what a great week this is. this is the final week of performance for the dance show that i have been stage managing. This friday my favorite band in the whole world is playing in new york, JUMP LITTLE CHILDREN. Saturday night is HOGAN'S BIRTHDAY PARTY AT THE SIDEWALK CAFE. this wednesday is the second week of the open mic that I have been hosting uptown. Yesterday was a kick ass anti-social open stage for social and positical songwriting at the sidewalk, hosted buy my great buddy, Danny Kelly. AND...saturday i had the opportunity to see a really killer show at the Knitting Factory thanks to my friend and sugardaddy, robert fror DTUT. There are, of course, many other great things happening but they are, of course, none of your business. sorry.

so about a few things.....

JUMP LITTLE CHILDREN. if you have never heard of this band you are totally missing out on one of the greatest sounds out there. six hot guys, all incredibly talented...one cold play/radio head sounding lead vocalist and lyricist, an upright bass and chello, flute, keys, guitars, drums, i mean they have it all. and they live in my hometown. and they are playing at the village underground. and i am going. and if you couldn't already tell, I AM REALLY, REALLY EXCITED ABOUT IT.

HOGAN LONG'S BIRTHDAY PARTY. at the sidewalk cafe, this saturday night starting at 10pm, with me, jon berger, joie dbg, lach and a bunch of other friends. come eat cake and watch me make a fool of myeslf with job berger. what could be more fun? nothing really. can't think of a thing.

finally...

i want to talk about this concert that i went to on saturday. i can't tell you how many things have happened in my life by sheer accident and have turned out to be really wonderful. this is one of those times. Richard Shindell and Tracy Grammer at the knitting factory on saturday march 29th. holy cow. the room sounded great. their talent was just breath taking. it was one of those shows that you leave and want to go home and play all night. Richard kinda has some big hits in the folk/pop world. He is a great performer. cute little political jokes, new material, cool old guitars, great melodies. He is (if there ever could be) a cross between Major Matt Mason USA, Casey Holford and Danny Kelly. (But with a wife and a kid and money and a bigger fan base.) Tracy is the female half of the duo Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. Dave, apparently, because i am totally clueless and not well versed in the folk world...yet...anyway, dave was an incredible singer and songwriter and he had a massive heart attack and died very young last july. Tracy is now perfroming the songs that were written when the duo was performing together, and actually, starting today has joined Joan Baez on tour. Tracy totlally kicked ass. She can sing and play several instruments, really well. but more than that she had this stage presence that was so refreshingly good. so vunerable. rare. it was just a great show. (thank you robert!) both of them are signed to signature sounds in mass. cool little indie label and studio.

anyway, that's it. hoot tonight, bitter end tomorrow to see my friend Earl Partick, open mic uptown on wed., jump little children on friday, hogan's party on saturday, striking the dance show on sunday. what a week.

i love my life.

thank you for being in it.

-amy

this is for earl's boredom...

i have two downfalls. Coffee being the first of the two. I have it every morning. i really prefer the creamer that comes pre-flavored. especially the southern butter pecan or the french vanilla. i like my coffee light and sweet. some may say that i prefer to have a little coffee with my milk and sugar. I am having coffee right now and it is just great.
the second is, of course, men. it's a weakness. i mean, don't get me wrong. i love women. i think women rock the world and without them men would be...well...they just wouldn't be. however...i have an addiction. i have often wondered if i could take a twelve step program for my codependence, but lately i have found that writing songs about it helps a lot. and this whole not being in a relationship thing is good too. i have only had a few periods in my life when this has been the case and have thouroughly enjoyed all of them. but especially this time around. it feels good to be selfish for a change. and have male friends without pissing anyone off. and boy, do i have some really great guy friends. i mean, the first open mic was last night, and despite the rain and the lack of advertizing, fifteen people perfromed. Danny, Joie, Beau, Earl, Joe, Dibbs, Dashawn, Jon, and a bunch of people i don't know, but i am sure that i will. and then after we went out for noodles and that was great...and then jon waited with me for the bus and that was great too.
Still, eventually i am going to get all emotionally mixed up with some man and he, like coffee, will become an addiction and i will really be in a bad mood if i don't have him around. (right now i totally adore tons of you so having some of you around in waves is working just fine.)

