Nanyana’s Journal

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving and I must say, my turkey turned out awesome again for the 3rd year n a row (wipes sweat of her brow!). I never liked turkey till I found this recipe on Food Network, and I am now the turkey lady. I consider myself lucky when it turns out ok! I am fretting the whole time till the first bite. ^_^
I have been laying low and taking it one day at a time. Not much writing has been going on except little ditties for the Cub. I can honestly say that I have considered writing kids songs! LOL They aren’t too difficult and the ones I sing and dance to for my son are super entertaining….but he may be a bit bias…
It’s rather difficult these days to just pick up a guitar and strum. Little one takes up so much time, and I will say that I am fine with that. Rhythm will only be a baby once, and I shall not trade off success for the joys of watching him grow. Music will always be there and my songs will manifest as life progresses, but little boy is not to be denied my attention right now. Even so, I can feel new songs a brewing by just the presence of him in our lives. If you don’t have children, you just wait! One day, maybe you will know of that joy I speak of. If you do have them, then you may have a slight grin on your face with the total understanding of how precious life is, especially in the simple things. Right now, the little dude is napping on my lap and I have one arm arching over his head in order to reach the keyboard to write this. You just make due with what you can, and with what you have.
Here’s a picture:

This is a time of year I tend to slow down anyways. The holidays are a brilliant time for me. I am going to put up the tree this week and will be rehearsing the Christmas songs for my next show at Rev. I LOVE this time of year! I LOVE Christmas music, and I whip out those cds and listen shamelessly until Christmas is over. We all know how time flies, and before you know it it will be New Years and blah, the holidays are over and life continues to zip by. Let us enjoy these next few weeks and remember to take time to enjoy the little things. The family times, the parties, the laughs and the eggnog.

Yeah, so I am a complete utter derelict for just now writing in this for 2011……I must say it has been a fantastic year full of wonder and joy, aches and pains and BLAM a baby!
I spent the end of 2010 getting bigger with a baby in my belly, and all of this year adapting to the insanity of becoming a new parent.
We had been trying for 3 years to conceive and once it finally happened, my life was consumed with baby books, work, research research and well, growth. I had gigs booked up to my due date, but canceled the last couple due to the fact that I felt I was being over zealous and eventually just got too tired. I was due on Sunday, worked up to that Wednesday, had a pregnancy shoot on Thursday, and then went into labor on Friday. Unfortunately for me, little dude wasn’t born until SATURDAY morning….yup, 21hrs of labor. Natural labor at that…..
Anyways, he’s almost 6mths now and has definitely taken up so much of our time. I have still been gigging and kept the train rolling, but right now it’s been a bit of a lull writing wise. I don’t think that the silly songs that we make up for him on a daily basis count….
I hope to catch up with you later! Much love my friend.
Nani

Hi! How are you? I have been busy busy….but who isn’t these days, right?
So here is the sneak peak for the video shoot for ‘BLEED’. We had two days to shoot. One with me on location, and the other with the band on location. We had a ton of fun shooting it… I will be sure to let you know of the release date!

Bleed Sneak Peek!

We were watching a Bollywood movie called Jodha Akbar. I was glued to the screen the whole time and thoroughly enjoying the flick..Jason was exhausted taking a nap beside me on the couch, and this song came on and I was so enthralled! My heart soared and I decided right then and there I wanted to learn to sing like this! It woke Jason up from his nap. I didn’t realize he was listening till he’d made a comment on it after the song was over…
I’ve always been amazed by world music, Middle Eastern especially, and this song inspired me to seek out Mr. Teevee Barbella to take lessons. He didn’t think I could do it, being a Westerner and not accustom to the Hindi language…. after 4 lessons, he told me I was better than all his Indian students and that he had to customize my lessons since I was so advanced! I learned to sight read Hindi! Who’da’thunk?!
Anyways, I ran out of money….go figure… but isn’t this song amazing??!!! I wore out this very album and it was my favorite of 2009….GO AR Rahman!!

Jodha Akbar – Khwaja Mere Khwajaa

“Hey Errverbody!”
This is hilarious….I’m not sure if he is serious or not, but as a singer watching this cracked me up!

GO SHANE!

So the weather is getting nice and HOT and well, we shed more clothes and LOW AND BEHOLD- where in the WORLD did that extra roll and jiggle come from??!
Enough said, right? Well, Jason and I decided to get a bike to motivate us to do something fun in order to stay in shape.
The whole process has been a bit overwhelming….have you ever been to an actual bike shop and not just Walmart or Target for a bike? WOW. The options are endless and every one seems like a great bike.
After test riding several, we have decided to go with a hybrid since we don’t ride on the roads yet, nor do we wish to get into mountain biking all hard core and stuff. It has made me reminisce about the times as a kid flying up and down Huffman Hill Road on a bike in Piney Flats TN with my cousin. I was in shape and it was so much fun. I am hoping for the same joy and wind in my hair here too. It will b a fun way to loose the jiggle!
Do you bike? What do you ride, and where do you ride?
We fortunately live walking distance to the Silver Comet trail so that is probably where I’ll be doing most of my riding. Poor Samson will probably not be as excited to hear this, but I’ll b sure to get him out for walks too!
Here’s what I’m gonna get! The Specialized Women’s Ariel

Most of you all know, I am a serious Fantasy bookworm… I read the Bible too, but that is a study tool, not an escape, per say, BUT, I wanted to find out what everyone else is reading and what you recommend…
I am very particular on dialogue…the author has to give me intelligent cohesive practical dialogue between characters and the characters have to be engaging. The plot can’t be predictable and I absolutely love a little bit of romance. I say little bit cuz’ seriously I like a little…NOT Harlequin stuff, but just a little spark of ‘oh oh, is so and so falling for so and so?’.

