January 2, 2006
just want you to know that i am going to be taking a break to record and do yearly amyhills.com maintenance. sincere thanks for your patience and support. more regular updates can be found at www.myspace.com/amyhills
also...2006 is the year of the truth. no pressure.
happy new year!!!!!
love -amy
also...2006 is the year of the truth. no pressure.
happy new year!!!!!
love -amy
December 6, 2005
it's finally cold.
sang tonight with ben wagner at this new club called fat mama and i liked it, going to try to get a hearth show there.
walked home, hungry, and stopped at light touch to get some stuff now all i can taste is eggplant and garlic. also, being winter boot season, all i can smell is wool socks. really attractive i'm sure.
said i wasn't going to play for a while but ryan called me (from akron/family) and asked me to so i couldn't say no. plus i have never played at pete's before and i really love it there.
steven gave me a new instrument to play with and i can't wait to start. maybe i'll debut it at the next show with a couple of my new tunes. we'll see.
it's nice being thirty, too bad it took so long to get here.
take care
-a
sang tonight with ben wagner at this new club called fat mama and i liked it, going to try to get a hearth show there.
walked home, hungry, and stopped at light touch to get some stuff now all i can taste is eggplant and garlic. also, being winter boot season, all i can smell is wool socks. really attractive i'm sure.
said i wasn't going to play for a while but ryan called me (from akron/family) and asked me to so i couldn't say no. plus i have never played at pete's before and i really love it there.
steven gave me a new instrument to play with and i can't wait to start. maybe i'll debut it at the next show with a couple of my new tunes. we'll see.
it's nice being thirty, too bad it took so long to get here.
take care
-a
November 9, 2005
I have been without a computer for a few months and am too neurotic to post on my online diary in public. please forgive me.
it's wednesday night at 10:45 and normally I would just be rapping up my open mic, but after 2 1/2 years that's over ,so tonight, after a really long day at the studio, I had dinner alone at the restaurant across the street while reading this month's shape magazine so I can find out all of the interesting ways one (with no job or responsibilities) could lose fifteen pounds and take an hour to de-stress every day. funny, actually, because most of the suggestions were seriously not applicable to my life....take a bath (don't have a bathtub, barely have a shower and i'm suprised I even have room for that!) get a massage...um, ok...if I get one near the studio I may even have a happy ending (if you know what I mean) take a yoga class...I could if there was one at the gym that I already pay for between the hours of 7am-10am and after 7pm but as new york gyms are mostly geared for people that either don't work or actors (could be under the same classification I suppose) I can't do that...tonight, I am enjoying the comforts of my room and a bud light and my new fancy macintosh.
I digress....I have been asked by the powers that be to write an article for the upcoming urban folk magazine about why I stopped doing my open mic...so I won't get into that here.
life is pretty good. I am taking a much needed break for a couple of months or so to write some new tunes and finish recording this album i've been working on. i've been singing with HEARTH (www.hearthmusic.net) and I really like that a lot. it's finally getting colder here which is cool cause I can wear hoodies and eat soup which I also really enjoy.
in five days I am entering my third decade of existence which is pretty cool. I was asked by joie blaney (on our trip last week to play a show in mansfield PA) if there was anything I would change about my past or erase or whatever, and I said no. I mean, I guess there are things I wish I hadn't done like yell at my parents and fight with my sister and (insert your imagination) with some guys and worked for some real a holes, but if it meant I wouldn't be where I am now then, no I wouldn't change a thing.
I really like the font that is used on my keyboard...those designers at mac are pretty hip.
seriously though....november is always a quiet time of reflection for me...I internalize, I explode I write and then I hibernate.....currently in the explosion phase so I am trying to stay away from people for a few days...good news is I have a few songs kicking around and I think they'll be keepers. we shall see.
I hope that whoever is reading this (you) are ok. if you are not ok, I hope that you get better. if you need help I hope that you have the strength to ask for it and if you are happy as a pig in shit I hope that you stay that way.
gotta finish that magazine in hopes of finally figuring out how to apply eyeliner and look ten pounds lighter by accessorizing properly!
love
-a
it's wednesday night at 10:45 and normally I would just be rapping up my open mic, but after 2 1/2 years that's over ,so tonight, after a really long day at the studio, I had dinner alone at the restaurant across the street while reading this month's shape magazine so I can find out all of the interesting ways one (with no job or responsibilities) could lose fifteen pounds and take an hour to de-stress every day. funny, actually, because most of the suggestions were seriously not applicable to my life....take a bath (don't have a bathtub, barely have a shower and i'm suprised I even have room for that!) get a massage...um, ok...if I get one near the studio I may even have a happy ending (if you know what I mean) take a yoga class...I could if there was one at the gym that I already pay for between the hours of 7am-10am and after 7pm but as new york gyms are mostly geared for people that either don't work or actors (could be under the same classification I suppose) I can't do that...tonight, I am enjoying the comforts of my room and a bud light and my new fancy macintosh.