I really did have a great night and i can't thank everyone enough for coming out. i think that the open mic is going to do really well. Jema Phillips came uptown for it and some other really strong new comers. can't wait to see what's in store.

anyway...of to beau's house to rehearse for tomorrow's recording. it's going to kick ass.

hope everyone has a really great day. it's just beautiful out.

-amy

aerobics is not a sport. it is a torture treatment invented by the devil specifically for me. i swear, i finished like three hours ago and i still can't breathe.
the open mic starts tonight and i am really excited about it. i have been really fortunate this week to have some time to spend with great friends and do all the things that i love. i stayed till the very end at the hoot on monday and had tea with the boys. it was a wierd one. really strange feelings from the moment i got there. so many people left. it was great actually.
and then yesterday i got to hang out in the park with my friend nancy and then have gingersnaps and coffee, and then hang out with this guy joe that i met on the subway, (go figure). did some dog watching and talking about life. i have this incredible knack of always saying the wrong things at the wrong time. oh yes, and occasionally being completely nieve and oblivious to the world.
then i got to see my friend paul play while doing crossword puzzle for hogan's birthday bash (8).
it was a really great day.

not as good as today though. totay totally rocks. i kinda have a prospective job offer and the open mic starts tonight and the clean clothes and the gym and talked to dad and jared and it is just unbelievably nice out and susie made really good turkey taco's and i just had some for lunch and i think i may even have time to squeeze in a nap and some practicing.

damn, i'm a lucky girl.

if only i could do something about world peace.

danny kelly is so great.

later-

amy

war. it looks like we are going to war. my mom is freaked out, saying i should buy tape and shrink wrap and water.....as if any of those things could save anyone from chemical warefare. but i understand her concern. it's only because she loves me.

i feel selfish worrying about my career and my insecurities with my show last night in the midst of mass destruction and possible death for god knows how many people. i wish i knew enough about what is going on in the world to voice a clear opinion...but the only opinion i have is that something is very wrong with the world. i have always been an artist and a performer. now, looking back on my life, the artists and performers that i have had the greatest respect for have been the ones that sing about things that could make a difference to someone that hears them.

i got really pissed because this guy on the subway a few days ago said that he hoped i wasn't one of those girls that just gets up there and plays guitar and says blah, blah, blah. because i'm not. i get up over and over again and say "this is my life, and my heart and this is what i know is wrong with the world, and this is everything i want, and this is everything i am and you can have all of it. i'm giving you everything.", and people hear blah, blah, blah becuase it's easier to be apathetic.

well...look what apathy gets us...war.

it's actually getting warmer, and i have finished painting the outside roll doors, and i have a show on tuesday. could life possibly get any better......oh yes, i could have my tax return, and a publishing deal, and time to go play with hogan (7) and finish mixing that damn live cd.

soon...i can feel it.

sleepytime tea is the bestttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt
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damn that dave o'neal, keeping me out late on a school night. (by the way, great show dave!!!) saw some really incredible irish musicians. it is nice to get away from the familiar. reminds me just how much is out there in this city.

i have a vision of totally rocking out with a full band on a stage, opening my gig with a cover of the bangles, "walk like and egyptian". it's gonna happen. i'm just trying to be a better songwriter and musician, so i can be strong enough to stand on my own, but not have to.
i missed joie's show tonight. although i really wanted to see it and hang with hogan (6) i just had this wierd feeling that i should go out on the town. they (the kick ass irish band still trying to decide on a name, playing every wed at the irish pub with only guiness on tap on the corner of 29th and 2nd ( i think, i'll have to verify and revise if i am wrong)) anyway, they let me get up and play a song. which i did. war song #1. poor chioce, but people said they liked it anyway.

i totally screwed up the open mic/chat about the world/ coffee thing w/ earl. he's going to think i am a fool. maybe i am. sorry earl. i'm a fool.

night. sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite.

