With that said, I’d like to introduce you to one of our favorite Native Flautists, Robert Mirabal.

He’s a two time GRAMMY Award winner yet lives a traditional Taos Pueblo life. He has a dozen albums for sale on his website. One reason we’re drawn to Robert is his fusion of rock with his Native Flute playing. He tells his story through music, which is apparent if you watch one of his videos.

I asked Kevin why he looks up to Robert Mirabal. “Because he’s a renaissance man. He has traveled the world and seen the struggles of many indigenous peoples trying to keep their cultural ways in the midst of self-serving modernism juxtaposed to its benefits. And that reflects in his music writing. Being multi-cultural myself, I see many international influences on Robert’s music and performance. His music is uplifting, deep, and both spiritually and culturally relevant for today. Maybe I’ll have the pleasure of meeting him someday. He has definitely inspired me to strive to create music that is not just artistic, but healing deeply connected to everything”.

Robert has inspired us in so many ways. I grew up in a white collar household, unexposed to Native Americans. When Kevin and I first met, we watched Robert’s live show, Music From a Painted Cave on VHS. This is a theatrical show with stage sets, lighting, costumes, dancers, and of course, live music. This was one of my first real glimpses into Native American culture. Since I’m a musician, my ear naturally gravitates towards music. Robert did a phenomenal job with the musical composition on this show. He masterfully imposed rock elements into the songs, which made the music more relatable to me (probably because at the time, I was still very unfamiliar with native music). I was especially impressed at how the music didn’t overpower the story being told, which is something I see a lot of rock bands struggling with. The music was a storytelling tool. It’s obvious this talent comes naturally to him. The stories he told in his music were mysterious, yet relatable, and I remember thinking how impressive this show was. Robert is not only a musician, but a performer and a story teller. He is a man of many talents.

Robert’s show was the touchstone that started me on my path. Since then I’ve been involved with supporting Kevin’s participation in the Red Voice Singers (a Lakota ceremony/powwow drumming group), sweat lodges and Native ceremonies. Having volunteered at powwows myself, I have learned a lot directly from The People.

Music from a Painted Cave was featured on PBS, and if you’d like to check out the DVD, click here. There are some cuts on youtube, as well. I’ll post one song from this show, Medicine Man. You can find more on youtube.

We’ve never met anyone who professionally crafts their own flutes as well as professionally plays them. (We know how hard it is to make a flute! We’ve tried to make one from scratch. It ended up as fire wood…) Crafting a flute is a whole other talent within itself. (If you can see where this is going,) Robert is just such a person who makes flutes professionally as well as plays them professionally.

As a fellow Native Flute player, both Kevin and I encourage you to check out his website and his blog. You will not be disappointed.

Much love my friends,
Lindy D

As with most animals we own, they found us. A prefab home was being moved onto a farm that Kevin used to care-take for. Two very small kittens fell out of the wall of prefab home the night it arrived. Their mother was nowhere in sight, so Kevin was hired as the surrogate mother on the spot.

This is our girl. She is named Mizuki, which translates from Japanese to Water Moon or Water Spirit.

If you would like to see more images of our crazy cats, go ahead and click the “continue reading” link. They are totally insane, ridiculously hilarious, and as intelligent as a three year old on a sugar high.

This is the boy, Socrates, as a kitten. He just informed me that he’s a mountain lion accidentally born into the body of a house cat. My mistake.

Here’s tiny Socrates again. He has grow quite a bit since this picture. Actually, today he weighs 16 pounds. I told you he was really a mountain lion.

One fine day, in the spring of 2010, Kevin gave the two cats the sex talk. He told them to stay in school, and don’t do drugs, and certainty don’t have sex before they were married. Do you know what those cats did that night? They got married and made some babies!

About two months later, Kevin had 5 new baby kittens in his laundry basket. Only one kitten made it to adulthood. Ironically, she was the runt of the litter. She has many names, because she is just so fantastically neurotic. Depending on what mode of neuroticism she’s in, she is called BabyCat, Racecar, Gumdrop, and STOP. Her birth name is Tigress, and she lives with both her mother/aunt, and father/uncle.

