So I'm taking the opportunity to welcome myself back to my own journal. I have this weird habit of starting things over a lot. The only drawback is that I rarely finish these things completely before I start over again. (Case in point.) I guess the idea of a fresh start is more appealing (and motivating?) than plugging away at something you've been trying to finish for a long time. The excitement comes with a blank page...a new day...tabula rosa...

Maybe it all comes down to believing in possibility.

We all want to believe that we're capable of greatness. So we start over, and give ourselves another chance to realize what we want, and what we are really able to achieve.

And here I am.

Consider this my official return to a clear head and creative thoughts.

(Insert balloons & confetti here...)

So I just took the time to officially work on my profile for LinkedIn. Thought I'd post my little blurb here, too, as it's just as much of a self-reflection as it is me summarizing my 'professional experience and goals'...


Laura Glyda
Singer, Songwriter, Guitarist, Administrative Assistant Extraordinaire


I am, first and foremost, a musician. A songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, and pianist, I have been performing original acoustic rock music for over 10 years. My dream of supporting myself exclusively through my music is coming along slowly but surely...

And in the meantime, I find myself in search of an administrative assistant position that affords creativity and integrity, while fostering development and stability. All that, and I'd love to love a job that can pay my bills...

So the quest for balance between a rock and roll lifestyle and financial independence continues. There is no straight path to success - it is a winding and unknown road that is dark and different for all of us. And so I set afoot along this path whose shadows are both frightening and also filled with possibility.

I am hopeful that this world may still surprise me, and that I still may surprise this world.

Basically, it sucks.

I know, I didn’t really have to say that. The connotation alone is enough to give people nightmares. The thing is, I don’t really think anyone just runs out of things to say. Think about how much we experience in just a day, or a week, or a year. And all those experiences garner emotions and reactions and trigger dialogue and discussion. So with all that goes on, there should be something to write about, right?

That’s the funny part. We have plenty to say, but the block comes in how to say it. It’s finding out how to communicate the deeper level of what we’re trying to say...and making it sound good -- that’s what kills us. It’s what makes me crazy when I hear something on the radio and end up thinking to myself, ’Now why couldn’t I think of it that way?? It can’t be that hard to write something like that.’ And I end up beating myself up over an Avril Lavigne song, questioning my ability to ever write a great line again.

In my past experience, writing has just happened. I haven’t just sat down and said, ’OK, today, I’m going to write a song.’ People ask me that sometimes, how I write, and I feel like I get off easy...like sometimes the songs just write themselves. At the risk of sounding pretentious, that’s really how my best songs have come out...they’ve just come out. I’m just lucky enough to have a pen and paper handy. Well, most of the time. If I had a nickel for every great song that has come and gone in the flash of a few seconds in my mind...

So maybe the writing is like finding love over and over again. When you’re not in it, you swear it doesn’t exist...you swear that you’ll never be able to write anything that gives you butterflies ever again. And then a line, or a song, or a verse makes its way into your heart, totally out of the blue, when you least expect it, and you can’t imagine you ever doubted yourself. Maybe mine isn’t a block of the mind, but a crisis of faith. Maybe it’s just believing that the right music and the right words will find me again, and having an open enough mind to let them.

I guess the hardest part is just waiting for that flash of clarity...for that brilliant moment of really finding the right thing to say. I read on a t-shirt once that one of the greatest things was ’writing something the way it needs to be written in order for it to say what you want to say.’ That, my friends, is the opposite of writer’s block. That is creative satisfaction at its best, and what we’re all hoping for in the end, no matter how we try to say things; whether it is through sculpture, music, poetry, fiction, or oils on canvas. We all just want to be accurately represented. We all just want to be heard.

But in order to be heard, we first have to find something to say...

Why is it that the past two times I've been scheduled to perform at the Melting Pot, I come down with a huge cold?  The last one rendered my voiceless, forcing me to cancel the show (for the first time in my life).  It's like the germs are keeping up with my calendar and waiting to strike just a few days before so it's at full force by the time I have to perform.

