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| June 2003 Guild Tidings The official Publication of The International Songwriters Guild Volume 8, No. 6 NEXT MEETING 5:00 PM Sunday, June 1st, 2003 The International Songwriter's Guild meets the first Sunday of every month at the Central Florida Musician's Union building at 3020 East Robinson (at the extreme east end of Robinson less than a block from Herndon Airport). Songwriters, composers, performers, publishers, and the curious are encouraged to join us. Non-members are invited to attend a meeting or two to get a feel for our group and what we do. Officers: President/Treasurer Russ Robinson (407) 851-5328 Vice President/Member Reception Matthew Griffin (407) 903-1212 Membership Coordinator Susan Foster-Trewick (407) 760-2153 Web Consultant Asli Walker (407) 359-0506 President's Letter Dear Members, With summer now here, I hope you�ll all still keep in mind that the first Sunday of this and every month is Guild meeting time. Matt will be in Washington, D.C. so he will miss the meeting. He is faithful, however, so we�ll forgive him this time. I plan to be in Washington (by coincidence) the prior week and, God willing, I�ll be back in time for the meeting! SusieCool brought her recording equipment to the last meeting. It is a condensed version of studio-quality digital recording equipment. I hope she won�t mind my telling this, but it might be helpful for you to speak with her if you�re at the point of wanting to record. She will be at the next meeting. We had several interesting songs critiqued at the last meeting. Don�t be bashful if you have one of your original songs you�d like us to hear. Members only, of course, have this privilege. I�m looking forward to the meeting. It does my heart good to see and hear the great talent among our membership. Keep up the good work! Best always, Russ Robinson Finding Time to Write by Matt Griffin Here�s a difficulty that many of us grapple with all the time: when can we write? When will we find the time? I personally struggle with this issue more than any other I�ve written about in this newsletter. I don�t think there�s anyone in our membership who truly makes his or her living from songwriting. And since we need to eat�let�s just say that most of us need to work. And most of us have spouses and families as well, and a home to take care of; there are just not enough hours in the day. If you�re anything like me, writing time sometimes has to be wedged into your schedule with a shoehorn. I took a Friday off in late March. A three-day weekend; sounds good, doesn�t it? In that Friday-through-Sunday, I had a teacher conference, son�s oration contest, school spaghetti dinner, two kid�s soccer games, kid�s sleepover, and a couple of other unplanned activities that popped up at the last minute. Add to that church, grocery shopping, laundry, yard work, and so on and so forth. Forget writing; I didn�t even get to sit down for those three days! And that weekend wasn�t nearly as far from the norm as I�d like. OK, now I�m going to pretend to be one of those annoying self-help gurus; feel free to skip a few paragraphs if you don�t want obvious advice! Here are a few simple ideas for freeing up some time: (1) Put dead time to work. Have to spend a couple of hours waiting for your car to be repaired? Take some writing materials. I carry a small tape recorder and �write� in the car while I�m traveling to and from work, and I sometimes write while I�m eating my lunch at work. (2) Buy some time. If you can afford it, you can literally buy time. Consider hiring a cook, nanny, housekeeper, or handyman. Or sign up with a lawn service, grocery service, laundry service, or pool service. If you hate housework, then hire someone to do it and save both the time and trouble. (3) Cut back on work. Again if you can afford it, consider working fewer hours. Many of us don�t really have this option, of course, but maybe in a few years� (4) Cut out some off-hour activities. Be careful not to cut out activities that are truly important to you or your family�please do attend your child�s high school graduation!�but often we slide into the habit of doing the easy thing rather than the right thing. I spend too much idle time watching TV, for instance. Try to be selective, and skip the Laverne and Shirley reruns in favor of creating music. Just don�t cut back too severely in any one area. If you don�t have a life, it�ll be hard for you to write a song that�s relevant to anyone! And there is another consideration. I find it hard to write anyway when I feel rushed or stressed. If you�re truly hard-pressed to make time for writing, it may be better sometimes just to let it slide. I�ll bet I do half of my year�s writing during the summer, when the kids are off school and the activity list is far shorter. Best of luck, and keep writing. It�s worth the effort. ISG Bulletin Board Place your classified ad or gig announcement here! Free to ISG members as always! Just get your text to Matt by the print deadline (usually the Friday 16 days prior to the monthly meeting); email is best ([email protected]). Printing services for Guild Tidings are graciously provided by Printing USA, 4732 South Orange Blossom Trail (just south of Holden), Orlando. Phone: (407) 857-7468. Custom CD Cover Art � Full color paintings, black & white illustrations to computer-edited photos with half-tone for photocopying. Prices start at $25. Call John Martello at (407) 293-1739 or email: [email protected]. Omega Ltd. Productions 3415 Silverwood Drive Pine Hills, FL 32808-2847 Please contact Asli Walker at 407-359-0506 for details of an upcoming Creativity and songcrafting workshop with a company called Journey Publishing from Nashville. The Date is Saturday July 26th, and pre-registration is required. SusieCool will be performing at a house concert/party being hosted by Sharon Conway on Saturday May 31st. If you wish to have details of the time and venue, please e-mail susie at [email protected], or call her at 407-760-2153. Please bring a covered dish to share, and bring your guitars/instruments for the post-concert jam. We're always looking for material for the newsletter. If you have any information that you would like to see added to the newsletter, please see Matt Griffin at the meetings, or you can email him at [email protected]. Please keep your articles brief and to the point. Print deadline for the newsletter is approximately two weeks prior to the monthly meeting. Classified advertising may be placed free of charge to members in good standing in the ISG. For more information on display advertising and/or classified advertising for non-members, please call Russ or Matt or email: [email protected] Welcome new members John Minor and Mike Dunfee We're always looking for new faces and new music. Come to a meeting and check us out! May TOP FIVE Winners of last month�s evaluation session (members only) (1) Recover From Recovery Susan Foster-Trewick and Asli Walker (2) Someone Else Can Sing the Blues Susan Baumann (3) Fly Like an Eagle Gar Brandt (4) Liar Liar Bob Barker � 2003 ISG http://www.geocities.com/i_s_g_2000 |