The past month has been pretty fun and interesting for NYCSubwayGirl

I met and jammed with musicians from Amsterdam in the Staten Island Ferry Terminal and of course got a wonderful What's Your Inspiration? clip from them. In halting English including no accent Billy responded "this might sound cheesy, but love." I met amazing Sustainability champion Roberto A. Sanchez who gave me such a succinct definition of Sustainability.

I had the chance to sing at a few weddings so far, one of them was for my cousin Michael who not only had the honor of marrying the wonderful Alex, but as Stage Manager of the hit Broadway Show Book Of Mormon, also became part of a Tony award winning team. All in the same weekend. How's that for a high time in your life! Congratulations Michael and Alex. They made a youtube clip of my singing La Vie En Rose for the first dance

It was rainy last weekend both for my Garden Party gig to benefit Spencertown Academy Arts Center and my visit to Bobby The Carriage horse, living happily at Equine Advocates Sanctuary in Chatham, NY. Here's a clip I made of Bobby's re-Birthday celebration. Bobby was rescued on June 25, 2010 by Equine Advocates and the Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages. He was then shipped to Equine Advocates Rescue & Sanctuary in Chatham, NY where he has been retired.

Of course the big news occurred Friday evening June 24th when the NY State Senate passed the Marriage Equality Bill 33-29 and then signed by Governor Cuomo. Congratulations to everyone on what I believe is the right side of history. To the others I say, in time like so many of our Country's 200+ years of history has shown, that we evolve.

On June 18th I performed at the 2nd annual Hudson Pride. Here's my blog about the day in Hudson, and some clips from my weekend.

My performance clip at Club Helsinki, and I am especially proud of a clip I made of Matthew Hamilton whose "I might be straight, but I'm not narrow" t-shirt prompted a fun exchange.

Here's Matthew's "make it happen" clip

and event organizer Trixie Starr's What's Your Inspiration Clip.

Summer reading is also something I look forward to as I spend less time performing and more time being inspired by others and the countryside around me. I've already begun with these two:

Fellow Music Under New York performers, Heth and Jed Weinstein's book Buskers: The On-The-Streets, In-the-trains, Off -the-Grid Memoir of two New York City Street Musicians (now that's 36 characters shy of a full tweet).

Margaret Roach "And I Will Find Some Peace In There."

Why do these books resonate with me? With Heth and Jed's book, it's their life of discovering an underworld of possibility by performing in public spaces of NYC, something I know about intimately. And in Margaret's book, it's about following a passion begun by a single act of purchasing a weekend home, and then leaving a corporate job for the unknown adventure of living there full time surrounded by nature. My partner Michele and I bought and built on a piece of land in 2002, and this past month she left her corporate job of 14 years for the unknown. Stay tuned.

Happy 4th of July weekend.

Interesting email lately from a wide range of connections, I realized a certain theme is emerging, how do I describe NYCSubwaygirl and why does she exist? Very existential, no?

To Margaret Roach an amazing Garden blogger, I wrote: I am a blogger of the underground kind. Working where the roots of the city make their way, and nourishing them as best I can with my brand of folked-up blues, singing and songwriting.

Natarajan, a visitor from India wrote:

I wonder why you call yourself the subway girl. Is it the struggle or is it the love of life that surrounds the subways in NY. I have a friend who is involved in yoga teaching as I am and lives in NY. .... she was telling me that for creative people its a real struggle but they seem to keep trying and liking it.

My reply:

NYCSubwayGirl is not about struggle although it is about finding peace in the chaos of the subway. I am a folk and blues singer, blues comes from experiencing life through struggle and finding a kind of peace through it. Folk comes from singing for and about people. I think singing in the subway is an amazing way to share live music in a public space.

Yoga has many principles of letting go of struggle, but it does not come without pain. (I practice a very vague form of yoga on my own). So like the creative people your friend talks about, the struggle comes with it reward of what discipline and practice provides.

Another theme reappears time and time again what is my name? It should be so easy and yet people stumble they call me New York City Subway Girl, they call me New York Subway Girl, somehow the initials don't stick. NYCSubwayGirl in one word you'd think wouldn't be hard to figure out. Not true. Go figure.

Your thoughts?

Update on 2011-06-29 14:24 by NYC Subway Girl

thought I'd share a past posting Looking Back On Creating NYCSubwayGirl explaining in more detail why NYCSubwayGirl.