Kites and Strings

In this episode we visit with Amy Welsh.  When she is not engaging in one of her hobbies, like circus arts or arial arts with Catherine in New York City, she is an experiential marketer. Didn't realize there was such a job?  You're not alone, but it's pretty evident, especially after talking with Amy, that it's a blast and that it certainly calls for creative approaches.   If you have any questions about whether an experiential marketer needs to be fun and bring an ability to connect and engage with the public,  a quick listen to this episode will answer those questions.  Amy is down-right fun and really seems to enjoy her job.   Hang tight, as we learn about some of Amy's most memorable jobs like liberating dreamers from Corvettes at auto shows, organizing flash mobs, and engaging in guerilla marketing on the streets, to name just a few. 

Here's how you can find Kites and Strings out there in the interwebs.
Kites and Strings Website: https://www.kitesandstrings.com/​
​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kitesandstringspodcast
Twitter:   @Kitesandstrings
Instagram:  @Kites_and_strings
email: [email protected]

Kites and Strings' theme music is by Harrison Amer, and all other music if from Purple Planet Music at Purpleplanet.com.   The Kites and Strings logo-design is by Cole Monroe at Blue Stag Creative.

Today's episode features Harry Kappen, a Dutch musician who is finding balance in his work as an engaged music therapist working with teens and as a professional musician who consistently finds time to write, record and put out albums.  Steve and Catherine with Harry as we find and discuss several of the parallels that exist between art therapy and music therapy.  Of most note is the benefit of giving oneself permission to listen, to react, to improvise and to connect, whether it is around artmaking or making music together.  In addition to his work as a music therapist, we hear about what inspires Harry to write and create. One such motivation, especially for his most recent album, War Games, is that currently there seems to a lack of protest songs.  In this episode you will get a taste of Harry's music, including the title track from his latest full length album.

Harry Website: http://www.harrykappen.com/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/kappenhe/
Instagram: @kappenharry

Here's how you can find Kites and Strings out there in the interwebs.
Kites and Strings Website: https://www.kitesandstrings.com/​
​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kitesandstringspodcast
Twitter:   @Kitesandstrings
Instagram:  @Kites_and_strings
email: [email protected]

Kites and Strings' theme music is by Harrison Amer, and all other music in today's episode is written, performed and produced by Harry Kappen.   The Kites and Strings logo-design is by Cole Monroe at Blue Stag Creative.

In this episode, we dig in the dirt a bit  with Leanne McClurg Cambric. She's an acclaimed and exhibiting  ceramicist who hand builds functional art.  Here we discuss her creative origins story and the idea function in art, while also factoring the extensive history of clay and pottery. 

Leanne is also a professor and head of the BFA/MFA program at Governor's State University, just a bit south of Chicago, Illinois. It is in that role that she created a whole course on creativity.  While having a great conversation with Leanne, Catherine and Steve explore means of sneaking in or enrolling in said class. At the very least we'll explore some of the resources that Leanne shared in this episode.

Leanne's website: https://www.leannemcclurg.com/
Leanne's Etsy Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/cambricclay
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063499249335
Instagram:  @leanimalzen

Here's how you can find Kites and Strings out there in the interwebs.
Kites and Strings Website: https://www.kitesandstrings.com/​
​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kitesandstringspodcast
Twitter:   @Kitesandstrings
Instagram:  @Kites_and_strings
email: [email protected]

Kites and Strings' theme music is by Harrison Amer, and all other music if from Purple Planet Music at Purpleplanet.com.   The Kites and Strings logo-design is by Cole Monroe at Blue Stag Creative.

In today's episode, Steve and Catherine talk with MB Bailey. He' s a full-on working musician from Homewood, just south of Chicago, where Steve lives.  We've meant to get MG on the show for a while, but he truly has been on and off tour zig zagging the country since the second things started to open up after the quarantine.

