Thanks

--to the fine chefs at Meli who made me a perfect brunch this morning. I had delicious coffee and an omelet with smoked gouda, bacon, avocado and tomato. I have had some disappointing brunches the last few times I went out and this one hit the jackpot.

--to whoever decided to put my current skin-care products on sale at the Jewel and thus allow me to discover them. It took fifteen years but my face is finally clear and healthy! Also maybe this means I'm officially not a teenager?

--to the kids in my voice class who did a wonderful job at our graduation performance on Thursday, and to their parents, the strangers in the hallway, various staff members, the director of children's programming, the director of all class programming and the executive director of the school for coming to hear them.

--to Adeline for being really extra cute.

--to the people whose birthday party I was supposed to play at today. It was lame of you to not pay, not call anyone back, not respond to emails, and otherwise back out of the contract so that we had to cancel, but I'm pretty grateful to have a whole day without any obligations, especially before a busy week.

--to Miki and It's A Girl for the opportunity to compose and play an oboe duet horn part.

--to C0me Sunday for making the music I never know that I need until I get to rehearsal. In the words of Sue, "everyone could use this music." Ahem come to our show on Thursday at Space!!

--to Santos and the great guys at the mechanic shop for being super nice and fixing our brakes so as to render our car a death trap no longer.

--to Tomoko for finding a non-painful way to do pigeon pose.

--to Andrea for a late night walk.

--to kids.

--to everyone who's ever given me a mix CD.

--to the Proto Punk Ensemble for giving Ben an opportunity to rock out, and to Ben for bringing the rock.

--to the inventors of beer, coffee, chocolate, the internet, the bicycle, and the banjo.

Aaaahhhhhhhhhh.

That was the sound of me finally getting a sip of coffee this morning.

I ran out of half and half. It's the lamest! When for some reason I am not able to make coffee at home I always think it will be a great way to kick start my day because I'll have a reason to go out first thing in the morning. Or sometimes when I'm in a hurry to get to work and I plan on saving time by not making it at home just getting some coffee once I get there. These plans BACKFIRE because without coffee I lack the gumption or focus to get myself to the coffeeshop in any kind of sensible time frame. It was almost 11 by the time I got to this coffeeshop. WTF. A cruel paradox of nature. And drugs.

I would like to point out that there was not a post in the last five days entitled "Guacamole Beer Dinner," even though Ben was in New York. I was busy and ate well and missed him but it didn't really matter that he was gone. In fact I had a really nice weekend. I think I finally grew up enough to be pretty happy on my own.* I even killed three centipedes.** I'm getting pretty good at managing my time and working on many projects at once with limited moping.

The weekend was largely focused on my kids' show at the Beat Kitchen on Sunday. This was the first time I played a kids' show with a band that I had put together. It was also the first time I played at a rock club, even though it was at noon on a Sunday. I was nervous. My bandmates were Heather, who is my co-piano teacher and who sings and played piano and bass, and Tom on the banjo. I hadn't really seen Tom since the last time we played music this summer when after several critiques of my sloppy guitar playing he told me that although my songs were "cute," he didn't really get their appeal. That statement was one in a series of three low blows to my musical self-esteem that came from different directions, all fell within one week, and left my confidence pretty shaken. That put the temporary kibosh on working towards recording an album and taught me once again what it is like to be nervous for a performance. This is why I was so nervous for the show of my songs at the loft party and for this kids' show.

And they both went great!

I was pleased with the songs I picked for the kids' show, I was pleased with the sound of the band, I was pleased with the audience involvement and the fun props and things I had at the show. Heather and Tom were happy to be involved and we all enjoyed ourselves. I even got some nice compliments on my originals. I am now eager for another kids' show and have already lined up someone who has agreed to record my kids' album.

The craziest part of the show was once we got there and realized we had forgotten music stands and they had none there.... We needed them as we'd only had one rehearsal and glasses-less Tom can only see about 4 feet in front of him. Heather ran to the music store down the street: closed. We were running out of time, and I finally gave my car keys and credit card to one of the two sound guys and asked him to run to Guitar Center to pick some up. He did, and didn't even drive to Mexico or buy himself any guitars or anything.

THANK YOU, PHIL THE SOUND GUY!!!

