Ok, the happy news and the free music are mostly one and the same. ;)

So, the news is that OurStage (rapidly becoming my favorite website =) has once again featured me as their free download of the week, this time promoting my song “Honeybee.”

Check out the official OurStage blog to get your copy, and leave a comment if you get a chance. The people here at OurStage have been very good to me, and I’d like to show them that I’m appreciative. =)

Also, while you’re there, scroll down a couple of entries and you’ll see that one of my favorite OurStage artists, Meika Pauley, is giving away her fantastic album “Elijah, Drop Your Gun,” totally for free on Amazon from now until March 10. I really highly recommend you check her out.

And, lastly, it’s my sister’s birthday today. I am very happy she was born and just wanted to share. =)

Thanks to everybody who has been so supportive and helped this happen!

Ok, so I’ve been looking forward to making this announcement for quite some time, but wanted to wait until everything was in place. So…now everything is in place and…I AM IN A NEW BAND!!!

So, I realize that might not be quite as exciting to you yet as it is to me, but just wait. ;)

The band is called “Color of Love,” and you can check out our OurStage profile (with links to our other, not-to-be-named profiles) here: http://www.ourstage.com/fanclub/coloroflove

I should emphasize two things before you follow that link, though – these are not my songs, and I am not the one singing them in the recordings. So don’t get confused and think I’ve given you a bad link. ;) The songs are all by my friend and nearly-next-door neighbor Mike Ulrich, and the lovely lady singing is Mike’s friend Teresa Eggers, who moved to NYC just after making the record. I am replacing her at live shows and on future recordings (we have some really fun stuff in the works!), and having a great time doing it.

Color of Love feels like a pretty big stylistic departure for me, but I have to say that I have become a huge fan, and the whole thing is really exciting. I mean, imagine you get this new album, and you’re really into it, and singing all the parts in your car…and then, SNAP!, you are in that band, singing those parts for real! So it’s a lot of fun, really challenging for me as a singer in a lot of different ways (I’ve just started my first voice lessons, which are fantastic!), and I’m really looking forward to seeing where things go.

I really hope everyone who reads this will check out the band and help warm up our profile pages with friending and commenting and song playing and all that stuff. And, if you really like what you hear, you can buy the cd “Camphor Songs” on iTunes (or for a discounted rate at shows – we’d love to see you in person =) or CD Baby.

As far as exactly what “Color of Love” is like, in sound it reminds me a lot of The New Pornographers or Belle and Sebastian. Mike is recently getting me into listen to The Dirty Projectors, and I can definitely see the influence there as well. CD Baby says the Camphor Songs album should appeal to fans of Yo La Tengo, Wilco, and The Shins, and throws us into Alternative/Experimental/Folk/Rock type categories. Our MySpace says “Punk/Punk/Punk,” but that’s just for fun. ;) Thematically, though, I think these songs are extra fun because they really break out from the standard “relationship song” mold. Really, there aren’t any songs obviously about romantic relationships. Mike writes about…uneasy relationships with technology? Existential crises? A la OK Computer, the folk/pop version…? Basically, listen past the poppy pretty silliness (at times), and you’re likely to feel a little uncomfortable. In a really good way. =)

Thanks for listening!

So, just shared some non-profit beer with E….did you know that such a thing existed? Well, I just had one, my first, and to be honest it wasn’t amazing, but E. says this company – er, organization – makes good ones including a ginger one that 1. tastes like ginger beer (the soda) 2. is alcoholic. So, sounds good to me. I mean, nothing better than a good ginger beer at the end of October….except maybe a good alcoholic ginger beer that benefits Coney Island restoration projects…

Well, anyway, I’m going back to South Carolina in about a week for a sustainable agriculture conference, and have been thinking about home, and about Georgia and North Carolina – where I’ll also be going before heading back – and about knowing the shades of things that other people lump together. And I think we all have things like that. Things that look all one color to most people, but to us they are kind of a whole rainbow. And I was thinking, sometimes if you’re away from something for too long, you start to forget the rainbow and see it more like people on the outside see it. But then, I think it also happens that sometimes something in you fights against that, and maybe even fights hard enough that you see more of the rainbow than if you’d stayed on the inside. Maybe the rainbow requires motion?

