Jenny Bienemann

Did you notice?  I took a little side trip this week.  I decided to write haiku based on what I drew, rather than what I spied with my little eye in my surroundings. 
  
This was kind of a big deal…

So much loss lately.   

Robin and I have lost 2 friends to Covid, one who was a year younger than I am, and in robust health.  We just went through St. Patrick’s Day, our first without my Dad, and for…

Life is not the same.  Yet, slowly, surely, like the flowers of spring, live music is returning. 

We tread cautiously, holding the urge to return to life alongside the knowing that it can never be the same. In a few…

Someone asked, how do you make time for this to become part of your life?  How do you even find time to write?  That’s a good question, I thought. 

Let's start with when.  When does this happen exactly? 

Well let’s…

It sure looks easier than it is.

Teaching, that is.

I say this with the certitude only someone who has taught a mere four classes over two days, can say. And, I was co-teaching! Robin Bienemann and I did it…

Jenny Bienemann:  ‘TIS THE SEASON TO GIVE – give something up, that is

I have given up so many things, so many ways, so many times. 

You learn a lot when you let go. That’s why it is important that…

Before you read this, take a look at these videos: Welcome in the Light and Your Own Cup.

I get excited.

A wonderful new venue in Arlington Heights, Hey Nonny, has invited Robin and me to take over the…

Want to do something fun?  Watch Jon Langford's Haiku Milieu song, Tears like Stars Must Fall. 

Jon Langford.  He's the real deal.  I'm going to guess you know that already. Visual artist, musician, poet, writer.  The Mekons.  The Waco…

Before you read this, enjoy Kate's "We Get to the End" video for the Haiku Milieu Series.

Kate FitzGerald.  'Tis Herself.  She can be nothing other than herself.  This is a quality I admire and wish to emulate.  But somehow…

Gerald Dowd.  I had seen him on stage.  I had been on stage with him.  But I had never really “seen” him, until a Christmas show hosted by Rachel Drew at Sylvie’s. 

He took the stage.  “Oh good,” I thought…

If you see Chris Neville on stage, you know you’re in good hands.  You're at a party.

The music is going to be smokin’.  You will be transported.  And you will laugh!  

The kind of laughing you did when life…

You remember the story of how Robin and I started going to FitzGeralds, right?  How he lured me there and I went reluctantly, with the promise of meeting this one wonderful musical couple?  

One thing led to another, and between…

Dag Juhlin: the man, the myth, the legend.  I snuck out of my house to see him play at the West End in The Slugs.  When my mom found out, she grounded me for weeks. I snuck out the next…

FitzGerald’s is much more than a legendary venue that, under the leadership of Bill FitzGerald and the watchful eye of Kate FitzGerald, was the first to present artists like Clifton Chenier, Marcia Ball, Pat McLaughlin.  It’s fans are legion, it’s…

When you get together with friends, and start talking, the line blurs between collaboration and life, doesn't it?  If you've got the right friends, and if you're reading this blog I am quite sure that you do, chances are excellent…