Lara Herscovitch: random thoughts

"Most men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." -Abraham Lincoln

"Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is knowing when to forgo an advantage." -Benjamin Disraeli

"We must try to take our task more seriously and ourselves more lightly." -Dorothy Height (1912-2010)

"Don't go on discussing what a good person should be. Just be one." -Marcus Aurelius

The search for the 14th Connecticut State Troubadour will be underway in the fall of 2010, to serve the term of 2011-2012. Information on the application requirements and process can be found here:

http://www.cultureandtourism.org/cct/cwp/view.asp?a=2211&q=307964&cctPNavCtr;=|#43598
The application process includes submitting a song about the state of Connecticut. You can hear the past Troubadours' versions, here:
http://ct375.com/music.php
Questions? Contact An-Ming Truxes, Arts Division Director
An-Ming.Truxes@ct.gov

Fun interview on The Colin McEnroe show earlier today, a great station (WNPR / Connecticut Public Radio) and one-of-a-(also great)-kind host and show.

http://www.cpbn.org/program/colin-mcenroe-show/episode/cms-connecticut-state-troubadour

...the comments that used to be here are now at the blog, check it out and comment if you'd like! lara

"That which grows fast withers as rapidly; and that which grows slow endures." -Josiah Gilbert Holland

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view... where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you-beyond that next turning of the canyon walls." -Edward Abbey

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Thank you. For singing along, coming to shows, telling friends and family, buying CDs and mp3s, and making what I do possible. You keep me going. Here's to a great 2010 - wishing you good health, adventure, growth, great music, more great music, your own creative output, peace, and lots of love and laughter - oh, and great music. lara

"It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey." -Wendell Berry

"I have always known that at last I would take this road, but yesterday I did not know that it would be today." -Narithtra, translated by Kenneth Rexroth

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Happy holidays... hope you're well and hope to see you soon, I'll be in 2 of the country's 3 smallest states, hm have to plan a trip to DE. -lara

“I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money.” -Pablo Picasso"

Adversity is the first path to truth." -Lord Byron
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Hi again, A very special Oct show in NYC just scheduled... If you live there or are passing through, please join us; if not, please tell the folks you know who live there or are passing through to! Hope all is well with you, and hope to see you soon. lara

Tue Oct 13 at 7pm
WFUV's On Your Radar
The Living Room
154 Ludlow St, New York NY
212-533-7235 / www.livingroomny.com $12
Co-bill with Glenn Patscha (of Ollabelle) and Lili Anel
Please reserve your seat(s) early...

"The obscure takes time to see, but the obvious takes longer." -Edward R. Murrow

"The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around a lake." -Wallace Stevens

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Hi, So... if you ever have the chance to do a rim to rim Grand Canyon hiking trip, go go go. I'm just saying. Go. Seriously. Definitely go. Or come to one of my shows and I'll tell you about it. Or buy my new CD, which contains one reference to it. Or both. Hope all is well with you and yours; hope to see you soon. Coming up in NY, ME, CT, RI, VA, MD... lara

"I envy paranoids; they actually feel people are paying attention to them." -Susan Sontag

"There are two types of people - those who come into a room and say, "Well, here I am," and those who come in and say, "Ah, there you are." -Frederick Collins
*****
But enough about me, what do you think of my new CD... Two things: (1) Democracy in music: in what town/state do you want the CD release show(s), email your vote to Lara@LaraHerscovitch.com; and (2) So you know I wasn't lying when I said you should get your own copy of Through A Frozen Midnight Sky:

"There are so many great lines, couplets, and extended metaphors in her work that I hardly know where to start... It's rare to come across poets able to inject such an achingly human and knowing warmth into their work... It's obvious that this musician-composer has hit her stride, that her star's still rising." -Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange (full review at http://www.acousticmusic.com/fame/p05614.htm, thanks David Pyles and Mark Tucker).

Hope all is well with you and yours, and hope to see you soon. cheers, lara

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” –Anais Nin

“I’ve failed over and over again in my life. That is why I succeeded.” –Michael Jordan

“The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.” –Willie Nelson
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Hi, As some of you discovered before I did, the new CD Through A Frozen Midnight Sky is up on Itunes and other digital download outlets. Feel free to leave reviews etc.; these days independent music like mine spreads because of word of mouth (and keyboard), it makes a huge difference. Thank you to those of you who already have memorized the lyrics, looking forward to your singing along at a show soon! In the meantime, remember that rain is good for plants and poetry. Hope all is well with you and yours. cheers, lara

"The hero's will is not that of his ancestors nor of his society, but his own. This will to be oneself is heroism. Life is a desperate struggle to be in fact that which we are in design." -Jose Ortega Y. Gasset

"Success didn't spoil me. I've always been insufferable." -Fran Lebowitz

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Yes, a new arrival, and no, not that kind... the new CD is here! Through A Frozen Midnight Sky, produced by the great John Jennings (Mary Chapin Carpenter, Janis Ian, John Gorka, etc.). All the preorders have been shipped out, hope you're enjoying it. www.cdbaby.com/lara4 is the most direct route - or from La Rama Records, details here on the website. Thank you for your support, I seriously couldn't do it without you. Or, I couldn't do it seriously without you. Seriously.