I digress....I have been asked by the powers that be to write an article for the upcoming urban folk magazine about why I stopped doing my open mic...so I won't get into that here.
life is pretty good. I am taking a much needed break for a couple of months or so to write some new tunes and finish recording this album i've been working on. i've been singing with HEARTH (www.hearthmusic.net) and I really like that a lot. it's finally getting colder here which is cool cause I can wear hoodies and eat soup which I also really enjoy.
in five days I am entering my third decade of existence which is pretty cool. I was asked by joie blaney (on our trip last week to play a show in mansfield PA) if there was anything I would change about my past or erase or whatever, and I said no. I mean, I guess there are things I wish I hadn't done like yell at my parents and fight with my sister and (insert your imagination) with some guys and worked for some real a holes, but if it meant I wouldn't be where I am now then, no I wouldn't change a thing.
I really like the font that is used on my keyboard...those designers at mac are pretty hip.
seriously though....november is always a quiet time of reflection for me...I internalize, I explode I write and then I hibernate.....currently in the explosion phase so I am trying to stay away from people for a few days...good news is I have a few songs kicking around and I think they'll be keepers. we shall see.
I hope that whoever is reading this (you) are ok. if you are not ok, I hope that you get better. if you need help I hope that you have the strength to ask for it and if you are happy as a pig in shit I hope that you stay that way.
gotta finish that magazine in hopes of finally figuring out how to apply eyeliner and look ten pounds lighter by accessorizing properly!
love
-a
September 16, 2005
it was a lovely vacation. i would be nothing without my family and friends. i will continue to measure my sucess as an individual by the quality of people that surround me. currently i am one of the richest people in the world.
akron/family played a great show at a dive bar in mt. pleasant SC (which is to Charleston what brooklyn is to Manhattan). i got to sing with them, my favorite song of theirs. they said i could do it again sometime. bliss.
on a whim i bought two tickets to the langhorne slim and regina spektor show at irving plaza last night. at 7:30 last night i still had not decided what to do with the second so i called my friend eric lippe (photographer, musician) and he was standing outside irving plaza in need of a ticket. very serendipidous. anyway, as soon as we walked in langhorne came strolling by and we all went up to his fancy room backstage and had some pre-show beers and conversation. he opened the show at around nine and liike a bad nightmare promptly broke a string. the string incident seemed to work to his advantage, catching the hearts of the audience and he took a guitar from the band that was set up to play after him and used ift for the remainder of his short set. he was great. i am glad he played solo. people loved it. afterwards he seemed very pleased.
i had not seen regina, even in passing, in about a year. we talked on the phone a bit last summer and had some interactions out on the town but the days of our long rides home together on the train after all night antihoots and seeing friends shows and such are long gone. the fact is that her e-mail and cell phone number still remain in my inbox and my contact list for nostalgia purposes. she was breathtakingly beautiful, glowing. her voice was dead on, her piano was almost flawless, all of the little college girls surrouding me kept saying things like "she's so cute" and "oh my god i love this one" which made me chuckle. she played samson with much regret, perhaps at double the speed of the record. she brought ben and chris on at the end for a little lenard cohen tribute (ben played cello on the HEARTH EP). she seemed very happy, very polished, very very charming. she walked into lippe and me backstage as we were waiting to get our things out of langhorne's room and didn't even say hello.
it's raining this morning...the remains of ophelia i suppose. i awoke to a cockroach on the wall beside my head. she must have come in throught the crack in the window where i have the air conditioner. they always go inside when it rains. i felt a tiny bit of guilt as i smashed her and her 4000 unborn babies, but she was in between me and my coffee and i wasn't in the mood for a stand off.
back soon
love you
-amy
akron/family played a great show at a dive bar in mt. pleasant SC (which is to Charleston what brooklyn is to Manhattan). i got to sing with them, my favorite song of theirs. they said i could do it again sometime. bliss.
on a whim i bought two tickets to the langhorne slim and regina spektor show at irving plaza last night. at 7:30 last night i still had not decided what to do with the second so i called my friend eric lippe (photographer, musician) and he was standing outside irving plaza in need of a ticket. very serendipidous. anyway, as soon as we walked in langhorne came strolling by and we all went up to his fancy room backstage and had some pre-show beers and conversation. he opened the show at around nine and liike a bad nightmare promptly broke a string. the string incident seemed to work to his advantage, catching the hearts of the audience and he took a guitar from the band that was set up to play after him and used ift for the remainder of his short set. he was great. i am glad he played solo. people loved it. afterwards he seemed very pleased.
