Cat Jahnke Mews

Tour-quoise - What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Cat Jahnke — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 07:25:26 +0000

This is the perfect depiction of how busy I’ve been feeling lately.

(I’ve always hated my feet. If I had a therapist, she’d be very proud of me right now.)

What’s Your Beef? My Hair… It’s Fit For The Pit!

Cat Jahnke — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 11:46:08 +0000

I absolutely adore being part of the Signature Craft Sales. While the days can be long and grueling, there are many rewards. It’s an amazing way to not only meet great folks who are coming to the show to pick up handmade products, but it’s an amazing way to meet (and be inspired by) all the artisans who are making these works of art!

Sometimes I even get to meet a real life blast from the past:

Recently, at the craft show in Regina I was approached by a crew from CBC Television. The host looked ridiculously familiar and I was sure that I had at some point gone to school with her or seen her around my hometown of Saskatoon. After comparing backgrounds she finally said, “Oh and I used to be on the TV show Street Cents…”

!!!

That was one of my absolute favorite shows when I was a teenager. If you guys haven’t seen any episodes, I’m sure you can find some on You Tube. “Fit for the pit!” “What’s your beef?” Loved it…

In any case, I was lucky enough to be invited to take part in one of their segments. It aired this Thursday and they’ve posted the segments online. It’s a brief appearance, and my hair looks wonky(!) but I thought I’d share it nonetheless.

Skip ahead to 17:50 and 21:30. And seriously, if you know a hair stylist that wants to hit the road, that pines for long days in a car, that can handle the challenge of wicked bedhead, please send me their resume…

XOXO

Yellow Flowers & Rabble-Rousers

Cat Jahnke — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:14:40 +0000

Here I go again with another one of those vague diplomatic emails. Sometimes I crave the freedom of an anonymous blog; it would be a very therapeutic way of dealing with the many stressful situations one encounters on tour. But instead I choose to mask the details of what made me upset, and speak in grand hypothetical questions which I’m sure are soothing to no one but myself…

Let’s begin:

First of all I just want to ask: what grade are we in? How old does someone have to be before they can just suck it up and deal with pesky nuisances without whining about “starting a petition”? There are so many injustices in this world that need representation. Why waste your stamina tearing someone apart instead of acting like an adult and accepting the state of affairs as they are?

Would you get your neighbors to band together to oust the renegade on the block who only plants yellow flowers? Is that worth your time? Because if it is, you’re a rabble-rouser and you do no good. Don’t fool yourself in to thinking you’re a hero. (Now I’ve got THIS song stuck in my head… Rabble Rabble…)

Hmm… maybe all this junk just happens to inspire me and you’ll get to sing this blog post when it comes out on my next album… ☺

Enough of that. But if you have a spare moment, send me some good vibes because I’m feeling a little shredded over here…

On a happy note, someone thought I was 15 today! Sweet!

Love and kisses to all my good peeps…

Cat In “Cowtown”

Cat Jahnke — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 08:53:02 +0000

I’ve got a benefit show coming up in Saskatoon and the folks at Canadian Tire have been generous enough to donate a prize of our choice to the silent auction. While driving through Alberta today, we spied one of their locations and decided to do some scouting. I spent some serious time strolling their aisles, trying to pick out a desirable gift within the budget. As if it’s not hard enough to choose something for someone you know; imagine how hard it is to guess the interest of a couple hundred strangers!

I think we’re going to go with a coffeemaker and pair it with the gift basket being donated by McQuarries Coffee. Holy cow! If you’re in the Saskatoon area and you have an afternoon to kill, go visit McQuarries. When I was a little girl I never hesitated to stop and smell those ground coffee beans. While I’ve never been a drinker of the stuff, I’ve been an avid smeller for years!

After making our decision, we continued on our path to Calgary, dropped our gear off at the hotel and found a sushi restaurant on 11th ave (despite Google giving us incorrect instructions). What a great place! Check out Uptown Sushi for cheap but delicious food and great atmosphere: a huge bowl of Edamame, the best tasting yam tempura I’ve ever had, and a beautiful décor. To cap it off, the woman at the till gave me an interesting wire photo holder… just because! I’ll have to take a picture of it to post here. Thank you Uptown Sushi!!

Meanwhile, back at the inn… Ah, (certain chain of) hotels! You have yet to impress me. In fact, you have yet to host me without complaint. I’m open-minded however and would ADORE having this track record smashed. I’m currently lying in a pretty comfy bed, so you’ve got some points right off the hop. The temperature’s under control, the bathroom was clean, the front desk staff was courteous, and there’s no horrific aroma emanating from some indiscernible corner of the room. Hmm… I hope you prove me wrong!