-amy

just got off of the phone with my mother, reminding me that i am poor, and need to eat better, and get a boyfriend, and move closer to home. thanks mom.

the hoot last night was refreshingly great. i am a little tired, having gotten home around four. but, every bit of time was worth it. i got to help paul color some flyers. i sang with Timothy Dark. i persuaded hogan (5) to do the logo for the new open mic, and i think it looks great. I met this new guy, Earl Patrick from the band dear francis. He just moved here from the west coast. really talented.
the best part of the evening, however, was the trip home with Dave O'Neal. yesterday was his birthday. he is a sucker and didn't tell anyone. anyway, dave and i rode the train home together, and as we we were waiting at 34th street we played that cool sound light wave thing. i have never even noticed it before. i know we must have woken up some homeless people, but it was cool anyway. and dave played me one of danny kelly's songs about new york, and it rocked. i can't even tell you how fortunate i am to have the friends that i have and know people like dave and danny, and live in a city where i can do things like jump up and down and make music with wierd subway station art installations at four in the morning.

and yes, mother, i got home safely, as you well know because you have already spoken to me today.

anyway, today...taxes. tomorrow, more painting and then david o'neal, brian molnar and joie dbg at the sidewalk.

hope everyone is well.

oh yes, and it is supoposed to be close to 50 degrees outside tomorrow. so go and play.

have a great day.

-amy

it is a beautiful monday morning. my first day off in weeks. i just sent out the press releases for the upcoming showcase and for the open mic. it's pretty cool. they will both be listed in the voice and in time out. Yea Press!!!
and, i have great news, this months artists for the showcase are Regina Spektor, Major Matt Mason USA and Jeffery Lewis. I mean, am I lucky or what.
this afternoon, after an exciting, (i hope) meeting over at Aquila Theatre Company, i am going over to Hogans to do some work on the logos and to edit the live cd. (hogan..that's 4 times) and then off to the hoot for a fun evening of live music and good looking men.
in light of the approaching spring, my mood is improving drastically...well...that, in combination with time off and more than five hours of sleep. oh, if i could only come into a small fortune...
I have all of this new material, but none of it is perfected so i'm not ready to play it tonight, but i will be by the next show. i hope. nice to finally write about other people. i mean , how many songs can i write about my boys anyway? don't answer that question. especially if you are a boy.
i can't believe it is already march 10th. that means i have been in new york for exactly nine months. it is somewhat difficult to look back on what i was writing when i first got here and not have a good laugh at myself. and to think that i was even considering going back to school in the fall... i mean, i never could have imagined knowing what i know now. knowing all of these people. hosting a showcase and an open mic. playing barre chords. skiing over new years in california. going out on a date with john cusak. ok, so that last one didn't happen. but it still could. and i might hate him, but whatever. i can still daydream.

i finished memoirs of a geisha last night. it was a great book. there is one image that i will take with me for the rest of my life " the onion life...peeling away a layer at a time and crying all the while." i suppose at times, i have been an onion. today i feel mush more like an artichoke. sorta prickly, but really good in the center. especailly with lemon butter.

have a great day.

