Hello dear community, what a week it has been! I just came out of a week of Blues camp (my third year running) and I’m still high. I wrote about my experience at Blues camp in some depth last year, so I’ll give the condensed version: it was awesome! Stellar! Amazing! Life-changing (again)! I hadn’t planned to go this year, but the moment I saw the workshop write-ups I knew I needed to, and I am thankful that I did. My teachers this year were Stephanie Martin and Suzie Vinnick, and they were both excellent. I learned so much! I might even retain some of it.
High point among many: Student night! So many incredible performances, all were excellent this year. Watching Jason Long win the guitar raffle was surreal and wonderful. Julia Rossignol’s gorgeous a capella rendition of her composition ‘River’ was heart rending and a personal peak for me. I played a song of my own, and people seemed to like it. Molly Blaze, our Hornby scholarship recipient, played a sweet banjo version of Plastic Jesus. It was such a great capper to the week. Then we had the ‘cry and bye,’ the farewell brunch on Friday, and it was all over for another year. Every year I feel more at home with this group of folks, many of whom are becoming friends, as I learn and grow as a musician and singer.
Unless I started making a load more money than I do, I would not leave Hornby to attend such a camp elsewhere. But I don’t have to! We are incredibly lucky to have these world-class opportunities right here on the island. We have much to be grateful for here and I am more thankful than I can say. Every day I notice, reflect and am amazed by the simple fact of where I live. It’s impossible to take it for granted! Call it a blessing or a privilege; I prefer the former. We needn’t feel guilty about blessings. Yes, we are better off in so many ways than so many other people. Some of us stumbled on the place by accident, some were born or grew up here, some had parents who vacationed here and grew up feeling like Hornby was home. Others have their own pathways to this magical isle.
I was one who stumbled, back in the eighties. Hornby was truly remote back then. This was a world away from the world, long before the internet existed. I ran to Hornby as a refuge, a place of escape, where I could hide in the woods, let my boys run with the other wild kids (no helicopter parents then), lick my wounds and recover from oh so much. I have no complaints about my life, though. I am full up with experiences and I must write in order to process them, and I am exploding with creative energy, ideas and stories.
It’s time for me to move forward! I’m back-burnering this column. Due to the pressures of ‘cancellation’, the Grapevine is no longer able to pay my small salary. I fully understand, and I support this local avenue for the free expression of ideas and opinions, something I fervently stand for. I may pop back in on occasion, if the Grapevine allows. Right now, I have other things to write that occupy my focus.
I’m shifting focus to my new column at https://phoenixbee.substack.com. Substack is a subscription writing site where writers of all genres and walks of life congregate and write for their subscribers, free and paid. There is a ton of well-written, thoughtful, nuanced writing there and I’m happy to join that community. I am not putting in a paywall, so all who sign up for free can read my writings there. Of course, you have the option to pay if you wish to support my work.
I like that Substack is not social media. There, I know that those who subscribe are interested in what I have to say, and that matters to me. I will continue to advocate for alternative points of view and to express these views from the centremost radically inclusive position possible.
I am shelving my opinions for the most part to finish a series I am writing about the music on the album, song lyric discussions, observations on life, what it is like to carry this brain around with me, and the tools I use to facilitate my growth to becoming a bigger, better version of myself. Once that is done, I will expand the focus of the writing.
Also, my new album kicks, I really wish you would listen (I don’t know how to market, does it show?)! To hear it, go to my bandcamp (phoenixbee.bandcamp.com), or search “Phoenix Bee Late Bloomer” on the streamers. It’s out there now. You can also find it linked from my Substack.
That’s what’s happening! To receive regular more-or-less weekly articles, subscribe to my Substack at phoenixbee@substack.com. You can always reach me at phoenixonhornby@gmail.com.
