My Maine Mentality
It’s a been a month Forest Friends. I’ve been happily busy with the actor side of myself as well as indulging in all that summer has to offer. In between emails and casting calls I’ve been hiking, biking, and jumping in waves with friends and family. Within a week in a cabin in Acadia, ME, I noticed the locals have an attitude towards summer I’d like to adopt. They don’t flinch or bat an eye at a little cold water, rain, or bugs. Given their summer is so short up north, and their water’s made of currents from the Arctic, they fully throw themselves into summer and don’t sweat the small stuff. They’re Maine tough. Since that trip I started jumping into more cold water and letting myself scream with the shock of it. Adding onto this Maine Mentality, I’ve joined the “Yoga With Adriene” fan club. In the face of stress, I would work out, and work out some more. Asking myself instead to just breathe and maybe stretch a little is new territory, but I’m giving it a go.
If you follow my stories on Instagram , you’ll know I got to travel for work again! This time I was on set for a sci-fi short in Amherst. The UMass Campus’s architecture happens to work well in a dystopian story. My co-star on set that day was an actor from London, come to the USA recently and is now working the New England market. Another reason why I love being an actor, you never know who you’ll meet! I’ve also been continuing my classes at the Matt Newton Acting Studio. It’s given me an outlet for all that creative energy and tests just how quickly I can memorize lines week-to-week.
MUSIC & FRIENDS
It is a bigger accomplishment than you know to say, ‘I’m writing again.” I owe that renewed creative output to a friend who doesn’t ask much of me, except to have some fun. We spent a whole day just writing and talking about music. At the end of it we even went over to Mobile Mic Studio (where I currently intern) to record some vocals.
While I’ve been either up in the woods or making self-tapes, the forest friends have been releasing music all month! The September Forest Friends Playlist features brand new songs by Jack Kapson, McDermott, Queen Mars, and a collaborative cover with Jodie Cay and Greg Zola. Only recently out of the academic calender, I still feel like the new year begins in September. So lets say a big HAPPY NEW YEAR! Get out your agendas, buy that new outfit, and start fall on the right foot. It especially feels like a new year for me as I am headed to Chicago for a week. The scary and the beautiful are always connected by the truth that you never know what will happen next. I’m doing my best inner tree work to hold onto the beautiful and put the pandemic in the past. Tall order I know, but red woods are taller.