Tomorrow I start another weekend with the Signature’s Craft Sales. If you’re in the Calgary area, come on down to the Calgary Stampede Roundup Centre. With the abundance of talent that I see at these events, if you do brave the parking fee and come on by, I promise that you will see at least one amazing thing during your visit.

A demain!

Thank Goodness For Medicine… Hat

Cat Jahnke — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:05:18 +0000

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank goodness for my smallness. My entire sleep allotment for this day was doled out in two hour increments in a car on the number one highway. Perhaps I’ve already discussed this in a previous blog. I don’t care; I’m freaking grateful that I can sleep comfortably in a bucket seat!

We’re billotted with one of the town doctors here in Medicine Hat. Good thing too because I wanted a second opinion about a burn I recently acquired using faulty oven mitts. (Check your oven mitts people!) I realized after the show that during my last visit I also consulted with him about an injury I’d sustained in the very same place!

I think my right index finger is jinxed!

Thanks to the Prickly Pear for the great evening and for the YUMMY EGG SALAD SANDWICH!!!

Wabigoon – Green Achers – PB & John

Cat Jahnke — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:30:07 +0000

I remember reading a Farley Mowat book in which he discusses his switch from a regular sleep schedule to one more in tune with the wolves he was studying. Instead of the usual 8 hours straight, his sleep allotment came in much smaller increments spaced throughout the day. This is much how Darren and I survive in the days leading up to a long tour, although the biggest difference between Mowat and me is that I can usually only fit in one nap in a 24-hour cycle.

I can’t believe how much there is to do!! Besides just packing clothes and gear, we had to coordinate merch, keep the promotion in motion, clean the house for our house-sitter… Darren even took time to remove the sticky gunk left behind on my guitar case after a run-in with some duct tape. Peanut butter works like a charm! A messy, unappetizing, “may contain traces of nuts” charm!

We didn’t have time to consume food ourselves, but we had to make sure the guitar case was fed.

So while the case ate like a king all out of Wonder Bread, I prepared an all-day buffet equally as nourishing:

Part of this complete breakfast!

By the end of the day I was so tired that I just barely remember giggling while describing a t-shirt caption idea. I will share it here knowing that it makes absolutely no sense, but I just want to prove my exhaustion:

It supposed to say “Oops!” but there’s an “O” missing. This was side-splititngly funny to me at 4 am. I don’t think you’d truly grasp the hilarity unless you stayed up for 30 hours straight, subsisting only on “baked not fried” crackers, OR if you banged your head really hard. I recommend neither; I’m always up for a laugh, but this one’s just not worth it…

I was so pleased to stop in Wabigoon for my first show of the tour. Thank you for hosting us John! I hope you didn’t mind me grilling you about your job as a “flight medic”. I’m just so fascinated with people who have that kind of information in their head, and those kind of adventures in their past. I wanna learn how to trach someone at 20,000 feet! (Although with my level of aerophobia I think I would find it difficult to wield a scalpel while simultaneously clutching my armrests…)

The Down Button

Cat Jahnke — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:09:21 +0000

Thinking back to eras gone by I breathe a sigh of relief and appreciate that I live in a time and place with anesthetic and running water and furnaces! But every once in a while I see a crack in this protective wall and I wonder how much of our Civilization is (more…)

There’s A Hole In The Bucket

Cat Jahnke — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 09:19:40 +0000

Like the squares in a Mr. T Super Brain Teaser prepped for action, nothing in my home is in the right spot. My office appliances are scattered around, propped up on chairs and milk cartons, their power cables snaking over my futon bed. Our winter blankets were never put in storage for the summer; they were carefully strewn about the library, lovingly heaped on the (more…)

The Pooping Giant

Cat Jahnke — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:31:30 +0000

If there are two people in a room and one person farts, both people immediately know who did it. There’s no dispute. But when you deal with a giant, and they make a big fat poop on your face, they can deny it for ever because they clearly have the upper hand.

Last week I paid off my second Citifinancial loan only to get a statement today saying I was actually (more…)

Only You Beneath The Moon And Under The Sun

Cat Jahnke — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:25:19 +0000

4/13/08 – MHS Auditorium, Wawa, ON

I finally got to see Rossport in the daylight, having only visited previously in December, arriving after dinner and leaving before dawn. This would usually be a great opportunity to spy some amazing scenery, but when the morning light blasted through our window at 6:30 am this morning, I was a bit less excited about (more…)