My friend Angie has been Facebook posting millions of pictures from the 80s of our huge group of friends in Houston like this one from September of 1989:



Are we friends of Facebook yet? add me here

p.s. please note my hair hero on the poster in the back.

p.s.dos. should I go back to this hairstyle?

It is so difficult to get back in this habit. I used to make gratitude lists every day. I am going to try again today to start it over.

Thank you for medical insurance.

Thank you that the "chronic kidney stone" chapter of my life is over (it is over....right?).

Thank you for lunch at Steve and Dino's house yesterday.... and vegan cake!

Thank you for this week off from work.

Thank you for a new openness to dating.

Thanks for an actual real live date later today with a cute, tattooed, vegetarian with vegan tendencies.

Thanks for new piano students and families signing up for my kids music class!

Thanks for my strong connection with my friends in Houston.

lookie here! it's an easy way to embed my podcast. yay!

I am a little TOO excited about this playlist that iTunes Genius came up with:



Perfect!

I wish I had posted about the Bang On A Can Marathon when I attended it back on May 31 with my pal Eve Beglarian, but, alas, I did not. I was there for 8 of the 12 hours of free, live new music. This was one of the events that i read about when I still lived in Texas that made me so desperate to move to NYC.


photo by Andrew Frisicano

Such an inspiring event to my latent inner composer AND I got to see one of my all time favorites, Ryuichi Sakamoto play live AND conduct/perform a new chamber music piece of his that wass commissioned just for this event.

So, I decided to take the podcast in a different direction for this latest episode and play music from many of the composers/ ensembles that were featured that day. If you are interested or curious about the state of new music and what these living (classical?) composers are up to , this would be a great way to get introduced to some new stuff. Also, Brooklyn Vegan did a really great recap of the event that you should check out... especially if you are interested in the piece for coffee grinders.

6.16.01
6.16.03
6.16.04
6.16.05
6.16.07
6.16.08

I am nearing my nine year livejournal anniversary.

that's a long time.

I ran this route this morning with my friend. We have been running about 3 times a week. I am so happy to be back in a routine with working out.



Has anyone been following me long enough to remember when I used to be a complete gym rat? I used to obsessively post my workouts and what I ate each day. It seems like a lifetime ago.

This was pretty much the best birthday ever. Here's how it went down:

Friday

I had a private party of 22 (including my mom who came in from AZ for the occasion) at 4 Course Vegan. I didn't know if I could get that many people together being so new to NYC, but all of my friends showed up, despite the rain and distance from the subway. Chef Matteo is cute as hell and was just lovely to work with as far as setting up the party. And the food?? Here's the menu:

Avocado Roll with
Snap Peas and Spicy Umeboshi Plum Sauce
*****
'Bánh Mì' Salad with
Tamarind-glazed Tofu, Pickled Carrot Slaw,
and Jalapeno Cilantro Aioli
*****
Vietnamese Crepe with Spring Stir-Fry,
Red Curry and Oven-dried Shiitakes
*****
Dark Chocolate Wontons with
Mint 'Nectar' and Strawberry Puree

Seriously. I would like to marry Chef Matteo. Is that so wrong? Here he is on CNN:



Saturday

I had a fairly usual Saturday morning teaching my early childhood music class and a piano lesson. Then I went to my sister's place to hang with my mom a bit before she headed off to the airport. Then I headed off to Prospect Park for a picnic with a huge bowl of potato salad I made using a recipe from Veganomicon, which was delicious! My friend/co-teacher was also celebrating her birthday so she was having a picnic. Prospect Park is beautiful. I had never ventured so deep into it. I am really loving Brooklyn and this summer is going to be great. I live so close to the park! Not as crowded as Central Park and almost as big.

That night, my pal Frank and I went to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for the premiere of I Bring What I Love, a documentary about Youssou N'Dour followed by a live performance with him and his band which was really amazing. This was the beginning of the ten-day Muslim Voices: Arts & Ideas festival so the crowd was really into the film and especially the performance. I was especially excited because this was my first visit to BAM and I was imagining Laurie Anderson performing her United States there. That is a huge moment in contemporary music history if you ask me.

After the show, we walked to Red Bamboo for late night vegan delights.

Sunday

Trapeze! Yes, my sister took me to a trapeze class, which was so amazing/scary/fun/challenging/overwhelming! I will do it again. You can see me in action here. The class was two hours long, the teachers we mostly hot and shirtless. Here's a pic of the guy that is catching me in that video:



So then sis and I went down to Sacred Chow for dinner followed by vegan ice cream sundaes at Lula's Sweet Apothecary. Delish.

