all dressed up with a ukulele.
in Funny Stuff, Performance, there are pictures here
as breakfast, breakfast meeting, care, catwalk, courage, dear friends, event, fashion, fashion event, first meeting, heck outta, japanese man, kind, kind lady, makeup, musical sense, someone, tomorrow, uke, ukulele, Voice
I am so tired right now and I have to get up for a breakfast meeting in the morning. And then I have two shows…so, right. This post will be short.
A very kind lady did my makeup for the pre-shows fashion event tonight. “I have googled you,” she told me, upon first meeting. “It does not look like you wear much makeup–are you comfortable with me doing your makeup?”
I assured her that I was.
And she got to work.
And then a very sweet Japanese man did my hair.
It was nice to sit back and let other people take care of me, actually. And this is what they did:
They also put me in a dress. Courage B is the designer. And they let me keep it. And I totally would have, too–had someone not stolen it. Which sucks, but what are you gonna do, right? I didn’t have that dress yesterday, so not having that dress tomorrow won’t be that different, anyway.
Here’ s a picture of me playing (in case you couldn’t figure that out). Oh man. I had to walk the catwalk to get to the stool and microphone to sing. People were so kind and cheering. Plus, I didn’t fall or even trip. Added bonus.
The mic situation was trying, though. They only had one and nothing to plug my uke into, so I had to somehow use one microphone for both my voice and my uke. I hunched over like some sort of creature to get my voice and uke as close together as possible for the mic to pic it up, and then I BELTED THE HECK OUTTA THOSE SONGS.
Here’s me and my wonderful, completely lovely friend Jes.
One of the best parts of the night was that two of my dear friends came with me.
And here is me and beautiful Bets.
Oh! Also, I had an awesome rehearsal in Brooklyn today with some AMAZING musicians I am collaborating with for the Sleep No More show on Monday. I feel so lucky to play my ukulele with these guys. Their groove and vibe is just plain dreamy. In a musical sense of the word. Plus they have a HUGE STUFFED LION in their apartment, just chilling. And they call him Aslan. Um, what’s not to love about that situation?
I met a kind Italian man who spoke to me for a while tonight. Considering the music was thumpin’ and his accent was pronounced, I did a lot of smiling and nodded without totally understanding what it was, exactly, I was smiling and nodding about, unfortunately. But, there were two things that stand out from that conversation:
1). I kept thinking that maybe my Italian grandfather (who passed away before I arrived on the scene, but worked in 30 Rock as the senior VP of RCA) sounded a bit like this guy, and the thought warmed my heart.
and
2). At one point I noticed liquid pouring down the side of his pants. I was really afraid that I was witnessing him peeing during our conversation…Until, with some relief, I realized that he was just holding his bottle of beer upside down. Thank goodness that’s what it was.
I wish you the world.
in Loved Ones, MP3, video
as angle, chorus line, dear friends, face, gig, Jess, life, melody, recording, show, song, toronto, voila, way, while
So, this song.
I wrote it for some dear friends in A Chorus Line.
My life went through such an about face right when I got off tour, though, that I completely forgot about it for a while.
Until I suddenly remembered. At least that it happened, I mean.
“Remember that song I wrote for you (and some others), John?” I asked my friend one day while we were hanging out.
“Yeah, Jess–I love that song.”
“Well, I completely forget it–the words, the melody, the chords–everything.”
“Thanks a lot,” he said, sarcastically.
But, slowly, the chorus found its way back to me. And then I stumbled upon a recording of a gig I did in Toronto, and the song was on it, and voila! here it is. Remembered.
And it still applies to my friends from A Chorus Line.
And it applies to some friends I’ve met since then, too. And even some friends I’ve known for a nice, long while.
I just love and appreciate so much how we can learn from each other; I am grateful, truly grateful, that my friends are different from me. That they challenge me. Show me life from a unique angle that I’d never have seen, had it not been for them.
But I like it.
in Loved Ones, Thoughts and Feelings
as balance, clothes, compunction, dear friends, divorce, earnest, faces, family, folders, immediate family, life, musical instruments, officiate, ordained ministers, sort, thought, time, wedding ceremony, weddings
I just got back to my little NYC bedroom and slid under my covers to the tune of this thought: My life is weird, but I like it. It was a completely unanticipated thought; I mean, I was under no compunction to think it. It just happened, which makes me think it must be true. [...]