And there she is, sleeping like a BabyCat in this picture.

Now, there is something interesting to be said of Tigress. Since she is the runt of the litter, you’re actually looking at her full grown in the above picture. She is incredibly small as a full grown cat.

Hers is Mizuki taking a nap on the most comfortable box in the world. While she was busy sleeping in the Comfort Zone, her brother/husband was busy sleeping in the box next to her in the Twilight Zone. The Twilight Zone looks something like this:

So, after the catnap in the Twilight Zone, they discovered they could travel to Narnia through our armoire in the back room. Mizuki is on the top, Tigress in the middle, and Socrates on the bottom.

Although, I imagine they’re not going to fight the White Witch, but I believe they are going to find some delicious Turkish Delight. The only two things on their minds are as follows: food and sleep.

Here we have father and daughter in their artistic moods. They seem to calm down in the middle of the day when us humans are most active. These cats seem to become extremely active between the hours of inconvenient-o’clock and too-early-to-be-awake.

As this post comes to a close, I will leave you with a most comforting image of sleeping cats. What could be more zen?

This post is only the still frames. Wait until I make a video post about these suckers…

Till next time,
Lindy D

Playing classical guitar with blues and jazz artists is something I’ve never done before. There were many, wonderful acts, which I’ll post pictures of in just a moment. Each act was allowed to showcase two pieces. The Mendo Lake Singers are a fantastic four part harmony, barber shop style, a cappella group. Andy Rosoff is an incredible blue pianist and New Orleans singer. The Lake County Dance Team preformed “It’s Almost Like Being in Love”. There were many more amazing acts (whom I will talk about later). It was a pleasure preforming with these talented artists. They are so far outside of my genre, that I probably wouldn’t have met many of these performers, had it not been for this show.

During the process we were warmly received by the other performers, the director, Cindy Strong, and the director of the Lake County Arts Council, Shelby Posada.

Kevin and I dedicated our songs to the war vets, MIAs, and POWs. The audience and the vets loved it.

I guess we fit well outside of the restaurant/winery circuit. This whole experience broadened my expectation of classical guitar. Not everything fits into one category.

Here are the wonderful acts I performed with. Since this post has many images, I put the pictures behind a cut. Click the link to see them.

This is Tom Xavier (right) and Max Lehman (left) performing Tom’s original music. Tom has a phoneminal singing voice and writes superb lyrics. The two songs they performed were “When I Come Home” and “Red, White & Blue”.

Max Lehman is only in high school. He not only plays upright bass, but clarinet and guitar. He was performing country music in this set, but at the end of the night he came out and played What A Wonderful World on clarinet. He is talented in many many genres. He’s got a good start on his music career. I wonder who he’ll be ten years from now.

Here’s Antoinette’s Dancers performing “It’s Almost like Being in Love” by Frederick Loewe. Their dancing was beautiful.

This lovey trio had amazing harmonies. Surprisingly, all three of their names are Kathleen, Cathy and Cathy! The Cathy in the middle had only been singing for two years prior to this show, and I was in awe at how far her vocal talents had come in such a short amount of time. These girls sang “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” and “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen”.

These delightful ladies are the sparkly, Mendo Lake Singers! They sang four part harmony, barber shop style tunes from “Yankee doodle Boy” to “Java Jive” to “You Made me Love You” and “God Bless America”. This group has been in existence for thirty years, and they are quite the performers. They stole the stage while they were there.

Last but not least, Kevin and I came after intermission. I performed two classical songs, and then we performed some rock songs together. This show was such a blast. We had a rocking time.

Some of you may know, I also play saxophone. This was at the end of the night when the whole cast came out to sing What a Wonderful World. And there’s Max playing clarinet.

Ahh, it felt so great to play on a stage. I enjoy playing the subdued-background-dinner-music, but it doesn’t give the adrenaline rush of being on a stage. The Soper Reese theater is a beautiful place to play.

I can’t wait for the next show!
Till next time,
Lindy D.

