hear hear
sights
Soup!
25 Jan2012
Last night we took a cooking class at Central Market called “Winter Soups and Stews.” Thankfully, as rare as it has been this winter, it was cloudy and damp. Perfect soup weather. Plus, I’ve gotten really tired lately of just relying on my staple of Paula Deen’s Cheesy Ham and Banana Casserole (just kidding GOOD GRIEF CAN YOU IMAGINE).
I had never taken a cooking class before, and Central Market does a fantastic job. We got to see everything be done (not a hands on class…I think I might chop of a finger in one of those) and then we got to SAMPLE IT. What else could you possibly want to do with your Tuesday evening?
We learned a lot of little tips and tricks that are probably old hat to seasoned chefs (haha pun intended) but new to…newbies. Like how to chop onions depending on whether you want them to break down in your soup or maintain their integrity. And how not to dull a knife so quickly. It made me think about how we all have these little “lifehacks” in our own lives because we are all good at certain things and completely foreign to others. What I am saying is SHOWER YOUR KNOWLEDGE ON ME, PEOPLE.
Anyway, just to make you jealous…
French Onion
Butternut Squash with Toasted Curry Seeds
Black Eyed Pea with Sausage and Wintergreens
Beef Stew with Honey Cornbread
Coconut Brownie and Chocolate Soup
Kill The Messenger
24 Jan2012
I have listened to this song 14 times this evening. “Kill the Messenger” by Shawn Colvin. It’s old. I discovered it when I was 17 or something like that and it was old then, so it’s um…really old now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one to decry an artist’s more current body of work…Shawn’s latest is one of my favorites (and that’s getting old now too). But I digress.
I kind of remember hearing this version of this song for the first time. Someone sent me a mixtape (WHAT?) with this on it, because I was in a group (an email group…right after message boards on AOL went out of style) online that traded that type of stuff. I’m not sure I ever was able to trade anything in return, people were just nice to the folkie kid in New Mexico where no one cool ever toured (except Lucy Kaplansky, thank you, Lucy). But I digress.
So I hear this song for the first time and I’m pretty sure my skull peeled apart and my brain absorbed it to the core. It amazed me. The rhythmic guitar, and the way the electric nuances over the rhythm, and THE WORDS that are essentially poetry that sing really, really well. Some songs you write out and you get sad because the words aren’t as cool on paper and away from melody. This one holds up.
I don’t know what this song is about, but I know it somehow seeped its way into my core consciousness. It lived with me through college where I overplayed it (sorry, roomies), and somewhere along the line I put it away. It was a bootleg…on a tape, and I don’t own one of those things that plays tapes anymore. I don’t use pencils either, so even if I did play tapes I wouldn’t have anything to wind up the ribbon stuff up when it all spewed out of the cassette.
I still have little moments of song epiphany – in that I’ll still play something 45 times when I discover it and now EVERYONE KNOWS how obsessive I can be because Spotify broadcasts to Facebook. I need to unlink that.
I hope that the songs I discover now stick with me like this one did, because I can associate it with my old neighborhood and certain weather and lighting and my old bedspread in my room and walking to class and pine tress and dictionaries and Sony boomboxes.
I still don’t know what it means but that’s plenty to keep me occupied for now.
- In: inspiration|newmexico
On My Deathbed…Albums
23 Jan2012
American Songwriter Magazine (one of my favorites) always has this “On My Deathbed” section where they pick people’s list of best albums and publish them. I had forgotten I filled one out once until someone on Facebook alerted me that they saw my list. I was a little nervous because I didn’t even remember what I had listed, but luckily, I’m still cool with all of these.
- In: reviews|songwriting
The Stereotypical Evolution of a Folk-Singer
22 Jan2012
To get really specific: a Female Singer-Songwriter from the 80′s/90′s.
- Make a really angry, unsure, shaky album with too much reverb and perhaps out of tune instruments that shows promise and gains a group of college-aged hipster fans. Perhaps recorded outside or in a basement.
- Make better album that is actually called the debut because first album was just a demo made in a basement/outside. Release to wild acclaim. Next big thing! Next Joni! Next Ani! Next Joan Baez crossed with PJ Harvey!
- Sophomore slump. Not as good as first. What happened?
- Third album. Growth shown. Maturity rising. “Solid effort,” says some reviewer.
- Fourth album – Sixth albums. Continue rise to maturity, write about big life events like that one long term relationship. Maybe have children and write about how happiness did not exist until children. And/or get really good about writing about loneliness. Wear hats. (“Holiday” album may appear in this time period but does not count toward total album count*).
- Seventh + Eighth albums. Decide the world is not all about “me, myself, I” and start writing “modern protest songs.” Stop caring about rhyming so much, to the point that some lines are just complete sentences sung over music. Incorporate jazz chord progressions as well as African and other “world beat” influences because folk songs are so 1995. Wear colorful hats.
- Eighth+ album. Return to roots with a “rootsy Americana album”, proudly making it a big deal without decrying decision to “go global and political” for the last two. Join Americana Association. Give keynote address somewhere about how business has changed. Embrace natural hair color. Ditch hats. Duet with old rock stars. Move to mountains/farm/cabin from LA/NYC/Austin.
*Thank you Nancy Jane.
- In: hilarious
Photo A Week #3
21 Jan2012
1/15 – I spent a good chunk of time at a coffeehouse…with this Brainstorm book.
