Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

krisis

Krisis has been creating Crushing Krisis since 2000, writing songs since 1996, and reading comics since 1991. He is a Customer Success and Digital Brand Strategy executive, serial organizer, parent, and feminist, among other things. Based in Philly through 2017, he now resides in Wellington, NZ.

2007 Song of the Day #2 – Supervixen (Garbage)

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If there’s an album I have hopes of covering fully by the end of the year (by someone other than Madonna) it’s definitely Garbage’s debut, so the the first song on it seemed like a good place to start.

“Supervixen” is by far my favorite song by my favorite band, which might give the impression that it’s my favorite song of all time, but not quite.

It’s one of those songs I play a hundred times a year but never quite nail when recording. Tonight’s isn’t perfect, but I think any song this loosely translated from the original will always have an air of the unexpected surrounding it.

(It’s also one of those songs whose title has only a implied relationship with its lyrics, something I do with my own songs more often than I intend.)

It took me a long (long) time to figure out a way to emulate the crazy multi-layered intro on one acoustic guitar. Tonight i was having trouble counting myself into it, so i skip the first pass at it altogether. This gives the song a much more ponderous start rather than the usual guns-blazing approach, which was fine by me, since I don’t know if my vocals were up to “blazing” tonight.

Incidentally, my extra vocals on the bridge and at the end of the last chorus were originally ad-libbed during Blogathon 2002, and ever since then I’ve done it that way every time.

If you want chords, performance notes, and lyrics for “Supervixen,” read below… [Read more…] about 2007 Song of the Day #2 – Supervixen (Garbage)

Pack Ratting Red Red Sharpener

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To ring in 2007 I undertook some major home-office/recording-studio cleaning last night in the hopes of stemming the frequent avalanches of stuff that occur whenever I place anything on or walk past my desk. Because, gosh darn it, if my work desk can be organized, so can my home desk.

My desk cleaning reminded me of just how much of a pack rat I truly am. Behold: Tiny boxes that held small Christmas presents four years ago. The extra buttons to every Express shirt I’ve ever bought (and that’s a lot of buttons). Six year old pens.

Think about that. I had pens from 2000! Six year old pens that I refused to throw away because they’re from the time VW set up a tent on campus and they gave me a bag of shwag for standing on a table in the middle of the event and singing I’m a little teapot (as if that was a challenge for me; I probably would have done it naked).

My desk cleaning also lead me to a moment of reflection on my red Panasonic pencil sharpener.

You see, my red Panasonic pencil sharpener has been with me since third grade. It used to sit next to the dining room table in my childhood home. It came with me to college, and survived all three of my apartments.

It might not be very sexy, it might be as heavy as a brick, but after seventeen years of use the darn thing still works perfectly. By contrast, I’ve been through three separate sharpeners in the past year at the office.

I guess they don’t make them like they used to.

(Yes, you do see Rogue in the foreground of that shot. She’s not quite as old as the Panasonic, but she’s survived all the same locales – in fact, when I first got my webcam in 2001 I believe she spent a day on-camera perched outside of my window, searching for injustice to fight.)

2007 Song of the Day #1 – Holiday (Madonna)

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In the midst of all of my NaBloPoMoing in November I was reminded of how fun it can be to turn on my mixer and record a song – especially something I’ve never played before. In fact, my favorite results of the month were all songs I barely rehearsed and slammed through in a single take (Other Plans, Under My Skin, & Dilate).

In the spirit of that, in 2007 I’m going to slam through as many songs as I can, posting the results as Songs of the Day for your listening pleasure.

In keeping with my last post, I make no promises that this will occur every day, or even once a week. I’d just like to fill out my catalog of recordings, and to offer you more of me to hear. I plan to focus on some specific artists and albums, but past that I have no idea where this is headed. Some songs might be recognizable hits, while others will be b-sides or originals. Many could be forgettable, but a few could be gems.

My first effort is a cover of Madonna’s “Holiday.” You can read some background about “Holiday” at Mad Eyes, which is the only Madonna site I found with a complete itemized list of every one of her songs (both published and unreleased). It’s pretty awesome.

If you want chords, performance notes, and lyrics for “Holiday, keep reading. [Read more…] about 2007 Song of the Day #1 – Holiday (Madonna)

Resolving to be more resolved actually made me more resolute.

