(Inside A Black Apple)

Dear Tom Waits,

    This is one of my favorite pictures of you. In it, you are pretending to be a branch, and that is a wonderful thing to pretend to be. I have to tell you that it is safe to say after all our years together that you are probably my all-time favorite musician (and possibly my favorite person, barring, naturally, my family and the very small collection of dear others that I keep in a jar).

    I remember the first time that I saw you, I was maybe 12. I was just sitting in my nightie, and I changed the television to PBS and there you were...maybe on Austin City Limits (I can't really figure out what program you must've been on). I had never heard a sound like your voice, and I decided you were probably really a bear in a human suit. I remembered your bear voice but forgot about the rest until I was a full-fledged teenager, and I discovered you and was under your spell immediately, this time for forever. And that brings us up to date. It has taken me a very long time to procure most of your very enormous catalogue of records (especially considering how poor I was for the first 6 or 7 years I was in your thrall), but I now have most of them. My favorite songs are your sad songs, and my favorite albums are Alice (surprise, surprise), and Rain Dogs (again, surprise), but I love them all in some way, even the ones that are harder to listen to. But I also like your wacky songs. I love your stories, and I love your self-mythologizing. I loved it when you said on that NPR interview a long time ago that you always wished to be an old man, even when you were a boy. I love your amazing brain.

    I suppose I'm just thinking about you a lot right now, because I am going to see something in a few months that I never expected to see, which is you. Live and in person and in my favorite Atlanta venue.
Thank you for bothering to come here, and not just blessing misfits in Tokyo or Manhattan this time. I raced on the ticket website to get good seats just when the clock struck ten, and I fared well.

I love you, you ragamuffin & will see you soon.
Yours,

Emily, a Gun Street Girl Always

PS: In other news, we are back safe and sound from the land of Ben Franklin.

Three things (or people) I love

So, I was thinking I would share my little Alternative Press piece today, but I ran down to the Union Sq. enormous Barnes & Noble when I was out running errands, and it is still not on newstands yet! Boo.
Instead, I'm going to share 3 things that I love, in no particular order (accompanied by lovely pictures, of course):

Item 1: Ashley G
I love this little lady for many reasons...she's super talented + I love her work. She is kind and thoughtful.
AND she is maybe the only person in the world that I know of that has almost my identical life (at least as far as our work + businesses go!). So we experience many of the same troubles (occupational hazards, etc.) and also good things, and it's really nice to know there is someone else to chat about that stuff to.
I also love her because she sends me impromptu presents in the mail, full of amazing things:

This was a wonderful suprise that made a boringish afternoon turn totally lovely! Do you see the little "E"'s on that cafe fabric?! Love!!! I love it. And there's a whole bunch of it... All the better for decorating future kitchens with...
and
This little darling...who was a legitimate puchase of mine, but still somehow feels like a present:

I'm just in love. That's all there is to say about that!

Item 2: The Ronettes

I just love Ronnie Spector's voice so much. And the songs!!! The songs. And the production (obviously...I mean it's darn famous for a reason!)
Anyway, I love the Ronnettes because they are the perfect anytime music. I love thinking about teenage love & grownup-versions-of-teenage-love and all of the horns and strings and, oh, everything. They're the best.

Item 3: Bleaching Fabric
I went on a bit of a binge last week...filled up the tub with a ton of water and a scary amount of bleach, and went to town. I actually became a bit of a maniac, throwing in tights, shirts, whatever I could find that seemed bleach-able and therefore could be part of my mad science experiment! Obviously, the things that turned out the loveliest were the 100% cotton printed fabrics that were just a little too...bright? Annoying somehow?

Ack! I love them so much now I just want to hoard them! I wish so, so much that I had had the forsight to take some "before pictures" (because comparing side-by-side is half the fun of it!), but believe me, the background on the umbrella girls was an annoying violet, the baby deers were a bright teal, the fruit-florets were very bright, and the japanese apple fabric was a bright green, with  bright orange and vermillion apples. And I just like them so much better bleached!
It is so fun...and addictive. Because of the "experiment" aspect, which I've always been a total sucker for.

So, now I'm going to go listen to "Be my Baby", whilst sitting under my lovely new painting, and stitching away with some of the newly lovely fabric. Well, maybe I will.

I love you, Neko Case.

I went to see Neko Case last night at Mcarren Pool (the cement hole in which I've been seeing fun shows all summer). Joanna Newsom (who I like to think lives up in a tree somewhere with that giant harp of hers) opened, and the whole shebang was just amazing. Ms. Case was hilarious on stage, and kept referring to a deck of "Unicorn Oracle" cards that she was using to make all of her decisions. And she opened "Maybe Sparrow" (a good but tragic song) with "This is ye olde sadde one", which cracked me up. I've been in love with Neko Case for a good little while now, and this is the first time I got to see her and hear that voice in person. I once read a reviewer refer to her voice as a "National Treasure" and I've got to say that that's really not too hyperbolic of a statement. It's so big and so beautiful and terrifying in its way...she just knocks me down.

So, here's my Neko tribute...it's not the first, and probably won't be the last. I am loving painting on wood...what a nice little break from my canvas routine!
This week was thankfully much more productive than the last, but that doesn't mean I'll be resting on my laurels all weekend long...no way! I'm planning on stitching up some new dolls for the shop tonight, whilst enjoying "A Very Long Engagement", which I have only seen once. I know it's been an "Amelie" week for  Lisa & Ms. Posie, but it's another Juenet/Tatou film for me this evening!
I hope fun weekends are ahead... Happy Friday, my dears!