Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

college

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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/

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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/

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Um, so, i’m in negotiations to play the Benefit for the Philadelphia Dyke March. Yes, the Benefit for the Philadelphia Dyke March – it’s honestly been referred to that several times during my discussion with its organizers. After some amount of intra-office discussion with my supervisor, we decided that in the office i’ll be referring to the event as the “Lesbian Fundraising Gala.” Maybe i can convince her to refer to it as the “Lesbo Ball” on casual Fridays?

In tangentally related office news, the ceiling above our administrative secretary partially collasped early this morning, and facilities has yet to do anything about it. It’s a drop ceiling (mostly because the old ceiling is too damned high to effectively light a room), and the hypothesis currently floating around the office is that one of the vertical supports gave way, cause the ceiling to sag downward where it’s no longer held up. Our secretary escaped to an empty office down the hall, but her fish has been relocated to the relative safety of my desk. He is a beta fish, and he does not look very happy, but that’s sort of the novelty of beta fishes anyhow.

Fridays here are odd.

And, finally, Tiffany (yes, Tiffany) will be playing a free Drexel show on Monday at noon between 32nd and 33rd streets under Market street. I’ll be there on my lunch break pretending that i’m reliving the 80’s as someone old enough to appreciate their irony rather than as a six year old who really enjoys watching She-Ra. Feel free to join me.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3293092/

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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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Somehow, some way, the campus cd store still doesn’t have the new Ani disc in stock. Usually they sell every new cd a day early on Monday, but when i stopped in the new guy behind the counter gave me all kinds of attitude about thinking i’d get it early. So, like a good little boy, i stopped back today at noon to be told “The UPS truck didn’t get here yet.” It’s not like i want to spend the extra money on getting a cd here, but the convenience makes it worth it. However, if i must jog ten blocks to Tower Records and back on my lunch break, i must.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/04/3142836/