Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

best of

by

No one ever agrees with me, but i think people are at their most radiant when they first wake up in the morning. During the night your skelton sorta resets itself, and so does your face. When i look myself in the mirror in the AM i notice the corners of my mouth are higher than usual, and that the little laugh lines i’ve accumulated have smoothed themselves out. Of course, during the day i’ll pick all of that back up, and then some, but it’s nice to be a clean slate for a few minutes before life sets in.

Isn’t it frightening that i already have identifiable laugh lines on my face? I suppose they’re ultimately the sign of a happy life, but i’m not sure that i’m ready for wrinkles before the age of twenty. The alarm clock just went off really blaringly loud, which made me laugh for all of two seconds before the noise got to me and i turned the damn thing off. Matt and i are never here, and i can’t imagine when the alarm was set or for which of us, unless Matt was here yesterday and i totally missed him (which would be pretty funny). I’ve probably spent less time here than Matt in the last week, which is rather disturbing in and of itself. I swear… at this point we’re paying rent just to keep stuff in here.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/01/2007214/

by

My film/video class has been interesting in changing the way i frame everything i take in day-to-day. My teacher made a rather interesting point about using a zoom lens the other day – a quick zoom shot is unnerving because human beings have no way to zoom in on a picture, but a slow zoom on something like a face is nature because it simulates us getting closer and closer to whatever we’re looking at.


Something else that i’ve been noticing is the distance i frame my visual “shots” from. I think we all mostly use a full or mid shot, where we’re looking at most of the torso of someone, plus their head and some of the space above it. A shot we almost never use in real life is extreme-closeup, where we don’t even focus on the entirety of an object but just the focus of its action. How often do we see a face in extreme closeup? Pretty much only when we’re close enough to kiss someone, wouldn’t you say? It’s hard to keep perspective on something when you’re that close … trying to remember what a cheekbone and a jaw have to do with the rest of a face or the entirety of a person. It’s almost easy to forget that anything else is there except for that fraction of a face… a visage floating more closely than you’d ever dare get with a camera.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/01/1985029/

by

Breaking news for those of you who actually listen to my squawking and strumming: I’ll be recording a brand new studio EP tentatively titled sweeter to be released on April10th. The current track-listing is as follows: Under My Skin, Punk, Relief, Angel, Crashing, Deadweight, Lost, & Never Say Goodbye. Yes, i realize that a few songs got excluded, but this is just a tentative list. Basically, i’m too darn impatient to wait until i’m ready to play a whole album and i desperately want to record “UMS” and “Crashing” before they get lost amongst newer songs. So, seeing as i know enough about the studio to record basic tracks as well as overdubs and whatnot, now is the time to put it all to the test! Furthermore, i finally was given access to the ProTools system, which means i might actually be able to smuggle out some MP3’s of my progress in the coming weeks. Please, try to control your bodily function! I know the thought of me singing into an actual microphone is pretty exciting, but you’ve got three months yet before you can hear the final product. Ok? Exciting!?! Whoo!

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/01/1926675/

by

In less than an hour i’ll be celebrating the one year anniversary of writing “Under My Skin.” Thinking about it makes me want to… cry? I almost hate when i crystallize a moment in time so perfectly into words and notes that sound good, so that i replay the moment every time i sing the song. Over time i’ve come to accept my slightly idealized account of what happened as the truth, when in reality it was only the truth of my perception. UMS is one of the lucky few songs i’ve written that have been liked both by me and my occasional audiences, and i’m grateful for having the opportunity to call it my own – even if it was a result of heartbreak. Even more important to me is that the song is accepted and adored by the person it’s about, although i still don’t think she truly understands what it (and she) means to me. This weekend i demoed the song in several configurations in the studio, and it will definitely be a prominent track on my next demo recording.

Anyhow, all of my creepy singer-songwriter issues aside, you can still hear my original recording of the song over at AMkitchen, as well as newer versions there and in the Trio archive. After a year it all still feels the same, even though it sounds a little different now.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/01/1900376/

by

I’m having one of those “small cog in an infinite universe” kind of days. I remember when i was younger i fancied the Earth as a single cell in a body, with all of us reduced to that stuff that floats around the nucleus – and we could barely even comprehend the sum total of our own cell let alone the entirety of our body or beyond. Of course, i eventually learned what all that stuff around the nucleus was called. As my plane came in from Florida i glanced out of the window and saw the entirety of Philadelphia laid out all in the yellow glow of street lamps and the tiny winking brake lights of hundreds of cars. It felt as though i could snap a photo of it all and load it into SimCity… replacing my apartment building with a lush condominium and widening all of the streets in South Philly so there would be room to park.


I’m nothing but a single Sim in my city. I never played any of the newer versions of SimCity, but i remember the original clearly from way-back. Imagine just a single person in that city. Would they visit every building? On any given day would they even waste a thought on the outlying suburbs or the densely packed inner-city streets? My range within Philadelphia is so very limited, and as the plane descended and i could make out distinctive landmarks it was as if my daily path was highlighted especially in the wash of all of those orangey street lamps, and it was as tiny and restricted as those country roads that i claim to despise so much. Maybe what i like about the city is the illusion of options, and not the option themselves. Or maybe i should go to sleep on long plane rides. Any thoughts?

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/01/1836507/