End of the World

In case you've not experienced this for yourself, let me share with you an irrefutable fact -- some of the most pivotal moments of life begin as what seems like a coincidence. Ancillary conclusion -- there are no coincidences.

Case in point, End of the World Records. Bear with me, as it may take awhile to get to the point part of this case, and how it relates to Grassroots Productions. The first thing you need to know is that I am a huge fan of bagpipe music. (I told you this might be a long road.) While other girls were swooning over David Cassidy, my heart belonged to the Band of the Black Watch -- my dearest wish was to see them perform live. (Yes, I got to go see them in high school. No, I never got beaten up.) The reason this is important is that it was my love for bagpipe music that took me to the High Point Theatre almost 5 years ago to see the first concert by Jamestown Pipes & Drums. As a part of the concert, the band had invited the wife of one of their pipers to perform.
Her name was Andrea Reese, and when she began to sing her first song -- one of several original compositions she played that night -- my mind lit up like a lightning storm on a late August night. Despite the fact that the sound technician couldn't find his way around a sound board for anything, my world was transformed. I knew I was privileged to be hearing an amazing talent.

So the second thing you need to know about me is that I was trained to be a stage manager so when I go to the after party, I am compelled to shoot my mouth off about how much better the concert could have been if this, that and the other thing had been done differently. Ah yes, I'm sure you can see what's coming -- by the end of the night, I had pretty much agreed to stage manage the second concert (in fact, I stage managed two more concerts, joined the band and learned to play a tenor drum before it was all through, but that really is another story).

In addition to being so bedazzled by bagpipes that I practically signed my life away to a band, I also managed to gush all over Andrea Reese in a very teenage, star struck fashion. The result of that was a phone call from Andi a couple of months later, asking if I wanted to drive to Lenoir with her, where she had a date at a recording studio to lay down some tracks for her CD. Well, gosh, what almost 50 year old, crazed fan, singer wannabe wouldn't want to do that? Andi was livin' the dream, and I was gonna tag along as far as I could!

So who knew that tucked away in Lenoir, NC is Epiphonic Studios, an amazing recording studio in a renovated Catholic Church, complete with stained glass windows? Founded by Nate Pritchard (who has worked on albums for the likes of Martina McBride, Allison Krause and Dave Matthews), Epiphonic is an artist's dream come true. After a day in the studio with Andi, I was more smitten than ever -- with her music, with recording studios and all that wonderfully geeky equipment (so many buttons, so little time), and with the entire music industry as a whole. As much as I would have given my right leg to have even a fraction of Andi's talent, the truth is, I was chosen to clap and cheer.

You never know when inconsequential events in your life will prove to be turning points. So here we are, four years later. Over the years, Andi and Nate have both become good friends of mine. I have been lucky enough to get to watch, not only the evolution of Andi's first CD, Rain, etc., which will be released on May 26th, but the birth of Nate's new NC record label, End of the World Records -- every bit of which, from the artists to the labels that go on the CDs, has roots in North Carolina. Their desire to bring their passions to life has inspired me in ways I could not have foreseen. And it has been my pleasure and my joy to be chosen to clap and cheer all along the way.

Now -- what in the world does this have to do with Grassroots Productions, you're still asking? Well, I have had so much fun clapping and cheering, I want to share the fun with the rest of the world. On May 31st 2-5pm at Center City Park, you, too, can clap and cheer for Andrea Reese as she performs at our very first Sunday in the Park of 2009, along with another little group you may have heard of -- Polecat Creek.

Did I make my point about there being no coincidences? Perhaps it will all be clearer when I see you at Center City Park on May 31st. Hey, who knows, maybe later I'll let you listen to my bagpipe music collection.

Grassroots Bubble Blog of Wonderment

In an attempt to find a cheap, fun, exciting and cheap activity for children (or adults if you're having one of those nostalgic days) to do at our Flag Day Fun event, we came across bubbles. Bubbles, as I have now discovered through various informative online encyclopedias, are vessels created by Renaissance philosophers (also known as "wizards") to trap and deport moon men from the violently peaceful planet of Zoloft Antidepressant. Not to mention they're really, really fun to play with. So, why not get a bunch of bubbles and let the children (or adult-children) have their fun.

I was given the task of finding out which would be cheaper, buying factory made bubble formula or making our own. This would require an experiment.

