Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Personal

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Five hours. I just ran into Gina, so … she’s here. I also dropped off my rapidly fuzzing liner notes to be copied on stock paper – had i planned this out properly i would have had the liner done digitally for today, however when it comes down to digital liner notes or underwear to wear for your show the right choice is (usually) doing laundry. Also, Gina and I were just totally improbably asked to record songs for a play opening in D.C. in July that will be playing at the Philly Fringe Festival, which means we might get to perform live there. This is ultra-tentative, but if i pursue it i think it’ll work out. See how easy it is to network when you’re not just some random kid recording dumb little concerts for your website ;-)

Meanwhile, somehow i leaked the liner notes before the demo release (i know how: i am a dumbass), so people are starting to catch wind of the thanx they received. I’m probably going to change the inside liner notes for each “pressing” of the disc so i can keep straight which ones got made when, so hopefully there’ll be some continuing surprises. But, now i have to sit at my desk and stew for another hour while my copies are being done. What fun.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/05/3480901/

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They’re all tiny facets of the same song. I do this sometimes… circle the drain. I just spin and spin and spin without ever getting to where i need to go. But, sometimes the end result is just somewhere in all the spinning. I have my guitar with me today at work and it’s lunchtime. We shall see where the day leads me…

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/05/3465355/

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So, last night i did one of my favourite things in the world .. ran down the middle of the street in West Philly with my guitar strapped to my back at 2am. Okay, so… maybe it’s not really one of my favourite things. There’s sorta been a few muggings in the blocks surrounding my apartment, and while i’ve never once been harrassed in my nineteen years here in Philadelphia i feel something akin to a bullseye with legs and frizzy hair when i’m walking around with a three hundred dollar instrument and nothing nearly as threatening as a can of pepper spray. Or even just some pepper.

I had been at Bill’s place (Cast Page Update Coming Soon) just messing around with his sweet keyboard and my guitar … we managed to get a few ad-libbed songs off the ground but eventually i got tired and all i could muster were very strummy E minor chords and various and sundry Ani DiFranco lyrics, so we called it a night. I don’t think it was until i got outside that i realized how much of a night it really was. But, anyhow, i made it home in one piece, and even got into the building (despite having earlier locked my keys in the admissions office). So… yeah, that was my big adventure of the day. And, i ate a crepe with my little brother from PiNu. Very exciting stuff. Now i’m gonna go file something…

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/05/3463284/

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Um, hi. Nice to meet you. We might have met before… i used to write stuff on here every so often. But, lately i’ve been out and about. You know… concerts, rehearsals, theatre … all that arty junk that college students do because they aren’t doing nearly enough work. I went a whole weekend without even thinking about checking my email; could you imagine? Obviously the computer has become so much a part of my daily work-life that i dread and avoid it when i get home. By contrast, with my decided lack of music curricula this term has made my guitar the most exciting thing on earth. Really. My fingers hurt just thinking about it. I even did a Trio yesterday, but it really sucked, so i’m gonna try again. And other stuff too. Back to work.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3435944/

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Wanna connect some musical dots? Would they just be tied whole notes, then? Well, last night i saw Peter Mulvey in concert from less than ten feet away for the sixth or seventh time. He and his sideman David “Goody” Goodrich turned in a short and moody set of favourites as well as a new tune, after which they chatted briefly with me a few different times. This has sorta become the defacto post-concert behaviour, because i’ve seen Peter so many times now that he’s grown to recognize me (and the wild war-whoops i usually let out from the audience when i’m not losing my voice). I gave him my demo cd last year and he told me last night that he and Goody listened to it on the way to their gigs and then he put it on a shelf of things he tries not to lose. I gave him my new demo (the first finished copy, so don’t think he stole yours away), and he gave me one of his discs in exchange and hugged me goodnight.

Peter’s set was (too) short because he was opening for Erin McKeown. Erin is a bundle of frightening folk/jazz guitar prowess and vocals that sliced the room right open. She was totally enrapturing. Erin was a student at Brown Univerisity not too long ago, which was my first choice school. Oh well. But, even cooler, Ms. McKeown (who i viewed from a meager distance of a yard or two) just got through with opening for Ani DiFranco, who we all know i love and adore.

Ah, but it gets better. Ani DiFranco has had (since before i could play guitar) a dedicated tabber named Leigh Marble, who i think was the first independent folk artist i had ever heard of back in those naive times. Leigh and i grew to sorta know each other by email – in that he’d tab something and then i’d send him some whiney little corrections i noticed from obsessively rewinding and replaying my tape of Ani on David Letterman. I think a few of my tabs might even be up on his legendary AniTabs page.


The most interesting element here is not that i know Leigh, though. It’s that Leigh split a 7 inch single with Erin in 1999 called Anticipation et Denouement, and listening now to the album i bought from her last night i’m vaguely recognizing songs that i first heard two years ago while restless surfing through Leigh’s site while waiting for him to post a new Ani DiFranco tab.


Yeah, it’s a small damn world. Even smaller once you pick up a guitar.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3392757/