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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Randomly, let’s rank all of the songs on the Ani DiFranco album after three days of listening! “Heartbreak Even” is definitely the best song in the set, but “So What” and “Marrow” are vying for the next best slot. Funkalicious “Ain’t That The Way” and “o.k.” are quite good, but i think they’re slightly topped by the guitar-based “grey” and “Imagine That.” “Garden of Simple” and “Subdivision” occupy a more middling acoustic rank on the charts, though “Your Next Bold Move” is surprisingly great. “Reckoning” is slow and thoughtful but i don’t mind, because the album needed that exact emotion once and it fits perfectly. “Tamburitza Lingua,” “What How When Where (why who)” and “Fierce Flawless” are all songs that are good and bad at once, with parts i’m obsessed with and parts i find rather boring. Past that i could take or leave the rest of the album, instrumentals and all. Obviously i’m still only three-quarters of the way through appreciating Reckoning, but i honestly can tell you i’ll never truly love “School Night” or “Old Old Song” since they’ve got two bad verses for every good one, and “Rock Paper Scissors” and “Sick of Me” are both a little too off kilter to catch my attention. So, there’s some unwarranted opinion that’s bound to change sometime soon; “Heartbreak Even” cannot possibly stand up to another week of continuous repeat, can it?

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3204233/

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So, um, yeah. My mother hated last year’s demo because she’s stupid. Or, rather, she is all about the show that’s put on for her, and she can’t notice lyrics or songwriting without it. The demo was explicitly meant as a showcase of those two things, since it totally lacked quality of production, but she could never get past that so she never really listened to it. So, suddenly she’s handed a tape with a studio quality “under my skin” on it, and she wants to send it to the record companies right now despite the fact that it still pretty much sounds like shit. Of course, she doesn’t care, because the studio EQ and the backing vocals are there so she can gush all over it and say that i’ve never done anything worthwhile ever before in my life. Which is the worst compliment she could ever pay me, because this is the product of my life, not its sum total. Or something. This is why she’s in Florida right now and i don’t mind so much…

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3204160/

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I’m starting to feel famous. Or, more accurately, people are actually starting to know and recognize my songs. Sure, it’s not hundreds of people, but i have enough of a market for the upcoming disc that i’m actually looking into getting it printed rather than just burning them one by one. The fact that i played “Under My Skin” last night twice and that people sang along makes it that much better. Amy thinks it’s an ego thing, but honestly i’m just happy that all of my sonic toiling is finally having an effect on people. Not quite a rock star yet, but i’ve got some years left before i get my diploma to work on it :p

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3200261/

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I started playing “Hold on Me” and Selina walked into the shop halfway through the first verse. Have you ever played a song written about your ex-girlfriend while you still really liked her in the same room with her after the breakup? Well… you’d think it’d be really fun, but really it was an exercise in subtly changing lyrics to reflect the current situation, and keeping your eyes pressed shut tightly so you don’t have to look at her. After i launched immediately into “Splinter” Selina eventually left the shop, and Gina got me to lay off the mean relationship songs. However, we then played “Under My Skin” again and i performed the “i don’t miss you anymore” extended mix (much to Gina’s confusion and delight). The first time i ever sang the song in this fashion was to Selina when we first started seeing each other, and the “miss you anymore” was my way of telling myself i finally was over Laurel. The demo version is much more conflicted at that point of the song, because it was physically sung to Laurel, who i was over but still very pleased to serenade. The version last night brought me full circle back to sitting in Selina’s dorm room with my guitar, pouring out my heart to her. It was empty for a while, but i hear refills are free.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3200004/

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Keep your calendars clear, my friends, because @5pm on Thursday May 3rd Gina and I will be playing our first “concert” as a part of the Spring Jam block party. While i’d been pestering the Campus Activities Board to book us for the event for well over a month, it was cemented last night when Gina and I were the only two performers to show up at an open mic event, which was quickly turned into “Live with Gina & Peter.” We traded a few individual performances (a new one of hers, and “Landslide.” “No Second Chance,” “Relief,” “Hold on Me,” “Splinter,” and a combo “Lucky Star” + “Lost Out” for me), but then joined forces for our standards: “Under My Skin,” “With or Without You,” “Sharks Can’t Sleep” (fun!), “Never Say Goodbye,” “Can’t Do Without You,” a new song, and “Deadweight.” It remains to be seen what songs we’ll be adding for our joint set at the block party, but last night was definitely fun and some of the better performing we’ve managed to put together in our several years of intermittent collaboration. So, keep May 3rd free, and show up not only for the music but also for the block party extravaganza!

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3199963/