I would have to say a few of my favorites are:

The Mage Ship Trilogy by Robin Hobb….it’s about a family of traders who’s livelihood is tremendously determined by the expensive investment of a ship made from a special specific wood. There is a mystery about this wood and of course there is a war and impending doom happening to the land and the characters must fight the hands of fate to save themselves and their people….The character development is amazing, and Hobb is just awesome. Yes, there is a little bit of romance….I’m not really good at selling that so here is a link to book one: The Ship of Magic

Another of of my favorites is The Wayfarer’s Redemption by Sara Douglass. I love it becuz’ it is not your typical fantasy in that you have magic, elves, dwarfs and humans. This story has magic, humans and two different types of species that give it a little novelty-ness for me. There is a prophecy and the characters are totally engaging and not flawless and the plot is full of twists and turns. Yes, a little romance… Here’s link to book one: The Wayfarer’s Redemption, by Sara Douglass

In this quick blog (quick?) I’d have to say another one of my favorites is The Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore. It’s about the amazing Dark Elf Drizzt who comes from basically HELL and the society of Dark Elves is full of treachery and chaos and hate and envy and murder. Drizzt’s mentor and arms instructor makes him question his people’s way and he is probably the only Dark Elf there (besides mentor) that has an ounce of character. Thus is the story of the loner Drizzt as he fights his way through the treachery to a new life. He befriends a mystical black panther that is his companion throughout his difficult journey. OH, and his skill with his scimitars..WOAH. I sucked down these three books in like, a month! Drizzt is probably one of my all time favorite fictional characters of all time! You can’t help but root for him and fight with him. There’s SO many books to follow these three, but who has time? I just read the trilogy and ordered some more to get to later- after all the OTHER books on my shelf get read. ^_^
The first book, Homeland, The Dark Elf, Part 1 by R.A. Salvatore

OK, that’s it for now…I think I’m going to go fishing with Jason. I secretly hope I out catch him!!! I’ll bring the camera, cuz’ I usually do!!!! ^_^

Ok, so, I’m gonna try and make this more of a habit.. writing in my blog….I guess I probably always say that, but life is busy and full of things that well, don’t allow me to frequent a BLOG.
If you are reading this, it amazes me that you would care, and I truly hope to intrigue you with the silliness and perspective of life in my eyes! Thank you for spending ‘time’ with me, and I hope that you will keep in touch with me and let me know you are there.
My Day…..
SIGH. I just finished practicing for 2 hrs for my acoustic show I have on Saturday. I learned some new material. One of my favorite songs on the planet Earth called, Call Me A Dog, by Chris Cornell on the Temple of the Dog album. Man, that is one of my favorite albums of my youth. It’s so organiky. (Get used to it- I make up words.) But I also learned Dreams by Fleetwood Mac. Very interested to see how my sister in law will freak out since she is tremendously obsessed with Stevie Nix. Why, I wonder to myself-but hey, why do you like my music and read my blogs? Cuz’ you’re you and you can do whatever you want and like whoever you want. Anyways, I am playing a little coffee house show were I can close my eyes and put magic in my voice and soothe and serenade.
I have to work Sat lunch so it’s going to b a long night….speaking on that, I am a little miffed cuz my current boss-gotta love bosses- at my restaurant job has been deliberately taking advantage of his authority over me. It’s a long story… Well, they are extremely understaffed, and so he’s trying to manipulate me in order for me to be obligated to work when HE wanted me to, even after I verbally discussed with him that I couldn’t work certain days. UGH.
Anyways, I am hoping that it works out in a timely, diplomatic way. I would sure hate it if I just went thru training HELL, and it to end on such a silly circumstance.

So, tis is my life. Music. Practice. Sling food. Get flack from bosses. Write songs, research, pet my dog.

Tomorrow, I start shooting for my video BLEED. I’m working with the Fratelli Brothers and art director Corwin Carter. I’m SO excited!

More details to follow….

catch ya later….

Hi there, thank you for visiting. I’m such a dork. I told you to check out my blog and I haven’t updated it in a century or two…but hang tight and I promise that I’ll b back to give you a little some-in some-in.
Kiss kiss!

Hi Ya!

Ok so moving into a house with a new home studio hasn’t really effected the finishing, but I’ve been having rehearsals with a new band, and THAT has! Sorry folks…I want to get the BEST product to ya, and I am really diggin’ the sounds lately….We have 3 guitars, drums, bass, and something I’ve always wanted-percussion! Oh man, you gonna love it!

SO, I know you’re waiting…I KNOW!! And I’m sorry….but I do know you will appreciate what we give you when it’s finished….Please tune in for gigs with my new band…they rock, and make me sound reeeeeeeely good! ; )

Bear hug till later……be sure to do something you’ve always wanted to do, and surround yourself with folks that make you laugh…and of course eat your veggies!