June - Blog Posts
Happy late Pride!!
I’m actually crying why does Samsung look like this I hate him
June 1, 2013
June
“I had just finished writing and recording a record with my band Little Big League (littlebigleague.bandcamp.com) and was experiencing difficulty writing new material. The band wasn't really doing anything because we were exhausted. We weren't playing many shows to save up for touring a lot when the record came out.
On May 30th I had a dumpling party at my house where I invited all of my friends to come over and make dumplings. We set up Christmas lights in my backyard and all sat around a lawn table drinking beer and scooping small spoons from a big pot of stuffing and folding them into little dumpling wrappers. I invited Rachel Gagliardi from Slutever and we talked a lot about feeling stuck creatively. I suggested that we start a blog. The conceit was that we wrote, recorded and posted one song every day for the month of June. Two days later there was:
rachelandmichelledojune.tumblr.com
The most important part of the blog was learning how to practice forgiveness. This Isabel Allende quote I read on some blog-- "show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too." that seemed relevant too. Instead of sitting down and creating a list of rules (I've written too many songs in the key of D, no more finger picking, no verse chorus structure, etc. etc.) that completely inhibited me from writing, I just had the pressure of needing to have a finished product by the end of the day to motivate me. Despite my busy work schedule, social obligations, even if I only had ten minutes of free time during the day, they would be spent making sure I got my post for the day.
While there are definitely songs I find completely unlistenable and all around awful, I was very happy with a lot of the material I produced. I plan on developing quite a few with LBL for our second LP. I highly recommend the project to anyone who is feeling creatively uninspired. Habituation is the key.
The album is made up of 28 originals and two covers Day 15 is PAWS' "Sore Tummy", Day 23 is a Liz Phair's "Chopsticks".
Here is a list of some of my favorite tracks from the project:
Day 5, Day 6, Day 10, Day 22, Day 28, Day 30
Dan Hughes made my album cover, Ben Pubusky made my banner!
special thanks to: Peter Bradley my bestest friend who makes me so brave and so powerful, Ian Dykstra my twin Machine, Rachel Gagliardi the coolest girl in Philadelphia.”
reblog this post if you are a member of the lgbtq+ community or you know someone who is!
happy pride month everybody! even if you’re straight why turn down a reason to celebrate?
And it’s summer again
Sun like tangerine juice
Sky as blue as candy
Days are long and lazy
Speeding to an old song
Flying down the highway
Palm trees in the rearview
Sink into the ocean
Sparkles on the surface
Oldnew freckles darken
Grass is green and dying
Want to skin my knees by
Running on the asphalt
Close my eyes and breathe out
Sweet tea, sticky fingers
Melting ice cream, longing
Sprinklers, seafoam, swimsuits
Everything is all wet
Undercurrents, secrets
Wild, charged, electric
Whispers, laughter, screaming
At the top of my lungs
Sand between the bedsheets
We’re alone together
Only in my mind’s eye
Heat stroke made me drowsy
Home at last, I’m woozy
Piano in a dim room
Fingers fumble, keys sing
Journal then forget it
Playlist, dance, cry after
horizontal body
Everything becoming
Young, but now I’m older
Want to be a kid and
Want to be a grown up
Somewhere in between, though
Endings are beginnings
Time’s a shifting seascape
This enchanted country
Infinite and dreamy
invincible in sunshine
Weak knees in the moonlight
Nothing so romantic
As a joke and shy grin
from a boy with straight teeth
Learn the lines in all things
think I might’ve found a
Paradise right here, now
All divine, eternal
Suspended in summer
Surely it won’t end, right?
Alex is still so real for this
Happy pride, and happy anniversary to this tweet
I will get off the bus, and I will go to my girlfriend's apartment, and I will say "I don't think I did it all right, I don't think I remembered everything, but I know I am still good, and I know that I will go back tomorrow and get another chance, and it may not be perfect but the way you say "perfection stops movement " echos through my mind whenever I start to worry too much, and I think all that means that I love myself, and I think it means that you love me, too."
Found this post on Tumblr and thought of editing it with my sketch. ❤️
Post from @luthienne
Austen, J. Pride and prejudice.
poetry every day. day 8
This is June
a collaboration of all generations
we came together to suffer
i spent my days awake in my bedroom
calling and crying to my mother
we all prayed to god
but we said the wrong name
i prayed that nothing will be the same as early days
we scream loud to the rich deaf choir
as they sleep soundly in the quiet
i sometimes wish i wasn’t so blind
for i am holding back my power in my vulnerable times
this love isn’t defiant
but true love ends in violence
but this is life
this is june
this is fine
this is youth.