KT Tunstall | MySpace

This week of wet weather has been driving many of us, including myself, indoors. It’s particularly miserable, at first glance, with its bleak gray shadow and chill. But metaphorically, it’s sort of renewing. Rain, after all, is required for growth.

“Trying to find my umbrella, but I don’t know where to begin…”

The first few weeks of 2010, I find myself constantly reevaluating what I want life to mean for me. It’s the reemergence of a feeling I haven’t had since 2007 when I quit my last job and remade my life. It’s exciting, really, but there’s still an element of fear from the unknown. A shadow of a doubt.

“And it’s simply irrational weather, I can’t even hear myself think…”

It’s a shame to be encumbered by falling water. With all our technical prowess, we let a shift in perspective bring us down. And rain can be as much fun as sun, especially in how it seems to bring us closer in more intimate ways. Hot chocolate seems to be more sweet. Body warmth.

“I’m under the weather, just like the world, and I need somebody to hold…”

So I’m hoping I’ll find something more than just sunshine at the end of this shrouded phase. If anything, the storm is just a reminder, that we can walk the world and not find what we’re looking for if we forget to look within.

“I know that I’m not alone…

… it feels like home.”

www.radiohead.com
www.myspace.com/radiohead

I incorporated this song in a Yelp review a year ago. It was in response to feeling particularly down and listless, when I was trying to figure out how to find balance in my life. Unemployed and searching for meaning, I’m finding this theme particularly relevant again…

Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco

The naked, descending notes on the opening track of Radiohead’s Kid A fall into a schizophrenic scatter of ambient sounds. I remember first understanding this album in New York when I plugged in at the Museum of Natural History and it transformed my experience into one more visceral. The chaotic repetition is meditative, and it distracts from the endless noise and static in the head.

Everything…

Everything….

Everything…

There’s little better than enjoying a cup of coffee in the Ferry Building. The echo of spoken voices provides just the right amount of audio haze, and the view of the Bay keeps the mind at peace. The food options are also incredible – my favorites being Delica rf-1 and Acme Bakery – where one can grab a bite of quality comfort to enjoy with the scenery.

There are two colours in my head…

There are two colours in my head…

What was that you tried to say?…

I like to believe everything happens for a reason. Maybe it’s delusion, but there’s solace in knowing that, like the song, even random chaos retains some structure, that even the craziest noises can come together in meaningful harmony. Visitors enter from all around the world and are never seen again. It’s serendipity and chance that pulls us together. You prepare yourself as best you can for the world, but if the world isn’t ready, you must remain patiently wanting… and after that, it’s all a matter of luck…

It’s all a matter of timing.

Everything…

Everything…

Everything…

…in its right place.

www.ofmontreal.net
www.myspace.com/ofmontreal

I walked down Polk Street last night, headed toward a show at Hemlock Tavern. You would think that I, of all people, would know well enough that shows always start at least half an hour after they say they will. Having arrived on time (read: 45 min. early), I took a stroll around the block.

The past is a grotesque animal… and in its eyes you see…

As I walked north, it felt as if I were walking back in time. I passed Kimo’s, the dive bar where we had our first show. I was so young, inexperienced and unfamiliar with the city back then. Half a block further was Myconos, the Greek restaurant where I salivated over large spanakopita in the window before our gig… It wasn’t until a year later when I moved to the hood that I finally scored a piece.

…how completely wrong you can be…

At Hemlock, I met up with a good friend and former editor of West Coast Performer Magazine. She hired me after I quit my job at the Federal Reserve Bank and sought a career change. I really owe her a lot for giving me the chance to transition. We were there to see the last show by Raised By Robots, a cool local band that my band performed with when they first started doing shows. It was a big night of old faces and untold stories.

The sun is out, it melts the snow that fell yesterday…

I don’t recall the last time hours sped by so quickly. As we stood outside talking, hassled by at least four hobos and a drunk (“women-dominated society… wait for it”), closing time passed and bars cleared out. I dropped her off at her place and got home at three in the morning. And a night with no plans ended as one filled with great meaning and life.

Makes you wonder… why it bothered.

Recently, I discovered the most meaningful relationships in my life take at least a year to develop… where only the most resilient remain firmly rooted in place.

www.sfweekly.com
www.performermag.com

When SF Weekly’s Best of 2008 Awards came out a few months ago, I neglected to blog about it. But it’s still 2008, and this definitely deserves a repeat mention!

I’ve been with West Coast Performer for about a year now. I thought I’d recollect some of the finer moments I’ve enjoyed while working here:

* Getting a diaper in the mail.
* Running around the city posting show fliers.
* The Haight Street Post Office.
* Cool Nutz’s “Yo Mouth” – the raunchiest song I’ll ever hear.
* Dirty cat paw prints on my pants.
* And everything else…

Best Free Print Music Magazine
West Coast Performer
http://www.performermag.com

Three words: Good scene reports. If you’re like us, they’re mostly what you look for in a rock music magazine. Although West Coast Performer is only semilocal, and it’s technically a musician’s trade publication, it has good scene reports from Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, and here. Unlike most other (totally heroic in this day and space-age, by the way) print music magazines, Performer is genuinely multigenre; the editors and writers have great taste. It’s distributed free in bars and music stores, it has good photos and a relatable layout, and the general tone is independent music boosterism at its best. Bonuses include smart news updates that shy far away from advertorial, and advice that assumes both do-it-yourself indie spirit as well as a desire to make music seriously — or at least not lose money doing it. Rock on, Performer seems to say to the reader: Here are some tips on how to, here are some other bands who do, and check it out: Our magazine does too. (link…)

Woo! :-D

www.festizio.net
www.myspace.com/festizioband

When I was a kid, I dreamt of designing ambient restaurants with exotic food where people could escape into. I love art for similar reasons – a poignant painting reflects a refuge for the soul where one can get lost and disappear. 111 Minna exudes creativity and classy crowds, and thus it’s set apart from other bars in the nightlife scene.

(The only nametag I had on all night read, “Angela B.” That is, in fact, not my real name.)

The Yelp/OurStage Elite Event was obviously my best Minna experience (though I’m not complaining about the “Nude Girls” exhibit). Minna serves as an excellent music venue with a spacious and artistically decorated stage, and a separate bar area for more casual listeners.

(Someone threw a pair of women’s underwear on stage that had a mouth hole in the front. Dear You, where can I get more?)

A huge thank you to Jessica Morris of OurStage and Nish for the invitation, and to Jeremiah of Minna for the superb sound support. But really, it’s the brilliant Yelp Community that effectively stole the show.

(VIDEO: FESTIZIO BLOG)

If I could create just one beautiful escape for the world before I die, I’d be set.