We cover a great deal in this interview and really get a sense of how playing music, especially the way MG approaches that task, is about connecting and relating with people.  We also see how that played out in his teaching guitar to seemingly every teen that ever touched a guitar south of Chicago during the 90's and the early ought's.  We discuss the job of a one-man-band musician, we hear several of his songs, we explore his evolving taste in music and we explore MG's writing process. It's all good, but things switch -up pretty quickly, so pay attention.

MG's website,  https://www.mgbailey.com/
Facebook,  https://www.facebook.com/mgbaileyonemanband
Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/mg.bailey/
Youtube,  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAage8R4_v6YtGC89HHD7cg
MG Bailey at 2019 Trail Mix - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Of7atGgrj0

Here's how you can find Kites and Strings out there in the interwebs.
Kites and Strings Website: https://www.kitesandstrings.com/​
​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kitesandstringspodcast
Twitter:   @Kitesandstrings
Instagram:  @Kites_and_strings
email: [email protected]

Kites and Strings' theme music is by Harrison Amer, and all other music in today's episode is provided courtesy of  our guest, MG Bailey.   The Kites and Strings logo-design is by Cole Monroe at Blue Stag Creative.

Today's guest is punk rock pioneer, Jon Langford, a founding member of The Mekons, who were considered one the first wave punk bands from Britain.  We learn about Jon's melding folk and country music with punk music in The Mekons and several other side projects including The Waco Brothers, which he founded in Chicago after moving to the city in 1992.  We learn of how his music career was a surprise detour that materialized after The Mekons turned some record label heads while Jon and his at-school mates were simply having a blast thrashing about in the 1970's punk scene.  Between record labels and touring with The Mekons, Jon dusted off his paint brushes and found that he was able to make a bit of a splash as a visual artist. 

Jon continues to perform and record music sporadically with The Mekons and he plays solo acoustic shows, while continuing to paint, with works in several high profile galleries.

Steve and Catherine have a great conversation with Jon and we learn a great deal about his creative process, both as a musician and as a visual artist.


Jon's Website:  https://jonlangford.de/

Jon Langford at  "thank u, next:
and event by the Homewood Arts Council
https://www.facebook.com/events/490492629917527

Original music from this epsode:
Where Were You
The Mekons
from the album, Hen's Teeth and Other Lost Fragments of Un-Popular Culture, Volume 2

Harm's Way
The Waco Brothers
from the album, To the Last Dead Cowboy

Hey Rockstar!
The Mekons

Not Enough Love to Go Round
Jon Langford and Skull Orchard , Low Noise Music (USA)
Performed by Me with Bethany Thomas Spencer Tweedy and John Szymanski

Hey Rockstar! and Not Enough Love to Go Round are from Jon's ongoing Lucky 7 series of singles for the Tiny Global Productions label of Valencia

Here's how you can find Kites and Strings out there in the interwebs.
Kites and Strings Website: https://www.kitesandstrings.com/​
​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kitesandstringspodcast
Twitter:   @Kitesandstrings
Instagram:  @Kites_and_strings
email: [email protected]

Kites and Strings' theme music is by Harrison Amer, and all other music in today's episode is provided courtesy of  our guest, Jon Langford (see above).   The Kites and Strings logo-design is by Cole Monroe at Blue Stag Creative.

In this episode Catherine and Steve talk with Heather Polk. She's a collage artist based out of Chicago who exhibits and is a featured artist with multiple collectives, such as The Get Gallery,  Spacey Studios and PxP Contemporary.   She's been featured in publications such as The New Yorker Magazine, The Washington Post and Cosmopolitan and she created www.artcuresall.com, which houses much of her amazing collage work, and outlines the idea that "Creativity Unleashed Rewards Every Soul"  or C.U.R.E.S. 

