Good News!!  I know I've been MIA for a few months...life takes us off a side road and you must deal with things.  But I'm seeing a little light.

I just got confirm to perform as a soloist at "Tribal Solstice" June 7-10, 2012 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida!...It is an awesome dance festival focusing on Tribal & Fusion Belly Dancing.  I'm soooo EXCITED!

Come if you can!  There will also be LOTS of other awesome dancers to see!

Have a good one!

Besos!
AVIANA

Besos,
AVIANA

Hi!!

Hope all of you are being extra lovely!  

 Well I'm just here to write a quick blog post.  I literally just arrived home from practicing a couple of songs alone.  I practice 5 times a week on my own.  I practiced a new spanish song that is being put into a flamenco buleria...excited!...I practiced another 3 other covers that I'm going to start working with my guitarist Aaron when he gets free again.  

Right before I left for the night I decided to take on a song that I started to practice and I stopped because I thought that even if I did my own take on it, it still wouldn't sound right with my voice.  So I was a bit depressed about that.  But anyhooo, I decided to give it a go tonite....and you know what..i liked where my voice was going!....yes a long a way before performance material but so much happier!  I guess I needed to take a break from working on it and play around with different songs and come back to it.  Yippee!....

So I've been writing this new song...I think it's tentatively called "Daydream."  I've been working on writing a particular style of song for a few weeks now and been very disappointed with what I've come up with but last night a melody came to me right before I left my practice space...and luckily I recorded it and it was beautiful!...at least i think so.. :)  it's been playing in my mind non-stop and also on my iphone since i recorded and listened to it all day at work today...and this morning before i left.  I 've been thinking of ideas for the song....and even music video ideas!...I know!!...lol....I contacted a fellow singer about a music producer and i think i will contact him to see if he can help my song come to life.  it's very simple, bare but i think effective especially when i'll add the extra pieces to it.  i'm excited about it too!....there must be something with me getting ready to leave practice and a new inspiration pops up....maybe i'm just relaxed hmmm.....i actually want to release it as a single by the first or 2nd week of september.  We'll see!  wish me luck on the production side of it!  :)

random...i've realized that my inspiration in writing songs has been in the morning when i wake up...isn't that weird?  i think an old music teacher said sometimes that is the best time because you are less focused on perfection and your spirit just writes..your mind is not fully there so it's almost like a stream of consciousness....your fully there to judge or question w.i wish i could write every morning but i can't..i just  started a new exercise program and i have to do it the morning.... :(

So anyhow, after my happiness of the last song at practice tonite...it got me more excited with preparing for 2/12/12!...  it's coming soon...so i've got lots of work to do!

Oh I did a photoshoot last Saturday for promo pics!...Love them!  Hope to show them soon!  :)

Ok i know i said it was going to be quick.... 

The video below is an amazing band...called Cello Fury...made up of 3 classically trained cellist and a rock drummer.  LOVE THEM!!.. Check them out!  The picture on top is from their website!   I would so so so sooo love to work with them!!  :)

Besos!
AVIANA

HI!

2 weeks later after the show!  I know i should have wrote a little piece awhile ago but i just got caught up...sorry  :(

Well the show was awesome!  Met some great folks, performers, new fans and such!  I can only go up from here.  I have lots to work on and to improve on before my big show 2/12/12.  Yep!  I like me and the band are working from and loving where we will go.  I'm still developing my sound, my look, my everything.  It was nerve wrecking to perform and stressful but I think I did ok.  :)  The band was awesome!.. My guitarist Aaron, percussionist Malarie, and keyboardist Albert. 

I'll be performing again Sunday August 21, 2011.  Not sure what I'll be performing, song selection wise.  Gotta work on new material...hopefully I'll finalize the list this week.  There is so much on my plate and would love some help!  :)

Anyhow, here is a picture of me and the band rehearsing before the performance.  Yep that's me in the corner with the big hair and "eye"...  :)

P.S.  Leaving you with a video with one of my favorite performers out there...Nikka Costa.....just pure awesomeness...need to challenge some of her energy...  :)

Besos,
AVIANA

Must rethink alot of things as a producer, artist, and person.

Here are some DEAR DEAR friends of mine.  Shango Dely and his mother Leonor Dely performing in Colombia.  A little impromptu on specialized drums.  Shango is the one in the white shirt and longer hair and that is her mom singing.  I miss my Madrid Family so much, which is where Shango is currently based with his wife, who is also another beautiful spirit.  Need to go back, hopefully within the year.

Please check them out when you can.

Beautiful Beautiful....

Besos,
AVIANA

HI All!

I'm stressed, exhausted, doubtful, nervous, happy....i'm doing what i love...  performing..or should i say rehearsing to perform next Sunday. 

Here is a picture of rehearsal of myself (standing in the back dressed in black) and 2 of my band members rehearsing this morning.  The full band rehearsal will be next Sunday! right before the show!  Stressful that's when we all have a our 1st full band rehearsal! That's just how it is with working musicians.... 3 of the band members are traveling this week for various gigs ...so hence no time for a full band rehearsal!  Im at the gym EVERYDAY this week!...Eating only lettuce!!  I'm gonna be skinny and my skin is gonna turn the color green after eating lettuce non-stop this week!  AAAH! lol....

Today I leave you with a performance by Beyonce at the recent Glastonbury show....You can say what you want...Even I don't own most of her music....But she's an  AMAZING  performer!  No one can take that away from her!....Even though we do different music/styles, hopefully I can channel some of her energy into my gig next Sunday. :)

Love and Air,
AVIANA

Besos,
AVIANA

Today is an important day and MOST people don't know it...even I didn't realize it until I read a news report that 30 years ago today...President Ronald Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court.

If you don't understand how significant she is and that moment was....then read this..
1. Justice O'Connor became the swing vote on the issue of abortion, allowing a narrowing of Roe v. Wade but refusing to overturn it. "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life," she wrote.

2. She was the swing vote in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, finding discrimination had been "a substantial factor" in a decision not to promote a woman to partnership.

3. She was the deciding vote in Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education, allowing a whistle blower standing to sue for retaliation in gender discrimination circumstances,

4. and in Davis v. Monroe, allowing a girl who'd been subject to relentless sexual taunts by a classmate to sue the school for allowing the hostile environment to go unchecked.

Would the law be different had a man been appointed in her place? The weight of the voting record of other Republican appointees to the Court since 1981 suggests it well might be.

Thank you Honorable Justice O'Connor.  Thank you.

Text from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/meg-waite-clayton/supreme-court-gender_b_891804.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

Peace,
AVIANA

STRESSED!!  aaaah! got a show next weekend and still trying to line things up!  hard with musicians confirming and then backing out and then confirming and then backing out....ugh!

anyhow...i leave you with my teacher Saray Munoz....isn't she just beyond awesome!  I hope to make her proud.....She's back in Madrid right now...but will be back in the States in the Fall can't wait!....She definitely has pushed my voice to a new level......my confidence is just not there.....but gotta keep trudging away......listen to her voice....Viva Flamenco!...I only feel comfortable singing Flamenco.....and it's great to learn from greats like Marija Temo and the beyond amazing Saray Munoz....pura Gitana....

Besos,
AVIANA