You can call me Father

Published on March 29, 2010 in music playlists sufjan stevens chicago. 0 Comments
For the better part of the last year or so, I’ve listened to Sufjan Stevens’ For the Widows in Paradise, For The Fatherless in Ypsilanti every morning. On days like today, my body will not register that it is time to wake up and get productive until I hear this song. The songs I started most days in 2009 with:
It gets a little dark, but that’s okay. I’ve got a big place in my heart for sad music. I got into a Sufjan Stevens kick after visiting Chicago by myself last year. Most of that trip I spent moving around that city, headphones on. I realize now how much I let the music influence my impression of Chicago. I loved it there, in the same way you love someone when you’re heart’s a little broken.
In other news, recording is in a week and I have a lot to get done before then. I’m in the mood to say yes to everything, so I’ve been busy.

Let’s make a record

Published on March 10, 2010 in music magnetic fields. 0 Comments
I had a meeting with a friend of mine who’s going to do the mixing and recording for the EP. It feels so good to make progress. Five to seven songs with vocals, guitar, indie kitsch casio keyboard and hand claps. Nothing solid for release date yet, but I have a good feeling that it won’t take a year. As far as what it looks like – I don’t know yet. I’m not sure if I have artists friends. Honestly. I’d like to have somebody I think is awesome create album art, but I’m so shy about bringing it up. There’s also the issue of what to call it. Working on it. I mean, I’m working on it, “working on it” isn’t the name. I’m pretty sure that’s a cop out.
Also, while putting this thing together, I’m paying a lot of attention to the mix of music I love. There are a couple albums I can’t stop listening to that are affecting my taste. Since January, I’ve been rotating through: The Blueprint 3 (Jay Z), Grand (Matt & Kim), The Fame Monster (Gaga), Realism (The Magnetic Fields), and the first eight or so songs from 69 Love Songs (Magnetic Feilds). I know, it is a little Magnet heavy. I saw them perform at the Wilbur in Boston a few weeks ago and the show was just incredible. One of the things I love about the Magnetic Fields is that they’re orchestral sound supports every song, regardless of the lyrical content. Whether it’s poetic, ironic, or as is often the case, both – the instrumentation supports the songwriting perfectly. As you can see, I’m pretty much in love with them right now.

Endless summer

Published on February 11, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Lately, I’ve had a lot of down time. This is both a great and terrible thing. The benefits are great: I am playing and writing music more, I’m recording, I’m reading more, I’m going to the gym again, I’m listening to more music, and generally enriching myself more. The downsides: I have way too much time to (over)think, I look for work I don’t need, I’m cold (in my house), and I drink way too much coffee. I feel like a kid during summer time.

The first summer I really felt the boredom sink in, I was just getting out of 4th grade. During that year, we moved to a new house in Claremont. I hadn’t made my neighborhood friends yet and I was bored out of my mind. I cleaned out the closet my little sister Rebecca and I shared in our room, labeling every shoebox with marker and scotch tape. I became obsessed with this little beanie baby knock-off dog that I named “Ben.” I made him a little house in a shoe box (with furniture) and carried him wherever I went. Looking back, I was probably way too old for this behavior. But Rebecca was reaching the age where she didn’t think I was cool anymore, she had a neighborhood friend already, and I was left to fend for myself. The Ben Phase only lasted a week or so, but it was an intense week. Like those early high school relationships that only last a week or two but everyone remembers, because you’re young and it’s new and important a little way.
Anyway, I’m living my own endless summer right now. The work I do have feels like play and I couldn’t be happier about that fact. I’d like to live this way until I can’t stand it.

List of positive things

Published on January 31, 2010 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments
  1. My house slippers.
  2. Lists
  3. Forcing myself to do enriching things. Like reading and writing.
  4. Breakfast
  5. Financial independence
  6. Spending quality time with quality people
  7. Routines

What We Talk About…

Published on January 20, 2010 in raymond carver readings short stories books. 0 Comments

I recently finished reading Raymond Carver’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Jessie gave me this collection of short stories for Christmas, I think because of the title story. She also knows how much I prefer short stories to long ones.

To my surprise, many the stories were pretty fucked up and sad. That says a lot about how much I know about American writers, I guess. I love how understated the stories are. My top three: “After the Denim,” “Why Don’t You Dance?,” and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” They were all a little less shockingly sad than the rest and I liked that.
In the title story, two couples sit around a table drinking gin while the sun goes down and they talk about love and what we talk about when we talk about it. During their conversation, one of the characters says,
“You guys have been together eighteen months and you love each other. It shows all over you. You glow with it. But you both loved other people before you met each other. You’ve both been married before, just like us. And you probably loved other people before that too, even. Terri and I have been together for five years, been married for four. And the terrible thing, the terrible thing is, but the good thing too, the saving grace, you might say, is that if something happened to one of us tomorrow, I think the other one, the other person, would grieve for a while, you know, but then the surviving party would go out and love again, have someone else soon enough. All this, all of this love we’re talking about, it would just be a memory.”

