Steel Bridge Song Fest June 12, 13 and 14

I'm heading "Up Nort" (up north) to do the Steel Bridge Song Fest. This is a week of songwriters getting together to create new music, followed by a weekend of performing all over the beautiful little town of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

On 6/12 6/13 6/14 (Thursday, Friday and Saturday), every bar, club and restaurant in this tiny town will be filled with performers making great original music. The "big concert" is Saturday afternoon right on the water, with an amazing view of the historic bridge that the festival is named for. I will co-headlining the Saturday afternoon big show with Jackson Browne.

My friend and fellow musician Pat MacDonald is the organizer of this yearly event. He started it four years ago with his sister to raise funds to preserve and rehab the old bridge, which developers were threatening to tear down.

I attended last year's event and had the time of my life. Besides meeting new friends and co-writers, and writing some great new tunes, I also met the wonderful Travis Kasperbauer, a genius engineer, producer, musician and college professor. More info on Trav: http://www.myspace.com/mixtravismix

Steel Bridge totally changed my life. I now live in Wisconsin with my sweetheart Travis and am loving it!

I hope anyone reading this will consider coming up to Sturgeon Bay June 12, 13, and 14 for a big weekend of non-stop fun and music.

More info: steelbridgesongfest.org
Love,
Jane

9:41 AM - 18 Comments - 26 Kudos - Add Comment

Betty Jane Wiedlin

Hi,
It is with a heavy heart that I announce the death of my mother, Betty Wiedlin. Betty passed away on Feb. 18 after struggling with Alzheimer's disease for several years. She died quietly in her sleep, at home, surrounded by her family.
My sister had called me a few weeks previously to tell me she thought Betty was not going to be here much longer, so I left the tour that the Go-Go's were on and flew to Oregon, where my parents have been living. They had moved up there about 5 months ago to be closer to my big sis, Meg, who wanted to help my dad care for Mom.
Anyway, it was hard to be there and nurse my mom. Both physically and mentally. Alzheimer's is a terrible terrible disease, and to see someone as intelligent as Betty become so lost and confused was totally heartbreaking. The first ten days Mom was still awake and she at least still recognized me, and I was so glad to be there for her, even though she was in horrible pain.
The last week, she just slept, refusing to eat, or even drink water. We knew she wanted to go.
I am glad for her to be in a better place, but it is so hard to know my wonderful mom is gone.
I want to thank my bandmates, The Go-Go's, for their love and support during this difficult time.
They were so great, both towards me, and towards the fans, carrying on with a substitute under most trying circumstances. I could not have been there for my family if it hadn't been for my "second" family, my band.
I also want to say that I need time to grieve my mom, process and heal. Thus, I have decided to shut down my website and my MySpace page for the immediate future. I haven't been very good about updating the two sites anyways, and now I know I REALLY won't be for awhile anyway.
Love,
Jane

8:09 PM - 85 Comments - 59 Kudos - Add Comment

Comic Con Interview With Me!!
Current mood: comical

Check out this interview, it's fun!
No, I was not drunk. YOU'RE drunk!
http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=11415

Love,
Miss Wiedlin, if you're nasty

2:29 PM - 25 Comments - 53 Kudos - Add Comment

Steel Bridge Songwriting Retreat And Benefit Concert

I just got back from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin where I spent a week writing songs with other songwriters then doing a big benefit music festival to raise money to save their beautiful old bridge there. I had the BEST time! I'm posting the three songs I wrote and recorded (in three days!!) so you can hear what I was doing up there. If they sound a bit different than my usual Go-Go's stuff, it's because I was co-writing with different people each day. Shout out to all the great musicians and songwriters I hung out with, you guys all RULE!!!
Hope you enjoy the tunes!

In other news, I'm FINALLY moving into my downtown loft this weekend after many long months of remodeling/construction. It looks amazing and the space-age theme turned out truly out-of-this-world! (Yes, I AM a geek!)

