fatrockstar

I still get LiveJournal notifications. That's fine. I'm reluctant to go back, but all the friends I've made at LiveJournal are still there. I have at least one that refuses to create another social media account for any reason so I can count on them fading out of my life. I'm not going to make myself uncomfortable for one person, so I guess they'll miss out. Everybody has their comfort zone for these things. We all make ourselves vulnerable when we sign up for social media and we choose our platforms with that in mind.

I have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WordPress, Google+, Etsy, ReverbNation, that one place that was supposed to be a lot like Facebook and required an invitation to sign up and was where everybody said they were going to migrate to but didn't, and MySpace. Half of those were created to promote the band, and the rest are just easier to use than the others. Privacy... well that's only relevant if I'm posting personal or sensitive information. Not all platforms can be LiveJournal. I don't post to any of them like I did to LiveJournal (not anymore anyway).

So if you're interested in what I have to say or know me from somewhere else and I trust you with my personal thoughts, reach out. Add/grant access. At this writing I am dealing with aging (but not feeling my age), my physical and mental health, and several different kinds of friendships. I could complain about my romantic relationship but he's a saint so that means I'm pretty sure any problems we have are mine. Maybe I'll complain anyway.

This post won't be cross-posted because I don't feel like it. I don't need to reach that many strangers online, and the friends that are truly concerned will contact me some other way. I think that's fair.

I don't do a lot of public posts because most of what I write here is either private or for a very limited audience. At some point in time it became very unwise to be an open book online, and I retreated accordingly. You can still find me if you want, because I'm okay with being found, but I keep my public and personal thoughts separate on the internet.

My band released its third studio album this month. We're pretty psyched about this, because if you listen to this and then listen to the first album it's like night and day. We've learned so much as musicians, artists, and producers since 2009, and it shows. I'll admit that I wasn't as excited about this project at first because I'm so used to writing about things that boil deep under the surface and it had to grow on me a bit. I know now that I was just being a diva, and this is probably the album that gets us some well-deserved positive attention. We'll see.

If you still check back here from time to time I encourage you to click on over to the CD Baby website and listen to some sample tracks. Heck, maybe you'll even buy yourself a CD or two. We just submitted our digital distribution info and should see this album on iTunes in time for Christmas! Yay!

So... there it is. And here's a link.

Because I know a handful of you on the crafting mailing list are also readers of this blog. Pay attention:

On Sunday I will send out the official invitation to the next Craft Night. If you do not want your email and/or name shared with the rest of the guest list you need to answer that mail TODAY. I won't send a separate invitation to you or mail you the details of when and where Craft Night is outside of that invitation.

I'm still investigating how Gmail handles contact information in calendar invites. If your email does not resolve to a name, your email will appear. If your email does resolve to a name, your name will appear. If I have you in my contact address book under a name, THAT name will appear. Heads up: I have had to add names to several people's entries in my address book so I know who the hell they are.

I'd really like to have a Craft Night this week. I'd like to make things and take pictures of things and be able to speak freely about the things that make me happy and cause me a little concern. Mostly those first two, but you get the idea.

Read the email I sent last week. If you get the invite please RSVP. If we have a quorum, it's on. If we don't, it's not.

I know I know -- I'm totally abusing the few of you that remain faithful to LJ by advertising, but I promise it's for a good cause (me) and it's probably the only time I'll do it until there's another event coming up. This album was recorded in about two months, and the mixing process took a bit longer than that, then there was sending it off to Austin, TX, for mastering, not to mention the ungodly amount of time I took procrastinating over the graphic design and getting the distribution started. This was supposed to be a summer release. Now it's a Christmas one! You can buy the album as a CD or mp3 download at the link below:



We are having the official CD release party this Sunday (12/18/11) in Redmond at Soul Food Books. We're paying for the venue, providing consumables, and performing. Those of you who attend in person won't pay a red cent to join us. A barista will be on-hand to sell you a coffee or chai if you lean that way (we don't cover those, sorry). For those of you who can't attend for some reason or won't leave the house, Soul Food Books streams all the shows live online. Ours will be one of them.

Please feel free to invite yourself to the event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/334058319953758/ And I hope we get to see you there!

I have determined that whatever is causing my sore throat is INSIDE this house. I don't know what it is or how I can pinpoint it, I just know that my throat is sore to the point where singing is difficult and I often have a dry cough. In addition to that I am also suffering from super-dry sinuses and my eyes are intermittently on fire. This overall pain and discomfort is very frustrating because I know my dad would like to hear from me and I also have a gig on Sunday afternoon to sing for. I can't have long conversations with a glass throat.

All this started to escalate after PAX, which is also when temperatures broke 80 here. Now that it's rainy and in the 60s I thought for sure it would calm down. Noop.

It's not Martha, either. I was having this problem before she came to live with us and it hasn't become worse by being near her. Is it a moisture thing? I'm worried that if I turn on my humidifier and I'm wrong it could make everything worse. I have a huge fear that my crawlspace, which I have not ventured into for a Very Long Time, is a biosphere all its own and has finally outgrown the space beneath my house to infect me with its alien micro-organisms.

Speaking of Martha, she is painfully adorable. She is also painfully codependent and follows me everywhere, chirping at me in her squeaky little meao. I am concerned I will end up with two cats anyway, which will upset me, but I don't want to traumatize an animal with endless hours of loneliness she doesn't want.