Heather shares about research she's done and has experienced in real life around the curative factors of art, artmaking and getting into flow states. She shares her somewhat happenstance discovery of artmaking while in the throws of caring an ill friend and she found that in the process, her exploration of art therapy, and how the work that she does not only taps into a subconscious part of her but that it also helps articulate and amplify her voice as a woman of color in a world that too often ignores and makes people like her invisible.  What is quite refreshing in our talk is hearing how Heather epitomizes an integration of creativity rather than simply settling for balance.

Art C.U.R.E.S All - https://www.artcuresall.com/

Framed Gallery https://www.framedgallery.net/artists/heather-polk-38147
PxP Contemporary https://www.pxpcontemporary.com/collections/heather-polk
Spacey Studios https://spaceystudios.com/collections/heather-polk
The Get Gallery https://thegetgallery.com/collections/heather-polk

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/artcuresall/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/artcuresall
Pinterest  https://www.pinterest.com/artcuresall/

Here's how you can find Kites and Strings out there in the interwebs.
Kites and Strings Website: https://www.kitesandstrings.com/​
​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kitesandstringspodcast
Twitter:   @Kitesandstrings
Instagram:  @Kites_and_strings
email: [email protected]

Kites and Strings' theme music is by Harrison Amer, and all other music if from Purple Planet Music at Purpleplanet.com.   The Kites and Strings logo-design is by Cole Monroe at Blue Stag Creative.

In this episode of Kites and Strings, Steve and Catherine talk with author, Mary-Lou Weisman. She's a prize-winning journalist who has contributed too many articles to list in publications like the New York Times, Connecticut Weekly, Vogue, Newsweek, Newsday, and Woman's Day.  She's also a bestselling book author with five published books to date, and she teaches writing at the university level.  Mary-Lou's insights and utter joy for the art of writing comes to the fore in this interview as we learn about her creative process, and a few clever tricks that she uses to keep the ideas flowing.  In short, Catherine and Steve have a great time learning about how Mary-Lou grabs her string and flies her kite.

Mary-Lou's books.
Playing House in Provence: How Two Americans Became a Little Bit French   iUniverse
Al Jaffee’s Mad Life   HarperCollins
Traveling While Married   Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
My (Middle-Aged) Baby Book   Workman Publishing
Intensive Care: A Family Love Story   Random House/iUniverse

To learn more about Mary-Lou, visit her website at http://www.marylouweisman.com

Here's how you can find Kites and Strings out there in the interwebs.
Kites and Strings Website: https://www.kitesandstrings.com/​
​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kitesandstringspodcast
Twitter:   @Kitesandstrings
Instagram:  @Kites_and_strings
email: [email protected]

Kites and Strings' theme music is by Harrison Amer, and all other music if from Purple Planet Music at Purpleplanet.com.   The Kites and Strings logo-design is by Cole Monroe at Blue Stag Creative.

In this episode we talk with Joseph Arthur, a renowned musician and painter.  We learn that his first love was music, that he started young, and that he was discovered and signed by Peter Gabriel on Peter Gabriel's record company, Real World.   A little research tells us that he's played with some other big names, that he's been part of the bands, Fistfull of Mercy,  and RNDM,  and that he's made quite a name for himself playing his solo music. 

He's also a visual artist, having been nominated for best album design for his album, Vacancy,  he's exhibited internationally and has published a book featuring is visual artwork. 

Joseph shares quite a bit about his beliefs and concerns for a world where people are not nearly as free as they might think they are, and we follow the Matrix  rabbit-hole for a while as we are also reminded by Joesph himself that he was "cancelled," (for speaking out against the COVID 19 vaccine), but it has been that experience that has helped him feel free and most able to do what he wants.   

To learn more about Joseph Arthur, check out his website at  http://josepharthur.com/ where you can find links to all his other social media. 