1/16 – Monday was mastermind meeting day with Susan and Elizabeth. We each got a cookie. I was oatmeal M&M.
1/17 – Kathleen Edwards album release day! One of the “must buy the day it comes out” artists.
1/18 – I rearranged my workspace and added a whole new writing desk. It is still clean…maybe I can keep from piling junk on it.
1/19 – On Thursday it was one roommate’s birthday and another was leaving for a big trip so we celebrated by watching Midnight in Paris.
1/20 – It’s a homebody theme this week, apparently. Mom made me this afghan and I use it all the time.
1/21 – Gordon Ramsay is a personal hero…he and Steve Jobs should have teamed up. Listening to Kitchen Nightmares while I type this blog! Meta.
- In: 12experiments
Input = Idea…and then what?
20 Jan2012
Idea 1: Meet Lady Gaga’s wax figure.
Idea 2: Meet the real Lady Gaga (in progress)
These numbers are not totally accurate but for the sake of metrics…I have had about 14 good ideas this week. I forgot four of them about 10 seconds after I had them. Goodbye…I hope you got caught by someone else.
The next 7 were simple and resolved easily…like see Photo Blog Week 3 for the new desk I put in my room for writing. That made me clean out a lot of crap from my space, and the whole room is better. Others include “buy rosemary bread” and “light a candle every time you sit down to work.”
The final 3 could be game changers. They came about from either jamming with another brain or stealing some other idea I read about and adapting it. This week I was not the guru on the mountaintop, coming up with clarity just by being still. All these ideas came about from conversing, having a time limit, caffeine intake, and downright poaching of other concepts. Poaching doesn’t scare me because by the time I’m done with anything, it’s unidentifiable from its source. Shawn Colvin once said when she’s stuck, she takes an existing song by someone else and tries to re-write it (or something along those lines). It’s always been a help to me.
The ideas here are vague because they haven’t even hatched yet, and I’d hate to look up a statistic on how many might stall. But they are here for now, and here come 14 more! Maybe I’ll start writing things down so those first 4 don’t get lost next time.
Photo A Day Week #2
16 Jan2012
So far so good. This week was a productive one.
- In: 12experiments|tour
Currency
11 Jan2012
Interesting scenario this morning. Katie sends me a link to a Youtube video. It’s a cool version of a song I had never heard before (so technically it was a cover but since I didn’t know the original, eh)…being played by 5 people on 1 guitar. I see a TON of content every day, and hundreds of videos float through my Facebook and Twitter streams and I never pay attention. This one sucked me in, and I watched the whole thing. Then I followed the link at the bottom of the video to their fan page. Then I watched another cover video by the band. Then I “fanned” them on Facebook, but not after thinking about it. Then I bought the single for a dollar on iTunes.
I have currency. This is why I paused before becoming a fan. Do I want to spend my mental energy on a new band? Do I want this band in my stream every day? Do I want to see what they’re up to and find out more about them? I decided that yes I do, but only because their content has already proved dynamic and interesting and creative. Had anything in that process of link to Youtube to Facebook broken down, I wouldn’t have given them my $.99 and a promise of future attention. That’s how right on you have to be with putting your music out there.
What were the components that worked so well?
- Reference from a friend…I trust Katie’s taste. She said “check this out” – so I did.
- Well-made video. It’s not fancy. It’s one shot, but it looks good and sounds good.
- Link to more info…in this case, to Facebook.
- Website in place (I checked out their home base, too…to make sure they really existed).
- Invitation to buy – a link to iTunes? Sure. I have a dollar.
That’s what makes something viral, step one being the most important, but the other steps have to be there to keep step one happening over and over again.
The band? Walk Off The Earth – here’s their Facebook page. Enjoy.
Experiment 1: Photo A Day
7 Jan2012
All right…since I had to switch experiments after Day 1 this month, I’m doing a photo a day. It’s actually kind of fun to think about which moment I’d like to have encapsulate things for the day. Here’s week one!
1/1 – I hung out with Katie on New Year’s Eve! She wore this hat.
1/2 – I’m trying to drink more tea and less coffee. So far so good.
1/3 – Tuesday I hung out with Dan at the Rubicon Studio…this is his Martin 00-15, which looks just like my OM-15. Twins!
1/4 – On Wednesday I chihuahua-sat for a little bit. She’s tiny!
1/5 – On Thursday I played at Specht’s in San Antonio as a guest of the fantastically awesome Whipples. They have such a good group of friends (and so do I!)
1/6 – I manifested some loafers this week. I was eyeing Dan’s “Sunday shoes” as he calls them, since I am trying to not wear flip flops all the time. Whilst perusing the piles of shoes at the thrift store, I found these new Bass loafers for $7. That’s quite a deal. Boom! Manifested loafers.
1/7 – The weather has been awesome here…it’s like Spring but it’s January. Sitting on the porch in the sun is mandatory.
- In: 12experiments
Corporate Culture
6 Jan2012
Over Christmas I became obsessed with Better Off Ted – the show that was cancelled after two seasons. It’s like The Office crossed with Arrested Development. It makes me laugh out loud, especially these fake commercials for the fake company in the show. Here’s one of them:
Susan charged me with making some like-minded commercials for her record label, ForTheRecords. She didn’t have to tell me twice.