Step 1: Get a formula to make bubbles
Step 2: Get the ingredients
Step 3: Put the ingredients together
Step 4: Eat that turkey sandwich sitting in the fridge that you've been thinking so much about for the last three hours that you finally started hallucinating that it was literally calling your name
Step 5: Test our bubbles against factory bubbles

After searching several shopping websites for the cheapest price on factory made bubbles, I found that the best price would be about $8.50 for 100 oz. of Mr. Bubbles blowing bubbles. There are probably cheaper prices in actual stores (considering $3.50 of the above price was shipping) but time was of the essence, and I didn't have much gas.

Now to look for a formula to make, and as a side note, the Internet is a marvelous thing. Not only did I discover a good bubble formula, but I found out that the seemingly extinct art of the bubble clown was still in practice. The bubble clown, Casey Carle as he likes to be called, had a website with a formula on it. Of course it wasn't his personal formula, but he gave good reasons why this formula should work anyway. After a long journey around a downtown shopping center, I was able to acquire the ingredients, a bucket to make it in, and some factory made bubbles, all for a little less than ten bucks. For those of you at home that are following along, and didn't use the hyperlink in Casey's name, the ingredients are: distilled water, glycerin, and Dawn dish washing soap.

Half-Time Score:
Factory Made: Approximately $8.50
Homemade: (Minus the cost of the bucket and factory made) Approximately $8


Following the instructions of Casey "Bubble Clown" Carle, I threw all of the ingredients into my bucket and stirred for a little while. Our final product was the picture to the left. In comparing the texture of our strange concoction to that of the factory made bubbles, ours was a little watery. It also seemed that the Dawn was sinking to the bottom of the bucket.

In order to compare our Frankenstein-esque concoction to the factory made stuff, we first had to actually use the factory stuff, to see what it looked like. The picture to the left shows a nice steady stream of bubbles. The only bad thing about these bubbles, is that they pop very easily.



Next we tried ours. Each and every time we tried it, we only got one or two bubbles, not even an 8th of what we got from the factory made stuff. The strange thing about our stuff though, is that they were super strong. They still popped, but they needed a pretty good poke to do so. We started to wonder what we could do to make our bubbles multiply. In a comparison between mixtures, we noticed that our bubble solution was not as goopy as the factory stuff. "How can we make it more goopy?" we asked ourselves. So I poured a little bit of our solution into its own cup and added more soap. This worked a little, but all it really did was increase our one bubble to four.

In a last resort to try and save our concoction, Brenda pulled out a giant bubble wand and dipped it in. The result was a huge bubble that, since it was made using our super strong bubble mix, wouldn't pop very easily.

Our experiment complete, we decided that it would be more fun to buy a bunch of factory bubbles, but keep our mixture so that we could use it for bigger bubbles.

Come join us for Flag Day Fun (with bubbles), Sunday June 14th, on the corner of South Elm and McGee streets in Greensboro.
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Tunes @ Noon

Wednesday, May 13th (11:45 - 1:15) come on down to Center City Park for Tunes @ Noon to enjoy the music of Jason Marc Pierce.

Jason has been entertaining audiences along the east coast with his singing and songwriting since 1989. His influences range from classic rock to Celtic folk songs and his music reflects a wide range of styles.
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Featured Band -- Holy Ghost Tent Revival

"Just walking down the street,

walking down the street

Looking at my feet,

looking at my feet I don't know,

know where to go"

-- Walking Down the Street

With compelling lyrics and energetic music Holy Ghost Tent Revival brings the party to life!

Join HGTR at the Flag Day Fun! -- A Fun Fourth Festival Fundraisier on June 14 from 4 - 7pm! Hamburger Square (next to Natty Greene's at the corner of S. Elm and Lee in Downtown Greensboro). Tickets $5 -- all proceeds benefit the Fun Fourth Festival!

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Sponsor Spotlight -- Natty Greene's

A great big thank you to Natty Greene's Brewing Company for their sponsorship of the Fun Fourth Festival! We always enjoy working with the team at Natty's and appreciate all of the support that they give us for the Fun Fourth Festival and other events in Greensboro!

Here's a great "behind the scenes" look at the brewing and bottling plant on West Lee Street.

Stop by Natty Greene's Pub at the corner of S.Elm and McGee Streets in downtown Greensboro (345 S. Elm) and enjoy some Buckshot Amber Ale or Old Town Brown Ale or one of their many seasonal beers!

Once again, thanks to Chris Lester and Kayne Fisher for all of their support!

Cheers!
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