The rest of my weekend included lots of music, biking, drinking and dancing. Friday night I biked way out to a house party at Cicero and Addison to see Orange Mighty Tri0 with Lara. I think if I can just make sure I see those guys play every so often I will have enough happiness to last me through my entire life. I am their biggest fan. Lara and I got totally drenched on the long ride back to the Hideout, where I stayed just long enough to realize how wet my socks were before heading home to cozy it up. Saturday I was at OTS all day, subbing WW and rehearsing and subbing piano. Then I made a mellow fall mix for Becca's mix-CD exchange party and biked up to her lovely Lincoln Square apartment. There was dancing and Beatles on the TV and my second-ever Jello shot. Sunday after the show I had lunch and a bloody mary with Heather and later saw Steve Daws0n and Frank R0saly play a show at the Double Door. Monday my long teaching day, plus a C0me Sunday rehearsal for our show next week, and came home to see Ben who made it back from New York.

Now I am late for my yoga class and I promised myself I wouldn't skip it this week! It's been nice blogging with you.


*On my own = With the cat
**These three were teeny little baby centipedes, but I killed them good. I chickened out and left the huge one on the bathroom wall alone.

The good life

I'm lucky. Life is good. I'm a busy teacher, performer, big-city girl. I haven't had time to tell you about it.

The gig at the loft was great. It was more of a party than a concert, but my songs went well, and the people who were paying attention said some nice things about my performance. Ben took amazing pictures and the party was a blast. Edited pics here; his whole set unedited here. Here's one of me doin' my thing with Chester in the background.



Ben was uploading the pictures to a projector during the party, and so people were having fun looking at them and then getting their pictures taken to be projected as well. It was awesome.

The next night Ben and I ended up at the Handlebar where for the second time we joined the staff in the construction of a beeramid made of Tecate cans. Once again, there was much rocking out to heavy metal, which progressed to Journey and Huey Lewis, and a lot of intense-faced singing with air guitar jumps off the bar and throwing of furniture. My knees were bruised the next day from climbing up to build the beeramid and dance recklessly on the barstools. Here is the first one we made. There are 95 cans in this beeramid. Also: note the hot waitress we are now totally friends with.



Our tab at the end of the night was a miracle.... We are IN now. We stopped by last night and got warm greetings from everyone working there and another huge discount on some food and a couple of PBRs. It is the greatest. We already loved that place with all our hearts and now we are part of its community.

I had Liz over for breakfast during the following week, when I learned how to make delicious scones. I love having friends over for breakfast. I love it so much that today I invited Meredith over, and I made scones again. Both times we had too much coffee and tasty food and a pretty table and nice music and good chatting and Adeline was really happy to sit on the guest's possessions.

Last Friday Ben and I drove to Rockford for Emily's CD release concert. Part of the concert was the projection of the music video Ben made for/with Emily. It is really, really good, and Ben worked really, really hard on it. Emily loves it and said from the stage, "You will all be telling people one day that you saw the early work of Ben Chandler." He is getting busier all the time and the stuff he is producting is getting better and better. Please enjoy the video here in best quality, or if that's not working on your computer try it on YouTube here. Click "Watch in high quality" if you watch the YouTube version... makes a huge difference. And then check out Emily's music! She is an amazingly talented friend. We had a wonderful night there at the concert, and getting drinks at food afterwards, and staying at the incredible house her parents' built with other folks who had come to the show. In the morning we shared a perfect breakfast that Emily made with our new friends and then headed back to the city. I hope next time we make it out to Rockford we can stay longer. I like those Hurds.

I played at Chicago Country Music Fest in the Kiddie Corrall. I played a bday party. I recorded vocal tracks for some more of Larry's songs. I had great rehearsals with It's A Girl, Come Sunday and the band I'm playing my kids' show with on Sunday. I have four concerts in the next 2 weeks with four different bands. Super exciting and overwhelming too. I'm subbing way too much in there and starting some new classes... I probably won't post again till that has past. Happy Halloween! See you in November! Vote Obama!

On my mind

Here is some stuff I've been thinking about.

I rarely get nervous, and so I don't handle being nervous well AT ALL. I am very nervous for the solo set of original songs I'm playing on Friday night at the opening party of Molly & company's new loft apartment/performance space. Still shaken by a string of criticisms I received one week over the summer, feeling embarrassed about my songs and my guitar skills.

