Month: April 2012

Waiting for my food to be delivered, and I’ve decided it’s a good time to write a new blog! I ordered Indian for dinner, in case you’re curious. But I just realized I forgot to order Nan with my meal. Such a bummer. Oh well.

Anywho, these past few weeks have been just fabulous! Busy, busy, busy, and loving every minute of it! I’m learning to savor the moments, all the little steps along the way, and realizing it’s the only way to really live. I feel very blessed these days to have so many wonderful, inspiring people surrounding me, and so many folks who believe in what I do. Many thanks go out to these amazing people!

So I just want to take a minute to throw some music updates at ya! Tomorrow is May Day, and in celebration I will be performing a little acoustic set in Bryant Park at 11:30am! The good people behind OWS have put together a day of art, music, dance, yoga, meditation, crafts, a free market, etc. It’s going to be an amazing day to celebrate arts and the creative potential that exists within each individual. I am honored to be part of this beautiful event! If you’re in NYC, please come to Bryant Park between 8am and 4pm to experience free art in the open! Join the festivities with us! www.call2create.org

One of the great things about being a musician in New York City is the fantastic community of other artists who are always up for writing and collaborative music projects. Last week I got another opportunity to record at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, which is always such a joy to do. For something a little different, I decided to ask my friend and fellow singer/songwriter Matt Sucich (check him out at Bonnaroo this summer!!) to collaborate on a song I wrote and turn it into a duet for the recording session. He was totally up for it, and we ended up putting together something really special! Thanks to Matt for his wonderful talent and enthusiasm, to Michael McCoy for engineering the session, and to Devon Johnson for mixing and mastering the track. I LOVE how this came out, and as a treat I’m offering it up as a FREE download right now! The song is called “There Was”, and you can get it on my soundcloud page by going here: www.soundcloud.com/jessytomsko   ….We’re hoping to do a video for this song as well, so stay tuned for that! Also, I pitched this track a few days ago at SPONY (Songwriter’s Pitch-a-thon of New York), and it was selected by all three panelists for possible licensing opportunities! I was really blown away by the warm reception to this brand new recording, and I hope you enjoy it too. 🙂

BIG NEWS! I’m honored and flattered to be asked to sing with Amber Rubarth at her show at Joe’s Pub on May 14th! I’ll be lending my voice to the set with the NYC a cappella group The Lost Keys! Expect some truly awesome surprises at that show; you don’t want to miss it! I can’t wait to share the stage with Amber (who, incidentally, is an absolute darling) at such a spectacular theater. I’m absolutely amazed by this opportunity.

So I’ve got quite a few things in the works right now, and it’s really fun!! Also coming up is a spring photo shoot with the incredible Shervin Lainez (www.shervinfoto.com), which I couldn’t be happier about. And I’ve got a new album in pre-production right now!! Still finishing the writing for it and shopping around for a possible producer; and it feels like we’re getting close! So much to be jazzed about!

So that pretty much brings you up to speed on the happenings of Jessy Tomsko. Sometimes I feel so happy I could spontaneously combust! And with that, I will sign off because my dinner has arrived (thank you Grub Hub) and it smells amazing.

Keep on rockin’, kids. Do yo’ thang.

I achieved a goal over the weekend. And then I achieved it again today. I hope to achieve it again tonight…

My yogi headstand. 🙂 I got up and back down smoothly without the help of a spotter or the trusty wall behind me! I can’t even express what an accomplishment this is in my life. I’ve been doing yoga for years, but always operated under the belief that there are just certain postures I’m not capable of getting into; my body (and my mind) just wouldn’t cooperate. Headstand was one such posture. I’ve never done acrobatics or gymnastics or anything crazy like that which involves tossing my body around and contorting it into strange formations. Just the idea of turning upside-down and balancing on my head and forearms was such a ridiculous notion that I honestly never even bothered really trying. I gave it a few half-assed attempts in the past, but after not even being able to kick my feet over my head, I immediately gave up and instead watched in awe as other seemingly “normal” people rocked it out gracefully. “How do they make it look so easy??”, I wondered.

Then one day, about 2 months ago, my lovely friend Anna (who was at the time training to be a yoga teacher) asked if I wanted to try it with her help. Nervously I agreed to have her spot me. And by “spot me”, what I really mean is she basically flipped my legs up for me. The sensation was at first terrifying and unsteady, and I wanted to get down as fast as possible; let gravity take me back to earth. But then once I was back down, I realized that it actually had been quite thrilling! Suddenly I knew I had to do it. I became absolutely determined to meet the challenge. I started practicing my headstand every day, working on getting stronger and more confident. I fell a lot. I still fall a lot. I remember the first time I was able to pull my feet away from the wall and balance for about three to five seconds; I was so excited! The feeling was just so unique, so unlike anything else.

It’s refreshing to turn the world upside-down. It can provide a much needed shift in perspective that we don’t usually get to experience. It’s nice to shake things up a little, even just for a few breaths, a few moments. I think getting past the fear is the hardest part. What’s going on in your mind is probably scarier than the actual doing. Once you move beyond that, what you usually find is pretty exciting. Whether you’re learning how to do a headstand, fly a plane, start a new job, move to a new city, ride a bike, swim in the ocean, ski down a mountain, or ask someone you like to go out with you….the same applies. I guess there’s a lot of wisdom in that old adage that tells us to do something every day that scares us. Facing what you’re afraid of sets you free.

Sometimes we just need a little push. Maybe someone to point us in the right direction. Someone to spot us, or even turn us upside-down because we’re afraid to do it ourselves.

Find your inner coach, your motivator, who speaks much louder than the fear, if you really listen. Be brave. Whatever it is that you’re doing, allow yourself to BE HERE NOW and really live it. Everything only ever happens NOW; life is made of moments. Collect beautiful memories, but don’t live in them. Dream fantastic dreams of the things you’ll do and be, but don’t live in those either. Because right now, YOU ARE HERE (insert little red arrow pointing at you on the map of life).

And if you need someone to spot you, I’ll be here too. Oh, Hey!