Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Creative

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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/

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The moment you saw me your face lit up just like a christmas tree
But i didn't want to admit that that electric could be me
I have reasons piled up why this could never be
And the only one really in the way is 'me'

I got a little lost the moment you leaned in
Cause things don't stay simple with your world sent spinning
I can't just back out of this affection
But my lips somehow veered off in another direction
Cause kisses aren't contracts and hugs aren't handshakes
And you'd have me making promises i'm not allowed to break
But somehow we've got to a nonverbal agreement
On something we can't seem to cement
And I'm choosing the subtle saftey of the distance
From me to the top of the pedestal in this instance
It hardly even makes a difference

It was a goodbye i was looking forward to
As a soapbox for my feelings for you
Because I figured you could suffer a few more words
And either way you'd be headed down the road
with me empty handed, hollow hearted, my eyes watching you recede
But resolve melts quick on a city street
And that was just my theory of the easy way out
What are the chances of me opening my mouth
Against the chances of those Christmas lights all burning out
Or their plug pulled a minute too soon.
Some people leave them up past June.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3185805/

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The oddest thing happened to me wednesday night. There was a knock on my door, and i immediately was ready to scream “Jesus, Matt, how the hell did you manage to lose your keys?” but when i looked out the peephole i saw something that was definitely more girl-shaped than Matt (Josh chimes in: Dude, I’m more girl-shaped than Matt.) Sorry, anyway… I opened the door and there was a girl there. I asked timidly “Am i being loud?”, and in response i was handed a wine cooler, and the girl doing the handing said “I just wanted to tell you that i love listening to you through my ceiling and i wanted to give you something, so here.” I sorta just stood there dumbfounded for a second, opening and closing my mouth, and then said “Wow… um… thank you.” We chatted for a very strange minute or two during which i found out she lives directly beneath me, and then she left. I put the bottle down on my stereo and started working on my new song again, but the bottle was staring me down. It felt weird sitting there.

Bottle in hand i went downstairs and rapped on her door, and she opened it with a sorta bemused look on her face and i said “I don’t really take liquor from strangers, but i’ll come down and play you some songs this weekend and drink it then.” We wound up talking for an hour, during which time i learned that i’m “famous.” My next door neighbor apparently turns off his teevee at night to listen to me play, her entire family knows who i am from her commenting on me while on the phone, and her boyfriend was totally ecstatic to hear me bleeding down through the walls one day when he woke up. “I’m sorta like a teevee character, huh?” “Well, I didn’t want you to think i wanted to hook up with you or anything, but i just had to come up and give you something or say something. So, both”


We sat on her floor with her door wide open for a while and figured out that the weird italian looking guy in spandex from her dorm was actually Joey, and she even knows Selina from working in the language department, and i wound up promising to communicate through notes slipped under her door, and that i’d show up with my guitar over the weekend.

And to think i thought she was going to complain about me being loud.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3185795/