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I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions, mostly because I’m only average at keeping promises to myself the rest of the year.

Or, at least, I used to be average. In 2004 I graduated to “decent” when I made three very broad resolutions – to be aware of my money, my diet, and my time. They didn’t mean I had to pinch pennies every day, avoid eating junk, and be productive 24/7 – they just meant I had to be conscious about when I wasn’t doing those things.

Three years to the day and these general promises to self are still in place and thriving, and I’m a much happier person for the effort. Why? Because even if I went on a bender of money or time wasting, or food devouring, at least I knew it was just a bender. At least I knew where I was coming from, and where I would be where I wound up.

In 2006 I think I might have eeked up the scale from “decent” to almost “good,” because, in 2006 I finally figured out how to do stuff. I saved for a new guitar. I traveled. I performed. I got a new job. I look back on a year full of milestones and accomplishments rather than a lump of time that just passed me by.

Part of the way I did that is by taking my general resolutions and making them macro. I resolved to achieve things in tiny bursts – two months of hanging out with my friends more often, or a season of blogging more. The more specific the goal – like jogging three-to-five times a week – the more prone I was to miss it.

As such, I don’t have any big resolutions for 2007. I do have a few general goals. I hope you do to.

What’s In My Wallet?

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Capital One not only boasts commercials with various vikings and other barbarians, but also a strong claim of fraud protection. It was with that in mind that i rang them up last night, as i was about to drop some major expense onto my Capital One card, including a purchase from a new website that would be shipping to an alternate address. AKA, recipe for a declined charge.

Calmly and with the air of one resigned to the large amount of money he was about to spend i explained my predicament to the phone rep. She told me never-to-fear, that we would add the alternate address as a note on my file so that any questions about the validity of my purchase from vendors or the fraud department would be headed off at the pass.

Having found a rare phone rep who sounded as if she knew what she was talking about, i let her do her thing. I think i almost offered to send her flowers, but settled for passing my complements along to her supervisor.

Fast forward to today, twelve-hours post buying binge, when i check my email to discover that one of my transactions had declined. Not the special, weird transaction, but a normal one with Amazon.

And, a few minutes later, so did another. And a third. And a fourth.

None of the transactions to the new address declined. Neither did those paid in Pounds or Euros. Just the standard American purchases that probably comprise half of my credit card statements from 2006 – sheet music.

Because, clearly, someone had stolen my card and was using it to buy obscure Madonna sheet music to send to my house. Oh my god, please save me from the fraudulent horror of rare, out-of-print Madonna sheet music. In two of the declined cases we’re talking about a single copy of a piece of sheet music out of the entire internet, verified via approximately six hours of hunting.

On this phone call i was much less calm, and i spoke to a much less confident phone rep. His name had a ‘v’ in the middle of it. He, uh, thought that, um, maybe my card had been flagged for fraud? Possibly. Because, ahhh, because of the amount of online transactions I made on the card over the past week.

“Levine,” i said, “I think every purchase on the card in 2006 was made online. From the same stores that are being declined.”

Devon “ahhed” in agreement.

“So, why is it declining now that I’m relying on it to pay for twenty-year-old, nearly one-of-a-kind sheet music?”

Irvin “ummed” in confusion.

“Howabout we just put a note on my file that says, ‘Book purchases will never be fraudulent?'” I resisted the urge to add, “or any itemized charge including the word Madonna.”

Slevin “uhhed” for a moment before agreeing that this was doable.

The upshot of that story is that fourteen days from now I will have in my possession sheet music for all but a dozen of Madonna songs (not counting Evita tunes), and of the ones I’ll be missing most people have only heard three.

At that time my office will be officially dubbed the International Madonna Sheet Music Library.

(In case you’re interested, the three common tunes are “Burning Up,” which inexplicably doesn’t exist as sheet music, “Beautiful Stranger,” and “American Pie.” Though, if you’re a connoisseur you will probably also know the trio of “Physical Attraction,” “I Know It,” and “Think of Me” from her first LP. However, I’d be surprised if anyone would really miss my ability to play “Gambler,” “Spotlight,” or “Time Stood Still,” and would be outright shocked if many people have heard b-sides “Cyberraga,” “Your Honesty,” or the crazy-obscure “Supernatural.”)