Here's how you can find Kites and Strings out there in the interwebs.
Kites and Strings Website: https://www.kitesandstrings.com/​
​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kitesandstringspodcast
Twitter:   @Kitesandstrings
Instagram:  @Kites_and_strings
email: [email protected]

Kites and Strings' theme music is by Harrison Amer, and all other music in this episode is by our guest, Joseph Arthur.   The Kites and Strings logo-design is by Cole Monroe at Blue Stag Creative.

Although we made trace nods to the holidays in our last two episodes, this is the most festive holiday episode for Kites and Strings in 2022. It features, gingerbread artist, Beatriz Muller, and make no mistake, we are not using the term "artist" lightly.  What Beatriz does in the kitchen with gingerbread is amazing, so much so that we strongly encourage folks to spend a moment checking out her links to get a sense of why Catherine and Steve have to struggle with not falling into jaw dropped fits of silent awe during this episode. Architecture, engineering, an amazingly steady hand, impeccable design, delicious baking and shear creativity. It's that amazing!

In this episode we learn about where it all began for Beatriz, we learn about her kitchen, her inspirations, her process, how she had to adapt when her work was featured in a full-length Christmas movie, gingerbread competition and a bit about her other bakery creations, which are no less spectacular. Please check them out using the links below.

Website:
http://www.cakesbybeatriz.com/
Instagram Accounts:
@Gingerneers:
https://www.instagram.com/gingerneers/?hl=en
and
@Cakes_by_Beatriz
https://www.instagram.com/cakes_by_beatriz/

Here's how you can find Kites and Strings out there in the interwebs.
Kites and Strings Website: https://www.kitesandstrings.com/​
​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kitesandstringspodcast
Twitter:   @Kitesandstrings
Instagram:  @Kites_and_strings
email: [email protected]

Kites and Strings' theme music is by Harrison Amer, and all other music if from Purple Planet Music at Purpleplanet.com.   The Kites and Strings logo-design is by Cole Monroe at Blue Stag Creative.

In today's episode, we talk with Rachel Lewis, who checks several boxes in the land of creative.  At the beginning of season 3, Catherine and Steve wondered aloud about bringing in not only chef, foodie type people, as we have consistently thought that being a chef required a combination of what we think is the more traditional create spirit coupled with the more precise measuring and scientific mindset. We were looking to take it a but further though, as we wanted to talk with a chef who abides by additional rules and guidelines, and expressively mentioned a vegan chef.

Enter Rachel Lewis. As you will hear early in the interview, she answered and ad Steve put out seeking a lead singer for his band, Butterfield Creek.   Before she even auditioned, it was learned that she's the co-owner of Sunshine Kitchen a vegan and gluten free food truck south of Chicago, that she's been a personal chef for several families with similar food restrictions, and as a bonus, she's also a food stylist who's worked on many huge contracts and campaigns.

Happy to say too that Rachel also brings it in the way of vocal chops, she won the audition and is two shows in with the band.  There are some samples of her singing with the band in this episode too.

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063635917120
Instagram:  @The_Sunshine_Kitchen

Rachel with Butterfield Creek covering Can't You See by the Marshsall Tucker Band
https://www.facebook.com/1576652711/videos/448799960784116/
Rachel with Butterfield Creek covering Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash
https://www.facebook.com/1576652711/videos/5715271531927567/
Rachel and Butterfield Creek playing Spinster in the Middle
https://www.facebook.com/1576652711/videos/693131968968443/

Event Page for Butterfield Creek at Buffalo Creek Brewing in Long Grove Illinois
https://fb.me/e/2c27fDKdl

Episode illustration credit:  Marc Allen Fishman

Here's how you can find Kites and Strings out there in the interwebs.
Kites and Strings Website: https://www.kitesandstrings.com/​
​Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kitesandstringspodcast
Twitter:   @Kitesandstrings
Instagram:  @Kites_and_strings
email: [email protected]

Kites and Strings' theme music is by Harrison Amer, and all other music if from Purple Planet Music at Purpleplanet.com.   The Kites and Strings logo-design is by Cole Monroe at Blue Stag Creative.