Dear Blogging World

At the start of 2013, I took a year-long hiatus from blogging to focus on finishing my dissertation and graduating. It worked! I write to you now as Dr. Jones, with a year full of meaningful accomplishments behind me.

Because I turned 30 this year, I also renewed my driver's license this year for the first time in several years. That means that the year 2013 has been looming over me as an important year for a while, and setting 2013 as the goal year for my Phd graduation made the year seem even more special. As a result, this new year, 2014, feels newer than a lot of recent Januaries have. It's the first New Year of my thirties, my first New Year in a while when I have not been a student, and my first New Year as an official director of music ministry at Highland Baptist Church. It's also the first year I've been able to finally read Harry Potter. The year feels fresh and there are a lot of unknowns regarding my future employment and what to do with my time now that I'm no longer writing a dissertation. But one thing I do know is that I want to return to blogging. I've missed these simple posts, if only for the documentation of my cats and the lovely bits of life that have floated across this screen.

In an effort to focus more on blogging, I am moving my blog from christinehand.com to a new site, http://thebeautifulextras.blogspot.com/. I will still be using this space as my music website, where I will keep you updated on my concerts and other musical goings-on. But since I wanted to write about lots of different things without feeling like I was ignoring my music, I decided to move my main blog to a separate site. For my handful of followers, please start following me there.

There are many more things to update you on, including some words about the theme of my new site, but this is enough for today -- I still have a couple of Harry Potter books to read.

Happy New Year

--Christine

Dallas Does Dylan

As I'm sure you are aware by now, today is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. In addition to listening to or reading Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's beautiful "I Have a Dream" speech, you may also want to listen to a little Bob Dylan. 50 years ago today, Dylan sang "When the Ship Comes in" and "Only a Pawn in their Game" at that historic event. And if you really want to celebrate the Dylan aspect of all this, you should come to Opening Bell Coffee this Saturday night, August 31st, for "Dallas Does Dylan."

I'll be there along with several of the best singer-songwriters Dallas has to offer, and we'll be singing lots of great Dylan songs. The show starts at 8:00, with a $5 cover. See you Saturday!

House of Blues this Thursday!

Hello, everyone! It's been a while. The last time I wrote, I was announcing an upcoming performance at House of Blues, Dallas. That show went great, and I'm happy to say we will be performing there again this Thursday, August 22nd, from 6-8 pm on the Voodoo stage. The show is free since we're playing on the dinner stage, so I urge you to order some delicious food (I recommend the shrimp and grits) and enjoy the show. Here's a link with all the information: http://www.houseofblues.com/tickets/eventdetail.php?eventid=82877

What have I been doing since the last time I posted? Well, I've been finishing a dissertation rough draft, which I just turned in. I might actually get to start blogging again.

Hope to see you guys on Thursday!

House of Blues Dallas, Tonight!

Hey guys! Need a last-minute, impressive date-night idea? How about grabbing a bite to eat at the Dallas House of Blues tonight anytime from 7-10 to hear us playing an array of acoustic 60s and 70s cover songs with a few of our originals thrown in for good measure. It's going to be a great show, and best of all, it's FREE! We'd love to see you stop by!

Dallas Does Eric Clapton

Dear Readers,

I'm sorry for the blog silence. You should be happy to know that I have been working on my dissertation faithfully. Well, mostly faithfully. Well, faithfully in-between attending academic conferences and other important-sounding-stuff. One of those important things? Practicing for this show:

Friday, March 15th Dallas Does ERIC CLAPTON! 8 pm $5

 Some of your favorite local Dallas musicians belt out the best of Eric Clapton. This is gonna be fun!

Garrett Owen

Christine Hand

Joel Megli

Tim Hall

Opening Bell Coffee

Really, "Christine Hand" is a misnomer this time. Sure, I'll be singing and all, but the real heavy-lifters are Adam Jones and Ed Hand, because of their amazing guitar skills. Especially my dad. We would say, "why don't you take a solo?" and then, he wouldn't just take the solo -- he would kill the solo. We should pretty much re-name the band "Keeping up with Ed."

So, come out and see us tonight. It's going to be great!

Sincerely,

Christine

Deadbeat blogger.

Dallas Does Johnny Cash

This Saturday, you are in for a treat as we participate in "Dallas does Johnny Cash." It's going to be a great night of wonderful songs and talented local performers. See all the info, below, in this beautiful promo pic:

I hope you all have a lovely weekend. It would be even lovelier if you'd spend part of it with us, at Opening Bell on Saturday night as we pay tribute to the man in black.

Happy Friday!

Happy Pho-riday!

A picture from Pho is for Lovers in Dallas, from this blog review of the restaurant

It's time for my first post of the year in which I complain about having a sinus infection. The cure? Without a doubt, my favorite remedy for upper respiratory troubles is Vietnamese Pho. It's basically a glorified chicken soup (or you can get it with beef or seafood) but it's delicious and perfect for making me feel better. I'm looking forward to having some tonight in hopes that it will kick this sinus crud in the tail before the spring semester starts again on Monday.

Speaking of which, in light of the new semester and my looming dissertation duties, it saddens me to say that after a year of blog progress, I'll have to cut back on blog posts when the semester starts. It doesn't mean the blog is going away -- I'll definitely keep you up to date on music news -- but there's not enough space in my brain to deal with everything that's required of me this semester, so I'm afraid the blog posts will be few and far between.

If that saddens you, I know just what you should eat to make yourself feel better -- a hot, savory bowl of Pho!

Happy Friday