I went to a comic con in San Jose, CA and made friends w Bill Morrison, one of the artist/writers of The Simpsons. He and I have decided to collaborate on a comic book about MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! He also created an original art piece of me as a Simpsons character, rocking out with Homer. WAY COOL!

I attended the Star Wars Celebration IV, I had a blast and so did everyone who attended. I was given super-sweet VIP passes so I got to cut lines. Woohoo!
Thanks Bonnie Burton of starwars.com for the hookup!

Don't forget, always use your powers for GOOD not EVIL.
Jane

3:51 PM - 19 Comments - 32 Kudos - Add Comment

Jukebox

Hey everyone!

It's time to put up some new songs on the player and I wanted to put up some songs that you'll want to post on your page! So leave me a comment below with a couple of the songs you'd like to hear, and I'll see what I can do (please don't send them as private comments or it'll be too hard to organize). Thanks!

7:13 PM - 85 Comments - 77 Kudos - Add Comment

Goodbye Orbit!

Not such an exciting or happy post, but I wanted everyone to know that my sweet dog Orbit, just nine years young, passed away on Saturday, February 3. She wasn't so much what you'd call a good dog, more like what you'd call a dog with a LOT of personality, with opinions about everything from who she loved (or who she loved to BITE) to what she loved to eat, to what instructions she'd agree to obey.
I know I make her sound like she was a BAD SEED (please go rent movie if you don't understand reference) but she was actually a very very loving and obedient dog, she just wasn't a pushover like a lab or something.
Anyway, she developed lymphoma and the vet gave her four weeks to live, and instead she lasted four months.
Now, I don't know if I believe in Heaven, but for sure I believe in Doggy Heaven, since I'm convinced dogs are our Spiritual Superiors. So, even though my crazy little baby girl is gone, I'm happy to know that she is happy up there somewhere, and everytime I look at the sky, I have a ridiculous image of Orbit flying around with big white wings, so detailed and realistic, that I can't help but crack up every time I look upward.
Here's a toast to all our wonderful animal friends, and a prayer that HUMANS can learn to act more like DOGS...because we'd clearly be much more civilized.
xoxo

1:09 AM - 28 Comments - 20 Kudos - Add Comment

A takeoff on 'The Biggest Loser' has UM colleagues losing to win

BY HOWARD COHEN         hcohen@MiamiHerald.com

WALTER MICHOT/MIAMI HERALD STAFF

UP ON THE ROOF: Arlene Watson and friends get to work on their common goal -- dropping 1,000 pounds in 6 months.

More photos

• And the winners are...: Meet the participants
• Video | UM colleagues compete in 'Biggest Loser' contest

The Go-Go's -- hands-in-the-air, call-and-response music? Nah. But on a rooftop at the University of Miami/Jackson compound an unusual and wonderful thing is happening.

A dozen people have taken their lunch break to stretch and thrust and lunge and punch, all the while chiming in on '80s Go-Go's ditties like Get Up and Go blasting away on a trainer's boom box.

First Belinda Carlisle's voice rides the barely perceptible breeze -- ''Hey!'' Go!'' -- followed by the steadily rhythmic cadence of the fitness instructor punctuating the gaps: ``Up . . . four, up . . . five . . .''

It would make for an amusing retro fitness video shoot -- Sweatin' to the Go-Go's or some such -- but the folks gathered here from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine's Transplant Center are aiming for something less showy, more personal. Hopefully, rewarding as well.

Several colleagues from the medical administration have bonded in a competition patterned after TV's The Biggest Loser weight-loss program. For the next six months, this group plans to engage in a lunch-hour, thrice-weekly, 45-minute aerobics session on the roof of the Highland Building, conducted by administrative assistant Deborah Georges. Everyone agrees to weigh in monthly and contribute $20 to a common pot. Georges hands out weekly healthy-eating recipe tips, and informal sessions on nutritional concepts follow.

The goal, Georges says, is to ''incorporate education on how to make healthy eating a lifestyle, while exercising moderately and consistently each week to get and stay in shape.'' Come the conclusion, the individual who has lost the highest percentage of weight wins the pot.