I can relate. I mean, who can’t? Anybody who’s been in more than one serious or not-serious relationship can, I think. It makes me reflect on my own relationships, the relationships I’ve witnessed come and go. There’s nothing more reassuring to me than the idea that, even if everything gets burned to the ground, new things will grow again.
Let me be more understated and more personal.
Love,
Kirsten

Vegan Brunch Review, New York

Published on January 18, 2010 in vegan brunch new york. 0 Comments

I spent this weekend with Jessie in New York. It was great, we took it easy and just hung out in all my favorite places. We avoided the stress and pomp of getting to a Broadway show (I wasn’t really excited about anything anyway) and spent our time visiting museums I’d never been to, seeing a little improv and eating delicious food. It was my personal goal to eat as much Vegan brunch as possible and here’s where/what we ate:

(Brunch – West Village)
I got this weekend’s brunch special: Banana & Pecan vegan pancakes with fake sausage. Plus a half pitcher of Sangria. The service was a little slow and poor, which we’ve come to expect from cool, vegan restaurants, but my food was amazing. Hands down the best pancakes I’ve ever had, vegan or no. Melt-in-your-mouth good. The sangria was also a hit, mostly because of the adorable chopped apple garnish.
(Dinner – East Village)
We tried to go to Angelica Kitchen, a cute little vegan dinner place on the Lower East Side on Saturday night, but were met with a 45 minute wait. So instead, we wandered over to Telephone Bar, where we ate some standard bar food and drank cheaply. I had an dry black bean burger and Jessie had some awesome pasta with shitake mushrooms and peas. The best thing about this place was the outside.
(Brunch – East Village)
We waited around a half hour in the rain on Sunday morning for this place. By the time we sat down, we were ready to eat. I got the Slumberjack special – vegan pancakes, fake ham, scrambled tofu, fruit, and curly fries. Sounds like a lot, right? I ate the whole thing. The pancakes tasted much healthier than Sacred Chow’s, but the scrambled tofu was pretty good. One of the best scrambled egg substitutes I’ve had. We finished our breakfast off with a piece of vegan red velvet cake, which was super rich. I only lasted about three bites.
(Coffee, Pastries, Lunch – West Village)
I’d been to snice before (for Wahima’s cupcake adventures!). This time I got a bagel w/tofu cream cheese and a vegan panini to go (to save for lunch). The worst part of both Curly’s and Chow was the waiting to sit at Curly’s and to order at Chow, it was refreshing to walk into Snice, order, and easily grab a table near a window. That being said, this is much more of a coffee shop than a restaurant. My vegan panini had smoked tofu, pesto and sundried tomatoes – really well-balanced flavors.
Anyway, this has been the blog where I pretend I’m a food critic. I love you nork.
Love,
Kirsten

[title of blog]

Published on January 16, 2010 in title of show die vampire die theatre. 0 Comments

I saw the final dress of [title of show] at Speakeasy Stage with Nat yesterday. I’d never seen or heard the show before and I really enjoyed it. There were a few really honest, resonating moments sprinkled throughout a pretty funny, weird script.

My favorite song of the show, “Die Vampire Die” Check this shit out
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Occurances

Published on January 16, 2010 in new years resolutions music. 0 Comments

Things have happened that involved my resolutions:

The other day, I spilled all my hot coffee on the floor of my room when trying to carry too much stuff in for breakfast. I did not freak out, what a fucking miracle.
Priorities are pretty much as they were.
I’ve been writing so much! I wrote two new songs and am working on two more. And I recorded two of them. This has been a very fruitful two weeks for me. I love it.
That’s that.
xoxo
Kirsten

Resolutions

Published on January 7, 2010 in new years resolutions. 2 Comments

Without explanation or apology, I plan on writing in this blog again and for the first time.

Resolutions: 2010
1. Be more chill.

I stress out about things way too much. Though I may appear laid-back, I’m wound a little more tightly than I’d like. In fact, I’d say that everything in my nature makes me a spazzy control-freak. If given the opportunity to re-wire something about myself, I’d make myself more easy-going.

2. Be clear about my priorities.

If my life were a well-oiled machine (which it was), 2009 was the wrench that brought my gears to a crunching halt. My mom’s death really shook me up, for obvious and not-so obvious reasons. Losing my mom made me realize how brief life actually is and how stupid it is to not do what makes you happy. In 2009 I quit my steady, awesome career-path job so that I could make more music and do more improv. And though I haven’t done all the things I’ve wanted to in the past four months, I feel freer and happier than before.

This year, I’m going to what’s right for me, whatever that means. I’m going to be wiser about taking on extra work and look out for my own interests, because nobody else is going to do that for me.

3. Write more.
More everything. Songs, sketches, stories, things I don’t want to forget. Everything. Nuff said.

Other goals include: getting my health insurance back, spending more time with my friends, home-recording a couple EPs, playing out more, eating better, and being more active.

Robin Williams in Hook

Published on October 11, 2009 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

This blog makes me feel like a deadbeat dad. It hit the game-winning homer at the bottom of the ninth at the last game of the little league world series and I show up as the team is packing up and emptying the dugout. It’s been practicing clarinet for weeks on end and I can’t make the recital because I’ve got a business meeting. It’s my blog’s birthday and I forgot.

I’d love to stay and talk, but I’ve got a thing at 11:30.
Rain check?
You’re the best, champ. Love ya. Bye.