Music. Mimi Gilbert

|| Playing music around the world, making friends along the way ||

[mimigilbert]

I don't know if I will ever love any stage or venue more than the street. Anonymous connections somehow have the most meaning to me, maybe it's because they are so absolutely genuine and pure. Today I busked in the San Francisco BART subway station. (I'm currently sitting on the ground in the station writing this) The first tip was from a very old woman, who smiled with her eyes. She leaned in and said to me "keep singing. Have a great life. It is so short." I could have left right then and there and been full at heart. Another 30 minutes later as I was singing an India Arie cover, when person named Cadence, with long beautiful dreads, strong arms, just a bit shorter than myself, stopped and started to tell me how they are a drummer living over in Oakland , and how much they appreciated me singing positive songs about love. Then they started to cry and talk about the tragic fire in Oakland..they must have lost dear friends in that fire. We hugged, I felt accepted, they held on. We saw each other. It is in moments like this, that hearts are given water. I am so thankful for the goodness in people, I am so blessed by strangers. Along this house show tour where I have been travelling alone, I have been told more than once "be careful out there. Do not trust people." It is said from good intention... And I get it... I use discernment.. but you know what: I could not disagree more. It is in trusting strangers and opening my arms wide (knowing that hurt will come sometimes as part of the sacrifice of trusting) that my soul is most alive. Trust breeds trust. "Things move at the speed of trust," a professor of mine once said, and I have ran with that never looking back, hoping that the speed at which I can feel connected with others regardless of race, status, gender, sexual identity, economic position is so quick and without borders. The world is crazy and greedy. It has never changed. I am not trying to change the world. But I am trying to be one heart with the people of it. Thank you San Francisco. I am in love with your people. (at Civic Center/UN Plaza station)

[mimigilbert]

San Francisco. Playing a show here on Dec 7/Wednesday in a secret spot with other bands (i don't even know who, it is so sneaky🐰💪🏾)Come Check it out. Hosted by Sofar Sounds: San Francisco . Always a guaranteed good show with this lovely world wide music loving collab. (love love love to you, and to the heart broken families and hurting friends in Oakland this week) Google sofar sounds SF for the easy info. #sofarsoundssf @sofarsoundssf #mimigilbert #lifeisprecious #hugthoseyoulovetoday (at San Francisco, California)

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A few months ago, when I was joining @kathleenmurraymusic 's tour, I got to stay in the desert and make a music video with Aaron Rickel for a very stripped back version of this song Strangers Won't Exist. Just seeing the final version and I'm excited to post it soon. I didn't know if the song would stand on its own without layers of harmony and piano , drums and strings. but I think it really does. Especially during dusk in the most remote little place in the Joshua Tree..just us and the desert crickets. (at Joshua Tree, California)

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Look what arrived! We made it! It's real! Album release date To Be Confirmed #sarahrowandahl #strangerswontexist #mimigilbert

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Getting ready to ship off the new albums to the kickstarter peeps! After 130 letters written, my right hand is getting pretty buff. #crossfit Excited! #mimigilbert #strangerswontexist #debutalbumcomingsoon

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Let the Kickstarter album send off production line begin! Sneak peak of the beautiful painted album cover there in the corner by @sarahrowandahl #sarahrowandahl #mimigilbert #strangerswontexist

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A real privilege to share the stage and open for Jake, The White Buffalo last night . What a gift he has- carried with such kindness. #onestowatch #thewhitebuffalo #mimigilbert #thebrambles (at Plaza Playhouse Theater)

[mimigilbert]

I'm here in Brisbane, Austrlalia. 

Writing this morning about

What it feels like to be back in Australia.

I lived in Australia from beginning of 2011 until a few months (almost 6!) ago. I love Australia.

The sunny warm skies here are so amazing. There is this distinct ‘Australia’ feeling I get when I am here. I cannot put it into words, it’s something that it unattainable..impossible to articulate. It is in the air. Something about the smells, the way to wind touches me, the way the hot sun seems to sweat more, swelling about me, more than in other places I’ve been in the world.

Something about it. I cannot put my finger on, but as i was jogging in the hot winter air along the highways, under the blue cotton crisp clouds and beside the brown-green just-barely-surviving grass- i was overwhelm by this. A strange feeling of nostalgia, joy, excitement, resentment, adventure, and a slight and sharp remembrance of pain crept into my skin.

The awareness of Australia. Its so strange, trying to articulate what makes a place feel like a place.. I do not know. I do know that I love her, thee Australia, and i will embrace her as best i can while I am here. She will leave a smell on my skin, certainly. But Wellington, NZ will surely not mind, and will continue to love me and pull me into her dark arms once I am back despite my promiscuity. And then, before you know it, the aroma of Australia will be hard to notice once again. I will be back here- this big land of jungle and dessert, ocean and rock, thorns and dolphins. Its a diverse land. There is so much I haven't seen yet. 

Photo by Mark Lobo.

[mimigilbert]

Queenstown, New Zealand busking in winter. The beauty and the music of the landscape. The silence is music enough in Queenstown. I didn't play for long <3

"Were I not still but for a moment  I would have missed the echo of my soul.  A sound of pure, sweet content.  I listened, and in silence there,  Resounding through the distant gorges of my mind   The music fell upon my ear.  In silence, I found beauty everywhere."