(photos by Michael Stempe and Xian Yeagan)

Kanjiwood – The art of Kanjiwood is Kevin Village Stone’s creation. He utilizes his love of nature and his Japanese heritage to create these beautiful pieces of home decor. Each piece of Kanjiwood is naturally collected from California shores. The inscription on each piece of wood is different, so browse around until you find a saying that fits you. We inscribe everything from “Beautiful Dawn” to “Sacred and Holy Ground” to “Damn it!”

This piece reads “Imagine”. More pictures of this piece can be found at our Etsy listing here.

Feather Fans – Feather fans have long been used for smudging (sage, cedar, incense, etc). These feathers have been naturally collected and organically sanitized without the use of chemicals. All other elements, such as beads, are also natural. No plastic or artificial materials. Each fan in unique in both the handle, and the feather selection.

This particular fan features large peacock feathers and, similar to our Kanjiwood, has the addition of the Japanese kanji “Sacred Ground” engraved into the natural driftwood handle. More pictures can be found here.

CD’s – Does this need a description? It’s our music!

Take a look around The Village Stone and see what you like. We often have specials going, and we currently have one for the month of February: buy one, get the next one 20%

Thanks for stopping by! Till next time.
Lindy D

But that’s not all she’s done. She’s an animator, illustrator, and computer artist. Because she was influenced by her father who is a professional painter, she took an interest in art at a young age. She draws inspiration from a variety of sources such as Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, history, film, Japanese managa and anime, and video games; her work combines traditional media with computer applications.

She hails from Canada and recently graduated with a Bachelor in Media Arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design. She has a wonderful portfolio of haunting, detailed, and emotional images. Check out these other works from Carolyn.

This next image is a frame from her thesis film, “Disconnect” which can be viewed at her website, here. She does a lot of stunning, detailed work to make the environment speak just as loudly as the characters in the film. In all actuality, there is no speaking in the film. Some feelings can’t be put into words, and Carolyn does a beautiful job where words end.

Here is another beautiful environment created by Carolyn.

A statement from Carolyn Fisk in regards to her film, “Disconnect”:

“There is something in the way we experience life that cannot be understood by words or sound alone. My work is a reflection upon my own personality and experiences in an abstract way. I often develop stories without sound or a written dialogue in mind. I am driven to develop these stories based more on a type of feeling or mood I have experienced. This can be extremely hard to communicate to an audience. It is challenging to try and create something that is not concrete and is perceived differently by every individual. This is true for any story I suppose, but think about trying to create an animation based off a feeling you cannot name. Think about a state of mind you experienced and try to recreate it. It is hard enough to capture and understand all the subtleties of our emotions, and even harder to share them with others.

When I started out in animation, I did not consider myself an animator because most of the work I did related to other art forms such as illustration. But animation allowed me to pursue different avenues of thought. Over the years I have worked hard to communicate through animation, my stories and emotions, while struggling to find a preferred style and method. Sometime during the process I realized that animation works across mediums in order to effectively convey a story. Doing one does not mean giving up the other. With this new found understanding I became more willing to branch out and experiment by mixing traditional hand drawn animation with 3D computer graphics. I was also inspired to incorporate more of my knowledge from other art forms such as film and graphic novels.”

We’re very pleased with her work and we encourage you to visit her website and check out the rest of her portfolio.

Till next time
Lindy D

The above image is the cover for my classical guitar album, Cordoba Dreams, which is released as of today! The journey to get here has been a long one, but it’s been worth every moment. I’ve met some amazing people, accomplished things I never would have thought, and have learned so much. I hope this continues for many more years.

Today I performed a CD release party at Watershed Books in Lakeport. It was also the Dicken’s Faire, which was a blast. It was a bit chilly, but still wonderful. Cheri, the owner, has two parakeets living in her store that sang along with all my songs.

A lot of people have asked what the name Cordoba Dreams means. There’s a little story behind this.

Cordoba is the brand of guitars I play. The particular one I have was crafted in Spain, and it sounds (and looks) wonderful. But last year, I had no classical guitar. I was playing everything on an acoustic steel string Yamaha FG700S. It’s very difficult to play classical guitar on steel string guitars for many reasons. The chords used in classical music is different than rock, and there’s a lot more finger picking, which is challenging on steel strings. I was struggling along, trying to make classical music work on this beat around guitar. I expressed my difficulty to Kevin one day, and we discussed saving up for a real classical guitar.

