Life in Austin has been good.  I’ve learned so much about music and myself since last May.  I’ve performed at 119 open mics and showcases and the like since June.  I’m about to record my debut five-song EP at Rubicon Artist Development.  I’ve met all sorts of cool musicians at every level of their careers, both here in Austin and also online around the world.  Thanks to the internet and Skype I’ve been able to keep up with interviews and send them to air on KRUU back in Iowa (and then worldwide online!).  Somehow I haven’t been able to keep up as much with posting here though.  Maybe it’s because I’ve been posting more about my Austin adventures over on my personal music blog: heathermillermusic.com

I’m excited to see what happens next.  Really, it has been Lyrical Venus and the opportunity it gave me to connect, interact, share and discuss music with other women artists that gave me the courage to follow the dream of making my own music!  So while it’s a bit of bummer to me to realize how many posts I’ve missed here in the past few months, I can’t deny how excited I am about everything else going on in my life right now.

In any case, it seemed like maybe a good catching up compromise would be to do a round up entry with links to the archived podcasts in case any of you missed the interviews I’ve done lately but didn’t get a chance to post about here.  All of these women are amazing!  Do stay tuned, there are more great ones in the pipeline.

11/15/11 – Yael Meyer

http://kruufm.com/node/11939

Chilean born and LA based singer-songwriter Yael Meyer releases her sophomore album today.  With four tracks off her effervensent Heartbeat EP plus seven new ones, Everything Will Be Alright satisfies those fans who have been hungry for more from Yael and provides an irresistable treat to new fans.  Filled with light, hope and love, Yael’s music fills the heart with joy.

11/29/11 – Heather Mae

http://kruufm.com/node/12037

Artists and musicians love to talk about their creative process and how they might change it or get better.  Heather Mae dives in and faces her art head on.  After spending a year writing a song every day and a summer touring the country from East to West, she has learned more than a few things about taking action, living in the moment and brewing creativity on the spot.  With all that experience under her belt and a style that has been compared to Joni Mitchell and Ingrid Michaelson, Heather Mae has a long and beautiful career ahead of her.

12/13/11 – Joy Ike

http://kruufm.com/node/12125

Pittsburgh singer-songwriter Joy Ike lives by the motto, “It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.”  Making the transition to full-time musician was not an easy decision, but not only has she blossomed as an artist, she even takes the time to pass on her lessons learned in an advice blog for other indie creative types.  Whether you’re a music maker or appreciator, her rich voice and intelligent, bubbly piano-pop sensibilities will win your ears over in no time.

01/17/12 – Anna Coogan

Singer-Songwriter Anna Coogan

http://kruufm.com/node/12351

Anna Coogan’s new album, The Wasted Ocean, is a fresh collection of olde time flavored sea songs, but more the type to row a small wooden boat, wearing a hand-knit woolen sweater misted with salt spray, than the type that stomp around in an eye-patch on a peg leg, sloshing mugs of beer.  The songs are deeply atmospheric, layered, and evocative, all while allowing Anna’s rich, sweet and honest voice to hold center stage.

01/24/12 – Rachel Platten

http://kruufm.com/node/12393

Based on her album, Be Here, New York singer-songwriter Rachel Platten is the type of person you’d want to adopt for a best friend or big sister.  Her songs are upbeat and positive without denying that heartache and hard times exist.  Rachel is just confident that those situations are temporary and with the right attitude you can turn it around.  A little of her sweet voice, bubbly smile and piano-driven pop may just be the perfect pick-me-up.

Oh yes friends, it has been a crazy few weeks! (Uh, so crazy that I wrote this whole post last night and forgot to hit the “publish” button!  oops!)  I’ll get to the Sharon Bousquet video in a minute but first a little update on what’s been keeping me so busy!

The last weekend in May I helped to stage manage a children’s dance performance, including a stint at the end of the show as one of eleven people manning the Chinese dragon:

While this picture shows me with the head of the dragon, I was actually on the tail end, which was really hard – think crack the whip, and that’s me, hanging on for dear life, flying around the stage! It was really fun and watching the tiny kids perform was fabulous, they were in such awe of the huge theater and either so focused on getting their part right, or spacing out completely, or waving at their parents, and all looking adorable in their little costumes. When some of the mothers found out I didn’t have a kid in the show (No kids at all! Maybe someday!) they were pretty surprised I was doing all of it. It was a lot of hard work for a few days, but really, as far as theater commitments go it was light. It’s fun to do things I’d never done before, (really – when in my life would I get to perform as part of a Chinese Dragon?), and I like to support kids in the theater and dance. I know that creative outlet meant so much to me when I was younger, so keeping it alive in our community is important to me.

