joy rebel interview:: miss funster, herself!

the funsters, photo used with permission

I am thrilled to have Jannie Funster in the house today!! I go to her blog for a lift, a smile and a reminder to have fun. I know you will enjoy her sassy and sparkly attitude!

1. So…Miss Funster. May I call you Miss Funster? Tell us about yourself and what you do.

Hey Brandi, on most days please just call me Jannie (rhymes with Grannie, of course.) But on Sundays I like to be referred to as The Mistress of Mirth (ed: what a coincidence-that's the day I am referred to as supreme being of light and splendor), on Tuesdays as The Bloggity Elf and every other Friday please call me early to dinner. Groannnn. :)

What do I do? Well, I love to paint roosters and cats. The roosters really don't dig it, but they get used to the feel of the latex in their feathers after a while. The cats don't dig it. At All. But my art must go on!

2. How did you get started musically?

Well, in utero Mom sang me a lot of Irish jig tunes and Dad hummed and whistled all the time, as he still does -- mostly Hank Williams, Bach and Cole Porter. Motown hits sometimes. Lots of polka. And my music just evolved from there.

3. I noticed you have a wide range of topics in your music…from needing a man with a chainsaw to noticing the hearts and bones of the world. What inspires your lyrics?

Brandi, what inspires my lyrics is usually the wind in the trees, the buzz of the bees and whatever happens to be cavorting at any given moment through this enigmatic wonderland others might generously refer to as My Mind.

4. Who are your musical influences?

Ooo, so many. As a teen I totally o.d'd on The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Lenoard Cohen, E.L.O. , Boston, Chicago, Zepplin, Alice Cooper, and Minnie Moore. (Minnie, Minnie Moore.) Lately the kettle's whistle, low rolling thunder or that funny little squeaky sound of my bustle swishing across the marble floors in my castle can inspire a tune.

5. How do you make sure you are expressing yourself authentically when making music?

Great question! If I can't feel the truth of a song when I'm working on a snippet of an idea - I chuck it. It's gotta be real from the git-go. I've got 12 news songs pretty-much ready to record this fall. So excited about that! A lot of the new ones are infused with Universal Love and new angles on Timeless Themes. And there's a song about kicking butts.

6. If you had one lesson to share with your daughter, what would it be?

What a great question! I would tell her never be afraid to be herself. As long as she's doing nothing illegal, imoral or that infringes on the rights of others - she should go for her inner truth. And she does. She's a real pistol!

7. What does joy mean to you and how do you stay connected to it?

Another cool question - you da questioning bomb, Girl!

Joy to me means living a smile every moment. I think I wrote something in your comments the other day that I love to sing and dance and skip along the sidewalks of life, as I did when I was 6 years old. That's joy!

Joy in giving too. I have so much to give, both musically and materially. I've been giving away a lot of my books lately. Books I love but have just been sitting on my shelf. I'm doing really good at getting over that teeny little tug of resistance in my gut each time I let a favorite one go (that's the part of me that's getting a good stretching out,) but that's more than overcome by my inner joy at thinking how a surpsise package in the mail of a great book will make a friend smile, maybe even make their day or week. And you know what - the less stuff I have, the happier I am.

Bonus question: anything coming up that you’d like to tell us about?

Have I mentioned I'm going to be a very very famous blogger some day? Can't say exactly when, but that's something that's coming up. Eventually. ;) Maybe when I start wearing red hats with purple sweaters, but it's in my cards. And you'll be very famous too, Brandi. The Joy Rebellion cannot be stopped - yay!! It's a fabulous idea you've got going on here. Promise me you'll stick with it?

Also coming up I'm heading to Canada next month for my parent's 50th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!! That'll be too cool.

And going to have tuna for lunch.

And probably some dark chocolate later today. Or a Rice Krispie bar. Or both!

You're a sweetie, Brandi. Thanks so much for this opportunity to share. I met you through Lance of The Jungle Of Life, another of my favorite inspirational bloggers and I'm just so verklempt (ed: rock on for the verklempt usage!!) at all this blogging joy.

THANK YOU!
xoxo

Thank you for stopping by Jannie!!

by the way, the giveaway is now closed (previous post) and I'll be posting the recipient on friday. Hooray!