Loving Links - CMC Photo Contest Update

The folks over at Capture Music City are sending some love out there to those of us who have linked them to our blogs.

Thanks, CMC!

Now I have to stop being a total slacker and neglecting my blog.

Seriously, I've been spending so much time taking photos and uploading them to the Capture Music City site I haven't had any spare time to update my blog.

Live internet radio show still going to happen. The format remains to be decided.

I'm still conditioning for Shakespeare in the Park. I've added a Zumba class to my exercise regiment. Very fun.

I now have 196 photos posted to Capture Music City.

Some of them need to come down, and there are others to go up so keep checking.

Thanks to all of you who have shared such supportive comments regarding my shots. I truly love photography and have never participated in anything like this.

Also, to clarify an earlier comment regarding the beautiful photographic work on Capture Music City, it is being submitted by professional and amateur alike. There are hobbyists, semi-professionals, amateurs, and stone cold lifers who are all submitting excellent work.

I first submitted a handful of photos on a lark. Now, it has become a high point of my days to check into the site and view the new submissions.

Great work from a very talented group of people, professional and amateur alike.

Reunited

I have recently been contacted by two friends from my past. One from middle school, the other from high school and college. Living in the age of new technology has its perks. Although it adds distance and anonymity to our daily life (what with banking and other daily acitivities almost fully automated, and hand-written letters nearly obsolete) it brings a once distant life closer. With sites like Reunion.com and their ilk, long lost souls are a mere click away.

The live internet radio talk show is cooking. I should have some news to share by month's end.

I have started back to the gym to condition for the upcoming summer show. An outdoor, summer Shakespeare festival is no walk in the park in Tennessee. Temperatures often exceed 100 degrees in the bandshell. It is not for the faint of heart, but I love it. Nothing makes me feel more alive than performing outdoor theatre (for FREE) under the stars in Centennial Park.

I now have 142 photos entered into the Capture Music City photo contest.

Back soon to update on the radio show.

My daughter starts summer school in the a.m.

Time is flying.

Capture Music City Photo Contest

Confession: I am addicted to the Tennessean's Capture Music City Photo Contest.

How it works.

In essence, it is a contest designed to sell a coffee table book. Brilliant, eh?

I understand the publisher of the book is local, which is very cool.  The sponsors are also local. Also cool.

The Tennessean's own photographers are encouraged to contribute their work, but are ineligible for prizes.

I, however, am not ineligible for the prizes which is why I am shamelessly pandering for votes. In Capture Music City language, that translates to "promoting".

The fact is, there are many professional photographers who are contributing their work. There is some truly beautiful art on the site already.

I'd like to think that some of my shots are hangin' with the big dogs, but I know my amateur status. I don't want to get too big for my britches.

Please, if you've made it to this site by any other way than Capture Music City, check out my photos. You may search the site for "Artists Aloud" or "Brenda Sparks". Either will bring up my 91 photos, to date.

And hey, you're not going to hurt my feelings by casting your vote for 1 of my photos, or for all 91 for that matter.

There is a 30 photo a day submission limit. I believe they call that the "Brenda clause". 

To vote you must register with the site. "Dig it" means you liked it. "Nix it" means you'll pass. If you love the photo you must click on "Love it" before you click on "Dig It", or else your loving vote will not be counted.

The contest is just 3 months shy of completion, so there is a ways to go.

This is a marathon not a sprint, people. Pace yourselves.

Check back often for more photo additions. Or news that I've been banned from the site for serial posting. 

I told you I have addictive personality tendencies. 

Nashville: The Music City Musical

As part of Tennessee Women's Theater Project's Women's Work Showcase, I will be performing a staged reading of a new work by Carolyn German entitled, Nashville: The Music City Musical.

Isn't that a great title?

I haven't read the entire script, and I've only sung snippets of the score but I like what I know of the piece.

Carolyn is a multi-talented Actor/Director/Writer/Mama who is also the Music and Theatre Supervisor for Metro Parks.

The reading of Nashville: The Music City Musical with take place on May 25 at 2:30 p.m.

For more information check out the TWTP home page.

Full Disclosure

...I also knit now.

But it's not "real" knitting (I have a friend who will flog me for that). It's loom knitting.

The modern miracle that is The Knifty Knitter. You've seen them, I'm certain.

I learned to needle knit for a production of A Doll's House in 2000. The moment I left the stage, all knowledge of knitting emptied out of my brain.

One of the craftay-mamas of which I spoke in my "scrub rush" post taught me how to knit on a circle loom, and once again I became addicted. I may or may not struggle with addictive personality traits. I'm just saying.

There. I think I have divulged all of my craftiness. Photography, soap making, and knitting. That's enough to balance out the artiness of my career.

The Great Scrub Rush of '08

A couple of years ago I added another "slash" to my title.

Actor/Director/Writer/Amateur Digital Photographer/Soap Making Hobbyist. 

For an artist, I've never considered myself particularly crafty. It all goes back to my 7th grade home economics class. I was an excellent cook. Had that been the only skill required I would have aced the course. But there was a little matter of a sewing project. I, like a fool, chose a halter top and skort set. It was, after all, the 80's. That skort was my undoing. I had been an A student all throughout elementary school. My final sewing project was my first "D"...but it wouldn't be the last.

Consequently, I've spent my life running from all things crafty. There was a time when I couldn't spend more than 5 minutes in a fabric store without getting the vapors.

Since becoming a mother I've been inspired by some very craftay mamas to release my inner artisan.