Then this past weekend was our First Friday’s Art Walk, which is always a busy weekend, but extra so for me this time because I’ve started working part time for Emerald Gallery and they were hanging a new show and working on promoting it!

Also last week I finally got a new laptop, and with it an iPod Touch, and I’m just switching cell phones too, so I’m in that transitional stage where I am kind of swapping between the old and new devices and sometimes having to carry around both because I haven’t moved something to the new one yet, plus learning all the quirks and ins and outs of the new ones.

But one of the big bonus points for the new laptop is the webcam and video editing software for ease of working with video clips! Here is a video of Sharon Bousquet that has been sitting on my camera for a couple of months now that I was finally able to upload to YouTube. It is one of her newer songs, and I just LOVE it. Very vivid imagery and it rings so true on so many levels.

Lovely, eh?  Sharon has been writing a whole bunch of songs over the past year, enough for TWO albums!  Now all she needs is the money to get into the studio.  If you’re interested in supporting her endeavors, head over to her website and send her an email to find out how you can help: http://sharonbousquet.com/

Now that I’ve got the new laptop, I hope to be posting more videos like this more often!  Keep an eye out!  (Whoa, I just thought of that literally, and it’s kind of gross right?  An eye out of your head??)

Well, ANYWAY, that’s really the SHORT version of what’s going on for me, plenty of other crazy things but I do try to keep it music related on this blog.    As always, I’m looking forward to doing my radio show tomorrow 9-10am Central.  No interview this time, just lots of great music, but boy do I have a bunch of good interviews with female singer-songwriters lined up for you in the next few weeks coming up – stay tuned to Lyrical Venus every Tuesday morning on kruufm.com!

Me at a Cafe Paradiso Open Mic a few years ago…

OK, I admit, I’ve been distracted from the blog lately, but that is because I’ve sort of had the tables turned on me in the past couple of weeks.  I was supposed to open for Ehren Ebbage‘s show last Saturday, so I was practicing my fingers off (or calluses on?) and promoting it all over!  I even got to be interviewed on KRUU by the lovely Lauryn Shapter of Crooked Sisters Radio Hour. (I’ll let you know when the archive goes up, if all goes well).

Then on Friday night Ehren called to say that he was actually stuck in a giant snowstorm in Wyoming and I-80 was closed so he probably wouldn’t be able to make it.  Saturday morning he confirmed that I-80 was still closed.  Luckily we were able to reschedule for THIS Saturday the 25th, which meant I had time to make and distribute more posters, get a haircut, get a mini article in the local events paper, go to Open Mic again and practice more, more, more.  Plus, you know, life and stuff…  Everyone seems to get more active and lively in the spring, there is so much going on all around me!

So all that combined with not having any interviews lined up and poor blog got a little neglected.  But never fear, I’m lining up more interviews, so you can be sure you’ll hear about those.  Lots of talented gals I’m excited to introduce you to – for instance the Lovell Sisters will be calling in next Tuesday (more on them in the next day or two)!

In the meantime, if you’re in town, I’ll be playing at Cafe Paradiso tonight (4/25) at 8:00pm, before Ehren comes on.  He’s a fabulous songwriter and guitarist, and I’ve got some new songs I’m excited to share, so it should be a great night!  If my brother tapes it and it turns out any good, maybe I’ll post some to YouTube!  Stay tuned…

Me thinking really hard about which albums to list*.

This is a little different than my standard fare here on Lyrical Venus, but there was a meme going around on Facebook that kind of surprised me when I filled it out and I thought it would be fun to share here since it’s musically related.   Plus this is close to the kind of question I ask the people interview on my radio show, and I’m always afraid someone is going to ask me back and I’ll have a stumbling, “uh, erm, uh, well, good question!  I’ll have to get back to you!” answer like the time Cory (the DJ who comes on the air after me) asked me what MY favorite sandwich was after hearing the tail end of one of my interviews!  So now I’m a little more prepared for a question like this.   I’ll paste it with the instructions included and links if you want to check them out on iTunes where available:

Think of 15 albums, CDs, LPs, cassettes, whatever, that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life. Dig into your soul. Music that brought you to life when you heard it. Royally affected you, kicked you in the wazoo, literally socked you in the gut, is what I mean. Then when you finish, tag 15 others, including me. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill. Get the idea now? Good. Tag, you’re it!

1. Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill

2. No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom

3. Green Day – Dookie

4. Weezer – Weezer (The Blue Album)

5. John Mayer – Room for Squares

6. Avril Lavigne – Let Go

7. Madonna – The Immaculate Collection

8. Sarah McLachlan – Mirrorball

9. The Beatles – The Beatles / 1967-1970 ‘The Blue Album’ (I listened to this on on vinyl!)

10. Ingrid Michaelson – Girls and Boys

11. Dar Williams – The Green World

12. R.E.M. – Out of Time

13. Rachel Ries – For You Only

14. Collective Soul – Disciplined Breakdown

15. Live – Throwing Copper

This was a rather interesting exercise in finding out which albums, some from 15 or more years ago, will still bubble up to the front of my consciousness when asked “What has made a big impression on me musically?” These were the ones that came back to me with the least amount of effort and digging, which makes me inclined to believe they left a deep mark.  Some of them I mostly just had an album cover or a snatch of a lyric and I had to Google to remember the album name!   They’re definitely not in any particular order like chronological or most influential or anything like that.

I could probably come up with a bunch of others that would seem more worthy for a list like this. I’m not entirely sure all these albums literally changed my life, but I would still stand by these ones as being formative for me in one way or another, opening my eyes to new possibilities in musical and emotional expression.  A large percentage of them I discovered through my childhood best friend. I’m guessing we might have similar lists if we only pulled from the early 90′s and totally different lists if we were restricted to the last 8-10 years.

Even if I don’t listen to a lot of them them anymore, at the time I discovered them, whether it was days, weeks, months or years after they were released, these were the albums I had on repeat for for days, weeks and months afterward.  They were the CD’s I made sure where in my carry cases. With the more recent releases, these were the mp3s I made sure were on my iPod.

I also find it interesting that the feelings and memories were generally so strongly intertwined with the album covers/packaging, as well as music videos, and wonder if in the digital age people will lose that association of music to visual, and if so, does that make the music less memorable 10+ years down the line when trying to recall it?  There really is something to be said for holding an object in your hand, but I suppose website design could become the new album art.  It’s not uncommon for an artist to change their website with each new release though, so does that mean the archive of the previous albums are lost?

If you read this and want to join in, consider yourself tagged!  Leave your list (or a link to your list on your own site) in the comments!

*OK, I took that picture a while ago for something else, but I bet I looked a lot like that when I was thinking about which albums to list!

Hang tight peeps! As seems to be par for the course this summer, I’ve just gotten home from one trip and am diving headfirst into my next projects – this time as in a bunch of part time job offers. I need to do a little figuring out, because they all sound cool, and if I do all of them, I won’t have any me time left! Which, after going to Song School, I’ve discovered I very much want me time for my own music! More on all that as it gets more clear.

Anyhoo, for first impressions after Song School, check my MySpace blog.

And know that I met a whole heap of A-MAZING musicians out in the mountains, and I plan to introduce you to a bunch of them here soon!

PS I have a few random pix up on flickr – I was so immersed in the classes that I didn’t have much chance to document, and then I ran out of batteries on the last day when I was ready for it. But you get some of the idea:

I just saw this video of Ani DiFranco talking with Mindful Mama Magazine. They have a great contest going on for moms to win a trip to see Ani in NYC, with a spa package and babysitting included.

Feed and email readers may need to come to the blog to see the video

What astounds me about this video is Ani’s honesty and presence. And the fact that someone who seems so confident and bold and has been running her own show/label/life for so long could still be experiencing moments of self-hatred, but is self aware enough to both recognize and work on it. Kind of blows the whole “But I have to be perfect before I can do it and be a success” tape that I bet a bunch of us still play in our heads out of the water. (Somebody please remind me I said that next week when I am in Song School freaking out and self-doubting myself into a pit of despair and “I’m not worthy”-ness from all the talented people surrounding me. I hope that doesn’t happen, but it’s kind of happening to me right now before the fact…)

Anyhoo, in other Ani related news, she has a new album called Red Letter Year coming out September 30th. Her first new one in a couple of years. (Sounds similar to Dar’s story!) You can hear a new song from it on her MySpace, and there should be more new stuff posted there in the weeks leading up to the release. Can’t wait to get my hands on Present/Infant.

