lucky and stuff.
in Loved Ones, Performance, there are pictures here, Thoughts and Feelings
as caps, earphones, FOUR, friday night, friday nights, girl, help, kind, lucky girl, muscles, polo shirt, pop, purse, rap, recording, snare drum, song, ukulele, weight
“This is for you,” my pop told me, handing me an adorable little purse across the table tonight.
“It’s a recording present…and it has a ukulele on it!”
And look at that–isn’t it so adorable? I am one very lucky girl.
And WE DID IT!
We recorded FOUR SONGS in just under TWO DAYS. And, I must say, I am so excited about these tracks. I keep listening to them. In fact, I went to the gym tonight (yes, I’m the girl who goes to the gym on a Friday night. Romantic, I know)–but, I was in the weight room and listening to this one part of my song that breaks down into a rap. And there’s this rolling snare drum that just makes me SO EXCITED (that’s why I used caps, guys, cause caps are EXCITING!), I cannot help but dance when I hear it. So, I am standing there with one weight in my hand while the rest of me is sort of dancing, when one of the trainers walks up to me.
“What are you listening to that’s making you dance?” he asks.
And for a second, I can’t even hear him, my music is blasting so loud through my earphones. I see that he’s not going to stop asking me whatever it is he’s asking, so I regrettably stop the music and listen to his question.
And am instantly embarrassed and evasive.
“Oh…” I say, scrambling to think of something–ANYTHING!–other than: “Myself. I am listening to myself and it’s making me dance. And, oh yeah. I don’t go on dates on Friday nights–I go to the gym. At least you’re here because you’re getting paid to be here; I cannot say the same about myself…”
Right, so I don’t want to say that, so I say, “Oh…it’s nobody you would know…” and just kind of hope he goes away.
But he keeps standing right in front of me, staring, muscles bulging through his polo shirt, looking like he’s ready to talk to me about whatever it is that’s making me dance —even if it takes all night. Or at least until ten, when the Y closes.
“What kind of answer is that?!” he says, “Come on, what are you listening to?!”
“Uh…myself? I am listening to myself…” I finally admit. “I didn’t want to tell you that I was dancing to my music. That’s kind of embarrassing to be caught doing. I mean, I never thought anyone would ever ask me what was making me dance…”
And then that led to a whole conversation about me being a musician and then another guy came over and, having talked to me at my parents’ Y last time I was in town, asked me if I’ve cut some weight. Cut some weight. Not lost it. Huge body building men have their own language, guys. So I admitted that I might have. “But not on purpose–I’ve just been so busy lately, that I keep forgetting to eat.”
Which, once these guys got over the shock and incredulity of anyone EVER forgetting to eat, of all things, led to us talking about what’s happened since youtube happened to me.
And then I came home and played the tracks for my parents and one of their dogs. Strider seemed to enjoy it. Well, he slept through it, but he seemed to enjoy whenever I scratched his ears–and my tracks were playing when I was doing it–so there’s that. My parents listened to it in a kind of reverie, smiling or moving a little or closing their eyes (but unlike Strider, I am pretty sure they didn’t fall asleep).
My nephew and brother are geniuses in the studio. Their help is immeasurable and I could not do this without them.
Like I said, I am one lucky girl.
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.
observations.
in Funny Stuff, Performance, Thoughts and Feelings
as altoid, headshot, hot guy, iphone, laundry room, night rehearsals, one of these days, planning a wedding, russian tea room, ukulele
I am ridiculously tired. I just spent an hour practicing my ukulele. that laundry room sure comes in handy for late night rehearsals. I recorded a song with my iphone. More than once, actually. Cause, I thought I had a good take, and then had to record the thing all over again cause my sixth [...]
the human pack unicorn.