i had not seen regina, even in passing, in about a year. we talked on the phone a bit last summer and had some interactions out on the town but the days of our long rides home together on the train after all night antihoots and seeing friends shows and such are long gone. the fact is that her e-mail and cell phone number still remain in my inbox and my contact list for nostalgia purposes. she was breathtakingly beautiful, glowing. her voice was dead on, her piano was almost flawless, all of the little college girls surrouding me kept saying things like "she's so cute" and "oh my god i love this one" which made me chuckle. she played samson with much regret, perhaps at double the speed of the record. she brought ben and chris on at the end for a little lenard cohen tribute (ben played cello on the HEARTH EP). she seemed very happy, very polished, very very charming. she walked into lippe and me backstage as we were waiting to get our things out of langhorne's room and didn't even say hello.
it's raining this morning...the remains of ophelia i suppose. i awoke to a cockroach on the wall beside my head. she must have come in throught the crack in the window where i have the air conditioner. they always go inside when it rains. i felt a tiny bit of guilt as i smashed her and her 4000 unborn babies, but she was in between me and my coffee and i wasn't in the mood for a stand off.
back soon
love you
-amy
August 27, 2005
it hasn't felt like summer. i mean it has been hot and humid and sunny and people are wearing less clothes and i am drinking more water, but i guess i mean i haven't been to the beach and i haven't left the studio early on fridays to sit at an outside bar and have hapy hour and i am pasty white. why suddenly, since i moved to the city, have i stopped living?
oh, i remember. it costs money to live here which means i work a lot...and the out of town guests and the open mic and the whole sleu of unhealthy relationships and blah blah blah.
alas, it is time for a break so i am leaving you...i am leaving for ten whole days and i'm not telling you where i am going (home) so you won't be able to find me (on the beach at sullivan's island) so don't even look for me (having bloody mary's at vickery's) cause i will be very busy (eating fried fish).
the really cool thing about my leaving is that my friends akron/family will be performing while i am away (three blocks from my house so i can just walk to their show).
hey, sorry it has been so long. my computer at home is down again so i'm just saving up for a new one. there are going to be some major site changes in the upcoming months to (hopefully) coincide with the release of this album i supposed to be working on. ( i suppose i am talking this much needed break from you to rember why it is i want to do this anyway. i mean, the hope is that i will go away and come back energized about my life here and my music and all, the fear, of course, is that it will be really comfortable and i just won't come back at all.)
REASONS WHY I LOVE NEW YORK:
1. my friends (this inlcudes HEARTH, the band i sing with)
2. engine room audio (where i work and where i am recording, where HEARTH just finished recrding)
3. constant opportunity to experience new things and be inspired by new people (mostly talking about music here, i'm not very bold)
4. walking
5. variety of food (which sort of falls into #3 but is important enough to me to have it's own number.)
6. public art installations (like the chimes in the 34th street subway station)
7. reliable public transportation (excluding the L train, of course)
8. convienence (everything i need in a four block radius)
9. opportunities to express myself and receive validation (playing shows)
REASONS WHY I HATE NEW YORK:
1. everyone that is not my friend (slight exaggeration, but only very slight)
2. cost of living/standard of living (my bedroom is 7' x 10', i love it's charm, but man is it small)
3. constant opprotunity to witness pain (on the subway, on the sidewalk, etc.)
4. filth
5. distance from family (i can't really blame the city for this but it is a variable)
6. the constant (though never talked about) thread of fear
7. noise
8. the constant artistic struggle (self promotion, time for self, etc.)
so at this point, love is heavier on the scales, but by a very small margin. granted, some of the items named hold more weight than others, my friends for example, who i can not imagine living without, the possibility of this new cd and the folks i love at engine room...those things hold a lot of weight.
not sure where i am going with any of this, just letting you experience my drama i suppose. i am so tired of the drama, by-the-way.
in conclusion, i don't have any solo shows booked, but there are a lot of HEARTH shows coming up so i guess you can check our site (still cockroachmusic.com for now but soon to be hearthmusic.net i think)
i will be in charleston soon so if you are in charleston and want to hang out e-mail me.
there are scratch tracks up on my myspace.com/amyhills site and they are available for download. not sure yet if any of them will actually be on the cd but i should know all of that info soon.