PS Dar Williams has a great pre-order deal going on now – order the CD and get one free, plus a “making of” DVD.

Oh my dear friends and fellow music lovers! I have had some busy times and some more busy times are ahead. I just got back from a trip to Seattle to see one of my dear friends graduate from Naturopathic Medical school. (And she did it while having 3 little boys! The oldest is 5. A true wonder woman!) It was also a mini reunion with a few of my other dear friends – we all met in our first year of college 11 years ago and have managed to get many of us together every summer since then. It’s always a short, sweet and precious time that I look forward to each year.

And the very night I arrived home, rehearsals started for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, in which I play a Wife. They are doing it summerstock style, where everything is crammed into all day sessions in just two weeks before we start dress rehearsals. I’ve never done such a thing and it’s quite intense, so I’m not sure how much time and energy I’ll have for blogging in the next couple of weeks. But never fear, it’s only a temporary thing, and I may end up doing more little quick posts like this, because the music really does feed me, and I’ll be needing those boosts!

So if I was doing this right, I would do a bunch of research and tell you all about how wonderful Sara Groves is, but all I have to offer at the moment is this beautiful video my mom forwarded to me. Sara wrote the song inspired by a trip to Rwanda, and if it doesn’t tug at your heart and give you hope at the same time I’m not sure what will.

Feed and email readers may need to come to the blog to see the video

Gorgeous right? Here’s Sara’s website if you want to go find out more: http://www.saragroves.com

Hello lovely readers! You will never guess what I did this morning to kick off the New Year! (Well, unless I told you about it already in person…)

I DID A RADIO SHOW ON KRUU FM!!! One whole hour!

In case all the exclamation points and capital letters didn’t clue you in already, I am very, very excited about this.

KRUU is an awesome little local, low power, non-profit radio station here in town. This is the mission statement from their website:

“The mission of KRUU is to give Fairfield a voice and strengthen the community by encouraging creativity, dialogue and community involvement. KRUU is an open, inclusive, diverse forum for music, creative expression, information, and entertainment. It is a non-commercial, non-profit, community-supported low-power radio station with a strong emphasis on locally created and produced programming.”

Yeah, it pretty much kicks butt big time. It’s run on Open Source software, grassroots community support, enthusiasm, hard work and love. I think they have somewhere in the neighborhood of 75 DJ’s? With that many different people, you can imagine the diversity of the shows, somewhere in that mix there’s a little something for everyone. It’s low power, so the range is only 10-20 miles out from the center of town, but you can listen to the stream online from anywhere in the world.

And now I’ll tell you a little secret… When I came up with the name Lyrical Venus maybe a year ago, it was actually in anticipation of having a show on KRUU. But between them being super busy trying to learn how to build and run a 24 hour radio station from the ground up, and me being both busy and rather shy (especially when it comes to sharing music – bad run-ins with music snobs in the past), it’s taken this long to get started. I think it’s actually pretty good timing, because I’ve had this much time to discover more artists, build my music library and grow my confidence in my music tastes through this blog. So when James the station manager said to me at 6:30 last night, “You want to come in tomorrow morning at 9 AM? Do you have an hour’s worth of music you can play?” I was able to say “um, YES!”, tweak up a playlist, and still have a good time out at a friend’s house for New Years Eve. My co-host was out of town, but she’ll come back and it looks like we’ll have the 9:00 AM Tuesday slot going forward, so you can tune in to 100.1 FM in Fairfield, or online to listen to the Lyrical Venus Radio Hour every week!

Never fear readers, I shan’t abandon this blog now that have achieved my goal of a radio show. I quite like writing about my all-time favorite singers and new musical discoveries. I have so many artist posts sitting in little draft folders waiting for me to have time to flesh them out and put up for you.

Sometime soon I also want to do a “Lyrical Venus Best of 2007″ post, as well as set some goals for 2008. But I was so excited about this I had to share it before going to bed!

