Lady Southpaw Goes Mobile

We really got lucky with our Memorial Day weekend. The weather report predicted rain but we had tons of glorious sun and I have the burns to prove it!

Here's a pic of me playing the ECPAT Run for Children's Rights on Roosevelt Island. The event went really well and raised thousands of dollars for a really great cause. I played a set along with the talented a cappella group, Vocal Heights.

Also I started uploading my songs to myxer as I have been uploading them to this blog. This is a way you get my songs for free on your phone before they are released on iTunes.

To number 69937

Text:

LadySouthpaw Kill

(to get the song "If You Had a Life to Kill")

LadySouthpaw Alone

(to get "To Be Alone")

LadySouthpaw Finish

(to get "Engineering Masterpiece")

Myxer will then text you the song and you can save it or make it your ring tone through your phone's options.

Or you can do it online using this widget:

More from Lady Southpaw at Myxer

Lady Southpaw, All Business

This past weekend I managed to run a race on Saturday and play a race on Sunday. It was exhausting but it was the fun kind of exhausting so it's all good. My man Chris was a real trooper for driving me and all my equipment to Hoboken to do a set alongside the Hoboken Harriers (HOHA) 5 mile Classic. The people were very kind and it was a great chance to test out some of my new songs. Chris managed to get some video so I spliced it together and made a little Youtube vignette.



This Saturday, May 23rd I will be playing on Roosevelt Island as part of the Run for Children's Rights.

The Run for Children's Rights is an event sponsored by ECPAT- End Child Prostitution and Trafficking. It is an event to help fundraise for the organization and help raise awareness of the disturbing trend of child exploitation in the forms of prostitution, pornography, sex tourism and trafficking by Americans in Asian countries. It is a worthy cause that would be hard to disagree with. Even if you can't make the event please consider making a donation:
http://www.active.com/donate/ecpatusa

It should be a fun event with a 5K race, music and raffles. I will be taking the stage before the race to get the runners charged up.

For more info about ECPAT and the event go here:
http://www.ecpatusa.org/upcomingevents.html

Also this week I opened a store front on Spread Shirt so you can now get a "Running Rocks - Lady Southpaw" t-shirt.
http://ladysouthpaw.spreadshirt.com

I made some of them to be good for running so they are a bit pricier but high quality. I took very little commission because I want people to wear them ;) There are a range of shirts including some cotton ones with an original logo I made to cut the cost. I think they're cool (but then I'm like their mother.)

Running Song #2- To Be Alone

Today I am posting the second in my series of running songs. It is called "To Be Alone." The tempo is 170 b.p.m. (beats per minutes) which is 10 b.p.m. faster than the first song "If You Had a Life to Kill." Yet, on first impression it may feel slower. This is because the melody is in half time but the beats themselves are still quite fast.

Every moment of every run is not about pushing the speed. Anyone who has done long distance running like marathon training knows that there are long periods where you are just sustaining and you are almost relaxed while running. This is when running is like meditation in motion. It is a time to focus on breathing, being in the moment and letting all the usual everyday garbage that clutters the mind drain away for awhile. Running can also be a solitary experience. It is a good time to face your demons and make peace with yourself. "To Be Alone" is about this type of running experience.

Fun thing to listen for:

In my rough version I had some choral sounding backup vocals. I felt they were too much for the whole song but I ended up keeping them faintly in the background toward the end of the song. They have some effects on them which makes them harder to recognize.

Some plugs for today:

Thanks to Kelly F. from "Races in Places" for featuring me in yesterday's blog!

http://racesinplaces.com/2009/05/14/faces-in-places-lady-southpaw/

I booked another race gig! It is the Run for Children's Rights 5K on May 23rd. More details on that to come...