November 25, 2020
Sale runs until December 20th!
Good gosh what a year! I'm sure we all agree that this one takes the proverbial cake. I'm not going to write about how much I hate this disease, how scared I am to walk out the door, how paranoia-inducing it is to have someone come over and fix the plumbing, and how many of the things I took for granted all my life have changed completely.
I'm just going to note that I'm grateful to be living with someone I adore, and a dog who adores me. I try to remember how lucky I am, though sometimes it's hard.
Abe Tsutomu and Kazuhito in Hoganmade
The Better Times Project occupied a full six months. Well worth it, but a lot of work! Still, between intrepid webmaster Steve Wilkison, metafier (is that a word?) and second ears and eyes Jeff Evans, and people like Takahiro Maeda, Sue Coccia, Ian Macrae Young donating time and talent, it's done! You can download a months' versions at a time, use the jukebox to play mp3s one after the other, watch video after video, and share my astonishment at how many different ways one simple song can be interpreted. From Tagalog to Welsh, sign interpretation in English, Chinese, Dutch (and more coming!), dance videos, collaborative collages, and every musical form you can imagine, it's truly incredible what art can bring to our lives.
Hogan Made and I are working on shirts, masks, and other items bearing my name and quotes, in part to try and stem the tide of illegal products out there. Hint - Meghan Hogan donates a huge portion of All Things Janis to the Pearl Foundation!
In a bored moment, Pat groomed Gracie Mae
I've also been cooking a lot more because I'm home all the time; as big an adventure as it was at first, I'm kind of tired of my own meals now. We're pretty self-isolated; Pat cuts Gracie Mae's hair, I cut our hair, we patch our clothes with Gaffer tape and hope for the best.
I miss touring terribly – odd, because I'm usually whining that I want to stay home more. I guess it's different when it's not my own choice. Fortunately, my agents were able to move everything I had scheduled into 2021, as close as possible to the original days and dates.
This will be my last long touring year, a bitter-sweet time indeed. Right now we don't even know what touring will be like! After-show signing may not make sense, audiences may be limited, and none of us performers know much beyond that one day, live shows will start again. I'll still do shows here and there, but I'll turn 70 on April 7th, and it's time to look to other things I've left on the back burner. Collections I want to publish (Conversations With My Wife and How to Survive as an Artist, for starts). The YA novel I keep fooling with. Albums of work tapes and demos and outtakes and all my new songs. A documentary of my life and work is in the works. I need to find a home for my archives, 58 years' worth of music, memorabilia, FBI files... who knows what else is in those boxes?!
2020 Bloomington Concert Photo by Stone Age Institute Folks
A general clearing out is in order, because these days, I spend most of my time doing business, when I should be spending it creating art.
To that end, we are slowly moving out of the merchandising business. We're backlogged with stock that was ordered for 2020 touring (ouch), so I'm holding a huge website sale with absurdly low prices in order to move it out! Personalized signing is available for up to three items. Please read the shipping information page before ordering and make sure to put any personalization request in the notes section – Paypal doesn't send us your comments if that's how you pay! Think long and hard before you place your order because we cannot change your request once the order's been placed. It's a lean year for the Pearl Foundation, with no income from tour merchandise, so keep in mind that no matter how bad things are now, education is key to a better world. 100% of what you spend goes to the Foundation and is much appreciated by the scholarship recipients! The SALE ENDS DECEMBER 20TH, at noon Eastern Standard Time.
By the way, we're proud to say that the Pearl Foundation received Platinum Status from GuideStar this year!
As I said in the previous newsletter, none of us know what the future holds, but I do know this. Art will survive. And art heals, so I have faith that we will see one another again. As some singer-songwriter said, "Better Times Will Come."
Janis
In a bored moment, Janis cooks dinner
Notice: Query: select id, DATE_FORMAT(date, '%a, %b %e') AS the_date, displaydate, headline, excerpt from news where live='Y' and homepage='Y' order by date desc limit 3
MySQL Error: in /home/customer/www/archivalwebsite.janisian.com/public_html/newsroom.php on line 181
More news is coming soon!
click on any date for full information
click again to close that date
Notice: Query: select DATE_FORMAT(thedate, '%M %e, %Y') as theupdate from updatetour where id='1'
MySQL Error: in /home/customer/www/archivalwebsite.janisian.com/public_html/sidetoura.html on line 10
All tour dates updated on
Notice: Query: select * from tourdates where live='Y' and date>=CURDATE() order by date asc limit 10
MySQL Error: in /home/customer/www/archivalwebsite.janisian.com/public_html/sidetoura.html on line 27
Sorry, there are no current tour dates. Check back or join the Mailing List to be notified when new dates are added.