Lisa Bouchereau, an administrative assistant with the Transplant Center, came up with the idea and is taking part, too. ``I thought, if we could coordinate a patient's life starting from when they are sick to when they get better, why can't we coordinate our own lives? Plus, this is like a family, everyone knows everybody so well so there's no shame in saying I weigh 155 pounds. It's a team thing.''

Classmate Zoila Chediak, fresh from lunging to the Go-Go's This Town, sidles over and throws down the challenge: ''Our group goal is to lose 1,000 pounds,'' she says.

We'll find out together. Today we will meet some of the participants and then, monthly, we plan to follow the program and report on its successes and challenges in Tuesday's Tropical Life.

9:37 AM - 6 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

Rock N Roll Bingo!!!!!

10:15 PM - 5 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

Finally An Update!

5 long months since an update... Yikes, I've gotta lot of catching up and 'splainin' to do!
Well, to explain...I've been pretty depressed for ages because of my mom being so ill, and then my dog Roy dying, then my dear friend Keats dying, and now, to top it off, my dog Orbit, who is only seven years old, has been diagnosed w lymphoma and has been given just weeks to live. I have taken this all rather hard, and have been very unsocial and unproductive. I know people everywhere go through terrible trials all the time in their lives, i don't think my troubles are more special, but I've had a hard time dealing. So I apologize for disappearing, and hope you will understand that I'm just a regular person trying to survive in this crazy world. Having said that, thank GODDESS 2006 is about over, because surely 2007 will be better!

The nicest thing that's happened in the last five months is that I adopted a wonderful greyhound, from a volunteer group who rescues them off the track. I named him Geordie and he is such a dear! Unfortunately, racing greyhounds have a short terrible life and usually are killed when their racing career is over. This is a shameful situation in our country and I wish more people would stand up against it. VH1 was doing a program on celebrity pets so I got to promote the Greyhound Adoption Center on TV. Check them out at greyhoundadoptioncenter.com

I also did another VH1 show called Greatest Songs of the Eighties. Our Lips Are Sealed was chosen as one of the songs, very flattering!
Some of you out there may have seen either show?

In September I got to be Mistress of Ceremonies at a big show at the Hollywood Bowl featuring 80's groups Human League, Psych Furs & ABC. That was a super fun night and is the second time I was chosen to MC at the Bowl. I love that place, we are so lucky to have it in our fair city of Los Angeles!

In October I attended the charity event Bowling for Boobies, which raises money for local women battling breast cancer who need help paying their medical bills. This is something i've done for a few years now since it was initially started to help my friend Edith Speed. It was such a silly fun night, for a great cause, and I named my bowling team Jane's Knockers! (classy, I know!)

The Go-Go's finally finished negotiating w Disney for the Po-Go's project. Basically, we are creating a "second generation of Go-Go's" called the Po-Go's, who will perform our hits and also new songs we write for them. In October we held auditions to choose the girls, who are between 13 and 16 years old. Now we are waiting for the next go-ahead from Disney to move forward again. It was exciting participating in the auditions and meeting so many talented young girl musicians!

I attended lots of doggy charity events in the last few months and have been donating a lot of time and even money too to various animal groups. This holiday season, instead of getting my friends gifts, I donated money in their names to a great group called Animal Avengers. You can learn more about them at animalavengers.com They are super cool!

In November I had a fun time doing a "podcast" with Donita Sparks (formerly of L7) for her program at firedoglake.com She is a good friend and a talented writer and artist.

And i think those are the highlights of the past many months!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season filled with love and good times!
Jane

1:19 AM - 15 Comments - 28 Kudos - Add Comment

VH1 HOTTEST PETS

VH1 is now showing "Hottest Pets" which features a segment on me and my doggy children Orbit, Peanut and Geordie. It shows me and the girls going to the greyhound rescue to adopt Geordie (formerly known as Pudding).
Even though I look hideous, it is worth watching in case it inspires anyone to save an animal by adopting a pet!

xoxo,
Jane

11:09 PM - 10 Comments - 15 Kudos - Add Comment