Welcome, dear Reader!
Sometimes it's nice to write down and share with others thoughts, feelings, moods, images, stories...
I hope you will enjoy them.
With love,
- Andrea Gerak
Dear Whitney,
If you see this somehow, please know that
You Will Always Be One Of My Greatest Inspirations
Any singer could only look up to you and learn from you.
Now the moment has come when I could only repeat your very own words to Michael Jackson and to other great stars in music who are now shining on us from above:
I should rather say good night.
No, good morning! is in order: yesterday I decided to try how is it to be a morning person. Which didn't seem to be an option for me, as singer, musicians and other such artsy types are known to work and be alive most in the late hours.
Picnik was a great online photo editing service that I will have to discontinue using.
Their email today didn't came as the best news, and as one can see from the reactions of Google shutting them down, I am not the only one who is not truly satisfied with having to lose a great tool I have been using for my photos.
First day of 2012, on Viking Land which is gloomy, if I look out of the window. Perfect time to cuddle up on the sofa with candles and a nice tea. Okay, have to admit that I had some chocolate, too.
In Hungary, we have (or perhaps only had?) a belief that whatever one does on the first day of the year, that will they do through the whole year.
I don't know if that's true, but it gives a perfect occasion to do only things one loves to do :-)
Just one more quick thought about Christmas, after previous post:
My Mom said when I called them on Christmas Eve:
...and I am in my Stockholm hide-out, somewhere in Viking Land. I didn't go home this year - in our family, it has been always kind of usual that some of us were away at Christmas time: fireman father, brother, musician husband, singer me, and I have also done volunteer work abroad.
Sure it is always nice to see my family, but we celebrate each other whenever I go home, regardless of the date.
I should probably continue with my Sweden Anniversary Inventory, - well, indeed I am putting things in order: started to clean out old stuff from my life that I can't use or don't want any more.
Getting rid of things that I don't need or don't want, saying "no" to offers, jobs, people that are not in alignment with my life, where I don't feel "HELL YEAH!", figuring out things that I do want...
After coming home from a nice Lucia party with a few friends (and getting over the sugar shock), I lit some candles and made a cup of white tea with vanilla: celebrating my Sweden Anniversary. On this day, the 13th of December 2005, I came to Stockholm from England, with my then-husband, a Swedish man.
We had Ł0.91 (yes, 91 Pennies) in our pocket, in total.
Now it's a good moment to take a look at where am I at these days.
It just hit me: I love my little country Hungary, and no matter what is the political or economical situation, I always feel terrific there... But I also lived in Austria for a year, in Switzerland for 3 years, in Germany for a few months and in England for a year - and somehow I spent the most time so far in the country that I disliked the most...
Incredible times around Andrea's house these weeks...Let me share with you a few things that are happening.
I had some tough financial deadlines to meet, the last one today, and it looked there was basically no chance to make them. But miracles kept coming my way, day after day...
Today I shouldn't be doing anything else but full blast promoting my partnership offer for companies and organizations, but now I stopped for a moment, because I got some urgent pondering to do.
While making my lunch, I was skipping around in the house and dancing, singing silly stuff that I just made up, and they all sounded happy. Actually, one of them could make a good punch line of a song, I might work on it later.
These weeks, I have started to make some songs on my own! The words mostly in English, as in most of my poems so far, and the melodies are as far from Hungarian folk songs as it can get.
And the fact that these tunes that I am creating are mostly happy, cheerful ones, made me think for a moment.
(I indeed sing this song every now and then:)
„Midnight, not a sound from the pavement,
Has the Moon lost her memory, she is smiling alone,
In the lamp light the withered leaves collect at my feet,
And the wind begins to moan”...
So many things are happening in my life recently that I could just sit here for hours a day and write my journal...
Only one small bit: it almost feels like I am under some kind of a magic spell or something :-)
Not a long time ago, on a night full of wonders, I wrote my very first song on my own... I have written poems or words that could be good song lyrics, but this was the first time when I also came up with a melody to it. Feels fantastic!!
Few days ago I had my very first lottery win... Okay, not a huge amount at all, but still! Got cash, just like that :-)
Tonight, I was singing a little bit at a music pub - not Hungarian, Irish, Turkish, Gypsy or whatever folk songs or nothing else what I would normally do or what would be expected from me, but blues. Just got into the mood and made up something right on the spot and it sounded great :-)
Feeling fabulous and excited these days :-))
Now what's next? Dear Universe, keep them coming, I can take it, thank you!!! :-)))
The world has just lost another great person, unnecessarily. R.I.P. Steve Jobs
If I remember right, it's been already 16 years that I have visited Lake Balaton... In Tihany for a seminar, before that also in Tihany as a young family, three of us with the baby, befre that in Balatonszepezd at a training camp with the folk dance group of my hometown, and in pioneer camps a couple of times, in Zánka - hm... how do you say this in English: in a training camp for leaders of the smallest pioneer units (=őrsvezetőképző)... and as a child, two times in Balatonlelle with my family.
