January 24, 2004
first...if you are having problems reading this page please click your "refresh" button. thanks.
secondlyish...tonight is going to be really great and i hope a lot of people come out despite the cold. it is an awesome evening of music for beau johnson's cd release party. beau and i have been singing together basically since i moved to new york and he is an amazing songwriter. i am on some of the tracks on the new cd along with vita izabella and toby goodshank did all of the artowrk. basically, what i am saying is , this cd rocks. and the lineup is so good you would almost think that beau had an "in" with the booking agent for the club (inside joke.)
third and c....for the first time in my life i have created a budget for myself and although it is quite terrifying..it is nice to know what i need to survive and have clean clothes. it is interesting the little things that i take for granted that actually add up to a lot of money...subway fares, paper towels, shampoo, strings, ink, etc. in short, bare with me for a while cause i won't be doing a lot of anything that costs money so i can release this cd and be a full time singer/songwriter. small price to pay i guess...giving up what you don't really need to have what you want.
fourth and finally...it is 14 degrees and getting colder in new york. my radiators make noise constantly, which is kinda nice because it drowns out the street noise and makes it sould like there is someone breathing in the room with me. i bundled up this morning for my ritualistic saturday morning coffee/grocery adventure. i spent eleven dollars on a large thing of toilet paper, butternut squash soup, one avacado, 1/4lb. of provolone cheese, and a cup of coffee. on the way back i passed the butcher and feeling the urge to have sausage for breakfast i stopped in. i had a dilemma...sweet italian, spicy italian or cheese/herb. i decided on the sweet and got one link. 75 cents. the butcher asked if i was sure that was enough. he said he eats four. i said it was plenty. and it was. i think my point in telling this story is two fold....1) i love the quirky little things about my life..my little apartment in my italian neighborhood...my funny butcher...bundleing up to go out in the cold...my radiators that sound like people. it is the little things in life that make it all worthwhile...the avacado..the sausage...the 30 second conversation...it's not the big stuff. 2) everyone has the big stuff...the job...the bills...the dreams...in three weeks i will have paid another month round of bills, some how, and i won't have to worry about it anymore...in three months i won't remember what big stressful project i did last week at work, and i won't care..in three years i will have erased all memory of the artistic turmiol in am facing and replaced it with new versions of the same thing. this is just what we do. we don't have a choice. it's like the weather. you just have to wear more clothes when it gets colder. adapt. spring will be here before we know it, and then by summer we will be complaining about the heat.
that's all for now.
hope you find something little to enjoy.
try to stay warm.
love you
-amy
secondlyish...tonight is going to be really great and i hope a lot of people come out despite the cold. it is an awesome evening of music for beau johnson's cd release party. beau and i have been singing together basically since i moved to new york and he is an amazing songwriter. i am on some of the tracks on the new cd along with vita izabella and toby goodshank did all of the artowrk. basically, what i am saying is , this cd rocks. and the lineup is so good you would almost think that beau had an "in" with the booking agent for the club (inside joke.)
third and c....for the first time in my life i have created a budget for myself and although it is quite terrifying..it is nice to know what i need to survive and have clean clothes. it is interesting the little things that i take for granted that actually add up to a lot of money...subway fares, paper towels, shampoo, strings, ink, etc. in short, bare with me for a while cause i won't be doing a lot of anything that costs money so i can release this cd and be a full time singer/songwriter. small price to pay i guess...giving up what you don't really need to have what you want.
fourth and finally...it is 14 degrees and getting colder in new york. my radiators make noise constantly, which is kinda nice because it drowns out the street noise and makes it sould like there is someone breathing in the room with me. i bundled up this morning for my ritualistic saturday morning coffee/grocery adventure. i spent eleven dollars on a large thing of toilet paper, butternut squash soup, one avacado, 1/4lb. of provolone cheese, and a cup of coffee. on the way back i passed the butcher and feeling the urge to have sausage for breakfast i stopped in. i had a dilemma...sweet italian, spicy italian or cheese/herb. i decided on the sweet and got one link. 75 cents. the butcher asked if i was sure that was enough. he said he eats four. i said it was plenty. and it was. i think my point in telling this story is two fold....1) i love the quirky little things about my life..my little apartment in my italian neighborhood...my funny butcher...bundleing up to go out in the cold...my radiators that sound like people. it is the little things in life that make it all worthwhile...the avacado..the sausage...the 30 second conversation...it's not the big stuff. 2) everyone has the big stuff...the job...the bills...the dreams...in three weeks i will have paid another month round of bills, some how, and i won't have to worry about it anymore...in three months i won't remember what big stressful project i did last week at work, and i won't care..in three years i will have erased all memory of the artistic turmiol in am facing and replaced it with new versions of the same thing. this is just what we do. we don't have a choice. it's like the weather. you just have to wear more clothes when it gets colder. adapt. spring will be here before we know it, and then by summer we will be complaining about the heat.