-amy

i think that this is going to get addictive. it is like thearapy, but i don't have to pay for it, and no one is responding with advice and comments i don't want to hear.
i had one of those moments today. they happen pretty rarely so i can't complain too much, but there was a period of about a half hour when i was totally and completely miserable and questioning everything in my life. i am going to justify the bull shit sentimental self loathing and worthless unsecurities by saying I am unusually tired and the cold weather is bringing me down. yes... that's it... totally.

i do have a really fortunate life. not many people get to live in this city and hear the music i get to hear, and meet the people i get to meet, and live where i live, and host open mics and showcases, and have their own website, and their own sister.
i just get so caught up in where i am verses where i want to be that i loose sight of where i was three months ago and who i wanted to be yesterday. (in case you are wondering, three months ago i was working full time and didn't have all this cool new stuff on the site. i hadn't written a song in a month or so, hadn't started talking guitar lessons from lenny, and i was fighting a great deal with my sister. Yesterday i wanted to be harry potter in the invisibility cloak.)

oh, i have four new partial songs. one is mostly complete. i like them.
see, suddenly i feel much better. dude, it's like crack, but it won't kill you.

i'm going to sleep now.

night.
-amy

I just spent the last fifteen minutes completing this diatribe and then pressed the wrong something or other and now it's gone. I should have known better. I haven't finished my coffee.

not sure why I am awake right now, but I am. Apparently it is a balmy 16 degrees in the grand city of New York this morning. Just cold enough to keep me from painting the outside roll doors, again. Paint doesn't like to be frozen.

I am finding that the degree of my exhaustion can be measured in the relative cleanliness of my bedroom. There actually was a time in my life where I was very particular about things being neat and clean. (some may call it compulsive, perhaps obsessive compulsive, but whatever) Now, I look back on that time and have a good laugh. I think that the world would agree to declare my room in a state of national emergency.

The show opened last night, so I can see my life again on the horizon. New York is so, um, hard. It really takes a lot of money for me to live here. What, with all of the manicures and facials, and daily massage thearapy and psychothearapy...no, not really, but I have had to work a bit too much as of late. Not good for the soul I tell ya. However, my friends Hogan and Jon came to the opening last night and that was really cool of them. Not sure if they came because I told the about the naked ladies, or if they wanted to make sure that I was, indeed, alive, and support me in my endeavors. Either way, it was really nice, especially considering Hogan had a killer toothache.

Hoping to make my way over to Hogan's soon to edit the live recording from my last show. Also, trying to finalize the artists for this month showcase, March 23, 8-10 at Parkside, and doing some sticker/press stuff for the upcoming open mic. It's all really exciting. Really. I think this open mic is going to be great. Robert, the owner, is a music lover and has agreed to do a cheap happy hour, and has basically given me free reign. (ha ha ha)

Anyway, I think that is it. I am hoping to make it over to the sidewalk to see Regina Spektor and Chris Barron tomorrow night. Maybe sleep in on sunday.

Have a great day.

-amy

So, here's the second great diary post. It is really early and I am on my way to work in Booklyn. I have been stage managing and painting like a mad woman for this dance/performance company called JMandle Performance. We preview today and open tomorrow, thank god, and hopefully by this time next week, I will have my life back. If you are at all interested in dance or Plato or beatutiful naked men and women, you should come and see the piece. Plus, I painted it, so it looks pretty great.
I had a pretty miserable show last night. I think that the state or my arms (again with the painting...) in conjunction with the total lack of monitor (not even the effort to have anything at all) and drunk crowd (the guy who played before me was actaully really funny and pretty good, but his respect for other musicians seemed to fade with the increasing levels of his alchol intake) combined to form one of the worst possible performance situations I have had in a while. I get so spoiled playing at the Sidewalk and DTUT and places where people actually listen and the bar actaually cares about the sound quality of the performers.
OK, enough of that rant.
So there are new things on the site; the links page, the diary and the guestbook. If you haven't seen them, please do. Also, new pics are coming soon to the gallery. My friend Sam has really done an incredible job on the site. And he is so patient with all of my indecision.
I have to go to work, so I think that is all for now, but I will write a novel later. Don't you worry.

I desperately want the cold to end, and I want to visit my parents, and I want to pay my rent, and I want to be happier than I have ever been in my life. And I think that all of those things are just around the corner. So, things here are looking up.

Have a great day,
love
Amy