Saturday, April 2, 2016
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Go Fund Me!
Magic Mama's having a FUNraiser!
It's time to upgrade the system with a second set of speakers and a wireless headset to accommodate the big school audiences. You can help by contributing funds AND sharing the link to my project with everyone!
Big Love and Gratitude for your support!
.Every.Drop.Counts.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Starting Over from Scratch
Just over a year ago, I traveled with my children across the continent with a van-load of musical instruments, art supplies, camping gear, cooking tools, a cooler full of food and a few special treasures (mostly rocks). Since the route closely mirrored the path of the Oregon trail, across the Great Plains and over mountain ranges, our auto was dubbed the "Vanestoga", commemorating the Conestoga covered wagons of the west-bound pioneers from the late 1800's.
We had no pre-established arrangements, no specific destination other than the State of Oregon, no home base, no employment, no friends....yet.
Attitude is the difference between an ordeal, and an adventure!
We made the cross-country drive in six days and arrived at the Oregon Coast. Now what?!
After a couple of weeks meandering the state and exploring various locales, we found a lovely community in the Willamette River Valley, both kids enrolled in school and the rains came. We were still camping. For the first time in the deGaia family history, we were bound by a public school schedule and considered "homeless" by the established order.
Cost of living here is much higher than the land we had come from and Magic Mama was an unknown. It took us 7 months to procure a temporary physical address. It's challenging to get a job without an address and even more difficult to secure a rental home without verifiable local employment. This was compounded by the fact that I have been self-employed for YEARS as Magic Mama, Eco-Edu-tainer. My resume looked a bit like this:
Master Bricoleur and Eco-Edu-tainer. Mother, Artist, Musician, Educator, Ecologist, Visionary Activist, Guerrilla Gardener, DIY Diva.
Performer,recording artist,engineer, booking agent, creative director, web manager, merchandise production, sales, song writing, roadie, set production, transportation specialist, educator, photographer.
LOL!
Fortunately, we met some local angels who were willing to take a chance and trust me. I did some substitute teaching at a Montessori school, painted a couple of murals, and held out for a job I didn't need to sell my soul for. I wasn't willing to work for any-ole corporate chain store for minimum wage. Enter GTF: Gathering Together Farm.
I wanted to put myself smack dab in the middle of the local organic food economy. Working a wage job has to come with certain added benefits to make it worth-my-while. I felt good about what and who I was supporting with my time and energy, it provided my family with the best food, my son (the aspiring chef) became a part of the kitchen crew, and it catapulted us into the local good-food community.
One year after our Oregon landing, we finally found an actual home; a tiny little duplex in town that has a bit of yard where I can do some gardening. It was a year of challenges and blessings, new friends, hard work and beautiful hikes.
Now, feet on the ground, Magic Mama is ready to rise!
We had no pre-established arrangements, no specific destination other than the State of Oregon, no home base, no employment, no friends....yet. Attitude is the difference between an ordeal, and an adventure!
We made the cross-country drive in six days and arrived at the Oregon Coast. Now what?!
After a couple of weeks meandering the state and exploring various locales, we found a lovely community in the Willamette River Valley, both kids enrolled in school and the rains came. We were still camping. For the first time in the deGaia family history, we were bound by a public school schedule and considered "homeless" by the established order.
Cost of living here is much higher than the land we had come from and Magic Mama was an unknown. It took us 7 months to procure a temporary physical address. It's challenging to get a job without an address and even more difficult to secure a rental home without verifiable local employment. This was compounded by the fact that I have been self-employed for YEARS as Magic Mama, Eco-Edu-tainer. My resume looked a bit like this:
Master Bricoleur and Eco-Edu-tainer. Mother, Artist, Musician, Educator, Ecologist, Visionary Activist, Guerrilla Gardener, DIY Diva.
Performer,recording artist,engineer, booking agent, creative director, web manager, merchandise production, sales, song writing, roadie, set production, transportation specialist, educator, photographer.
LOL!
Fortunately, we met some local angels who were willing to take a chance and trust me. I did some substitute teaching at a Montessori school, painted a couple of murals, and held out for a job I didn't need to sell my soul for. I wasn't willing to work for any-ole corporate chain store for minimum wage. Enter GTF: Gathering Together Farm.
I wanted to put myself smack dab in the middle of the local organic food economy. Working a wage job has to come with certain added benefits to make it worth-my-while. I felt good about what and who I was supporting with my time and energy, it provided my family with the best food, my son (the aspiring chef) became a part of the kitchen crew, and it catapulted us into the local good-food community.
One year after our Oregon landing, we finally found an actual home; a tiny little duplex in town that has a bit of yard where I can do some gardening. It was a year of challenges and blessings, new friends, hard work and beautiful hikes.
Now, feet on the ground, Magic Mama is ready to rise!
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Rave Reviews from Hip Parents
PARENTS LOVE MAGIC MAMA!
“Magic Mama's show is creative, energetic, and joyful. She connects with her audience and everyone participates. I think kids come away from her shows feeling loved, appreciated, and valued... and more than a little inspired to make music of their own!”
“Magic Mama's got something in her that reminds me that I'm alive, that life is FUN (no matter the age), that we're all together now, and that music brings us together in a place for sharing positivity. Better together! With beauty and magic.”