Well, two months later I walked into the living room and there was a big box with a huge bow on top. Kevin told me it was my birthday (it was not) and I went to open the gift. You’ve probably figured out already it was a Cordoba, classical guitar. Kevin had gone to all our family and friends and asked for donations. Everyone pitched in and bought me this beautiful guitar. I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s really a dream come true for me. Therefore the CD title; Cordoba Dreams.

The CD is available on our website here here and you can listen to some tracks on my facebook. I encourage you to check out the facebook because there are up to date performances, fun photos, and lots of interactions with fans. Don’t be shy in leaving me a comment! I love hearing from you guys.

Till next time,
Lindy D

• Our website is undergoing renovations. We’re restyling it to mimic a record label, instead of a personal page. This way Kevin and I will share the domain 50/50 instead of 80/20 like we have now.

• Our online Etsy store is up. We’re adding new items every week, and by the end of this month we’ll announce the formal opening of the store. If you want a sneak peek of what we have so far, check it out here: The Village Stone
• My CD is going to be released this weekend! I’m so excited! The journey to get to this point has been a long one, but it’s been awesome. I think I originally predicted this album would be out in May? Six months later, here we are.
• If you’re a photographer, painter, digital artist, or any other visual medium, we’re holding a contest for you. Since we’re renovating our website, we need to get rid of the banner in the upper left hand corner of our main page. You know the one that says “Kevin Village Stone/Kiwamura”? Since we’re turning our website into a record label instead of a personal page, that banner needs to come down so we can replace it with a more universal image. For more information about the contest visit my deviantart page. Whispering Light Contest

In less business-y news, a monarch caterpillar attached herself to the side of our music studio and decided to make a cocoon two weeks ago. Kevin and I were there when the butterfly broke out of her chrysalis. It was very cool to be there at the right moment to see such a beautiful thing! I still can’t believe that she would be here in the start of chilly November where the nights get down to 35 degrees. That’s a brave little caterpillar.

Here’s some pictures of the little thing! We took pictures every few days. Read more to see the full timeline (6 images)

Here she is a few days later. The chrysalis is getting lighter. You can also see the other side of the chrysalis. Aren’t those gold dots fascinating?

It’s been 12 days of that crisp green color. It took just a few days for the shell to darken and a wing to appear. We’re getting close.

We came out two days later to find her in her brand new body. That gold strip on the chrysalis is awesome. I love it.

Here she is! She crawled onto the ground to let her wings harden. You can tell she’s a female by her markings. She was so cool, too. She sat there and let me take pictures to my heart’s content.

I moved her into the sunlight so she could harden her wings. She was stretching her wings, getting them to dry. She told me she’s en route to Baja California. She’s got some buddies down there she wants to go surfing with. So I wished her well and the next morning she was on her way! I’m so glad we witnessed this. It was awesome.

I think I’ll grow more milk weed next year.

Till next time,
Lindy D

Services were offered, like tarot readings, aroma therapy, and my personal favorite sympathetic vibrations. The weekend was awesome. Harbin has a great vibe, and we’re blessed to have played there.

Beautiful venue, great people, and a hilariously funny MC.

Till next time!
Lindy D

Rob Owens is the blond rock star with white glasses. Travis Austin is the guitarist on the left. They are both talented, not in just guitar chops, but percussion. And are both killer soloists. Check them out at this year’s Taste of Lakeport festival.

I’ve learned a lot from Rob and feel blessed to have him as a teacher. For now I’ll continue playing classical music, but don’t be surprised if you get a taste of flamenco in the future.

Till next time
-Lindy D

On a tight budget, there are some ways to save money. For example, instead of going out and buying a very nice, studio quality music stand, we tape our music to the wall.

The finished product will be great, and I can’t wait to release this CD. The recording process is DIY all the way, but the finished project sounds professional. The projected release date is October 21st, 2011. Keep your ears out, because it’s coming soon.

More updates coming soon

Till next time!
-Lindy D