If this is what it's like to be forty, I'm all for it. I am happier than I have been in a long time. Finally taking charge of NYC and feeling like I have a life here. So pleased and grateful.

I posted a new podcast this morning....in case you are into that sort of thing.

I discovered a new band this morning: Anois. I love them and you can download their album for free here. Ummmm....how to describe. boy/girl vocals, cello, guitars and a little trumpet and chimes.

hey y'all. I have been doing just music on my podcast lately and thought you might want to check it out. here's the latest one:

CLICK TO PLAY/DOWNLOAD

Another grand mix to make your Monday brighter. I added time stamps to make it a little easier to skip around...not that you would want to miss a second!

(00:34) iamundernodisguise - school of seven bells
(05:42) kalypso - sweet billy pilgrim
(12:05) pieces cancelled (cancelled pieces remix)- steve jansen
(15:10) money for all (version) - nine horses
(22:17) drop - cornelius
(26:50) help i'm alive (twelves remix) - metric
(31:10) through the night (razormaid mix) - tanz waffen
(38:25) story of a thousand seasons past - the rentals
(41:34) take on me - a.c. newman
(45:09) new york - cat power
(47:43) on the parkway - fellow citizens

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One of my friends wrote to me because he is considering going vegan and wanted to know what to expect.

( my response )

Considering that it's almost earth day, what a great time to considering this gift to yourself and the environment!

I interviewed Gavin Castleton about his new album last friday and just posted the podcast last night.



His new album is fucking brilliant and I would really love for people to hear it. If you are not into the podcast thing, you can listen to it for free at purevolume. I was listening to Kate Bush's Hounds of Love on the subway about a month ago thinking "why doesn't anyone do albums with a through-line like this anymore." Well, here it is. Complete with zombies and magical ladybugs holding hands and bouncing up and down. Think of the best aspects of 50 musical genres combined together in a perfectly seemless way, and there you have this album.

( podcast lies beyond the cut )

I just reconnected on Facebook with I friend I have not seen in YEARS. She asked me for a list of highlights of what has gone on in the 20 some odd years since I have seen her. Here it is:

-When I arrived in Houston (1989?), I used the $20.00 you gave me (thanks for that, by the way) to buy a bottle of cheap wine and a pack of cigarettes. Probably some ramen noodles too.

-I lived with my friends Angy, Suzy and David for about six months, working sporadically as a waiter, telemarketer and in retail. I kept none of those jobs for more than a month or so. Even though I was pretty poor, I always found a way to get ahold of drugs or alcohol. Dated various losers. Still, it was fun. David and I had been friends since childhood and I adore him.

-Finally settled into a job at a bar where I became Assistant Manager, despite the fact that I "borrowed" money from the safe frequently and drank most of the time I was working. Dated various losers.

-Moved in with my friend Kathy and her friend Daniel. I think I had picked up a day job as a waiter by this time, though still partying A LOT. Dated various losers while being infatuated with unavailable men.

-Got my own studio apartment, it was tiny and had a really ugly kitchen, though it did have a gigantic claw footed bathtub. SCORE! My designer friend convinced me into buying a gothic looking iron chandelier that I had to duck to walk under. I had also decorated the place with hideous antiques with cherubs. Still not sure what this was about. Dated losers/pined over unavailable men. Also started going to therapy to figure out why I was so depressed. I would guess I was 23 by this time. Still drinking and taking drugs.

-Moved in with my friend Tomiko, also became friends with Tiffany through restaurant work, she has become my best friend. She was sober in AA, I was far from it. I started dabbling in cocaine, though it had little effect on me. I dated the first guy who really broke my heart. Todd. We were so in love with each other. He was HIV+. He decided he needed to leave Houston. The day he left town, he came to my work in the moving truck, we had a long tearful goodbye. Made sure we had each others addresses. I never heard from him again. I tried again and again to stay sober during this time, but never managed to stick to it until (approximately) July 29, 1994. Oh! I played in a band that was actually quite popular, it was called Violent Blue. I will send you one of our songs. We opened for Oasis! They were dicks!