-Barbara Cadogan

Photo taken by Aimee  - a friendly Australian woman I met in Queenstown. She and her partner Mike are from Brisbane. I'm going to Brissy in a little over a week and they offered me to stay on their couch before I head down to see my great friend in Byron Bay. So, of course, I will! <3 Thanking Aimee!

[mimigilbert]

The art of asking

Why do you busk, Mimi? You should go on American Idol or something !

I don't want fame, I want connection. 

"Don't make people pay for music, says Amanda Palmer: Let them. In a passionate talk that begins in her days as a street performer (drop a dollar in the hat for the Eight-Foot Bride!), she examines the new relationship between artist and fan."

I remember the first time I saw this video in the beginning of 2013. A lot of things clicked for me. Amanda Palmer had articulated, what for me, was going on in my own head and heart since I started falling in love with street-performance on Main Street in Ventura, California when i was 15.

If you are a performer of any kind, you might absolutely love this! 

[mimigilbert]

Dear Kitten, (reference to Anne Frank annnd the Friskies cat commercial)

I sit now in the Christchurch Airport.

I love airports.

So much so, that I decided that rather than pay for a hostel, I would sleep here tonight. I do have a second reason for that. My flight leaves tomorrow at 7AM. Back to Wellington! 

Spliv Neal made that drawing of the busking alligator-fox and I couldn't stop smiling when she inbox'd it to me.

'Busking brings a smile to the world,' is what she told me.

Today's busking was quite eventful. I will just say one thing. I will never hear the flute in the same way. It might take years for me to enjoy that sound again... War of the buskers. Me versus an old man playing the flute wearing really tight pants and a cowboy hat. I aim to make peace with all the buskers. Sometimes it works. Sometimes I am verbally abused, and then... musically abused. Which is worse. Flute. 

I am making CD's in the airport and listening to Neutral Milk Hotel. (I got to see them in Sydney at the Enmore Theatre and it was just fantastic. Two friends of mine snuck in by writing "ENTERED"on their arm in stamp-like-font with red sharpie. I pretended that I wasn't jealous or impressed because I paid for my ticket, thank you. Haha.)

That's it for now :) I love you guys. I hope you're feeling loved today.

Mimi x

[mimigilbert]

Hi tumbling people! I hop you are well :)

This is my second post :) I just spent my morning pretending i was a graphic designer on word document, making this poster for an upcoming gig in Wellington. I was quite happy with the way it turned out. Of course, that's all thanks to Mark Gee- an incredible photographer from Wellington. 

I have been in Christchurch the last couple of days! And I have been falling in love with the broken but resilient and hopeful earth quake-recorvering city. The 2011 shake up smash up destroyed then entire centre city.  Walking around- I feel I'm a character/survivor in end-times Psy-Fi movie. 

I have been busking daily by the Pop Up Mall (see photo). A mall made in the city after the EQ out of cargo containers

Highlights: (if you care to read on)

I arrived in christchurch at damp dusk after a 9 hour bus (without a toilet - which is painful for little mimi). It was night time and raining and I didn't know where I would stay...yet.

In my mind, there is a pro and a con for looking at a map when you're lost.

PRO) Nice people will stop and go way OUT of their way to help

CON) Mean people prey on small tourists (haha, its true isn't it)

Anyway, I pulled out a map, the ever cautious optimist that I am, and within 2 minutes, a white van (don't worry - white vans are mostly good and full of hippie peace and love in NZ ) turned around and a smiling woman got out to give me directions to the nearest hostel. I love NZ. It's a rare land.  She even stopped, quite unnecessarily, at the green light intersection afterward to let me cross the road ! haha. 

Highlight 2:

I stayed in a host the first night (which i loved) but was short on money the following day (August 23). That same day I got a FB message on my page, from a lovely german woman who has seen me busking in Wellington. She invited me to stay at her place for the night. We went to a gig together, ate chicken wings and slept like babies. So blessed by her hospitality <3

Highlight 3:

Nadia Reid, this girl who I get to play a gig with in Wellington in a few weeks, just so happens to be in Christchurch today. I just think that's ridiculously random. So we will get a coffee.

Highlight 4:

The hostel I'm staying in now is perhaps the most beautiful one i've ever been in. It feels like I'm in a little house on the prairie-room. I took a self portrait with my computer's 3 second timer (hence the blurred mass of face)

THATS THE END! I hope you all have a wonderful day! 14 followers who may or may not be reading this. I love you and miss you, my friends. shout out to Gina. Im so thankful todaY <3

[mimigilbert]

In The Worlds of Robert Plant- "Ramble On!"

I've just started a Tumblr.

My grandma's words are ringing in my head "I dont use social internet, social media,,, whatever it's called. I just don't see why it's important to tell everyone what i'm doing all the time."

I don't know. I don't even care if anyone looks at the Tumble or not. (which may be a bad thing- lest i forget this is a public forum) It just sounds fun. And well... I think a lot of good things come from social media. At least my facebook music page has brought many good things, indluding couches to sleep on, coffees with strangers, encouragements to fellow music buskers I haven't yet met in person etc.

I'd like to keep that going. Hopefully I'll keep it up to date and be able to log my music travels on here. Travelling so much recently makes it increasingly harder to lug around paper journals.  I won't feel bad about typing too much either, because you can choose to follow me or not.

So here we go!