"The ancients are right: The dear old human experience is a singular, difficult, shadowed, brilliant experience that does not resolve into being comfortable in the world. The valley of the shadow is part of that, and you are depriving yourself if you do not experience what humankind has experienced, including doubt and sorrow. We experience pain and difficulty as failure instead of saying, I will pass through this, everyone I have ever admired has passed through this, music has come out of it, literature has come out of it. We should think of our humanity as a privilege." -Marilynne Robinson

"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere." -Frank A. Clark

"I can't go on. I will go on." -Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

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Greetings from spring in New England - ahh. Finalmente: the new record is done! "Through A Frozen Midnight Sky." As soon as it arrives in a couple weeks we will send out copies to each of you who pre-ordered and have been so wonderfully patient with my broken promises of December... Jan... March... turns out it's May, thanks for waiting. Hope to see you soon, happy to say I'll be on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor this Sat - sold out but you can listen online or on one of the 700-odd stations it airs on nationwide. cheers, lara

"The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little." -Thomas Merton

"I am not young enough to know everything." -Oscar Wilde

“I've learned not to look too closely, she said. Otherwise I'd just keep finding out stuff that'd bug me & we'd never get along." -Brian Andreas
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Hi, Hope spring found and thawed you out (how long until we all start complaining it's too hot?)... alongside the new blue northeast crocuses, I'm happy to report I'm almost done with the new CD ("Through A Frozen Midnight Sky") - produced by John Jennings (Mary Chapin Carpenter, John Gorka, Janis Ian, Beausoleil, and many others). Coming up soon in CT, MA, PA, VA, NY, hope to see you there! cheers, lara

"The one universal ever-operating law throughout has been the law of change. Nature never stands still and never duplicates herself. Life is always in the process of becoming something else." -Laurence M. Gould

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." -Derek Sivers

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change." -Charles Darwin

"As the world marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday, only 39% of Americans say they 'believe in the theory of evolution.'" -Gallup Poll, in the Week 2/27/9

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Hi, Full disclosure - I'm part of the 39%. No further comment. Hope to see you soon. Hm, that was further comment. Ok no further comment now. Really. Seriously. Mum's the word. Til you come hear me sing, then I'll talk all I want. No further comment. For now. -lara

"The learned man knows that he is ignorant." -Victor Hugo

"Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures." Lovelle Drachman

"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets." -Arthur Miller
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Hi, Hope you're well and warm. Happy to be getting up to the Berkshires / far NW corner of CT this time around, with (getting warmer...) KY, TN and getting colder...) PA and Long Island soon. Wishing you snow angels or southern sunshine (would those of you in the latter please loan some of it to those of us in the former? We'll try to give it back in August). cheers (with no ice, plenty already thank you very much), lara

"Bad week for the Montgomery Township, NJ police, who laid seige to a closed bank after a shadowy figure was seen through drawn blinds. After a tense, two-hour standoff, police realized that the suspect was actually a life-size cardboard figure." -The Week 12/08

"A man's accomplishments in life are the cumulative effect of his attention to detail." -John Foster Dulles

"We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are." -Tobias Wolff

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Hi, happy holidays and almost-new year. I'm excited to announce I was recently honored by the state of Connecticut to serve its new State Troubadour, 2009-2010. Established in 1991, the State Troubadour functions as an ambassador of music and song to encourage cultural literacy and promote the State of Connecticut.

The CT song you sent ideas in about was part of the application, so thanks for helping make it happen! I think we're going to do a CD of the current :) and former State Troubadour songs, I'll let you know when I know more.

Hope to see you soon; wishing you a wonderful, healthy, happy, peaceful, joyful 2009 full of laughter and love. Thank you for your support, I couldn't do it without you. lara

"Bad week for British transportation officials, who sent an e-mail to a Welsh councilman asking for a translation of a road sign they wanted to erect: 'No entry for heavy goods vehicles.' When the reply came back, the officials dutifully erected a road sign that said, in Welsh, 'I am not in the office at the moment.'" -the Week, 11/14/08

"It is our responsibilities, not ourselves, that we should take seriously." -Peter Ustinov

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Hope you and yours are well. Reminds of when I lived with a Bolivian family as part of a Spanish language immersion program. A fellow student who was very late for breakfast one morning tried to say en espanol "I'm so embarassed," but instead proclaimed "I'm so pregnant." Hope to see you soon, in any language. cheers, lara

