A small review of a goodish year
Hi everyone,
long time no blog. I often forget that I can share my thoughts here, instead of trying to spam tiktok with cat videos and stream highlights, or instagram with cat photos and stream highlights, or twitter... you get the gist. It's been a goodish year for me, despite the current global climate.
Streaming continues over on Twitch, and with the new addition of multi-streaming to Youtube. We celebrated 3000 followers on Twitch in November, a wonderful way to usher in the holiday season and the end of 2023. That means we wrote 10 songs as a group this year, which is awesome. I hope to one day record all of them into their respective cds (2021, 2022, and 2023 chat songs) and release them on the unfocused in ia bandcamp. Or maybe another streaming service (who knows what going to happen to bandcamp). If you'd like to join us for a stream, the schedule is tentatively Thursdays at 1 pm with either gaming or art, Fridays at 9 am and 7 pm with music, and Sundays at 6 pm with music. Though, with this holiday season, changes are happening often, so just check in to see if there's any reschedules if you don't see the stream. On the note of releases, nothing new from my namesake singer/songwriter side of things this year, but i did do a little writing, and I'll count that as a win. I did release several singles at the unfocusedinia bandcamp, all free to download, so check out "Bunger Bunger Bunger", "Hank Marvin and Flannigan" , "Ham wRap", as well as two Jedi Friends Raid Train loop stream albums. I believe we also added about 100 cover songs to the songlist this year for music streams, bringing the total songs available just shy of 700 songs (probably add some more holiday songs by the end of the month so that total will go up). It's been such a joy to continue this streaming journey; to connect with so many people around the world, and share in their joys and concerns and also perform favorite tunes, or maybe introduce them to new songs. And writing songs with the chat is maybe the most hilarious and uplifting thing to do.
The few live shows I played this past year were really special. Especially the charity event in October raising funds for families in Maui affected by the wildfires that ravaged Lahaina Town. I sang only Hawaiian songs, and reconnected with class mates and met other Iowa based Hawaiians. It was truly a heartfelt and soul fulfilling event. Looking to the new year, I have a couple IRL gigs scheduled that I'll be able to announce in a couple months, and I'm visiting Super MagFest in January for the first time, a video game and music convention. While there, I'll be able to meet up with many Twitch friends and collaborate musically with them, as well as continue education through panels, jam spaces, and have some fun trying out some games I may not have access to here. It's sure to be a super fun, and possibly exhausting long weekend, but I'm really looking forward to it. I do hope to do some more recording, but I won't hold my breath until I make it happen. I'll be sure to let you all know when that does.
I hope the holidays treat you well and that you stay safe.
A hui hou,
Nalani
