10.10.08 (2)

one reason to smile at work:

yes, that is a baby goat. in a bucket. chewing that sideways chew that they do.

10.10.08

So now it's Friday, the end of a pseudo-workweek. Monday was great, having the day off and then going with Casey to see The Junkyard Ghost Revival. It was very nice getting to see and catch up with Derrick, Buddy, and Anis, and as usual their show was amazing. It was unfortunate, however, that my cold had been so bad, because we definitely missed out on darts and foozball. The next day we went to the Everson Museum and checked out their Andy Warhol exhibit (yay the shoes and advertisement period!) and the Marie Antionette mannequin/fashion exhibit, where I just saw a lot of clothes i'd love and hair styles I wouldn't.

I'm going to put Wednesday into an image for you:


Working for my mom at 'walk to school day' at a Syracuse city Elementary school. There's Kaleena and myself, after she bravely battled a beatdown by several kindergarten students.

The rest of Wednesday and Thursday was devoted to work, and band practice, which brings us to today. I'll be working for a bit this morning, and then Kaleena and I are both going to back to work at Hafner's haunted house for 3ish hours. I've never worked at a haunted house, and yes, I'm afraid of the dark, so we'll just have to see how this goes.

10.6.08

Welp, work got canceled. So now that I've slept in an insane amount, I'm ready to get some stuff done.

And I just found out via my sister and the internet that The Dresden Dolls are on hiatus. Bum city. Understandable, but I was definitely hoping I'd see them live again sometime soon.

Still, a good start to the work week that's looking like (because of time off I've taken) won't be much of a 'work' week.

10.5.08

So, this week is actually looking up already.

Monday will be fun, my friend and blogmate Casey will be coming up to see The Junkyard Ghost Revival at the Red House, along with dinner and fun times with Derrick, Buddy, and Anis. Stoked to see them again, and see them do their thing.

Also stoked for Tuesday, where I stumbled upon this little gem and will therefore be taking a personal day. How could I pass this up, especially with Casey with me??

Wednesday is a mascot day, where Kaleena and I will be playing "Dr. Health E. Hound" at a health fair. Oh, post-college. At least I have jobs like this to break up the monotony of window-washing.

A Week of Inspiration

So, once again I've found that I cannot seem to keep up with this thing. Or anything, really. As busy as I'm used to being in college and such, I cannot seem to adapt to this lifestyle of job and music being a job and being able to balance work with play. I don't really know how I managed to do it while I was in school, but it seemed a lot simpler when I had a structure to my days that worked by the hour. As awful as it was, I think I would embrace that right about now. I've also found, however, that whenever I am granted some time to myself or time away... I lose track of that too. But I think that's a good thing.

So... let's start with last Sunday. The 21st. Mom and myself loaded into the Ford Edge and trekked past the old stomping grounds of Western New York to get to St. Catharine's, Ontario. What awaited us there was a long line at the border, a very vague idea of where to go, the quaint city of St. Catharines, a wine festival, and Ms. Sarah Slean. For those of you who know me well, I've grown to love this singer/songwriter/performer/artist, and until then had yet to see her live. I'd been told by boyfriend and friends alike that she was one who needed to be seen live to fully take in, and since I needed some new inspiration in regards to making live music a true experience this was an entirely necessary road trip.

We left around 2pm, and got there around 4... (it really shouldn't have taken that long, but hey, we were in no rush). We shuffled around the wine festival, got some food, and camped out pretty close to the stage. It was a pretty cold day for an outdoor festival, so the next couple hours felt like... a couple of hours, but she was definitely worth the wait. What definitely wasn't worth the wait was her opening act. I don't remember who it is, and for the sake of whomever it was I won't go through the trouble of trying to find out. He was... pretty awful. When you're soundchecking IN FRONT OF THE AUDIENCE, I don't believe it's wise to have your backing tracks playing while you're not singing. Or hey, for that matter, let's talk about the actual show. When your one backup singer is singing... there aren't three of him. You're not fooling me (though I think you were fooling the girls who sat behind me, because they thought you were "really great"), and no, we know the older dude playing lead guitar isn't singing into the mic... he's singing... but not near the mic. Or any mic.

Finally, Sarah took the stage about 40 minutes later than scheduled, and I'm not even sure what to say about it. She is a force on the stage. A charming, charismatic, witty, adorable, seemingly effortless force. There was such a sense of happiness in me the whole time she performed, because a) I had finally gotten to see her live and b) it was the farthest thing from disappointing. I cannot verbalize the experience, but I did jot down the set list for those of you interested:

1) California
2) So Many Miles
3) Euphoria
4) Notes From the Underground
5) Get Home
6) Hopeful Hearts
7) Lucky Me
8) Another Midnight
9) Goodnight, Trouble
10) Duncan
11) Out In the Park
12) No Place At All
13) Please Be Good To Me
14) Sweet Ones
15) Sound of Water
--ENCORE--
16) Looking For Someone
17) Parasol
18) Wake Up

So, needless to say... it was amazing. We drove halfway home, stayed at a hotel and finished the trip Monday morning in time for me to get a half day of work in.

Monday evening we headed out to the Turning Stone Casino (yes... I saw a show there) to see The Indigo Girls (yes... I saw them there). And to make things even awesomer, Missy Higgins opened. Again, if you know me, you know how major a concert like this is. So again, I have no words. It was sweet. They played "Closer to Fine." I laughed and thought about that 'Office' episode. Sigh.