that's all for now.
hope you find something little to enjoy.
try to stay warm.
love you
-amy
January 20, 2004
it's after midnight and i have to work tomorrow, but i just got home from the hoot and i am wired cause i had my favorite sandwich and french fries before leaving. although the impact on my hips will be felt for weeks to come, the fries were pretty freakin good. i was really hungry.
rooster, i told you i would write a new diary entry. although i am not feeling particularly profound. just awake.
two things....
it really bugs me when people have the opportunity to get up at an open mic and show themselves to the world and develop an audience and friends etc, and choose to play covers. and this is why....
1) genrally, the cover is not better than the original (debe, before you start thinking anything you are exempt form this topic ) 2) even if it is better, we've heard it before 3) people are poutring their hearts out singing good raw lyrics and it is easier for everyone to stick to the same form of self mutilation and humiliation 4) people have a tendency to talk over the familiar...elevators...bars...restaurants...etc. i mean, who wants to be background music? 5) finally, i suck at playing covers and therefore everyone else should suck with me.
and secondly...
i have really cool people that surround me on a regular basis, and if you are one of those people and you are reading this i want you to know how important you are to me and that, although sometimes i take a lot of the good things in my life for granted, or look at them in a "sadistic artist who thinks the world is against her" kind of way...i really do appreciate being able to hang with joie and have lunch with earl and sit with debe in the freezing cold and eat dinner with hogan and play guitar with christopher and go to the open mic on wednesday and see shows at the sidewalk and the knitting factory and take friday lunch's with mitch to get away from the office and party like a rockstar with alex and sing with beau.
i also really like my bedroom. it's slate blue.
and my tennis shoes.
that's all for now. a lot of stuff in the works..wierd transitional stressball times ahead. please put up with me. in a few months i will have an album and a full time career in music and who knows what else.
ok...food coma.
night night.
have a great week.
love you
-amy
rooster, i told you i would write a new diary entry. although i am not feeling particularly profound. just awake.
two things....
it really bugs me when people have the opportunity to get up at an open mic and show themselves to the world and develop an audience and friends etc, and choose to play covers. and this is why....
1) genrally, the cover is not better than the original (debe, before you start thinking anything you are exempt form this topic ) 2) even if it is better, we've heard it before 3) people are poutring their hearts out singing good raw lyrics and it is easier for everyone to stick to the same form of self mutilation and humiliation 4) people have a tendency to talk over the familiar...elevators...bars...restaurants...etc. i mean, who wants to be background music? 5) finally, i suck at playing covers and therefore everyone else should suck with me.
and secondly...
i have really cool people that surround me on a regular basis, and if you are one of those people and you are reading this i want you to know how important you are to me and that, although sometimes i take a lot of the good things in my life for granted, or look at them in a "sadistic artist who thinks the world is against her" kind of way...i really do appreciate being able to hang with joie and have lunch with earl and sit with debe in the freezing cold and eat dinner with hogan and play guitar with christopher and go to the open mic on wednesday and see shows at the sidewalk and the knitting factory and take friday lunch's with mitch to get away from the office and party like a rockstar with alex and sing with beau.
i also really like my bedroom. it's slate blue.
and my tennis shoes.
that's all for now. a lot of stuff in the works..wierd transitional stressball times ahead. please put up with me. in a few months i will have an album and a full time career in music and who knows what else.
ok...food coma.
night night.
have a great week.
love you
-amy
January 11, 2004
wow. i had a really great time last night. played a good show, hung out after with the strangest collection of friends...but somehow it worked.
thank you to everyone who made it out in the cold. extra special thanks to danny kelly who ran sound and christopher taylor who played guitar with me on the last three songs and made amy hills performance history.
debbie...where did you go , i didn't say goodbye?
i have this bad habit while performing of making funny faces or laughing when i screw up. the ridiculous thing is that if i didn't, probably only a select few would realize that i had done anything wring in the first place. i really am trying to stop doing that...i am also trying to just stop making mistakes all together, but i think the facial expression thing will be an easier fix.
the problem is that i do it in life too. if i am having a conversation with someone and i don't like or agree with what they are saying...you can tell by my facial expression. also...if i am at an open mic watching someone perform and they do something crazy you can genrally tell by the expression on my face. i have often wondered if you had a recording of an open mic with just the sound and my facial expressions...if it would be a simular experience to the real thing.
anyway, what i am trying to say is that for the sake of performance, i am going to work on being more self aware...which may take some of the fun out of it for you wierdo's that enjoy the occasional giggle, but overall, i think it will help the mood.
