it was cold and bleak, and winter just kept going and going.
and now summer can't stay long enough.
this is kind of in chronological order, more or less.
yes, i'm leaving out quite a lot and no, you can't know everything.
- i worked on the book and lyrics for a jazz burlesque musical. done with act one, sketched out act two. loving the process, loving the disappearing into the script and coming up with things i didn't even know i had in me. loving that.
- i reconnected with a lot of old friends via facebook, of all things. we picked up right where we left off, like no time at all had passed. how about that?
- polished off another bio, another book about the music industry, a book about black hair that is a total naval gazing triumph (if there is such a thing) and picked up 4 more that have become essential summer reads. currently reading lena horne's bio stormy weather. so far, her life is quite the monsoon...
- i detoxed. yes, it wasn't that hard and no it didn't last long enough. if i'm smart -- and let's face it, i really am -- i'll do it again before the end of the summer.
- i got a lot of stuff off my chest that had been bothering me for quite some time by writing a slew of songs. apparently, there was no other way to say it. i'm being told by those who would know that it's my best material so far, which kind of skeeves me out because i really didn't want to believe that i had to endure that kind of misery to come up with something so beautiful. but hey -- at least i've got something to show for what happened besides wrecked nerves and a broken heart.
- i worked on an idea for a book that would basically be me stitching my old/new blog kudzu, mon amour together with a bunch of photos and songs and postcards and stuff, to make a poppy little memoir. l like the idea of giving the reader something to listen to while they read my little stories.
- i started taking guitar lessons from kelvyn bell (rythymeen), james blood ulmer (harmelodics on blues on me) and lenny (i hate reading guitar tabs) at nyc guitar school and practicing all the time because i want to play out by the end of the year.
- i got hitched, to a really cool guy that "gets" me -- and he totally loves me and adores me, anyway. we did the deed down south, we jumped over a broom. my handmade african dress had a four foot train. the most triumphant moment of all? my 92 year old Daddy walked me down the aisle and gave me away. yes, he's an artist and no, he isn't a musician or an actor. or a pseudointellectual. thank Jesus.
- i did gigs all over nyc and whatnot, and picked up a biweekly residence for the month of august at a lovely room called duane park -- which, interestingly enough, reminds me a lot of torch.
- i took a meeting with Garry Veletri at Bug Music to let him hear what i'd been up to and i let JC tag along because he hadn't seen him in awhile and we're coproducing that jazz cd.
- i did a lengthy interview with a nice polish lady music journalist for an online sonic magazine -- out of warsaw, i think. she found me on last.fm. yes, i'll post it here and no you won't be able to understand a word of it. i like poland. yay.
- i had a blackgrrl's night out with gina and tanya in soho that had us running from one end of broome street to the other.
- i threw myself a birthday cocktail party at tailor and baked my own cake. how else would i know if it was any good? only the best for my buddies. and yes, it was red velvet.
- i started to grieve and i am still grieving and i will probably continue to grieve for the rest of my natural life. so help me Jesus.
- had a great 4th of july on a farm in appalachia -- the georgia end of things.
- i lost a little weight and will probably spend the rest of the summer slowly becoming The Incredible Shrinking Woman until i get back into everything in my closet. i'm doing this by working out everyday and surrendering my subway pass -- at $2.25 a pop, i was happy to let that go, and unless we get another monthlong monsoon, i won't get another one. That weight loss had better happen by the beginning of September. Not only do I miss my pencil skirts -- Byron Lars gave me a beautiful dress on my birthday and an open invitation to raid his sample closet. yee-haaa!
- i started clearing out my oh-so-layered and ever-expansive junk room. the one with the upright piano in it. yep -- this is going to take awhile...
- i finished my medical narration voice over demo with dan duckworth at voiceovers unlimited in chelsea. FINALLY! i'd like an animation demo, hopefully before the end of the year. click here to give it a listen.
- because i'm determined to have crystal clear skin by any means necessary, i had a massively righteous and totally necessary spa visit to a really cool spot in koreatown that i can't get enough of. probably because of all those tasty, tasty korean/asian snacks. i have no idea what they are until i eat them because i can't read the packaging, so just about every unwrapped morsel is a big surprise.
- redux on #3 -- actually, i'm still writing songs all the time, so whatever. to paraphrase sonny bono, the beat goes on. it's not like a bell is going to go off and all of a sudden, i'm not going to write any more songs about the craptastic happenings in my life -- or anyone else's, for that matter. at this point, it's way cheaper than therapy, it's better than any sort of confrontation, and it gives me a release that ultimately lets me get better at songwriting.
more later. stay tuned.