Oh, one last thing! Big thanks to any and all of you who read this blog on any sort of regular basis. It really blows my mind that people from around the world are reading the words I sit here typing on my little laptop! Please don’t be shy to comment or send me an email if you have any ideas or feedback, I really do love to hear from you.

Until next time, this is Heather, signing out!

When I went to the Ani DiFranco concert on her Handful of Dates Tour in Iowa City last month, I was completely BLOWN AWAY! I know, I know – as a female folkie I’m supposed to have Ani’s entire collection already or something, but I think I just wasn’t ready till now to really dig in. And it actually seems like a good time to get to know Ani – she just released Canon, which is a career retrospective, so it’s got a little something from every album she’s done, and it was all handpicked by her, so in a way it’s an interesting, layered self-portrait.

I had a pretty good seat, about 10 rows back on the left side, and close to the center aisle. Similar to to the phenomenon I noticed at my first Dar Williams concert, the thing that struck me as soon as Ani stepped on stage was how she is physically tiny but energetically POWERFUL. I think maybe that power is why I shied away from her music for so long. I knew she was powerful, I’d heard mostly about her angry reputation and anger has historically scared me half to death, even when it’s not directed at me. I’ve heard from friends who have been long-time Ani fans that having a baby has really softened her.

Seeing her on-stage I quickly found that Ani is not scary angry – the angry stuff was more of a righteous anger that sees what is wrong and gets things done about it. (Yeah, I get the whole Righteous Babe thing now!) And a lot of the songs were incredibly vulnerable, or just plain beautiful. I was really impressed with her high energy, her stage presence, the confidence and joy she exuded while performing. While her lyrics show that she definitely experiences moments or areas of insecurity, she’s brave enough to throw it all out there, which I think is often the fastest (though not necessarily the most pleasant) way to process through something.

For example, one of my favorite songs of the night was a new one called Present/Infant, aka “that one about mirrors”. In it, Ani talks about a moment of self criticism, and how the innocence of her baby jolted her into remembering her true beauty. She just performed it for AOL, and it’s so new I think this and the podcast might be the only way to hear it outside of a concert at the moment:

Email and RSS readers may need to come to the blog to see the video

During the concert, I was so inspired that I started ticking off as many parallels or similarities between me and Ani as possible, hoping that it might mean something. I was excited that we were both wearing cargo pants (although I’ve since noticed they seem to be a staple for her), and one particular line that stuck out for me was: “you’ve gotta crawl through the desert between when you hear it and when you can play it with your hands” from the song Lag Time because that’s something that totally applies to me – I’m always getting frustrated by the things I can conceptualize but not yet express/do – in music and all of life really.

The creative energy in the theater was so electric, at one point some new song lyrics of my own started coming to me! I had to grab my journal out of my purse and scribble some notes by the spill-off of the stage lights. So far it’s definitely more driving and intense than stuff I’ve written before, we’ll see how it turns out. It’s also one that so far I can hear a lot better than I can play with my hands. It’s kind of exciting though, like maybe I’ve just opened up a whole new area of song themes for the future.

In the Spinner interview podcast (where she performed the Present/Infant song) Ani talked about learning to play the guitar out of a book of Beatles songs and I grinned myself silly because that’s totally how I taught myself to play. (I don’t know which book she used, but this is the one that helped me .) She said something else about “that great thing music does so well” in connecting people and making them feel like they are not alone. It resonated big time for me, because that is what draws me to music so strongly – the way that some person I don’t know can say the unformed words in my heart, and make me breathe easier for it. That’s powerful. That’s amazing. That’s what I would love to give back to the world, to even one person. Because I know how sometimes one song can get you through a day at work, or get you out of bed every morning for a month, or bring a smile to your face each and every time you hear it.

I’m not quite sure what it is about certain artists that radiates from them so strongly, but Ani has been inspiring me hardcore for over a month now and I think it’s just the beginning. It’s kind of like discovering an awesome TV serious on DVD after it’s been going for a couple seasons. You get to gobble down hours and hours of a great story without having to wait a week for the next episode, at least until you catch up.

Obviously the best place to get Canon is on Ani’s website. Her website and live shows are the only place to get her official bootlegs. But here’s a quick link to it on iTunes if that’s your preferred method.

