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.

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I’ve given up on trying to explain why i’m late to work. It’s not as if i’m not one to make excuses, because i am, It’s just that sometimes i know even before i speak that i’d be better off keeping my mouth shut.

Today i was ten minutes late. When asked, i gave the easy answer: i missed my bus. However, i know exactly why i was really late: because of my hamster.

Last night i was kept tossing and turning by something scratching my leg. Was it my blanket? Did i leave guitar strings on the bed? After almost an hour of intermittent sleep i finally sat up and flung the covers from my bed only to find Peaches contentedly nibbling on a sunflower seed.

A chase ensued, with me toppling chairs and guitars in my fury, and she hiding underneath any conveniently low piece of furniture. I finally nabbed her and tossed her back into her cage. Afterwards i settled down to try to salvage a good night’s sleep … which only lasted forty minutes before i again found myself playing the part of a rodent track-and-field stadium.

I promptly picked her up by the nape of her neck, tossed her into her cage through her still-open door, shut it, wired it closed with twist-ties (which she immediately began to chew through), and then constructed a clumsy (but effective) barricade against the front of her cage using a bandana, half-assembled habitrail tubes, and an empty box of tissues.

It was only then, totally awake and wired from my duty as impromptu hamster warden and too hot and bothered to get comfortable on my mattress, that i dragged my pillow and sheet to the floor in front of my air conditioner.

My rest was marred by my constant state of alertness whenever i heard a potential nibble or imagined something brushing up against my leg. This, in addition to the fact that i was now across the room from my alarm clock and under a mess of machine-white noise, led to my eventual awakening, naked and unshaven, at 7:59 this morning — a mere thirty-one minutes away from the time that i am supposed to arrive at my desk. And, despite the fact that i was dressed and out of the house in a record nine minutes, i still missed the bus that would have delivered me to work on time, leaving me stranded on the corner of 44th and Chestnut for another ten minutes — enough time to catch another bus, and not coincidentally the amount of time i was late.

Like i said, it was my hamster.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2003/08/106010434685880372/

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Not to beat the whole Blogathon topic to death (too late, i know), but Crushing Krisis has been nominated in the Best Music Project category of this year’s Blogathon awards. I am nominated along-side Haunted Sky‘s excellent Karaoke project as well as the astounding Pet Rock Stars‘ collaborative writing project, which i sponsored.

I’m truly honored that enough ‘thonners tuned in to Crushing Krisis this year to even make a dent in the vote. I have to say that i was bordering on crushed last year when former blogger Danica (of fame in Tori Amos circles) beat me out for the prize after all the cash, sweat, and tears that went into my project. However, i have no such illusions as to who should win this year, as some excellent sites have already been omitted.

Regular readers (that would be you (unless it’s not)) cannot vote on this award; the Blogathon team decided that a static group of remarkable judges would vote on all categories to avoid the sort of ballot-stuffing that is inherent to most internet voting. B’Thon’s officially suggested listening includes collaborative originals Wait and A Few Bars of Goodbye.

(I would be so bold as to also nominate Hyperbole and Lindsay’s original Reflection as additional examples of the spectacular collaborations our Blogathon team generated, but this would ignore such astounding examples as Lindsay &; Anthony’s definitive Over The Rainbow and Gina’s arresting solo once-off take of November Rain, so it’s nearly pointless to single anything out to begin with. Seriously, have you been listening? The entire track-list is currently living on the sidebar to your left.)

Again, thank you to all who nominated Crushing Krisis for this distinction; i hope that all of you (regular and irregular) will continue to tune in for my weekly Trio concerts starting the week of September 22nd.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2003/08/106001712683689265/

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Years are funny because their rhythm is just slightly different for everyone.

My years used to be empty stretches of barren land, awful summer droughts of excitement before the start of school effectively canceled out my birthday through coinciding with it then quickly escalating into Christmas only to dramatically collapse into Winter doldrums, which would only be broken by the end of school and the beginning of another punishing summer. I had no family events, yearly excursions, and special projects to look forward to. It was miserable.

Everything is so different now. My birthday has become part of a week of Welcome Back parties collectively known as MelonBowl, Halloween is treated with all of the pagan reverence it deserves, Christmas lasts for two or more weeks as i catch up to everyone i meant to give presents to, i inevitably get involved with a play in the winter, spring brings a combined Elsie/Ross birthday blowout as well as our newly inaugurated Lyndzapalooza, and then with June as a short breather i am launched into the frenzy of Blogathon, followed by a rushed retrospective as CK celebrates its anniversary on August 26th, which then leads me again into my own birthday preparations.

Early this week i fantasized that if i were to win a huge lottery i would whisk all the people responsible for giving me so many amazing things to look forward to away to a quaint little town in a Canada or France or China, and we would spend all year celebrating life, without a moment to catch our breath. And, then i realized, we do that here anyway.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2003/08/105984465766016276/

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Blogathon seems to get shorter and shorter ever year, which is not to say that it’s any more or less difficult, just less. At the end of the first year i felt as if i had just won a bonus New Years’ ball drop — all fanfare, but in the middle of July when i was too exhausted to be expected to know what to do about it. Last year it was exhiliration — jumping up and down on the bed excitement.

What does the end bring with it this year? If anything, i think it brings promise of potential — of more excellent things to come. The ‘thon itself shattered its donation goal of $80,000 , more than doubled its number of participants, and was mentioned in a decent array of local and internet media this week. And i continued to hone my mixing ability to the point where some of the blogathon songs could have easily been album tracks if i had taken the time to prepare for them a little bit better. We promise to get bigger and better, blogathon and i, and we promise to see you next year.

In no especially precise order: Thank you to Persa, for being such a receptive soundboard for my early recordings; Amanda and Chris, for stopping by for a while to be an audience; Wes for sitting patiently while i neglected to put his talents to better use; Maggie, for keeping Elise and i so god-damned amused; Dina, for stopping by to lend a hand to my concert; Lisa, for weekly conversation and being an outlet for my Blogathon enthusiasm; Laurel, for being unafraid to let us build a whole song around her voice; Ms Stark, who was very inspiring altogether; SL for finding the time to stop by and raise the coolness factor of my shindig; Chris, for schlepping his bass here in the middle of the night even after i thought he was a totally different person; Rabi, because i knew she’d be watching and yes, i know exactly what your comment meant; Ross, for patiently attempting to learn the bassline to a song that i didn’t wind up using anyhow; Erika for bravely co-hosting and finally letting her voice be heard on CK; Scott and Shannon, for doing something that i want to be able to do in a way that i would have never thought of doing; Melon, for all of her fantastic illustrations (sorry i only used two!); Anthony, for his ear, inspiration, and equipment; TEOS and Mike Kovacs, for their generous artistic donations; Gina, for her dedication to helping me make good music even without being here for the ‘Thon itself; Lindsay, for her absolutely stunning voice and cheering presence; Kate, for being the host that i couldn’t be and the cook that i don’t know how to be; Elise, for her clarinet and for putting up with endless amounts of drama and rescheduling because of how important this is to me; and finally, and most importantly, Cat Connor, not only for inventing and perpetuating this event, but for having enough faith to realize that this year was just a practice for next year, which will rock even harder.

And, thank you reader/listener/friend, you are the reason i even bother to do this in the first place.

One more to go.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2003/07/105930904756462069/