and Linford. There were so many people firing off questions that it was hard to get noticed. We did manage to get a couple questions answered and right at the end I asked Linford if it was OK that I had named my cat after him. He said "Naming cats after me is fine." I wasn't sure if I should take that like there were multiple cats named Linford and he'd been asked this before and it was getting old OR if it was a "sure, not a problem." Alas, the problem of internet communication. Oh well, I feel better having asked permission. Check out their nifty website.

Off the Clock

I'm not a fan of Starbucks in general, but I am into their Off The Clock cd. It's a compilation that features new artist that are/were (?) employees. My favorite is "The Fever" by The Young Immortals and you can listen here. It's summer pop-a-licious!

Market Square Day

On Saturday we went to Market Square Day in Portsmouth. It's an annual street festival downtown. The weather was cloudy and I wasn't too impressed by the selection of vendors (not much art!) but the festival food, music and people watching were excellent.

I really enjoyed this group, whom I've been calling The Flintstone Drummers, but as it turns out, that isn't their name! They are actually called Foté and you can check them out here.

On to the food! Our first course was a sweet Italian sausage with peppers and onions and we washed that down with a Lime Rickey (basically Sprite with raspberry flavoring). We followed that artery-clogging sugar-fest with fried dough and Moxie. Yum! I was always a big fan of elephant ears in Indiana and I'm disappointed that everyone calls them "fried dough" here. How boring! According to Wikipedia, other names include whale tails and frying saucers. And Moxie is just gross. It seems like a cool vintage thing to drink and it's apparently the State Soda of Maine, but to me it tastes like bad root beer.



And lastly, Poncho Pink Socks wins the award for Best People Watching. He wasn't doing anything crazy, but I was reminded of The Dancing Festival Guy over on ljc's Rocha-chatter blog.

Some things never change

I haven't caught the "I feel old" bug yet, but it occurred to me last week that I've been using this same purple-flowered cloth to clean my violin for almost 24 years. I can't think of any other material possession that's been in my life so long that I still use! I have a pretty clear memory (that I confirmed with my mom) from one of my first violin lessons where my teacher pulled out a stack of all these neat old handkerchiefs and I got to choose one. I remember that it was a very hard decision and I didn't spend as long looking at them as I would have liked, but I'm still very happy with my choice! Perhaps it's time for a hand-wash?

Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra

Here is the latest poster I did for the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra. This should be a fun concert for us at the Rochester Opera House with pieces from Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Exodus, Star Wars, Wizard of Oz and more that I can't remember! It's also for a great cause—part of the proceeds will benefit A Safe Place, the local domestic violence support center.

Cool T

We went to The Killers concert last night and it was a great performance with a spectacular light show. Nate got this shirt cause it had the best design.

Concert Posters

I design all the posters and programs for the orchestra I play in. I'm working on the latest one, so I thought I'd share all the past posters. I like the way they look together and I have them hanging on the wall as you go up the stairs.