so...thank you again to everyone. i had a really great time up there last night and i really do appreciate the nice crowd in the freezing cold. i mean...hogan even came out for the show. (inside joke)
have a great sunday and i will have more shows on the "live shows" page as soon as i book them.
rock on.
love you
-amy
thank you to everyone who made it out in the cold. extra special thanks to danny kelly who ran sound and christopher taylor who played guitar with me on the last three songs and made amy hills performance history.
debbie...where did you go , i didn't say goodbye?
i have this bad habit while performing of making funny faces or laughing when i screw up. the ridiculous thing is that if i didn't, probably only a select few would realize that i had done anything wring in the first place. i really am trying to stop doing that...i am also trying to just stop making mistakes all together, but i think the facial expression thing will be an easier fix.
the problem is that i do it in life too. if i am having a conversation with someone and i don't like or agree with what they are saying...you can tell by my facial expression. also...if i am at an open mic watching someone perform and they do something crazy you can genrally tell by the expression on my face. i have often wondered if you had a recording of an open mic with just the sound and my facial expressions...if it would be a simular experience to the real thing.
anyway, what i am trying to say is that for the sake of performance, i am going to work on being more self aware...which may take some of the fun out of it for you wierdo's that enjoy the occasional giggle, but overall, i think it will help the mood.
so...thank you again to everyone. i had a really great time up there last night and i really do appreciate the nice crowd in the freezing cold. i mean...hogan even came out for the show. (inside joke)
have a great sunday and i will have more shows on the "live shows" page as soon as i book them.
rock on.
love you
-amy
January 10, 2004
so...i was looking at the stats for my page yesterday and i got kinda freaked out because the "diary archive" pages are getting a lot of hits. i decided, it was time, so here ist is...
A BRAND NEW DIARY ENTRY JUST FOR YOU!!!!!
(do you hear the trumpets?)
no, really, i feel about my on line diary the way that one feels about a friend that they haven't gotten in touch with for a while...you know you need to...you want to...but the longer you put if off, the easier it is to ignore. ok, maybe i am just speaking for myself. unhealthy i know. i'm working on it.
either way, i haven't written in a long while and i do have a boat load to talk about.
i was on my way in the freezing cold to get coffee this morning and there on the sidewalk was a timothy dark sticker. now, this struck me as odd for many reasons. 1. i had not yet injected my daily infusion of caffiene 2. timothy and i do not live anywhere near eachother and 3. if someone had a TD sticker, why in gods name, would they allow it out of their sight for one moment. I mean that stuff is valuable. Still...because i had warm gloves on...i left it there on the sidewalk, hoping that it has found a home in trendy williamsburg after perhaps jumping from someone's guitar case on their way to Petes Candy Store for a gig.
i digress...after a two week break, the open mic on wednesday was larger than it has ever been. 37 people played in a little over four hours, which is a miracle, and a disaster, and an inspiration all at the same time. i have to admit that i get really uncomfortable in situations like wednesday when there are so many people that i like and that i want to hear play and there is just not enough time...and i know what it feels like to be on the other side of the fence where you wait and wait and wait and then only get to play one song and then you screw it up and have no chance to redeem yourself. so, for those of you who were peturbed or anxious or (insert your negative feeling here) on wednesday night....rest assured that i was feeling whatever you were feeling in triplicate...ah guilt...
some highlights from the evening in my memory are...adorable alister from england, julie(who i always think is great and i wish would come more often because we need good women around) and her friend kevin who also kicked it, the ladies from daltonlee did one of their best performances so far at the open mic (and debbie sang her heart out which was really cool), the whole martin/tom disaster which was incredibly entertaining, the new addition of several other good strong women to the night, the return of old favorites and my new favorite of the week, Kyle Ervin from texas with his cover (although i usually really do not encourage covers because i want people to be bringing their own stuff to the table) of "lesbian" by weezer. (if i left you out and you are reading this please do not get offended, i do not have the list in front of me and have yet to finish my first cup of coffee today)
i went home for the holidays. i didn't get in touch with anyone because i needed to hide out for a while. please don't take it the wrong way...it doesn't mean i didn't want to see you, it just means i didn't want to see anyone. sometimes i have to rejuvinate. it's hard to do in new york sharing a one bedroom and working all the time. i will be back soon enough.
it was nice. it was warm. i played a show. people came. i ate a lot. it is oyster season in south carolina. it was quite the culture shock. there was a lot of driving...and family time...and white people that seem to wear the same thing.
i have a show tonight that i am really excited about. actually, that is a lie. it is not really excited it is more like a perfect blend of nervous/anxious/dread/and excitement. i have a surprise ending that i have never attempted before which could turn out to be the most incredible thing i have ever done or the biggest disaster. we'll see.