Damn germs.

If I could blow my nose in tune, honestly, I would seriously use it in my act.  Somehow I don't think my impersonation of an elephant would fit in with my favorite cover songs for this weekend.

Anyway, my nose is running...and you know the rest...

So I'm back on the East coast - it feels like just yesterday I was out here, driving 16 hours to shows and filling out police reports about broken-in cars...misty water-colored memories...

Seriously, though, this trip has been a blast. Starting with an amazing wedding and some quality time with the fam, I've since been to a Patriots game, flown up over Massachusetts in a little airplane, driven through a blizzard (two, if you count the one I drove through in Indiana last week just to get out here), and spent time with some really amazing people. What more could you ask for?

I am now in Brooklyn, staying up late, catching up on good old days, playing a cutthroat game of Operation... I'm psyched for my show at Kenny's tomorrow with Todd Martin, it should be a good time.

It's funny visiting places you used to call home. I wonder if the identity crises I continually have when I'm traveling will ever subside. I can't decide where I'm from or where I'm going, whether I'm home or visiting, and what the hell is in between. It's really nice, though, to return to a place that has significance (good or bad - both I think are equally as important) and make new memories and have new experiences. I think it's kind of a way of mentally refreshing your past. Go back and take the good things and bring them with you. There's an African symbol that means just that, actually...

One of my favorite song lyrics refers to leaving home and, well, I'll just write it here:

'Somebody said you've got to get away
To want to go back home again...'

I wouldn't say I'm rushing to move back to Boston, but my heart did sniffle a little as we drove away. Good times...noodle salad.

At long last, I've got songs up on MySpace for sale. Boo yah.

As you'll see from my profile, SNOCAP is the vehicle by which this is possible. Right now I've got what I call my 'Solo Live' EP up there now - which is just a collection of 6 songs I performed live in Boston way back in the day. But it's still a great little collection of yet unreleased songs. You can purchase them separately or as an EP for a discount!

The good news is that in 2008 I'd like to release an EP or another album. It's exciting, right? Just the prospect of being back in the studio gets me feeling all giddy. The bad news is that...well...I guess there is no bad news. So that's good. :)

For now, here are some songs for your listening (and now purchasing?!) pleasure. Thanks.

...is one of the best smells on the planet. I just made some, and my whole house smells amazing. I think I'll bake some every day just to keep that scent in my living room...

Thought I'd blog because I almost never do. Although it would be a good and fun habit to get into. I used to write all the time...of course, that was when I was sitting at a desk all day hating my job...

And now that I'm blissfully (and brokefully...is that a word?) pursuing music - and have a wonderful little retail career to keep a roof over my head - I am not so inclined to write as much as I used to. Trust me, it's not that I want times to be tougher...I am certainly enjoying life as it is...I guess I'm just struggling with not struggling, for once...

I feel like that's what drives artists. That's what makes us question life, and love, and ourselves, and our purpose...that struggle. The struggle to achieve, to know, to become better at the things we want to do with our lives...

That's what forces us to look at the world and want to know more. To want to take it in, process it, and turn it into our art...that struggle for strength and knowledge, not only of what's around us, but also what's inside of us. I think someone once said, "An unexamined life is not worth living." Is that right? Well, if no one said it, then I just did.

Someone also said, "A life without knowledge is death in disguise."

Word.

So here we are, back at the very beginning...again...

Welcome to my new MySpace page, for those of you who've found it.  I'm still in the process of building this all up again, so it may take some time before photos and music and all that is uploaded, so bear with me.  Reinventing your online persona is pretty time-consuming...

In the meantime, the shows will definitely be updated, both on the former Laura Glyda Band MySpace page and on this one.  And on the former LGB website, as well as on my new one when it gets up and running.

Next thing I know, it'll be 2006 and I'll be catching snowflakes in Chicago...

Until next time, and with much love,

Laura