"Good week for venting, after a San Diego entrepreneur opened a store where people can express their rage over the economic meltdown or
other problems. For $10 to $50, customers can spend up to 15 minutes smashing plates, glasses, and picture frames. 'It was the best $50 we've spent in the last two years,' said Adam DeWitt, 29." -The Week, 10/24/08

"It's useless to hold a person to anything he says while he's in love, drunk, or running for office." Shirley MacLaine

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Hm, let me know if you hear of a store like that in the Northeast... Stay tuned for news of the upcoming new release (it's sounding great, can't wait for you to hear it) as well as touring farther afield. Hope you're well and hope to see you soon. Good luck getting through the early part of the week, whatever your political persuasion! Vote early and often... cheers, lara

"An economist is a man who states the obvious in terms of the incomprehensible." -Alfred A. Knopf

"Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat." -F. Scott Fitzgerald

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." -Groucho Marx

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Hi, Hope you're doing ok during this roller coaster of a season ("may you live in interesting times"??)... looking forward to seeing you soon and communing over music together. cheers - lara

"Good week for the 9-year-old girl formerly known as Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii, after a New Zealand judge ordered her legally renamed, citing the 'very poor judgment' of her parents." -The Week, 8/10/8

"The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none." -Thomas Carlyle

"Bad week for Antoinette B. of Virginia, who began her driving test by backing into a parked car in the parking lot of the DMV, allegedly injuring the test instructor. To cover the instructor's workers-compensation claim, the state is now suing Bowser for $75,000." -The Week, 8/10/8

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Hi, Hope you had g a good elongated weekend and labor-less day... Just back from VA where the great John Jennings (of his own, and Mary Chapin Carpenter's team) is working magic with my next CD (anticipated release new year's day '09 - though pre-release sales are available and it should be ready for the holidays, hint hint). Looking forward to seeing you soon. cheers, lara

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." -Sir Winston Churchill

"An english piglet that was scared of mud has gotten over her fears, after being equipped with some miniature Wellington boots. Cinders, who lives on a farm in North Yorkshire, apparently suffers from mysophobia, a fear of dirt; she refused to join her siblings as they wallowed in the muck. Then owner Andrew Keeble's 12-year-old daughter, Ellie, suggested outfitting the pig with the tiny footwear, which had been adorning some key rings. "Lo and behold, they fitted her like a glove," said Ellie's father. Keeble, who runs a sausage company, said that Cinders would be spared the grinder. "She's more of a pet really, now, and she's going to live a very long and happy life." -The Week 7/08

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Well, there we go. How much you want to bet the pig and the bathing-suited penguin from the last mailing fall in love one day... (see the website / "random thoughts" page if you don't remember). Anyway... happy to report that "Sylvia's Eyes" from Juror #13 got one of 16 honorable mentions in the Woody Guthrie Songwriting Competition... and thrilled to report I'm turning to recording the next CD shortly (more on that in a subsequent mailing). Looking forward to catching up with you in late Aug / fall - see the calendar page for specifics. Hope all is well with you and yours. lara

"Pierre, a 25-year-old African penguin, was getting so old that he was losing his feathers. He shivered with cold and refused to go near water. But his handlers at the California Academy of Sciences had a novel solution: a custom-made wet suit. Working with Oceanic Worldwide, a supplier of diving gear, academy scientists made Pierre a close-fitting rubber garment with openings for his flippers, tail, and feet. "I would walk behind him," said iologist Pam Schaller, "and look at where there were any gaps, and cut and refit and cut and refit until it was extremely streamlined." Since wearing the suit, Pierre has gained weight and is again splashing with his fellow penguins." -The Week 5/16/8

"Life is getting up one more time than you've been knocked down."
-John Wayne

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Hi, Hope you're well cared for also! Looking forward to seeing you soon; coming up in MD, CO, IL, VT, CT. Would love your help with the next recording project, will send info on that soon. Best wishes to you and yours in the meantime... cheers, lara

"Do or do not. There is no try." -Yoda

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their
dreams." -Eleanor Roosevelt

"a work of love, no matter how small, spreads its own special light
in the world." -Rod MacIver

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Sending warm thoughts your way, hope to see you soon. lara

"Bad week for the Shark Shield, a device designed to keep sharks away from surfboards by emitting electronic waves, after it was reported that in a pre-sales test, one of the devices was eaten by a shark." -The Week, 3/14/08

"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go." -William Feather

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Ah, yes... thank you for keeping me hanging in there, for keeping my
teeth sharp (?) - uh, in a vegetarian sort of way... and also for the great dog name ideas* - I did pick three (from Cindy J, Michael B, and almost Karl K - sorry Rocket, if it's any consolation you were a very close finalist). Hope to see you soon. Coming up in VT, NY, NH, NJ, MD, PA, and IL. cheeeeers to spring - lara