Upcoming Events

November 3rd
MELA @ Goodbye Blue Monday
11:45pm
Free
percussion/bass/guitar/mel

November 7th
Green Theatre Collective Fall Festival
7pm
$30
Reading of a new play and food and good times. It's our fundraiser for the Tempest.

November 16th
MELA and Sea Teeth
Wicked Willy's
10pm-12am
$5
@ 10pm, MELA with Melanie, Nidia and Cydney (just girly harmonies!)
@ 11pm Sea Teeth- the Philly based Blues band, my friend Dana heads this one up.

December 3rd- Party for Pardada-Pardadi
time and location TBA
pay what you wish
featuring MELA (time TBA)
Fundraiser for The Sustainable Project, an initiative in India hosted by Green Theatre Collective that will bring a theatre program to the girls school, Pardada-Pardadi Educational Society. We'll have Christmassy nice things like wine, cheese, hot chocolate and shnopps, also handmade cards from the girls in India and used items for sale, all donations (which will be pay what you can) will go to supporting this program. We'll hear a set from MELA as well.

December 9th
3rd Rail
The Underscore
7pm
free
Rock and roll at our random Upper East Side place we like to play.

December 21st
Sea Teeth
Wicked Willy's
10pm-12am
$5
Blues Band Solstice and Chanukah party. 2 hour set this time.

Summer Update

Hello friends! This summer has been truly fantastic, the tour of As You Like It a huge success, Green Theatre Collective did two Green Scene educational workshops, one at Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island and one at the YMCA summer camp in Brooklyn. 3rd Rail had a rockin performance on August 3rd, and besides the featured music in As You Like It, MELA has been polishing up our sound to create an album this fall.

Right now it's time to take a break from all the planning, teaching and performing. I'm heading off to Florida to visit my grandma and spend some time at the beach, and then I'm off to Peru for 12 days! I have no idea what kind of adventures, epiphanies, inspiration and spiritual powers await me in the land of the Incas. But I'm sure it will influence my music, theatre, and teaching.

September events:

September 14th, 9pm
MELA @ Wicked Willies
Bleeker st, NY

September 17th - 18th
As You Like It relaunch!
Quail Hill Farm
Long Island, NY

Thanks everyone for all your support and enjoy the rest of your summer!
Melanie

Upcoming Events:

21 June
1-2pm- Brooklyn Bridge Park, Melanie plays a public piano!
7-9pm - Sidewalk of Grand Canyon Restaurant,
Montague Street, Brooklyn
MELA sidewalk performance as a part of Make Music New York
http://makemusicny.org/

July - 3 weekends-
AS YOU LIKE IT with Green Theatre Collective (featuring MELA original music)
9-10 July: Newburyport, MA
14-15 July: Prospect Park, Brooklyn
16-17 July: Shelter Island, NY
23-24 July: Franklin, NY

http://greentheatrecollective.org/season.html

Upcoming Events- Montague Month!

Wednesday, June 15th 8-9pm
Sea Teeth Blues Band @Wicked Willy’s
149 Bleeker st. New York, NY

MELA MONTAGUE MONTH!

Saturday June 18th
MELA @ Mutton and Mead Medieval Festival
Montague, MA
http://www.muttonandmead.com/

21 June 7-9pm - Sidewalk of Grand Canyon Restaurant,
Montague Street, Brooklyn
MELA sidewalk performance as a part of Make Music New York
http://makemusicny.org/

July - 3 weekends-
AS YOU LIKE IT with Green Theatre Collective (featuring MELA original music)
9-10 July: Newburyport, MA
14-15 July: Prospect Park, Brooklyn
16-17 July: Shelter Island, NY
23-24 July: Franklin, NY

http://greentheatrecollective.org/season.html

Upcoming Events

14 May 2-5pm - my house
Mugby Junction May Good Vibes Jam Session

23 May 7-10:30pm - 54 Bleeker Street, Apt. #5, New York, NY 10012
Green Theatre Collective Spring Fundraiser

21 June 3-5pm - Sidewalk of Grand Canyon Restaurant, Montague Street, Brooklyn
MELA sidewalk performance as a part of Make Music New York

July - 3 weekends-
AS YOU LIKE IT with Green Theatre Collective (featuring MELA original music)
9-10 July: Newburyport, MA
14-15 July: Prospect Park, Brooklyn
16-17 July: Shelter Island, NY
23-24 July: Franklin, NY

3rd Rail at the Underscore- April 30th!

Saturday, April 30, 2011
7 pm – 9 pm
3RD RAIL - NIGHT OF ROCK!
at Bar East/Underscore (downstairs)
(On 1st Avenue between 89th and 90th Street, NYC)

SHOWS! BIRTHDAYS! SHOWS!