“Truly, the beauty of her music is in the live performance. We LOVE the CD but it's really incredible to watch her build a song in real time. I've never seen anything like it and haven't since.”
"I love that Magic Mama teaches world-love values to my kids, and empowers them to be creative, fun and joyous. The music is delightfully rhythmic and the lyrics clever so kids and adults are singing and moving along - Go Barefoot!”
“The Magic Mama show gets everyone there up and grooving. It's interactive and fun. A lot of kids music can be hokey, but Magic Mama's music is enjoyable for kids and parents alike. Especially those parents who want to pass along environmental values to their children.”
“Magic Mama is some of the the ONLY "kids" music I ever listen to. Fun beats, intelligent lyrics, great message.”
Book a Birthday Party!
Rock out at a pavillion, at a farm, at your school...
Invite Magic Mama to your house!
email:
magicmamamusic@gmail.com
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Change Agent - at your service!
Music has always been something that just comes through me, not a career path I pursued or subject I studied. Prior to performing my own music on stage, I was a band painter (Cloud Cult). I never had rock star dreams, I am not particularly comfortable singing and playing in front of an audience. In this world of specialists who do the One Thing well, over and over, I am a misfit. I thrive on variety. I love traveling to new places, meeting new friends, eating new foods, inventing new projects and prototypes, listening to music I've never heard before.
These past few weeks, establishing a new home on the west coast of Oregon, I've started up my music practice in preparation for gig season and realized my throat chakra has become rigid and blocked. I've forced myself through hours of playing and singing but it just doesn't work like that for me. I have to be feeling it, really singing from an authentic place.
Recently, while NOT being paid to sing, I've landed a couple of mural painting jobs. Enjoying the feel of paint on a wall, dancing to the music in my heart, I found myself spontaneously singing; and it felt good. With brush and pigment in hand, I noticed a shift in my second chakra energy; creativity putting a new spin on my orange wheel of light….which naturally allowed energy to flow up and through my throat chakra, with EASE!
It seems that my personal path to freedom lies not in segregating my interests and just picking one to focus my attention on, but really embracing my inner Change Agent. In order to create and deliver my music, I must also be regularly using my skills and interests in visual art as well as immersing myself in Nature. As a Free Range Woman, I require a multiplicity of ways to nourish my creativity. My life is most wholesome within a polyculture.
I am a genre-bender, a change agent, an edge walker, a visionary activist. I crave the juicy life! Beautiful landscapes, compassionate and creative people, fresh whole foods, abundant synchronicity, divine appointments.
So, I've decided to let go of trying to make music my career. In fact, I'm letting go of the idea of having a "career". Rather, I am pursuing ways to share my creative gifts with the world and opening to receiving more support outside the mainstream economic paradigm. Keeping the joy and love in my art and music, gardening for the food and beauty. And anytime I can also get some federal reserve notes to use in my gas tank, for car insurance and postage stamps, to share with the local farmers, and pay back some loans… great! But I'm finding more and more ways to engage the gift economy and open to receiving support in alternative ways. The less dependent I feel on dollars, the happier I become. And THAT gets my juices flowing, I sing for the land, creating beauty as an offering to spirit. My art is still a means of survival, but primarily because I shrivel up when I stop creating, not because my roof and bed depend on it. My Soul depends on it.
These past few weeks, establishing a new home on the west coast of Oregon, I've started up my music practice in preparation for gig season and realized my throat chakra has become rigid and blocked. I've forced myself through hours of playing and singing but it just doesn't work like that for me. I have to be feeling it, really singing from an authentic place.
Recently, while NOT being paid to sing, I've landed a couple of mural painting jobs. Enjoying the feel of paint on a wall, dancing to the music in my heart, I found myself spontaneously singing; and it felt good. With brush and pigment in hand, I noticed a shift in my second chakra energy; creativity putting a new spin on my orange wheel of light….which naturally allowed energy to flow up and through my throat chakra, with EASE!
It seems that my personal path to freedom lies not in segregating my interests and just picking one to focus my attention on, but really embracing my inner Change Agent. In order to create and deliver my music, I must also be regularly using my skills and interests in visual art as well as immersing myself in Nature. As a Free Range Woman, I require a multiplicity of ways to nourish my creativity. My life is most wholesome within a polyculture.
I am a genre-bender, a change agent, an edge walker, a visionary activist. I crave the juicy life! Beautiful landscapes, compassionate and creative people, fresh whole foods, abundant synchronicity, divine appointments.
So, I've decided to let go of trying to make music my career. In fact, I'm letting go of the idea of having a "career". Rather, I am pursuing ways to share my creative gifts with the world and opening to receiving more support outside the mainstream economic paradigm. Keeping the joy and love in my art and music, gardening for the food and beauty. And anytime I can also get some federal reserve notes to use in my gas tank, for car insurance and postage stamps, to share with the local farmers, and pay back some loans… great! But I'm finding more and more ways to engage the gift economy and open to receiving support in alternative ways. The less dependent I feel on dollars, the happier I become. And THAT gets my juices flowing, I sing for the land, creating beauty as an offering to spirit. My art is still a means of survival, but primarily because I shrivel up when I stop creating, not because my roof and bed depend on it. My Soul depends on it.