A few years back a friend introduced me to soap making. She made the most delectable sugar scrubs and soaps, and I became addicted. I think she got me started making my own so I'd stop stalking her. She's since been absorbed into the witness protection program, but I don't think it's related to me. Actually, she works with Babybearshop. Check them out, they make excellent organic products for mamas and babies.

With the end of the school year fast approaching, I have been besieged with orders for teachers gifts. I call it The Great Scrub Rush of '08 because it makes me feel important. For the past week I have been booty-deep in sugar scrub, soaps, cellophane wrap, and ribbons.

I just made my last delivery of the day, so now I am free to focus on Artists Aloud in Tennessee.

Thanks to another friend, I have been in contact with a woman who provided me with some excellent podcasting resources. The research has begun. I hope to be up and gabbing soon.

By the way, if you are at all interested in soap making I highly recommend Brambleberry. Excellent products, great customer service. I order all of my supplies from them.

Back on The Bandshell Again!

I have been cast as Junius Brutus (traditionally a male role) in this summer's Nashville Shakespeare Festival production of Coriolanus. Having directed last summer's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor and having worked with NSF since 1996, I know all too well what long odds there are for the summer show. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity. I was last seen on stage at the Bandshell in Centennial Park the summer before my daughter was born, in the 2002 production of All's Well That Ends Well.

More to come...

Progress

"There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." -Oscar Wilde

The Picture of Dorian Gray 1891

Artists Aloud in Tennessee is moving right along. To ensure a vibe that is irreverent, enlightening, and above all entertaining; I am creating a credo and solidifying an interview style that will guarantee a departure from your standard "How do you remember all those lines?" questions.

The new email address for Artists Aloud in Tennessee is: artistsaloudtn@gmail.com

Check back for the AATN credo, list of 11 questions, and our very first interview (transcript).

Professional Theatre Artist/Amateur Shutterbug

This site will also feature my amateur photography. Note iris below and flying heron header. I carry my beloved Canon Powershot S3 IS everywhere I go. I am a complete novice. I have no formal training, save for a recent 2-hour digital photography workshop. I do have the privilege of knowing several other area mamas and shutterbugs who share the same Canon camera and a passion for photography. They have inspired me to experiment and explore more (read: mocked me relentlessly to get out of 'sportsmode'). As an artist, I have found my camera to be an excellent outlet during these early years of motherhood. Although mothering in and of itself is an extremely creative and challenging enterprise, I have found photography has helped keep my artist aesthetic sharp (and my mind somewhat sane) between gigs.

Announcing Artists Aloud in Tennessee!

There are no coincidences.

Today, I wandered into our local YMCA intent on spending my morning surfing the web, sipping decaf, and avoiding my workout until the last possible moment.

Instead, I became an unwitting audience member for Debbie Alan's "On The Home Stretch", a live daily internet radio talk show (http://www.onthehomestretch.com/).

It proved to be the impetus I needed to pursue an idea I have been knocking about my brain for some time now: a live internet radio talk show featuring local artists.

I am a professional regional theatre artist turned wife and mother currently living just west of Nashville, Tennessee.

My career is nearly 17 years old, my marriage nearly 11 years old*, and my daughter is nearly 5 years old.

For her first 4 years of life, I continued my vagabond lifestyle (performing and directing in the Southeastern regional market from Michigan to Florida) while my husband and fellow theatre artist stepped off the stage to take on the noble and necessary "daddy job". He is a brilliant actor and artist who (as God as my witness) will return to the theatre someday.

We entertained home-schooling as an option for our daughter so she could continue to travel with me as I directed out of own. Our daughter apparently had other ideas. We enrolled her in pre-school when she turned 4 years old and she's never looked back. As it turns out, she prefers the company of actual children to adults who merely act like children for a living. Which is no slight to the countless talented actors, artists, designers and technicians who have been her beloved caretakers over the years.

Because she so loves having classmates, teachers, and a classroom, I am officially (for now) taking a break from the road to give our daughter the conventional school experience she craves.

This limits my availability to work in the theatre as a director and actor, but it opens the window to pursuing the idea of a talk show dedicated to local artists.

Being a theatre artist in Music City USA presents a unique challenge. Our great city is, of course, known for country music. However, both thriving and struggling under the radar is a richly talented and diverse artistic community.

I have been a part of Nashville's professional theatre community since 1994. My friends are some of the most multi-talented artists I've ever known. We wage a never-ending struggle for funding and recognition. Our passion to touch the lives of others and enrich our community drives us through and carries us beyond the financial hardships of our times. As inspiring as it is, and as proud as I am to be an artist in this town, it is at times heartbreaking.

I intend to use this blog as a starting point for a live internet radio talk show introducing the unsung artists of our community, and promoting the excellent theatre work which is alive (but not always well-funded, well-advertised, or well-supported) in and around Nashville, Tennessee.

Artists Aloud in Tennessee will feature an insider's perspective. As a theatre artist in this community, I will be featuring my friends and fellow artists. Those with whom I have struggled, and those with whom I continue to work.

Although there will be an emphasis on the stage, I hope to include other artists as well.

The focus of this blog, and subsequent live internet radio talk show, will not be country music.

I have nothing against country music. It is my intention, however, to shine the light on artists who live and work in the shadows of that much more lucrative and famous industry based in Nashville, Tennessee.

As my dear friend and artistic director of The Nashville Shakespeare Festival (http://www.nashvilleshakes.org/) often signs her emails...Onward!

*The story of our marriage, countless "weddings" and plans for weddings is a long and storied one which I will tell someday. For now, suffice it to say we have been together for almost 13 years, and we remain deeply in love.