So far we haven't really established a Grady-esque rapport. The only things that really come through are LOVE ME and WATCH ME EAT. We'll get there, I'm sure.



I pulled a white corset out of the dark corners of my closet and decided I was going to fuck with it. Why not, right? I spent $40 on it for my wedding back in '02 and have worn it maybe once since. At first I considered spray painting it red and doing the WW motif, but that's way too predictable. Instead I ripped off the tacky lacy trim and am painting it a lovely royal blue. Maybe I'll add some new trim if I have something worthwhile here in the house, but for now it's drying in the garage.



My new washing machine arrived this week and will take some getting used to. Instead of standard washing machine noises this one sounds like it's heaving during the wash cycle. I honestly thought for a moment that it was going to vomit my clothes all over the interior of my laundry room. That would have been terrifying.



I've been thinking about my former in-laws a lot lately. I put away Nate & Karen's wedding party photo a long time ago, but the last family picture they sent me is still up on my wall along with photos of other family members I don't get to see very often or at all. I'm pretty sure a lot has changed since the last time we heard from each other. The more time that passes the more awkward it seems to reach out and say hello, but life goes on. I don't want to make things uncomfortable for the Blues. Despite my ex's past behavior, I still love them and want them to be peaceful and happy.



Has anyone using Netflix seen The Hard Times of RJ Berger? I finished season 1 and loved it. Season 2 isn't available for streaming, which sucks, but I'm digging it. Word to the wise: I like strange television. My recommendations are not solid.

I found a cat to keep me company. Her name is Martha and she looks a lot like Grady except for her emerald green eyes and a thin patch of white fur on her belly. She's not nearly as talkative, though. We still haven't moved beyond knowing glances and the occasional squeak. She does like catnip.

She's been at the house for a couple of hours now and I think it will be time to let her explore the rest of the house soon. So far, so good.

I found this great image over at the Tumblr blog Retrogasm here. I'm not going to hotlink the image, the blog is legit and won't give you cooties if you click on it. It's really quite fascinating and the silhouettes very well done, although I'm not certain of the accuracy of any of the figures after 1985. Go ahead, take a good look at it. I'll wait.

...

Since I found this little gem I have been inspired to use the figures in some pendant designs. Around my tenth or twelfth design I got to thinking it would be a really bad idea to sell these without the blessing of the silhouettes' original artist. I mean, these are really nice-looking and classy images. I would hate to have this project turn into the subject of litigation over something as simple as permission. I figured I'd write to the artist, pay what they asked for (within reason), and if it wasn't possible I'd have a lot of holiday gifts ready-to-go.

In my search for the original artist, all roads led back to Retrogasm. Every fashion blog that linked to it found the image either from Retrogasm or each other. When I wrote to the webmaster he was not able to give me any artist information either. It had been long enough ago that the source of the image was lost. Frustrating.

All I have to go on is the title that the original poster provided: A History of Fashion... Silhouette version. The image made big rounds in June of this year (2011). It's not a very big image, but it was enough for me to use on my project.

If you can find its origins, please by all means share your findings with me. I want to give credit where credit is due.

The band took a hiatus... accidentally. We had three weeks of no rehearsal for one reason or another (illness, work, family emergency) and just got back together this week. Funny how now that we're back in sync and I'm finding the energy to book shows again everyone is going on vacation. We won't play another show until late August. By then we will have released album #2. I guess it all works out.

I guess for a while there I was starting to burn out on music. I had no time or energy for booking, people don't offer us shows out of the air (except for SeaStar, and we love them for that), and nobody else was stepping up to do it in my place. You guys might think I'm this super-cool musician lady with a record and an awesome stage show, but to the Seattle scene I'm just another squawking hack without a draw. Worth and talent are hard to prove without the crowd to support it. I needed those three weeks to regroup and figure out my head.

I realized I wasn't using my free time wisely enough. I downloaded apps to my R2, researched portable recording gadgets, re-prioritized the things that brought me peace... Most of what I needed was here all along, I just had to find enough calm to remember where I put it.

In the real world I have credit card information on Reverb Nation and SonicBids to update, features on my Yamaha keyboard I need to learn how to use, and a couple of songs to clean up arrangements for.

Here is where we are
How many years since we've grown apart
I'm on the opposite end of the world in a hundred ways
And I'm so not the same

I do miss Grady. This morning I was by the mantle where his urn sits and I thought I heard him in my head. «Hey,» he said, «I'm coming back you know. I don't know how, but I can feel it. And that thing you were worried about? It won't happen. Have the tuna ready for me, 'kay?» I'm not sure what that meant, but it is true I've been considering another animal. When I'll follow through on that I couldn't tell you.

So... I'm around. I'm making music. We're looking at playing outside the city a few times this year. My Etsy store will get updated in the next week or two. It'll be great. You just wait and see.

These are the first bunny magnets made from my Craft Night molds. It's closer to the truth to say that these are the original bunny shapes used to make those molds, but why nitpick? The base shapes were baked, embelleshed, then baked again. I think for the next set I will probably only do one bake - working with Bake 'n Bond (say that 3 times fast, then get hungry) is only simple with larger pieces.

Even though I'm not talking much (if at all), my throat is feeling a bit better. I need to be able to not speak, whisper, cough, or clear my throat for an entire day or longer. Easier said than done. Making a doctor appointment is challenging enough!
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