Cool, Dreamy, Adult Alternative Music CD by Nijole (Neola) Sparkis

12/14/05

I want to thank all my readers, fans, and friends for a wonderful year in 2005! It was the year a dream I've long held close to my heart came true! To inspire each of you to keep your dreams alive, I've created my first Flash animation to one of my songs as a holiday greeting for each and every one of you! I love taking photos as a hobby, and all of the photos in the animation are mine (except for the ones OF me!). Wishing you all the best during the holidays and throughout the coming year! Click here to watch the animation.

12/1/05

Went to a great event at Golden Bridge Yoga tonight, behind the ArcLight in Hollywood. It was the Elevate Film Festival, a festival of shorts aiming to help lift consciousness. The directors pulled ideas for film projects out of a hat Friday night and had 48 hours to film and edit their work! Our dear friends Tangee and Dalmacio (aka Lady Lava and Dr. Magma -- pictured at my CD party under my Gallery page) were the subjects of a short documentary about how becoming fire dancers changed their marriage. (They almost mentioned Fritz's DVD "Illuminated Manuscripts", but that got left on the cutting room floor...) What an inspiring body of work! Stories about farming in South Central LA, a family of 35 adopted children that no one else wanted, a young woman who healed her paralyzed right side after brain tumor surgery (we met her and she looks GREAT!)... And the space is really cool, too -- HUGE space for yoga or for events, with a cafe and shop. It was a great event with cool people in a great space -- VERY inspirational!

11/20/05

My CD is now officially playing on the radio in Europe! I received an email from Marc de Raden who DJ's for Radio Rataplan in the Netherlands and he says that he and his listeners really love my music. Thanks, Marc, for the supportive feedback and also for my first European airplay!

11/10/05

If you live in Los Angeles, you can now purchase my CD from A Coin Exchange on Ventura Blvd. Thanks to Mark who is a really big fan! He's a pretty hyper kind of guy and he says putting my CD on in the store really changes his mood to peaceful. He listens to it all the time now. ;-)

11/3 - 11/6/05

TAXI Road Rally. A very busy weekend, meeting mentors and peers, submitting my CD, gleaning wisdom from my own personal mentor Fuzzbee Morse (he likened me to Lisa Gerrard, which is a HUGE compliment!), and from countless panels on everything from the state of music in the industry today to what A&R people or Music Supervisors are looking for. Thanks to Michael Laskow for putting on a tremendous event, where I feel like I grew by about two years...! Okay, so I'm not writing commercial music that the industry is looking for. I still think there's a place for me, as my small but mighty circle of fans can attest to! The highlight of the weekend for me was meeting Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, face-to-face and having a nice chat with him. Derek is of course a firm believer in the Do-It-Yourself ethic for musicians and I'm trying to learn all I can about it!

10/29/05

A full day! In the afternoon, Fritz and I attended a meeting of Dreamago -- a multicultural and international organization bringing writers, filmmakers, and musicians together from around the globe who have a common vision to make movies that awaken greater awareness. It was a lovely afternoon sharing lunch on a Topanga hilltop with a majestic view of the surrounding canyons... And it was delicious making new aquaintances and re-connecting with old friends in renewed inspiration. Thank you, Soula and Pascale!

In the evening, another wonderful ritual at the Onion enacted by the Temple of the Goddess ritual theatre priestesses -- this time to celebrate All Hallows Eve. Wow. An amazing celebration of community, ritual, and connectedness in the spirit of the fine arts! These talented and visionary individuals are truly breaking new ground in providing a meaningful model for celebrating the cycles of the year in a post-modern community setting. Well done!

10/16/05

The CD Release Party was a SMASHING SUCCESS! I wrote about it in great detail under the Gallery page -- go see for yourself!

10/1 - 10/2/05

The 19th annual Lithuanian Fair in Los Feliz!! Traditional song and dance, traditional food and crafts, amber jewelry, and of course, the famous homemade honey liquor! And great hanging out with everyone in the beer garden! I sang Lithuanian songs with my partner Sigute Miller for ten years at this fair... Didn't perform this year, but thank-you to all my loyal fans who bought my CD this weekend -- I love you! And a special thank-you to Danguole Varnas and Al Razutis for providing space for me at their booth! Also thanks to Baltic Crossroads Art Gallery (4364 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles 90027) who will now be carrying my CD in their store!

9/24/05

Suzanne Teng & Mystic Journey -- the wonderful musicians who play on my album, including Fritz Heede who did all the production -- perform at a huge concert at the Ford Amphitheater in Los Angeles as part of the citywide Sacred Music Festival taking place Sept. 17th - Oct. 2nd. For more info, see the World Festival of Sacred Music website.

9/10/05

I performed my song "Everything" as a remembrance of the people of the Gulf Coast at their hour of hardship. It is a song emphasizing everyone's connection to each other and to the Divine. I performed at the Autumn Equinox ritual hosted by Temple of the Goddess at the Onion near Northridge. It was a beautiful, BEAUTIFUL event, and I felt the glow for days afterwards. My compliments to the superb temple facilitators for helping us to remember the significance of this time of year -- the day and night are in equal balance and we are heading towards being embraced by the dark. We did a meaningful "dance of balance" as people danced across a band of red that separated the dark from the light -- to my surprise, it was actually hard to stay in balance!

8/31/05

CD Baby for a limited time is donating all profits from the sales of my CD on their website to the Red Cross to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina. Gilbert Levy, who plays all the wonderful percussion on my album, has family in New Orleans who fear they lost everything. Our thoughts are with them now through this unfathomable devastation.

8/24/05

My CD is now also available on TowerRecords.com. CD Baby has also submitted it to iTunes -- might take a while to show up there for download.

8/17/05

The new version of my website is launched! I did it myself -- hope you like it! Well, thanks to John's CD artwork, of course...

8/10/05

Parallel Universe is launched on Amazon.com, Target.com, Borders.com, VirginMega.com, Waldenbooks.com and CDNOW.

8/6/05

Parallel Universe has now been bought by people as far away as Netherlands, Switzerland and Australia. And this is just the first week of sales! Thank you, CD Baby!!

7/30/05

CD's on CD Baby are already selling to people that just came across my music while browsing! I'm blown away!

7/29/05

My album Parallel Universe is launched on CD Baby.

All content © 2005 Nijole Sparkis.
Only copy and distribute this content with proper attribution -- thanks!

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