in Funny Stuff, Performance, there are pictures here, Thoughts and Feelings
as anyone, ballet classes, beach boys, canvas tote bag, ease, faith belief, freedom, gotta, horse, important date, pack, pack horse, penn station, player, purse, someone, train station, ukulele, unicorn, white rabbit
You guys. I really need to take up a very tiny instrument. One that fits into my pocket, preferably. One that doesn’t make me look like this at the train station: Cause right now I am lugging around: a keyboard, a ukulele, a suitcase, a purse, and a canvas tote bag. I think I will [...]
on missing.
in Performance, Thoughts and Feelings
as b minor chord, charity event, child, chord, fashion designer, laundry, laundry room, missing the moon, moon, music practice, party, person, rap, song, Sweet, sweet child, treetops, ukulele, way, what the heck
I should be practicing. I should be figuring out what the heck a B minor chord looks like on a ukulele. I should be memorizing the lyrics and the chords to Sweet Child of Mine, since I am collaborating on that–along with another song–for a Sleep No More post party at the end of the [...]
no small people.
in I Lift My Eyes Up, Thoughts and Feelings
as apology, bump, course, eight inches, five feet, idea, iphone, kind, naked eye, out of sight, painful reminder, person, reminder, sight, subway, uke, ukulele, vantage, vantage point
Lately, people have told me, “Please! Don’t forget the little people!” Which makes no sense to me. Unless, of course, they are literally talking about people who are littler than me. Which is quite possible, as I am on the taller side of the spectrum. So, perhaps if a person is so small that I [...]
on the television and what I think and how I accidentally almost stole my cabbie’s identity today.
in Funny Stuff, I Lift My Eyes Up, Performance
as best compliments, bridge, cabbie, choruses, Eat, fare, fox studios, God, idea, mc hammer, onset, phone, second verse, sense of direction, song, sound of the rain, television, today, Touch, ukulele, vampire, Vampires, verse
Take it in. Breathe. Eat. Sleep. These are phrases–no, commands!–that I am hearing an awful lot of recently. And I am trying; really, I am. Would you like to know what, exactly, I was ‘taking in’ while I was playing and singing on the tv this morning? Why the heck did I write such a [...]
I recorded today (and other stuff).
in Loved Ones, Performance, there are pictures here, Thoughts and Feelings
as alaskan, alaskan malamutes, crotch, favorite quote, forte, home, HUGE, Jess, kind, medium sized dogs, parents, perspective, pop, quote, real, studio, today, train station, ukulele
I am exhausted. But it’s a great kind of exhausted, because it comes from doing a lot of this: Which doesn’t look nearly as difficult as it is. Does anyone realize how hard it is to record an instrument that is not your forte? Recording a piano is much easier than recording a ukulele. For [...]
January 8th. Cheers.
in I Lift My Eyes Up, Loved Ones, Performance, there are pictures here, Thoughts and Feelings
as art supplies, colored pencils, contraptions, January, Line, line of reasoning, Lucky, moment, nice things, night, pain, phonecam, reason, sketch pad, sketchpad, time, tomorrow, ukulele, veritable collection
Tonight, I was on the A train. Again. We really spend a lot of time together, me and that train. If it were a human, people would accuse us of being, like, together, I’m pretty sure. Lucky for both of us, it’s a train, and so there are no wild rumors flying. I was sitting there, [...]
how it happened that we played on the subway that day and you all know about it now.
in Funny Stuff, Performance, Thoughts and Feelings
as And--before, anything, blah blah, case, case in point, commute, drummer, exposition, finger positions, firewood, glamour, grocery, grocery shopping, gym, hair, hipster, holes, jamming, kind, life, Live, part, point, seat, series, someone, subway, sweat, sweat pants, sweatpants, time, tirade, train, tuesday evening, uke, ukulele, video, world, youtube, youtube video
The next time you decide to wear your hair in pigtails, think long and hard about it. Because, see, you might just become part of a little video that gets to see more of the world than you do. I’m actually not upset about the pigtails, I just think it’s a little funny. And not [...]
