Thanks so much to the hosts of Real Life and to Beth who found us and wrote to us in the first place! We appreciate the exposure and are especially glad for all of the information they gave about Sweet Sleep.

If you are interested in learning more about Sweet Sleep, visit their site and blog. You can donate directly to Sweet Sleep here.

-Jessica

We’re grateful for the exposure and are really looking forward to seeing the show. I’ll let you know when it’s up on their online player, and we can watch it together.

If you are a CTS viewer and this is your first time visiting us at Laughing Tree, welcome. I’m glad you stopped by.

-Jessica

First, the name Laughing Tree comes from Adam’s and my surname Lofbomm. Lofbomm is an originally German name that has been changed several times over the generations so much so that the original spelling and meaning are lost to us, but our best guess (and the meaning that we like the best) is that lof=laugh and bomm=baum=tree.

It’s a good name for us and what we’re trying to create, for several reasons. Laughter is a pretty obvious one: it suggests lightheartedness, joy, mirth, pleasure, openness and ease. A tree is something alive, organic, growing, reaching and beautiful with deep roots and many branches. A tree is home for many other living organisms. That’s what we want to be as Laughing Tree.

And what are we doing here with this site? Well, our big dream is community. Physical community, ongoing dialogue and collaboration with artists and creatives who appreciate and add to the beauty around us. This site is a first step, an online dialogue that we hope to bring into the physical realm as soon and often as possible.

We have a couple of products that we’ve created and want to get out to the world, namely our Laughing Tree Lullabies CD, fine art photographs (to be available online soon), as well as some ideas in the works like illustrated books, short films and more. But the products are just one branch of Laughing Tree.

We’re going to be using this blog more and more to initiate a dialogue about creativity, music, arts– beauty in general. We want to dialogue about what other creatives are doing, how to foster more creativity in our lives, how to raise children up in a creative environment, and what good we can do with our creative minds and projects. These are not things that we know a lot about yet, but they’re things we’re interested in, and we’ll want as much interaction from you as possible, so we can all learn and grow.

So, what do you think? Are you up for a dialogue?

Laughing Tree– art for your eyes and ears. What can we create together?

-Jessica

Well, I was a little surprised to find out what they had in mind. I hope this disclaimer is unnecessary, but, uh, I don’t usually sing like this.

Drumroll, please.

Mom, are you proud? .

-Jessica

p.s. If you’re curious, this is actually a true story. Check out Florence Foster Jenkins.

Here is part one:

And here is part two:

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0goWGFCTBI

Alright, here is Adam and Jessica’s second appearance on Korean TV show, Surprise. Watch Adam in the throes of insanity caused by the mysterious skull around 5:55 into it, and then see Jessica, as a wily, young reporter pose probing questions and hear Adam’s authoritative response at 7:40. Simply riveting, I know.

We are having fun. Hope you enjoy.

(p.s. Sorry again about the video quality. Higher resolution on this one, but still have that ugly video-refresh shadow to contend with. Yuck.)

When we moved to Seoul from the country town of Paju in August, I put an ad online for other musicians in Seoul. I found some great guys, and we made Mosaic. We had a lot of fun playing together, and I loved singing again. I actually quit my job to pursue a hotel contract with them.

But then there was disagreement as to what sort of contract we would pursue. One guy wanted to be a pop/ top-40 cover band, but I felt a lot more comfortable singing in the roots and jazz realms. The other guys really just wanted to play music, whatever kind. We decided that it would be nicer to just play music together in a lower-pressure capacity. We officially disbanded. Since then, I’ve gone to a jazz jam with two guys, and two of us also recently recorded a Christmas song (that we’ll share with you soon). I’m glad to have made some good music friends in Seoul.

But, with the abrupt folding of the band, I found myself without a job and no hope of the hotel contract I was planning on. Adam began to train me and bring me into the voice actor’s world, and I’m slowly getting my feet wet in that career. It’s a fun job, and highly flexible. Adam has been getting more and more successful, working almost every day, and he’s also beginning to expand his range from just educational materials to commercial and corporate work.

We had to move apartments because my previous employer was providing our last place. We found an awesome apartment in a vibrant college area of Seoul, and we moved a month ago. We LOVE our new place and are so grateful for the circuitous path we’ve taken to get here. Interestingly, our new land-lord has a desire to convert some units of the building into a guest house, and we’ve already begun to talk about ways we can work with him and learn, since opening a guest house is our dream, too.

Through some of Adam’s voice-actor friends, we found out about another opportunity that would be flexible, give us some fun work, and also provide us with the ever-important visa. Three weeks ago, we began working for a Korean TV show called “Surprise”. There is a huge cast of foreigners, and each weekly episode has about five short stories with twist (i.e. surprise) endings. Then the stories are shown in front of a studio audience, and they vote on which story they believe is not true. Thus, most of the stories are loosely historical or based on bizarre urban legends. It’s a funny gig, and so far we’ve been all over the northern provinces of he country to film episodes. We’ve also made friends from Russia, Iran, Iraq, Canada, Nigeria, Moldova, France, South Africa, Switzerland, and USA among our cast-mates.

So far, I’ve only had bit parts, but yesterday, Adam played Santa in the Christmas special. He was actually one of six Santas in the mystery story, but he ended up being the “real” one. I know, I gave away the ending. Sorry.

Here is a brief part of Adam’s big debut last week in a story about a “remote viewer” working in the CIA. I apologize for the bad quality of the video, we’ll try to find a better way to tape the show in the future.

And that’s the scoop for now. Take care, and I hope you’re enjoying the Christmas season.

-Jessica