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.

April 24, 2001 by krisis

So, i’m not going to Shippensburg this weekend as originally planned. I’m not quite sure why. I have two people who want to drive there and have nothing better to do, but the plan just doesn’t seem to have any weight to it. Maybe it’s because the other two people want to go because i want to go, and i want to go so i can hang out with Teri, but in reality i know Teri will be too tied up in the midst of her last big party of the year to pay much attention to a bunch of us Drexel kids. Or to me. It’s silly to even try to suggest that i had another reason to go … i don’t drink all that much and i’m not the most social person in the world when it comes to meeting people at parties. My excuse for it all was that a bunch of us would go and make it a bonding experience, but obviously the drive behind the whole thing was seeing Teri. But now i’m not. Not sure how i feel about that. But, now it looks like i can just run into town, buy a spindle of cds, and start hammering away at demo duplication. What fun!

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3356256/

April 24, 2001 by krisis

I’m starting to hate “Under My Skin“. Sure, it’s a wonderful song, and i love to perform it alone or with Gina backing me, but it’s starting to make me feel like a one-hit-wonder in training. Despite my playing a whole host of songs for my friends here at Drexel for well over a year, the one they always ask for when i’m playing is “Under My Skin” (or, if it’s Renata – “Play ‘legends of the flesh!'”). While they recognize “Never Say Goodbye,” “Deadweight,” “Crashing,” and “Lost,” “Under My Skin” is undoubtably the one that sticks out in their minds. UMS is the only song my mother has ever complemented me on, even after listening to my entire demo twice last night. I’m truly flattered by all of the attention, but i honestly can’t make a prediction on how long any song is going to be sticking around in my performances for; some songs like “Other Plans” seem to want to hang around forever, but other early favourites like “Touch” have fallen off the face of my musical landscape and are hardly every recalled.

I don’t play things just because people like them – i play them because i have something to say. While it feels nice to know that someone might be singing along to something, there are nights that UMS feels redundant in the face of newer material. Furthermore, i come from the Ani DiFranco school of performing that states that i can leave out any songs i don’t want to play, and that i can feel free to change the tempo and lyrics of anything people seem to be too comfortable with. Of course, at this point i shouldn’t give a fig about challenging my audience – i ought to just find one. It’s just that i see all the attention getting funnelled towards the middle of my new cd, where “Under My Skin” lies, and all the other songs that i worked harder and longer on are being ignored. I think i’m going to leave UMS in it’s pre-mix for the album … raw, and unfinished. It isn’t a perfect song, and there’s no reason i should try to make it sound like one.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3346623/

April 24, 2001 by krisis

Sometimes i think my mother is a little stupid about some things, but she refuses to admit it. But… she is! In the same way i’m still relatively dumb when it comes to finance and relationships, she really has no practical experience in performance or extra-curricular activites. She simply doesn’t get the dynamics or point of my music fraternity. She was the person who initially suggested that i deter Selina from joining because it would interfere with my life. I thought that was the most immature thing my mother ever said and i told her as much. Predictably, concerns about my treatment of Selina in terms of the fraternity were brought up last week and i was able to defend myself without the slightest hesitation because i know i’ve been nothing but fair to her – and everyone else leapt to my defense as well. In my mother’s mind, this is just a club of friends, and i have every right to put up a big unfriendly sign that says “no ex-girlfriends allowed.” Even though we’re all friends, the fraternal aspect gives the group a wholly different dimension – one that my mother has never experienced in any group she’s been in as far as she’s ever made me aware. What i’ll hand to her is that she’s dumb like a fox; while i can’t always take her advice because it would be utterly inappropriate in any given situation, it’s usually the best advice. So … i suppose she’s not so stupid after all – she’s just trying to hard to give me the right answers to questions in the wrong categories.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3346078/

April 23, 2001 by krisis

The heat really came out of nowhere. We had a few nice days a week or two ago, but last week on my walk to work i encountered temperatures below fourty twice, so i wasn’t exactly packing away my sweatshirts or anything. The weather started to lift on Saturday and was quite springlike by the time Battle of the Bands let out, but yesterday was murder. Almost ninety degrees! And, of course, this would be a day where i’m seriously undernourished and overstressed. Basically, whenever i moved from one place to another it was just momentum and force of will, and when i sat down i sat down for quite a while. I’m not ready for heat, damnit. I don’t even know where my shorts all are…

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3332300/

April 21, 2001 by krisis

How often do you see people walking around playing guitar? I mean… not while you’re walking around and they’re sitting down, but when they have a guitar strapped on and they’re walking down the sidewalk across the street from you while singing. I usually sing on my way back home from the office, and i draw odd looks most of the time (i don’t really endeavor to sing under my breath…), so today i was coming back from a rehearsal with Gina (for our show in the Quad on the 3rd) and i decided to play a few songs. I had gotten through “Punk” and into the outro of “Under My Skin” when i was flagged down and invited into my favourite pizza place by the chef, who asked me to play a few songs. I obliged by ripping into a bouncy version of “Under My Skin” in an attempt to hold the attention of the various patrons (which really was just two sisters with one’s child, the cook and his mother, and two young boys splitting a pizza) and at the end they clapped. I’ve been clapped at dutifully, or patronizingly, but instead they kept clapping after i smiled and thanked them and reset my capo for the next song and started.

Thirty minutes and four songs later i left the pizza place having promised to return with my new CD next week and having been invited to play at a restaurant downtown on Monday. I got several odd looks as i entered the more residential neighborhood while playing “Crashing,” but just as many people smiled and nodded as i passed them with a strum. I think i’ve found a new way to spend Saturday afternoons…

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3307282/