Now I was excited to go to Lelle again,
Between two festivals (Global Summit of Hungarians in Balatonlelle at Lake Balaton, and Translyvania Is My Homeland in Veröce, at the Donau Bend see my calendar), I spent a few lovely days at Lake Velence... (pictures of all these places soon).
I knew about the Méta Camp, for in my younger years these kind of camps used to be my life, and the musicians and dancers who were teaching were all my friends, and I wished I could attend. It was a nice surprise to discover it
On my birthday, I sometimes get into a philosophical mood... Around this day of the year, it is indeed usual that something happens where I feel a new life has began in one way or the other.
At the age of 10, by an accidental meeting with another little girl, I got introduced to the local folk dance group, and that set me on a path for this life.
When I was 19, I spent my birthday in a hospital with an unusually heavy Hepatitis where the doctors said I needed to be very careful with moving, for at least a half year. A few weeks later I was on stage, touring with the dance group in Slovakia...
In 1993, I got my son as a present - two years later in January, I broke up with his father and we divorced. In the same time, my beloved Grandma, who used to sing the lullabies...
First Monday in January: new week, new month, new year, new decade... Just another grey, ordinary day, or are you looking forward? I spent part of the New Year's Eve with my friend Beata Salamon, paid her a spontaneous visit, after she found out from my Facebook comment that I was sitting at a nearby KFC, enjoying that I could go online with my brand new little netbook (brought to me by Little Jesus, the Christmas-present-bringer in Hungary). Oh yeah, after 3 months (three months!) without a computer was way too long for me, I felt like catching up a bit... We had a great time, some girl talk, and fun with his kid and his friend. And what a delicious töltöttkáposzta (stuffed cabbage) her father has made, oh my! With smoked pork, of course, which is not really for a vegetarian (for health...
Just a test to try if I can post from my phone. If yes, yuppeeee! And fellow musicians, you should all have Hostbaby as your website host, because they are simply unbeatable (no, I don't get any commission for promoting them).
On the photo: a lousy picture I took with my phone, of the rose I got at Brugges Festival last Thursday :-)
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Would love to hear your thoughts:
Today, 1st of October is International Music Day, which has been celebrated worldwide for 35 years.
Can someone tell me snälla, where do I find information about how it is held in Sweden? I can't find anything about it in the news or event calendars, which makes me quite sad... (just between us, because many of you ask why am I moving back to Hungary from here: lack of music life in Sweden is one of the main reasons...)
Probably I will need to go out myself and do some singing... It's beautiful sunshine here in Stockholm after all, and around town there are some places with great acoustics, like the Parliament, streets of Gamla stan, spots in the subway... Perhaps in front of the Royal Palace? That must sound really royal!
Welcome to some of my shows, if you are around, just follow the voice :-)
For those who...
I was told to be lucky to be able to live in one of the world's most peaceful and decent countries, and that's what I can read at various lists and articles where they compare countries. Alright, let's see.
Sweden hasn't been in war for a few hundreds years, that must show it! Well, it's not a secret that in WWII for example, Sweden sold arms to both sides and made shit loadz of money on it - hence a nice economic boom.
Also a known fact that Swedish soldiers serve in Afghanistan - doesn't that make Sweden take part in a war?
And what about the training fields for NATO (in a neutral country, which is beating her chest so much about being a model country for neutrality - correct me, if I am wrong)?
More and more details of manufacturing and selling weapons by Swedish companies and authorities are coming to...
A few weeks ago in August, Stockholm had its yearly Kulturfestival, which is one of the greatest things here, with free events around the town. One of them was The Gypsy Queens & Kings with the Mahala Rai Banda, just in front of the Opera House.
And the Queen of Queens (well, I would say The Queen of Gypsies, for she was the only one from all the female performers to deserve this title, in my humble opinion): Esma Redzepova.
After a short stay in Hungary, I am back in Stockholm for a few weeks to arrange a couple of things - I had an AWESOME time and can hardly wait to go back to my little homeland!
Some random impressions from a concert I had with my friends:
Photo gallery (pictures being uploaded continuously) of St Stephen's Day Festivities where Andrea Gerak & Friends gave a hot concert in front of 5000 people in Ibrany, Eastern Hungary.
It was an incredible feeling to visit the then village where my family came from and where I have spent many summers in my childhood with my Grandma and cousins. Now, after more than 20 years, Ibrány became a town and its face has changed a lot, with great modern buildings, a very nice, prospering little city - yet I arrived home to my folks, met several relatives and...
It's very well time to finish my little series about how to avoid failures in choosing your partner... I was quite busy in the last few months with different things, and it seems like I have written up most of the things I had to say about this matter - at least, I don't really have attention on them any more, instead, I am looking forward to the future :-)
But just for the record and to make it complete, here is one last thing that might be useful for some of you - in fact, I wish so much I'd had known this better!am looking into the future :-)
Quick recap of the previous articles (if the links won't work, go here):
Mistake #1: Different communication levels
Mistake #2: Too different purposes, lifestyles