i hope you are doing well. despite how it may seem on this silly on line diary, i am actually doing pretty well i think. i was on tv this week which was fun, and the festival show was fun, and i really like my little apartment, and my roomate.
i don't know why anyone reads this thing. it seems so silly. it's just me, you know? i'm not that interesting.
anyway, hope you are having or did have or whatever a good summer.
love you
-a
oh, i remember. it costs money to live here which means i work a lot...and the out of town guests and the open mic and the whole sleu of unhealthy relationships and blah blah blah.
alas, it is time for a break so i am leaving you...i am leaving for ten whole days and i'm not telling you where i am going (home) so you won't be able to find me (on the beach at sullivan's island) so don't even look for me (having bloody mary's at vickery's) cause i will be very busy (eating fried fish).
the really cool thing about my leaving is that my friends akron/family will be performing while i am away (three blocks from my house so i can just walk to their show).
hey, sorry it has been so long. my computer at home is down again so i'm just saving up for a new one. there are going to be some major site changes in the upcoming months to (hopefully) coincide with the release of this album i supposed to be working on. ( i suppose i am talking this much needed break from you to rember why it is i want to do this anyway. i mean, the hope is that i will go away and come back energized about my life here and my music and all, the fear, of course, is that it will be really comfortable and i just won't come back at all.)
REASONS WHY I LOVE NEW YORK:
1. my friends (this inlcudes HEARTH, the band i sing with)
2. engine room audio (where i work and where i am recording, where HEARTH just finished recrding)
3. constant opportunity to experience new things and be inspired by new people (mostly talking about music here, i'm not very bold)
4. walking
5. variety of food (which sort of falls into #3 but is important enough to me to have it's own number.)
6. public art installations (like the chimes in the 34th street subway station)
7. reliable public transportation (excluding the L train, of course)
8. convienence (everything i need in a four block radius)
9. opportunities to express myself and receive validation (playing shows)
REASONS WHY I HATE NEW YORK:
1. everyone that is not my friend (slight exaggeration, but only very slight)
2. cost of living/standard of living (my bedroom is 7' x 10', i love it's charm, but man is it small)
3. constant opprotunity to witness pain (on the subway, on the sidewalk, etc.)
4. filth
5. distance from family (i can't really blame the city for this but it is a variable)
6. the constant (though never talked about) thread of fear
7. noise
8. the constant artistic struggle (self promotion, time for self, etc.)
so at this point, love is heavier on the scales, but by a very small margin. granted, some of the items named hold more weight than others, my friends for example, who i can not imagine living without, the possibility of this new cd and the folks i love at engine room...those things hold a lot of weight.
not sure where i am going with any of this, just letting you experience my drama i suppose. i am so tired of the drama, by-the-way.
in conclusion, i don't have any solo shows booked, but there are a lot of HEARTH shows coming up so i guess you can check our site (still cockroachmusic.com for now but soon to be hearthmusic.net i think)
i will be in charleston soon so if you are in charleston and want to hang out e-mail me.
there are scratch tracks up on my myspace.com/amyhills site and they are available for download. not sure yet if any of them will actually be on the cd but i should know all of that info soon.
i hope you are doing well. despite how it may seem on this silly on line diary, i am actually doing pretty well i think. i was on tv this week which was fun, and the festival show was fun, and i really like my little apartment, and my roomate.
i don't know why anyone reads this thing. it seems so silly. it's just me, you know? i'm not that interesting.
anyway, hope you are having or did have or whatever a good summer.
love you
-a
July 10, 2005
i had a dream this week about a great big storm...i was getting soaked and rushing to take down a tent. it was one of those pop tents with the poles that arc but for some reason it had hundreds...a pole every three inches or so...people were rushing to get all of the children(?) inside and i was helping take down the ridiculously overdesigned tent...there was a brick house with a carport and a big open field with little ditches on the perimeter.
I have a lot of dreams. I usually just let them sit and forget them over my morning coffee but this one stuck with me.
I went to my favorite dream interpreter website (dreamhawk.com) and found this:
STORM Violent emotions, fears and thoughts. Anger, terror, or release of pent up feelings in a dramatic manner.
RAIN Generally rain symbolises emotions, release of feelings.
If the rain is gentle it is usually a relaxing experience and suggests a release from ideas and intellect. If it is a downpour and storm, it is feelings which may drench us, as in sadness or grief about a friend passing. If the land is inundated, then our common sense is lost to sight in the emotions released, and danger may threaten.
TENT Your relationship with natural forces in your life. A temporary state of being, attitude or experience. Or an attitude of changeability, lack of perseverance, not building a solid life.
Just in case you were wondering how I am doing….
Love you
-a