You can also preview some songs on her MySpace page. The page is not run by Ani herself, but by her trusty intern Amanda, who does a great job with info and contests, etc.

Ok, one last thing. Because it’s so good, and because it’s something I really need to remember, here are the lyrics to Present/Infant (at least how they sound to me based on the podcast):

Present/Infant ~ Ani DiFranco

lately I’ve been glaring into mirrors, picking myself apart
you’d think at my age I’d have thought of something better to do
than make insecurity into a full time job
make insecurity into an art
yes and I fear my life will be over
and I will have never lived it unfettered
always glaring into mirrors, mad I don’t look better

but now here is this tiny baby
and they say she looks just like me
and she is smiling at me
with that present infant glee
and I would defend to the ends of the earth
her perfect right to be

so I’m beginning to see some problems
with the ongoing work of my mind
and I’ve got myself a new mantra
it says “don’t forget to have a good time”
don’t let the sellers of stuff
power enough to rob you of your grace

love is all over the place
there’s nothing wrong with your face

love is all over the place
there’s nothing wrong with your face

lately I’ve been glaring into mirrors, picking myself apart

Amazing right? There’s something really healing about hearing someone tell you there’s nothing wrong with your face over and over…

I think I’m going to listen to it again. As Ani says – Don’t forget to have a good time!

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So the Dar party was great fun! Many of the people who showed up were fairly new to Dar, and I think actually seeing her on screen was the next best introduction to seeing her live.

The DVD started off with Dar talking about Woodstock (where the concert was filmed) and performing in general and how there seemed to be something amazing and perfect about every night on tour – like adding a song to the set list out of the blue, and having someone come up to her afterwards saying that they’d driven 400 miles to hear that particular song. Then she did a solo set, and a set with the band.

I love hearing Dar’s stories about the songs, it adds a even more depth and understanding to the lyrics. I got goosebumps a few times because I was hearing the songs on a new level. It was also fun to hear some new stories or insights she had gained about a song, and then try to guess which one she was talking about before she started playing.

There was a brand new song called “The Easy Way” that she said was about her life as a musician and how she’d had several chances during her career to take an easy way out, but stuck to her principles and did it her way. I think that’s why people connect to Dar so powerfully, she’s very real and honest and herself.

If you’re interested in the Dar Williams: Live at Bearsville Theatre DVD, you can pre-order the full version with 16 songs, music videos and behind the scenes footage on MusicSpace.com. I definitely recommend it!

And now I’d like to take a moment to thank the people who made this event possible!

Provided by Razor and Tie, Dar’s record label:
1) Dar Tour Poster
2) Sampler CD
3) 45 minute Live at Bearsville preview DVD
4) “Cool As I Am” button
5) Coupons to get a discount off the full length DVD

Provided by me (oh, that’s cheezy, I didn’t mean to thank myself, just list stuff):
1) Mini lemon-poppyseed muffins
2) Chocolate chip cookies (the dough was actually made by my friend B, so all I had to do was mix in the chips and bake!)
3) Carrot sticks & celery & ranch dressing
4) Mandarine-Tangerine Mint Iced Tea
5) A few original tunes after the show

Provided by Goj:
1) Two bags of super tasty cheesy popcorn
2) Ginger ale

Provided by Tommy:
1) House cleaning
2) Furniture moving
3) Picture taking
4) Amazon herb tea

Provided by Gilberto:
1) Projector setting up
2) House cleaning
3) Furniture moving
4) Picture taking

Provided by the Library:
1) A projector!

Provided by Everyone Who Came:
1) Listening ears
2) Smiling faces
3) Good times!

P.S. Speaking of divinely orchestrated things – I’d told people I might do a couple of my own songs at the end, but after the amazing show, I was starting to chicken out. RIGHT at that moment someone called me out of the blue to say how much she liked my songs and wished I would play out more because they really touched her. (The last time she’d seen me play was a couple years ago at an open mic.) It was exactly what I needed to hear, because ever since Dar made such a huge difference in my life, I’ve been hoping that I might someday be able to give something like it back to the world. I think I’ve been holding back waiting to get “good enough”, but I’m also starting to think that you get better by DOING, not waiting for someone to tell you “ok, you’re now officially let out of the house” type of thing. And hey, if I can’t play for my friends, who else?