Cozy in Whatcom County

When I was asked to develop ideas for indoor activities for visitors to my area, it was easy to come up with a list of my favorite places. Many of them I’d already written about. Independent film, live music, indoor climbing, performing arts, and pub crawls are just a few of the options. Check out my Bellingham Experience Insider blog, 5 Ways to Stay Warm and Active in Bellingham this Winter, soon to plan your next visit to the Bellingham and Whatcom County area. One look and you’ll see why I chose this place to call home.

When winter is keeping you inside, there are a lot of options for cozy fun.

 

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One of Bellingham’s Hidden Gems

Politics aside, who do you vote for: Mead or Cider? Before stepping into Bellingham’s Honey Moon I’d never tried mead, the drink of knights and peasants. But Honey Moon has both made from scratch, all while supporting the local music and poetry scene too!

An exemplary business, Honey Moon takes care to treat its employees well by valuing their work and including their ideas in event and product planning. That makes for a tight-knit work family. They also pride themselves on giving local artists, musicians, and poets a space to share their work.

That’s why I enjoy writing about wonderful places to be for my Insider Blog for Bellingham Experience. Hot Damn Scandal, New Orleans’ Jocose Bird, and so much more can be found at this hole-in-the-wall spot. Take a look.

A New Opportunity: Music, Arts, and Theater Bellingham Experience Insider Blog

I’m so excited to announce that I’ve began writing the Music, Arts, and Theater Insider Blog for Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism (Bellingham Experience).

I love my town, so writing about the arts here is a dream come true. My first post is about what I love about The Green Frog. Check out why I keep going back over and over.

I’ll be blogging there twice a month so be sure to check there regularly, share, and send your suggestions my way.

Soul is in My Soul

I grew up on an eclectic mix of music. In the early days, it was whatever my parents or baby sitters liked–bee-bop, Connie Francis, John Denver, and Gordon Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. My tweens and teens rolled into movie soundtracks, anything Olivia Newton-John, The Beatles, and the buttery voice of 1980’s Casey Kasem Top 40. Along the way I sampled a whole lot of other music–whatever my friends or boyfriends were listening to, and whatever was interesting and cheap at a garage sale on 8-track or vinyl. In my 20’s I moved near the grunge capital of the world, Seattle, and so dutifully listened to 107.7 FM The End in its beginnings. My favorite then was 4 Non Blondes. In my 30’s I found local music and played my loves over and over, discovering that what I connected with most were tunes I could sing along with. When I reached the age to be making a bucket list, and dabble in public performance, garage band floated near the top. But what songs would I sing? I went to karaoke and tried on a few for size. Each time I caught myself singing along with a song with abandon, I wrote it down on a silly yellow post-it and tossed it in my desk drawer. When I finally cleaned my desk, I noticed most of those songs were classic soul by Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Bill Withers, and Etta James. That realization led me to those influenced by them, like Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, Amy Winehouse, and James Morrison. When I started looking around my own neighborhood for a soul cover band to obsess over, it took me only 15 minutes to find the amazing Supergroup, Baby Cakes. Turns out, they are already playing half my song list, with a lot more in their future line up. I was delighted to get to know them for this WhatcomTalk.com article. All of their future performances are now on my calendar because they play my favorite songs with their full heart and soul, and I can feel that power in my own.

Music is Living

When its been a hard day or things aren’t going my way, music is the one thing that always lifts me up. It was my favorite subject in elementary school, singing Yellow Bird and Ben with Mrs. Blanchard once a week. As I grew up, life got busy with sports, homework, and then hard work and family. But through it all, there has been a constant sound track. Music, like time or space, is another dimension in my life and I wouldn’t know how to define myself without it.

I wrote this article for WhatcomTalk.com as a thank you to the places in my town that share the art of music every day. What’s your favorite song? Favorite band? Favorite place to hear it? I’m listening.

Murder Jazz band, Falling Up Stairs, at the Shakedown. Photo by Aaron Brick Artography.