The main way I deal with my nervousness is through productive procrastination of practicing & preparing. (How's that for alliteration!) The more nervous I am, the more productive my procrastination must be in order to be justified. A week ago I cleaned my closet and donated tons of stuff I never wear. This Tuesday I cleaned out ALL of my junk spaces: desk drawers, bedside drawers, boxes in the closet in the music room, under the piano, the bookshelf, under the table. It took hours and hours but I am thrilled to report that I have less junk than you. I'm becoming obsessed with owning less stuff. It is hard because I am cheap, crafty, and nostalgic. But I have been inspired by two sources. 1) This paragraph by Natalie Dee in response to a question about being cleaner:

If you are not certain something (anything) is 100% important, get rid of it. There is no BUT WHAT ABOUT LATER? Later already came, and you didn't need it. If something happens in the distant future that makes you need junk from years ago, there are bigger problems going on aside from where all your clutter went. I have been on my "Don't Bring Anything In The House And Get Rid Of Anything That Looks At Me Crosseyed" kick for a while now, and the only thing that has resulted is a clean house. I have yet to be like OH SHIT, I ACCIDENTLY THREW THAT THING AWAY. You know what you need, and what you don't. You just have to be honest with yourself, and pitch the crap in the same way you'd rip off a bandaid.

2) Friends who are moving. Thank God I'm not moving right now. But I'm jealous of the part of moving where everything gets cleaned out and everything is assigned a place and placed there. I went to my friend Liz's new clean, beautiful apartment and it was soooooooo nice that I abandoned all other plans and spent the rest of the day with a huge garbage bag and drawers all over the floor.

Liz is my old friend from SMB's that I ran into at the Hopleaf last Friday when I was there with Ben, Erica and Kevin to celebrate Kevin's birthday even though he threw his back out and was on fancy pain meds and couldn't drink. Let alone move. But Liz! I ran into Liz. She had moved away and is back in town and invited me over for breakfast on Tuesday. As I stood there next to her stove in the bright kitchen of her single Sunnyside Ave apartment, coffee cup in hand, talking about jobs and goals and relationships and creativity while she cooked me food, mix CDs on the stereo, I realized: Liz is the new Emily. I never realized how similar my two friends are, or how our friendships function in almost the exact same way. I became friends with Emily when Liz moved away, and now that Emily has moved away Liz is back... It was a funny realization. And then it made me happy, because I really love them both!

It has occurred to me that I dress like a clown. Today, for example, I am wearing a pink hoodie, a blue t-shirt with a picture of an umbrella on it, jeans rolled up to my knees, striped pink and gray and white socks, and Chuck Taylors. I biked this morning in my red windbreaker on my red and yellow and green bike with my blue helmet and purple headscarf and pink sunglasses, carrying my backpack guitar with my bright red Sigg bottle, bearing its giant green heart sticker, strapped to its side. Sometimes I even wear ridiculous pigtails. They are so long that I'm nervous they make me look like an Irish Setter.

Yesterday I was at Vella with Meredith and noticed that I had the longest hair of anyone in the restaurant. It is long like a real girl.

Ben and I are becoming no-handed biking EXPERTS. (This does not help the clown issue.) On Saturday night we basically biked all the way home from Andersonville (7 miles) with no hands, using them only at stoplights and for turns. Daamn! The biking home was an excellent end to a long and very excellent night that included seeing the Sea and Cake and the Lonesome Organist at Symphony Hall for free, a super burrito at La Pasadita, and the 90's-est movie ever at Natasha and Dan's housewarming party.

Sarah Palin. What's to say? How can you.... sigh. This is a really good article and I wholeheartedly agree. And this is funny. And this is brilliant and maddening. I am reading columns and watching videos. I am enjoying jokes. I am nervous. I am flabbergasted. I am hopeful. I am made so uneasy by McCain's apparent obsession with war. I am frustrated that living in Chicago means I have no access to more widespread American opinion. Based on the environment here there's no doubt Obama's gonna win. But this is only Chicago.

Our neighbors need to change the battery in their smoke alarm. It beeps every 36 seconds and has been doing so for three days.

I'm medium-obsessed with the song How Did the Feeling Feel To You by Karen Dalton.

I'm having lots of fun rehearsing with It's A Girl. It's silly and pretty and energetic and fun.

Cat.

That's all.