I really hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving surrounded by friends and family or both. I got to go to Asheville NC with friends and I had a great time in the mountains enjoying food and wine and crisp air. Now, however, it is back to the grindstone...gotta get some stuff done, make some moves, take charge of my life, take care of myself.
Like most artists I know I tend to focus on the overwhelming road ahead and forget to give myself credit for everything I have done to get to where I am. Getting out of town helped put that into perspective for me. I have all of this stress and anxiety over time and how fast I am moving (or not as the case may be). So...I have decided to take a couple of months off in Jan/Feb and give myself some space and time to write and practice and get in shape as a musician. Re-invent the wheel as they say. I mean, hell...of Madonna can do it so can I.
This month is kind of crazy because I am singing with my friend Dan (Cockroach Bernstein) on his album and at his show on the 11th at the Sidewalk Cafe. He is really one of the best songwriters I have ever known. It is an honor to sing with him and his band. I hope you can check it out. Also...on Tuesday the 7th I have the pleasure of singing with Maria Woodford of Duende. She and Alex have been playing some solo shows lately and man do they rock. Maria's Tom Waite covers make me melt and you have to see this woman play mandolin...maybe we'll even get to play some songs together. YIPPEE!!!!

I must away. Looks like another beautifully dreary New York City morning.

Hey...this is all you have, you know...better take advantage of it.

love you

-amy

as usual...the pleasure of playing with duende was all mine...and then ed played an awesome set of songs i had never heard before and finally, it is now well after one in the morning and i am just getting home, eating my cold pizza and heading of to sleep. what a great night. surrounded by friends...playing with two musicians who i love dearly and eating unhealthy cheese and white flower before bed. the only thing that could make this better would be having heat that works or someone to keep me warm when it doesn't....

love you

-amy

when i was in texas i saw Cake play and they sang one of my favorite songs of theirs "sheep go to heaven". the chorus goes like this:

sheep go to heaven
goat's go to hell

i am pretty sure that the song was originally intended for the music industry but i think it is particularly relevant now as the sheep of the country are being headed onto the pearly gates and those (lets just call ourselves "goats" for the sake of the argument and so as to not offend any bush supporter that may be reading this) goats like myself are being persecuted and oppressed by a government we did not elect.
i spent the better part of the last week asking myself what i could have done and why i didn't do it. i mean aside from hopping on a bus to florida or penn. and encouraging people to vote and volunteering for move on or something. i should have done that. but really...i mean what i could have done in my immediate circles...i arrived at my family reunion on saturday the 23rd and as part of one of the innitial conversations with my family i concluded that i should stay away from playing political songs so as not to offend anyone. i mean, where did this idea come from anyway...don't talk politics at the dinner table? where else should you talk politics if not with your family. i mean if families aren't in dialogue about current events then how are we going to get out of the vicious cycle of ignorance that is currently dragging this country into an economic state, the likes of which we have not seen since the great depression?
and what about gay marriage. damn it people. i mean, lets think about this rationally. 50% of all heterosexual marriages fail. half. and here is an entire community of people that is begging to have the right to something that, as a heterosexual, i am probably going to screw up. it's like telling someone more qualified and determined than you that they can't work with you because they will do a better job and make you look bad. and really, honestly, aside from all of the scientific evidence that proves homosexuality is a genetic trait, who are these people that have been harmed in any way by a gay couple. i have to wonder if the people voting against gay marriage and civil unions are actually in healthy relationships. i can't imagine anyone who is truly in love with someone not understanding the desire to have a legal union with that person...regardless of gender. and do you want to talk about sin? do your research people. how many incidents of murder, abuse, or adultery in heterosexual couples have been reported in the last year? i dare you to compare that to gay couples.
you do not have to understand homosexuality in order to accept it.
mostly i am just disgusted, and i think i am in so much shock because i surround myself with like minded people...artists...who are informed and hard working and constantly engaging in dialogue about current events and politics and relationships. i think in the back of my mind i knew that the election might turn out as it did but i didn't want to believe it. i guess i had too much faith in america. so now i have to find a way to somehow take my naivety and turn it into hope...that the current administration won't actually make things worse as predicted...that the people who did not elect the current administration will work together to help educate the masses of "sheep" before the end of this four year term...that i will find ways to support education and not shy away from discussions or dialogues because it may be "inappropriate " or whatever.
and, admittedly, i am scared. for a lot of reasons. not just that my rights as a woman are in jeopardy depending on which conservative is appointed to the supreme court, but because on saturday i will turn 29 years old and i am single i am broke and i can't afford healthcare and i am an artist and i live in new york and it is getting colder and there aren't enough flu shots and my computer keeps crashing and there is little to no certainty about anything in my life and i am not in control.

my faith is waning and i have no leader.

at least i have my friends, and my health, and my guitar.

love you
-amy