-Moved into my own apartment again, it was one bedroom and I loved it! Even though I had been sober for about a year by this time, I started going to AA meetings at a gay AA club with Tiffany, I made lots of new friends. I started dating a guy named Rowdy. We were together for about a year. He was very sweet, but he was wrapped up in his own world a bit and I needed more attention. We broke up and I immediately started dating the devastatingly handsome Roberto. During this time I registered at Houston Community College and began working on a degree in Piano Performance. This part of my life I LOVED. I studied, practiced piano, started working out, went to my AA meetings, read spiritual books and was just so happy. Oh I quit smoking around this time too.

-As Roberto and I started to become more serious, I became a bit more dependent on him than was probably healthy. He was fiercely independent, and I was a hopeless romantic (read: needy and codependent). We sort of pushed each other in opposite directions. We lived together for a while but finally in 1995 we broke up. it was really the most amicable break up ever. We were fighting on morning and it became painfully evident that we both needed different people. It was heartbreaking, but for the best that we broke up. I immediately moved in with David and his boyfriend. I was devestated and often wonder if I have realy gotten over that relationship.

-I transferred to University of Houston with a double major in Music Composition and Piano Performance. At the very same time I was offered a job at a Montessori School teaching music. I had no idea what I was doing, but I made the best of it. I wound up staying there for 8 years, I learned so much and discovered a passion for teaching. Also during that time, I began playing the piano and Musical Directing for Theaters around town. All of this happened at once, it was an amazing time. Gradually though, I phased out college, so I never finished my degree. This troubles me sometimes, but not too badly.

-Things stayed pretty consistent through this time, I dated here and there but nothing very serious. In 2005, the Montessori was building a new building. On my first visit there I saw the music room, which was a tiny windowless room off of the new huge beautiful gym. I decided that it was time to move on. My sister had been in NYC for years. She and her husband had encouraged me to move here for years, offering to help out with housing until I got on my feet. I decided it was time. In September 2005 I moved first to Americus, GA where I lived on this farm for four months as an intern. It is basically a Christian commune, but in the best possible way. That is a whole story unto itself. It is where HAbitat for Humanity began. That was an amazing experience.

-I arrived in NYC on Jan 1, 2006. I worked at Starbucks for the first few months, then got connected with a theater on the upper east side and musical directed a show for them. I got connected with a place called Kidville (I think they are opening one in Dallas now actually)which I really didn't like. I call it McSchool because it's like fast food education. Another long diatribe I will spare you. I lived with a composer frind in the West Villiage for my first summer, working as her assistant/maintenence person (pianiting her apartment etc) instead of paying rent. Then I lived Brian, who I met on LiveJournal, in Jersey City in a beautiful apartment. The commute and neighborhood, though, were soul killing.

-Now I live in Brooklyn about two blocks from a preschool where I now teach. There are three schools in Brooklyn owned by the same woman. I teach music at all three and the rest of my time is spent at the one nearest me. I am also teaching private piano lessons, and doing my own "mommy and me" music class on Saturday mornings. Easing myself back into dating for the first time in a long long time, and feeling less than inspired about the prospect. Also, I have connected with a handfull of singers who I play for in their Cabaret shows around the city. That is fun too!

Click here to download podcast



Lots of music and a little talking + sniffles.







( playlist inside )

I made dinner for my friend Frank tonight: pumpkin baked ziti with caramelized onions and sage crumbles

It was good.

in case you were wondering how big the thing was they pulled out of my insides:

This procedure was by far the most horrific event in my life. I am not even slightly exaggerating.

I was laid back on a table in my Doctor's office with my jeans and underwear around my knees, completely conscious. He started by filling my urethra with a cold gel that contained a local anesthetic . Then, with his assistant by his side and a foot long metal silver scope in his hand he said, "here we go!"

"Do you want me to tell you if it hurts or something?" I asked.
"You can tell me whatever you want, but I am going forward. We are going to work incredibly fast."

He inserted the scope into my penis and I could feel it proceed all the way through my urethra and into my bladder, poking around my insides.

"Oh SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" I groaned between gritted teeth. i was clenching the sides of the table and panting feverishly. I didn't hurt per se, except for the moments when the scope came in contact with the sides of my bladder.

Then silence for about 15 seconds.

"Did we work on the right or left kidney?" he asked.

"Left."

"That's what i thought. I don't see the stent here.

For a good two or three minutes that fucking scope was poking around inside me while I was writhing on that table, until he finally saw it.

"There it is, thank god."

I felt the forceps squirm a bit and grasp the stent. Then, the burning feeling of having a metal rod clasping an eight inch long tube of spaghetti width plastic pulled through my urethra.

Truly, truly horrific.