I am finished! I have raised $12,000!! I am going to Ecuador!!!
Just messing around with an ivy and city generator. Fun stuff! (made with Blender3D)
Tomorrow I leave for Kroka. TOMORROW!!
I am done fundraising, done shopping, done packing. I have said my good byes to lots of people (and have so many friends who I won't get to see before I go). I have said good bye to my town, neighborhood, land, house, garden, and animals. 11 months of fundraising and tomorrow I will be getting up at 5 and heading down to New Hampshire to begin my journey.
And the journey doesn't end here for you because we will have a Semester blog with pictures, posts, poems and more from our adventure! It isn't up yet but when it is I will try to get a link to my blog so check in a couple weeks to see if it is here.
Now for the Fundraising Specs! (They don't match up with my 3D progress charts but at some point it got too confusing with all the gear I was buying and payments to Kroka to figure it out each month.)
Look for me when I return for I will have stories to tell!Adios,
Clayton
Here are some improvisations for you all. They have lots of mistakes and are more experimental as I was just recording for my personal use but they have some beautiful ideas throughout them and I hope you guys enjoy this last musical offering before I leave.
If you haven't bought my CD yet, you still can! My Mother is taking orders for me while I am away. See earlier post or "my music" page
After being gone for two weeks at Fiddle Camp I returned home with the knowledge that I will be leaving again for a very long time. It made me realize how much I appreciate this land, house, family, and community with which I have lived for so many years. I am trying to soak up as much of my wonderful life as I can in the week before Kroka rather than daydream about the days ahead because the future is inevitable while the present tries to slip through my fingers like sand.
What a turning point this is in my life. In a week I will be leaving my home behind to explore our incredible world, traveling far away from the life I have known, having experiences unlike anything I have experienced before. I will be leaving my home for a new home, leaving my family for a new family of Kroka staff and students. I will be living with this family for four months, being cared for when I am sick, something my parents have done all my life. I am finally leaving the incredibly nurturing nest in which I have been raised and am venturing out into the tangled jungle of life.
It is hard to comprehend what a dramatic change this trip will be; my longest time away from home jumping from 3 weeks to 4 months. My mind is a crazy whirl of emotions, thoughts and feelings; excitement for Kroka; love for my family; love for all my friends--old and new; exhaustion from two weeks of Fiddle Camp; satisfaction for life; love of my home and the familiar; mental preparation and acceptance for my departure from the familiar people, places and everything that has been my life for the past 11 years. As confusing as my emotions are, none of them are telling me to stay. They all unify into an awareness of what I am leaving, of what it means to be leaving my childhood behind. I am ready for this adventure and I feel positive that this is the right path for me to take.
Here is the entire progression of 3D progress charts I made for my blog. I have been too busy to do much 3D animation this year so it was nice to have an excuse. I actually learned a lot while making them.
I am exhausted after two intense weeks of Fiddle Camp but I had an amazing time. Hours of improvisation, jamming, accompaniment, singing, and concerts as well as the regular classes. I took the piano class with Neal Pearlman, learning the Cape Breton accompaniment style. Neal is an amazing pianist and a really good teacher.
Before I go on, here are recordings of some jams and performances I was a part of at Fiddle Camp. Don't miss the last track (I put it at the end because it is 10 minutes long).
1 Improv with Will on Mandolin (love that cord progression)
2 Audry's Song (This isquite the epic tune!!! Audry can rock that fiddle!)
3 Strangers Once More -- stage recording (Chris, Jeff and I)
5 IMPROV with Greg Boardman!! (Try to ignore the background noises.)
I did a bit of jamming and improvisation at Fiddle Camp in the past but this year I spent hours between classes playing music with other talented musicians. One of the days I suddenly realized that I had been playing for two hours straight with a few different people and had missed lunch. I played with cellist, Chris Moriarty, during the first week; doing a lot of improvisation and accompanying an epic tune he wrote. We practiced his tune for the coffee house along with Jeff Lewis, a mandolin player, but we didn't sign up quick enough and all the concerts were filled up. Instead we had someone film us playing on the stage.
In the second week I jammed with quite a few different people and accompanied some of the fiddle jam sessions with the Cape Breton stuff I had been learning. We performed an epic song that Audry wrote on the fiddle for one of the camper concerts. I also did some improv performances during the weeks and sold a bunch of CD's.
One of the most incredible jam sessions I had was with Greg Boardman who I had improvised with years ago at Fiddle Camp. The moment we began to play I felt the connection between our instruments. I have never improvised with someone so receptive who can play my style of music. I wasn't playing too repetitive of a cord progression but our melodies and harmonies blended seamlessly. I felt drenched in the music, caught up in the downpour of notes. Our improvisation was like dancing: we lead each other into different cords, emotions, dynamics with a gentle pressure to steer the other in the right direction. As I was the leader of the cords I used the direction of the melody to hint at the next change, Greg would pick up my messages and we would flow into a new progression as if we had spent hours practicing the piece. It was one of the most incredible musical experiences I have ever had.
Hila and I did intense Kroka training during the first week of Fiddle Camp. We got up at 6:45 every morning and hiked for an hour with our 40 pound back packs (we also did a hike in the afternoon). We were practicing posture which is way more difficult than it sounds. The trick is to stand up straight and tuck your butt in so that you are holding the weight with your core strength so as to not stress your bones. It makes what would be a breeze of a hike into an hour long sit up. After a good week of building up those muscles I was able to increase my backpack weight back to the usual 50 pounds.
Well, soon I will post more about my financial situation and my thoughts about leaving but I need to get back to packing.
Thank you all,
Clayton