i went last night to the sidewalk and volunteered as "merch girl". i though it would be safe because most of the artists were either gay or married, so i wasn't going to throw myself at anyone or vise versa...i did, however, get a free dinner and a lach t-shirt out of the gig so perhaps i will volunteer for the prestigeous position again in the future. TK (Testosterone Kills) played at 10, then Joie DBG, then Lach. Everyone had really good sets, and Marilee was on sound so , of course, they all sounded really good.
anyway, almost finished with the coffee, getting ants in my pants so i need to get up and do some house cleaning or breakfast cooking or something of that sort. gonna spend the day inside on account of the piercing cold.
i really do hope that everyone had a great holiday and i think that this year is going to be a good one. lots of exciting stuff coming up in my world that i can't wait to tell you all about. please feel free to e mail me anytime you want. there are a lot of people out there that i would love to hear from.
take care. stay warm.
love you
-amy
A BRAND NEW DIARY ENTRY JUST FOR YOU!!!!!
(do you hear the trumpets?)
no, really, i feel about my on line diary the way that one feels about a friend that they haven't gotten in touch with for a while...you know you need to...you want to...but the longer you put if off, the easier it is to ignore. ok, maybe i am just speaking for myself. unhealthy i know. i'm working on it.
either way, i haven't written in a long while and i do have a boat load to talk about.
i was on my way in the freezing cold to get coffee this morning and there on the sidewalk was a timothy dark sticker. now, this struck me as odd for many reasons. 1. i had not yet injected my daily infusion of caffiene 2. timothy and i do not live anywhere near eachother and 3. if someone had a TD sticker, why in gods name, would they allow it out of their sight for one moment. I mean that stuff is valuable. Still...because i had warm gloves on...i left it there on the sidewalk, hoping that it has found a home in trendy williamsburg after perhaps jumping from someone's guitar case on their way to Petes Candy Store for a gig.
i digress...after a two week break, the open mic on wednesday was larger than it has ever been. 37 people played in a little over four hours, which is a miracle, and a disaster, and an inspiration all at the same time. i have to admit that i get really uncomfortable in situations like wednesday when there are so many people that i like and that i want to hear play and there is just not enough time...and i know what it feels like to be on the other side of the fence where you wait and wait and wait and then only get to play one song and then you screw it up and have no chance to redeem yourself. so, for those of you who were peturbed or anxious or (insert your negative feeling here) on wednesday night....rest assured that i was feeling whatever you were feeling in triplicate...ah guilt...
some highlights from the evening in my memory are...adorable alister from england, julie(who i always think is great and i wish would come more often because we need good women around) and her friend kevin who also kicked it, the ladies from daltonlee did one of their best performances so far at the open mic (and debbie sang her heart out which was really cool), the whole martin/tom disaster which was incredibly entertaining, the new addition of several other good strong women to the night, the return of old favorites and my new favorite of the week, Kyle Ervin from texas with his cover (although i usually really do not encourage covers because i want people to be bringing their own stuff to the table) of "lesbian" by weezer. (if i left you out and you are reading this please do not get offended, i do not have the list in front of me and have yet to finish my first cup of coffee today)
i went home for the holidays. i didn't get in touch with anyone because i needed to hide out for a while. please don't take it the wrong way...it doesn't mean i didn't want to see you, it just means i didn't want to see anyone. sometimes i have to rejuvinate. it's hard to do in new york sharing a one bedroom and working all the time. i will be back soon enough.
it was nice. it was warm. i played a show. people came. i ate a lot. it is oyster season in south carolina. it was quite the culture shock. there was a lot of driving...and family time...and white people that seem to wear the same thing.
i have a show tonight that i am really excited about. actually, that is a lie. it is not really excited it is more like a perfect blend of nervous/anxious/dread/and excitement. i have a surprise ending that i have never attempted before which could turn out to be the most incredible thing i have ever done or the biggest disaster. we'll see.
i went last night to the sidewalk and volunteered as "merch girl". i though it would be safe because most of the artists were either gay or married, so i wasn't going to throw myself at anyone or vise versa...i did, however, get a free dinner and a lach t-shirt out of the gig so perhaps i will volunteer for the prestigeous position again in the future. TK (Testosterone Kills) played at 10, then Joie DBG, then Lach. Everyone had really good sets, and Marilee was on sound so , of course, they all sounded really good.
anyway, almost finished with the coffee, getting ants in my pants so i need to get up and do some house cleaning or breakfast cooking or something of that sort. gonna spend the day inside on account of the piercing cold.
i really do hope that everyone had a great holiday and i think that this year is going to be a good one. lots of exciting stuff coming up in my world that i can't wait to tell you all about. please feel free to e mail me anytime you want. there are a lot of people out there that i would love to hear from.
take care. stay warm.
love you
-amy
