Veda Hille

a little live video from the fun show at studio upstream in weissensee.

stop bc arts cuts, a great website, and just the beginning. i particularly like geoffrey farmer’s suggestion that we jazz-hands this government out of office. i can see it in my head.

oh, what a night in weissensee we had! thanks again to the marvellous guys thomas and willem, who have built a wonderful studio/arts centre/dinner party place. iris and thomas and wolfgang gave me shivers with their excellent brecht arrangements. and i can’t wait for the next kim barlow record, with all those songs about escaping from danger.

a shift in berlin gigs: we have been offered a chance to go to a little cabin on the north sea in denmark, and so i will now play at madame claude’s on nov 3 instead of oct 6. (sorry raff.) and i also have another show at lagari on nov 19, where i will hopefully have some new songs to play from my time here. songs about peter pan, the danish bogs, and family life.

it is also time to mention that while i am here in berlin, attempting to write the aforementioned songs and experiencing life in this most cultured of cities, both the Canadian government and the BC government are announcing some incredibly devastating cuts to arts funding. the Canada Council program for Specialized Sound Recording no longer exists. this program has funded almost every album i have made, starting with Spine. this is the reason i have been able to afford such great musicians and engineers, and i have had the luxury of a bit of time in studio to make these records. certainly the upcoming record, Young Saint Marie, would have been impossible for me to afford without funding since I am paying an entire orchestra for their wonderful performance. and back in BC the liberal government has announced that arts funding will be cut by 91% by 2011. this is the money that keeps so many organizations alive. companies like Theatre Replacement, Leaky Heaven Circus, the Push Festival, the Fringe, the Folk Fest….it is a long list. who wants to live in a province without these things? it seems very shortsighted to me. people are rallying, and there will be a strong protest. i encourage everyone to join in.

we had a grand time at lagari on wednesday night.   a little room, disco lights, friends, wine, spring break up.  and i’ve hopped onto a gig at madame claude’s on oct 6, part of their 4 track series. also exciting, my hosts gregor and christoph at the josetti hof will have a concert on saturday afternoon, sept 26. they are going to haul the pianos into the courtyard and play music in the air. i love pianos in the air. i’ve seen two buskers with upright pianos on the street in our neighbourhood. good to know that there is always options for gigging, even if the canadian government pulls all the arts funding in the world. grab your coat and your popular music, we’re taking it to the streets.

hallo folks. i made a mistake on the show page, the dresden date is OCTOBER 12, not oct 3. whoops. hope that doesn’t mess up anyone’s schedule. aside from mine, of course. but now i get to see all of the royal de luxe performance in berlin.

this is my current favourite photo of our german adventuring. i like to think that we always look like a jeff wall photo.
and when we’re not unconsciously posing, what’s been happening? well, i’ve been dutifully visiting my piano room on the river spree. yesterday one of the tall handsome composer men who run the space walked into the room while i was lying on top of the closed piano lid playing upside down. i am afraid that i am not representing canada in an appropriately serious manner. i also went down to madame claude’s on sunday and had a lovely time at their open mic. i usually hate those things, but my heart must be opening in the fall air. it was sweet, and it reminded me of how great music is in a small room packed with people.
and today? today we will hit the hamburger bahnof, which is not a fancy sandwich station but a pomo art gallery.

so, just before i left canada the intrepid quinne came over and shot a video of me singing All Gone, Be Still in my backyard in the dark. and you can see it! at skipster . thanks to skipster scott for requesting it, and then hounding us to complete the task.