MELA
COME AND CELEBRATE MY BIRTHDAY WITH ME!
Tuesday, April 12th
Barberry, Williamsburg
7pm

Friday, April 15th
with Laura Dunn and the Ghosts of xmas Past
Los Kabayitos Theater
8pm

Sea Teeth
Singing lead with Dana Levin's blues band
Monday, April 25th
Philadelphia, PA

3rd Rail
Saturday, April 30th
Bar East/Underscore, Upper East Side
7-9pm

DATE CHANGE: Mugby Junction presents: MARCH Good Vibes Jam Session

NOTE: THIS EVENT WAS CANCELED LAST WEEKEND AND IS NOW HAPPENING SATURDAY, MARCH 5TH!

Mugby Junction, that is, Melanie Closs and Becca Schall, (a newly formed casual musical duo) present the second ever Good Vibes Jam!

We jammed out last month and I think all four participants agree it was a lot of fun and musically satisfying. We created some magic that night, let's do it again!

The way it works is, someone starts a groove or a chord progression, and we feel it, and we improv, and we don't worry about playing the ...wrong thing because HEY it's never been played before...

Bring friends/significant others, instruments, food/drinks, we'll all jam it out. beat boxing, vocalists, freestylers, flamenco, tap and belly dancers welcome! I have a bunch of instruments too- guitars, keyboard, ukulele, strumstick, recorders, egg shakers, a djembe and random percussive instruments...

The day: MARCH 5TH
The time: 7-11pm
The Place: My house (rsvp for details)

Please rsvp so I know what to plan for.

with HARMONY and GOOD VIBES-
Mel

Before Class

I feel so much so inside everything maybe a little so sure and so pure and
Never waiting only saying inside me there is a word, not my heart not my mind
It’s something deeper stronger more real than a soul to the depths of marrow
The underbelly of all that sings
All the sounds of vibration and all rolled into the Om of the fans and electricity generator
And crickets and echo school hall
The Om of students thinking and teachers complaining
The Om of the Great Holy Ganga and the boys and cows bathing to purify their own injustice of the touch to the woman or the slap of the wife of the anger of the girl child or the fantasy of the girl next door
Who I can never even touch because she is married.
If I wash it all away with all the other garbage in the city, then I will be pure
Holy
One with Om
(written in Anupshahr, India, June 2010)

Green Theatre Collective Update

From the Green Theatre Collective newsletter:

Dear Friends,

I'm thrilled to tell you that Green Theatre Collective continues to grow. Keep chart of our progress via the GTC blog as we chronicle our activity over the next seven months. Our blog is now located on our website and can be found at: http://www.greentheatrecollective.org/blog.html.

Some quick GTC updates as well.

* On Wednesday January 26th(yesterday) GTC brought it's educational workshop The Green Scene to the kids in the after school program run by Kids Orbit at P.S. 8. The Green Scene seeks to inspire and empower younger generations to create theatre that has minimal impact on the environment. (Check out the attached picture of us embodying a forest of trees:)

* Our dates and locations for our summer production of As You Like It have been finalized. We're set to perform in Brooklyn on July 14th and 15th in gorgeous Prospect Park at the Music Pagoda. Other dates include July 9th and 10th when we'll be hosted by Theater in the Open (www.theaterintheopen.org) in my hometown of Newburyport, MA, and on July 23rd and 24th when we'll be hosted by Franklin Stage Company up in the Catskill Mountains (www.franklinstagecompany.org).

* GTC is introducing a new community outreach program entitled Artists for their Communities or AFTC. Our goal under the AFTC program will be to serve the Brooklyn community we live in, and the surrounding communities of New York City as well. From utilizing our artistic talents in the fields of theatre, education and music, to getting involved with community projects, environmental or otherwise which are in need of assistance. Have an idea or suggestion for GTC's first project under AFTC? Email me! We'd love to hear from you.

We hope you'll continue to follow GTC in the months ahead. It's certainly an exciting time! Best to all!
--
Hal Fickett

Anupshahr

It’s like the twilight of a sunset
A lavender and periwinkle blanket
That covers the world in a hum
And the smell of an open fire
And the taste of the spiced Chai
The peacocks meowing
And the hum of generators
Motorbikes and crickets
A distant wedding blasts
Hindi Bollywood love songs
And fireworks

Anupshahr, India, June 2010

Good Vibes Jam Session

I have been presented with the fortunate situation of having my parents apartment (which is where I live anyway) to myself in a few weeks. I have been dreaming for a long time of bringing all my musically talented friends together for a hootenanny- and I don't mean the kind where we have sheets of paper with lyrics to 60''s folk songs and chord charts. I mean someone starts a groove or a chord progression, and we feel it, and we improv, and we don't worry about playing the wrong thing because HEY it's never been played before...
We'll all squeeze into my parents living room and jam it out. Beat boxing and vocalists welcome! I have a bunch of instruments too- guitars, keyboard, ukulele, strumstick, recorders, egg shakers, a djembe and random percussive instruments...

