The mystic eyeball in the studio
So I woke up that morning with a fever and sore throat. Did I let that deter me? Nah!! The good spirits were with us from Day 1 and the alchemists were in. It was Ronen on drums, Iakov on guitar and bass, Ben Lindell manning the board. Also in the house were my dear friends Joe Berger and George Geshner providing all the good vibes you could ever ask for, and Mike Murphy holding down like an unperturbed knight in viking armor. To me it was like a $1,000,000/hr recording session, except, and the metaphor continues to be apt, we only had very limited time to record. So we tore through the songs like fire blazing through a tinder forest. It was the first stage of fleshing out these demo freshies that’s part of my top-secret project that I’m not at liberty to speak of just yet.
However, the photos from the mystic eyeball will give you a hint of what’s to come. Believe me, I’d love to divulge more info. The new songs are like hott-rocks from the underworld still in transport. I’m bursting at the seams to tell of the coming rapture!!! Soon, my peeps, very soon. Ohhhyeeaaa.
Only the Brava
Oh naw. I want it. I want it now. This is too good.
.
- it’s not cologne. it’s eau de toilette. and it’s more badass than superman.
Year of the Tiger (photos)
Didn’t know what the background image was until I saw the photos myself. All I can say is I had fun playing this brief set, and there was nothing political about it. Met a lot of lovely wonderful creative people that night. Thank you to Jay Li for the photos and keeping my camera safe even when things got a bit chaotic.
K, back to writing…..
To my lost ones in the north
I’m sure they don’t believe they’re lost — they’re only lost to me, since I’ve never met my family in the North half of Korea. It’s a matter of perspective, as with much else in life. I am, myself, born of South Korea, my aunts, uncles, cousins and one grandmother, born of South Korea. We have cell phones, gaming and internet shopping. We have cars and pizza. We’ve been lucky enough to take electricity for granted. Things they have little to none of, in North Korea.
My parents were born when their parents were, quite literally, on the run. Bombs falling everywhere, they were diving into ditches in the countryside. It was the mad dash from the North, the specter of a divided nation growing dark and real in their desperate hearts. Families were being split by the second because war is as real as life and death. If you had the will to live, what else could you do but run??
There’s whole clans of direct-line relatives from 3 of my grandparents’ sides that I’ve never met. I used to wonder about them when I was little, though it was more of a generalized, “do they wear grey all the time? How about gruel? Do they eat anything else but gruel?” Of course they had neither toys to play with, nor television nor really warm coats to wear in their famine-encrusted winters. It wasn’t fun to imagine life in the North, but intriguing nonetheless.
This morning I came across something that reminds me that anything and all is possible:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/feb/14/northkorea
- The British-run Koryo Tours offers guided tours from Beijing to Pyongyang, North Korea
It’s difficult to understand how anyone could have family members somewhere in the world, but never have met them when it is at all times a real possibility. Even distant relatives. That, my friend, is a couch to crash on. That, my friend, is stories around the fire at night. That, my friend, is whole parts of you that go on breathing and feeling without you even knowing. How well could you claim to know yourself?
And now, the possibility of my meeting my lost family has become a bit more real. We shall see it happen, my friends, and we shall see it sooner than we think. Maybe we are all lost family to each other?
Someone recently said, draw a circle around the ones you love, not a heart. Because a heart can break while a circle goes on forever. On this Valentine’s Day, along with the ones I’ve come to know and cherish in my life, I’m gonna take the opportunity to also draw a circle around the family whom I’ve never known, whose names have never broken the seal around my ears, whose faces have never lit up with life before me. I will think about my lost ones and I look forward to the day when I will meet them, in this life and in these times, when the specter dies, at least for a moment. We will all be together, happy and drinking together like we had always known each other, knowing how very precious every moment is when you are with your own, and countries and hearts are whole once again.
Because the specter is real, my friends. Without it, life would not be the vivid gift that it is.
Rehearsal @ Gibson Studios
U know I hit that. It sat hulking in the corner, like a big shiny lollipop. That big, red shiny Baldwin baby grand. Mommy, I want one!!! Now!!!!!!
Sitting in the Gibson rehearsal studio, in the former Hit Factory building of legend, I thought, “It’ll look fabulous in the living room of my beach house where everything else, all furnishings and such, shall be ultra-blankly-white. It’ll be the icing on the cake.” Yep, I’m always thinking and taking notes on taste, among other things of interest.
Rehearsal was fun with Dusty, Dan, Michael and Jenelle, as we did a run through of our songs for Thursday’s Lovers’ Concert. I’m excited to play these covers with such a lovely, talented bunch! It’ll be an all-out luscious evening of music, kisses and lollipops.
Year of the Tiger
I’m deadly fast. That’s what the front of my Tshirt tells me. In French, Swahili and Swedish. Trust me when I say it to be true. Rawrrr.
This next show comes from my friend Diana. She approached me to perform in this year’s Lunar New Year Festival, hosted by her rollicking network of sexy culture mavens at asianinnyc.com. Though the actual year turns resplendent Tiger on February 14th (yes, the same day as resplendent V-day), the event itself happens February 20th. I say any event that’s worthy of being deemed an event should stretch on for at least one week. This one lasts a full year. Wha?
au revoir mes enfants
xo