Do you know what I mean?

This is all to say that I miss the South, and I miss living some place where when I say “the South,” they don’t think I’m talking about L.A. I miss living some place old. California is a shiny new toy and I miss my velveteen rabbit a little.

Anyway, me and my non-profit beer fuzzies are going to bed now. Wishing everyone a happy October.

l.o.v.e.

s

Today feels a little bit like Christmas. It’s hard to say why. The wind is loud and steady and the sun is bright and yellow and it’s the first really cold day of the year. And by really cold, let’s be clear that I live in California – it was maybe 50 degrees or so. Anyway, last night I pulled my electric blanket out of the closet, and though I am not sure where I packed away my winter clothes, I have decided it is definitely time to find them.

This morning A. and M. and I went to the police bike auction, and then got completely overwhelmed and confused and left before bidding even started. We were pretty sure all the hundreds of people there were going to be bidding on the same 5 bikes, and it turned out that if you missed the viewing period (which we mostly did), then you were kind of out of luck, as otherwise you’d be stuck just listening to meaningless numbers called out from the back of a mass of people.

Anyway, we moved on to the farmer’s market, where I bought potatoes and asian pears and some sort of squash shaped like a swan and we warmed ourselves up with foamy drinks at the espresso stand.

Then A. and I decided to go swimming. We’ve been planning it for a while, but for some reason today – cold and bright and feeling a bit like Christmas – was the day. I just found a swimsuit on sale and have a cap and goggles for the first time since I was a child, and I have to say that the aesthetic of seeing clearly underwater in a warm pool on a cold day was really lovely. The pool is outdoor, by the way. We’ll see how much I love swimming when it is 38 degrees and dark and raining. But for now I am quite impressed with the whole experience and determined to go again tomorrow, even though it left me pretty much wiped out for the day. I’ll gain stamina with time, right? I should mention also, I guess, that I don’t really know how to swim. But one has to start somewhere, and if A. goes with me then at least we can share a lane and I won’t feel bad about being slow or occasionally swimming into her.

In other news, after a late-night phone consultation with my dad A. and I tried to make vegetarian chicken and dumplings, and I do not recommend chickpea flour. FYI.

Anyway, just had sort of a pretty day and wanted to share. Hope everyone is enjoying whatever fall brings them wherever they are. Sharpens your senses up, I think. Makes you feel like you might remember or discover something really important at any moment. Well, at least if you manage to transition without falling into a head cold, in which case everything gets muddled up. =P I am mostly staying clear – bit of a sore throat, but I’m on the offensive.

Love to all of you, as always, Shosha

So, after some external prompting, I have decided to start a blog on OurStage. The only problem is that it is 9:30, and I am already late for the lettuce. Yes, lettuce. Romaine. I grow it in a big field west of town, and then I spray it with organic herbicides – clove oil, citric acid, pickling vinegar, to name a few – to try to kill the weeds that are keeping it down. So, sprayed on Friday, and now have to keep an eye on it. And then, after spending a couple of tedious hours walking up and down the field with my eye on it, I have a statistics quiz.

OH, the glamorous life I lead.

So, while I’m keeping my official scientific eye on the lettuce, you should check out the OurStage Blog here http://blog.ourstage.com/2008/10/07/free-mp3-shosha-capps/, where I am the Daily Dose. Don’t know what the Daily Dose is? Well, the means you are getting less free music and information about emerging artists than you could be, and that is not an enviable position to be in. I suggest you remedy it, and start with getting a free pre-release version of my song “Mimosa.” This is the ONLY place, online or off, where ANY of my music is currently available. And it’s free. So go check it out. Subscribe if you want. Leave me a comment there if you feel inspired. And then when I get back from my day of lettuce and statistics, I will do a happy little dance about it. Promise.

Here’s the link again: http://blog.ourstage.com/2008/10/07/free-mp3-shosha-capps/

(sorry it’s not a live link, but you can cut-and-paste for free music, right?)