The day: January the 28th (Friday), the time, 8pm.

with HARMONY and GOOD VIBES-
Mel

Dancing Water

DANCING WATER

a troupe of little vagrants of the world
leave your footprints in my words
the world puts off its mask of vastness to its lover
it becomes small as of the eternal
the sands in your way beg for your song and your movement, dancing water
will you carry the burden of their lameness?

(A poem on a cup in a restaurant in Xidi, China, 5 April)

Open Mic at the Tea Lounge 9 January, 2011

I will be playing some originals with my mom on January 9th at the Tea Lounge!
9-11pm
Union Street between 6th ave and 7th ave
Park Slope, Brooklyn


and THEN...

On the following Tuesday, January 11th, I will play another open mic at Bar 4, from 7pm until...whenever? Also in Park Slope!

yay open mics!

Changing the shape of my blog

Although I am no longer traveling around the world, my intentional journey to the Other Side will continue. I am now based in Brooklyn, teaching music and theatre, making music and theatre, and seeking cultural competency and connection within my own country and community. I'll start by sharing some poetry I've written on my journey- I've already shared a few things- and continue to update on gigs, shows, events, and ways to connect and get involved.

Green Theatre
I've been helping out my good friend Hal Fickett start up a cool company called The Green Theatre Collective- a theatre company devoted to sustainable and waste-free performance. I'll be acting as Educational Director. Check out their website by clicking on the link in the "links" section.

Party for Pardada Pardadi
A few weeks ago friends gathered for music, food, and good holiday cheer to support the Pardada Pardadi Educational Society- the girl's school in India where I volunteered for a month. If you'd like to make a donation to help support one girl through her schooling, please contact me.

Music
stay tuned for gigs, albums or whatever direction my music might take...I'm still exploring. For now, you might find me at an open mic or busking in the subway...

Red Dust

(about Ayers Rock aka Uluru in Australia)

In the middle of the Earth is a great big rock
ten million flies, ten million stars
one big rock, one big sun
melts us down
into red dust,
...into star dust.

-written in Nikko Japan, March 2010

Catfish in Imperial Pond

a catfish materializes
in the pond of the Imperial Palace
it is ignorant of the movement around it
it glides in blissful peace.

-written in Tokyo, March

Haiku

Stuffed in my own head
melting snow on the temples
mountains set me free

Cold bones seeking warmth
three fire signs ignite sparks
create a new light

(Written in Nikko, Japan, on a snowy night while I had a cold. March.)

Maori Saying

May the calm be widespread
May the sea glisten like that of Greenstone
May the shimmering light guide you on your journey.

Kia hora te marino
Kia whakapapa pounamu te maona
Kia tere te Karohirohi i mua i to hua rahi.

Wellington, New Zealand, 22 January 2010

The Final Blog Entry

Ok, where do I begin.

What to discuss first? Edinburgh and the performance? The magic and seamless stream of inspiration of Ireland? Spending a month with Megan Jacoby? The wonderful friends I made in St. Ives? A picnic in the rain and biking pub crawl in Leicestershire with Emily Culliton, Emily Klasson, and Klasson’s cousin? Spain, Barcelona, the emotions of going home and ending the trip (early), the culmination of this incredible and unforgettable experience in my life?
I have never really been able to articulate things in a linear writing style. Have coffee with me some time and I will tell you all about it. Or watch the video of the show when it goes up on youtube. Look at the photos. Read my poem about Home.
What I will do for you is share a poem from the script of the show. In a few weeks I will be able to post more of the poems and song lyrics I wrote while traveling. Then, please give me a call or email, so I can just talk to you ☺

ARDHANARISHWARA
Flow into depths of om river
Music from moon hair
Seep deep into pores
Slow shine
On a Shiva starship
Light, ions, particles
Feeling Shiva
Heal the world

Woman
Parvati, Crow, Reena
Striking figure, crazy hair
Set apart
Breathes in a way that
Inhales one language
Exhales another
Incomprehensible
Smells like other
No gesture can set communication free

Parvati, the mountain
Shiva, the moon
You cannot penetrate
Not even Shiva
Who is made of om
Om, everything
Does not know the om inside Parvati
Mountain
Solid
Impenetrable
Beautiful