Tuesday I grunted through a day of cleaning ceiling light fixtures and rafters (slowest. day. ever.), and Wednesday headed to Nashville to visit Michael.

With the exception of a couple glitches (bad weather at a connecting flight and a change of flights and a bigger layover and... a charge for checked luggage?) I got there, and seriously had the best 5 days since, well, the last time I was there in March. There's something about that city that I cannot get enough of. And being with Michael again was too good, again, for words.

I would recap everything that I did while I was there, but as you can tell time has gotten away from me again. It had been a good 10 days of sheer happiness and inspiration and a well needed vacation from the norm, and basically when I returned the following Monday I crashed-- hard. Like, literally. I have been sick since Tuesday morning. Whether it had been from the plane ride back, or maybe from my mom who had been sick for a while, the past few days have absolutely sucked. Work has been so hard to get through, and I still can't breathe through my nose.

What I would do for another trip south. Where it's always sunny and warm and friendly and inspiring.


Today, since I obviously cannot sing, practice was canceled and I got a day to work on my painting. I finished an oil sketch to the best of my ability (never done one before), not so pumped on it, but looking forward to how it's going to look once I get using paints. It'll be nice to work on a painting without a timeline.

So there, in an incredibly small nutshell, has been the past 10 days or so. This week looks pretty promising; practice tomorrow, Casey coming out Monday for the Junkyard Ghost Revival in Syracuse, and a full week of work and another start to hoping this week is the week everything will change for the better. My friend Michaela is coming home this weekend, and hopefully one of my bests from Fredonia will come out as well.

End of August : Ch-ch-ch-ch changes

So, I know it's been a real long time since I've been able to 'log' all the stuff going on in my life, but in all honesty, I don't know where August went. July, well that's obvious, but when I stopped by the pottery place down the street from me (where I tend to work for "play" time) and the owner asked when I got back, I almost felt guilty for not coming to visit sooner. But, really... I don't know where I've been.

We've had some interesting ups and downs since returning back from the Greenland/Germany tour, and it's almost strange to think back to all the amazingness that happened over those few weeks. It's all so much different now, and though Syracuse has responded incredibly well to our return and given us tons of great press, I am starting to feel the high highs and low lows of doing this full-time. Though I must say the lows aren't really all that bad, I mean seriously... I'm playing music. For a job. It's sweet. But having no solid income (and... not being able to make a certain amount of money to keep health insurance), working at the summer job you had last year until you went back to school (though I do love the job and the flexibility that I have at this place with my schedule). It's just all foreign, and it's strange not going back to school.

Two new band members since we got back. Messed up as it sounds, it has been the best and worst time for the band. As I'm sure you could guess, it's super hard to lose members; it's so close to a relationship that you're never sure how to get around it or what to say, or anything really. But the new group is sick; we're really clicking, and it's freaking awesome. We're starting to work on new material for the album. Stoked. Plus, now I have legitimate 'homework' to do. And I get to play with my new amp (not that I couldn't before, but now I NEED to).

So, now is it. When all this talk starts happening. I'm so sick of waiting on people to make big things happen, but at the same time sometimes all you can do is wait. That's where I am. Sort of.

Starting to paint again too. Every time I go out I make sure I get myself to an art supply store and buy something, so that I will eventually have all the tools I need to paint, and I'll have no choice but to because I am spending money on it that I really don't have to spend on hobbies right now. So... we'll see. But it's a necessary thing for me right now.

On Being Home

Welp, we're officially done with the bulk of the summer's show-playing, and it's a very strange feeling. Strange in a sense that over the course of 3 weeks I had gone from never having left the U.S. before, to being a pro at international travel, and a member of an international touring band. So freaking weird. And we're so lucky; one that the tour went off without any major hitches. We made it through the airports, customs, all the venues and such without any hassles. We did blow a tire on our trailer, but Silvio had that thing fixed in a jiffy and we were back on the road. Plus, I was asleep nearly the whole time... but yeah. This experience was so incredibly surreal, and I wish I could have told all the amazing people I had met on this tour that they have no need to thank us for coming out. We're the ones that need to be doing the thanking. We're a group of kids from Baldwinsville, New York. And we're playing shows in Germany. In a tour bus. With our own hotel rooms every night.

So now we are back, the day after we returned from Germany my parents took Kaleena and I and our boyfriends to Old Forge for the weekend. It was such a nice getaway (though tour wasn't a hardship by any means), but just to be near those people you missed so much, and to be in a place where there isn't a whole lot of 'business' talk. We are working with a new drummer by the name of Kyle Corcoran, he was a friend of mine from Fredonia and is an amazing drummer. His first show with us will be the 21st show with Meg and Dia, so our prime directive at this point and time is to get everybody ready for that.

In the meantime I've made a couple of visits out to Rochester to see Michael before he leaves for Nashville, and we've done a few press things from the tours. Kaleena and I went on 'Bridge Street' again this past Thursday, just doing an interview and showing some pictures and such. Also, Mark B. from the Post-Standard came to the house earlier last week, there should be an article on us coming up in next Sunday's paper (I think in the CNY section). And even further, a new CNY magazine did an interview and sent a wonderful journalist to one of our rehearsals to be out in September. I will follow with more details as I get them.

So, I guess now we're all about transitions. Transitioning into recording the new album, making a better live show, really putting this band into high gear. Its not an easy task, and it's taken quite a toll on all of us. It's gotten down to the point where the band needs to be a full-time thing, and for the sake of everyone else we need to put everything in it. We have all given up so much to do this, people have changed the course of their lives for this. All we can do is hope for the best.