a W E E K : full of shows

Last week was such a roller coaster! THANK YOU to everyone who was a part of it in ANYWAY! I was fighting loosing my voice ( and am still struggling with a little cold ) But we tackled a show every other day all week!

L O V E .

Scott and I played St.Nicks Naked Angels Writers Workshop for the first time since November on Tuesday. It is always such a

joy to play there. We go almost every week as actors or just to watch and now the entire audience is more like a room full of friends so performing there feels both comfortable and beneficial. I trust the artitstic P.O.V. of all of the folks there since they are all writers and performers and lovers of art. We get such positive and helpful feedback and support from the St.Nicks Crew. I can't say enough thank yous!

On thursday, we had what I believe to be our best show yet! We played at Genghis Cohen, as we have every month since last fall, but this time, I took a hand in setting it all up and sure am glad

I did. I love Genghis Cohen Artists Showcase on Thursday's because it exposes you to 5 bands in 2.5 hours and I love meeting and hearing new people. The struggle, is that a lot of times, the style of the bands clash and people's audiences don't always stay the whole time. It feels sort of like a revolving door and less of a community space. Bob Legget who runs the night there trusted me to pick the bands for that thursday so that we would all be cohesive and friends, and our audiences would all stay for the whole evening. We brought on board Matty & Avasa Love , Jessie Payo and Ciaran Makepeace and everyone brought a long a room full of smiling friends. As always, We all grabbed a giant table and sat 18 of our closests friends down for a lovely chinese dinner afterwards. It was truly an incredible night.

I remember our first time singing at genghis cohen, and literally, almost no one came just to see us. This was the first time that we got paid because we actually trippled the amount of people we were required to have show up. WHAT?! awesome right? THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU guys. You are AMAZING. what an incredible group of lovers I am in.

By the way, If you haven't before check out those artists above, I assure you, You will NOT be dissapointed.:

http://avasamattylove.bandcamp.com/

http://makepeacebrothers.com/

http://www.jessiepayo.com/

Me & Mr.Cassidy @ Genghis Cohen. 2.10.2011

Finally On Saturday Scott & I ( and joani!) hopped in the car to head down to Old Down San Diego to play at an Art Gallery opening/premiere show at Tara Nichole Galleries. I was so worried all day about my voice it had been going in and out and I tried everything to get it back! I rested in the car on the way to- and I suppose adreniline and lowering the key or a song or two was enough to let this evening fly!

This was a fun night because there were SO many performers ranging from cartoonists to nail art circus performers and comedians!

Inside the art Gallery the walls were covered in such inspiring work, as well as creative new instruments one of the artists had been making. most of them were a mix between a ukelele and a banjo - so much fun to play around with!

The other cool part about this show was that it was outdoors, and since it was an art show we played on a stage built inside of a frame. I was also very excited to branch out of my normal fashion and wear something a little more "Artsy"

We can not thank enough Steve Altman, Bob Legget, Tara Nichole, and Everyone else who has booked us for these shows. It has been such an amazing journey thus far....

Wrapping up 2 0 1 0

As I wrap up 2010, I have so many wonderful things to be grateful for { oh look, i learned how to spell grateful} and so many things to look forward to in 2011. For those of you in a time crunch, I bolded the highlights for ease with skim-reading.

2010 was a huge year for me. For one, i released my debut album : "Hey mom, Look what i can do" . Thank you hugely to Justin Huey, Emily Moore, Tim Cossor, Amanda Smith, Rugby Cafe, Ica Diongzon & the lovely folks at Built By Icon. ... It took a village folks.

I was cast in my first professional musical in years, at the H street Playhouse. "All That Glitters" that fought through the snowpocalypse and dominated a 3 week run. I then did my Senior Capstone shows "20-Life" and "Pms- Fulana" which sold out and ran beautifully. Then, I graduated College { I know right ?} without ever reading a book... { i KNOW right} seems like they give anyone a diploma these days, no but really. College was fun and all.

I decided to be "adventurous" I jumped off a cliff into a river in New Orleans. I traveled to europe for pretty much the first time. Italy. Greece. Croatia. the works, and then I moved to HOLLYWOOD... {cue music , probably Miley cyrus or something}.

I was introduced to the wonderfully talented gent you have all now heard of, the charming dork whom I love, Mr.Scott Cassidy. We created a duo project/band called Me & Mr.Cassidy and have just about finished writing an entire album worth of delightfully romantic songs following the story of two imaginary love birds Annabelle and Theodore. Since October 30th, we have had 7 gigs together and 2 seperate) we will be starting off the new year with a boom, Ica of Ica Images ( who shot all of my solo projects) will be flying out to LA to photograph Scott & I the 2nd week of January! And More wonderfullness to come ....so come to a show if you can! ( and bring a date it's totally cute)

January 2nd - Bloombars, Washington DC 8:00

January 6th - Genghis Cohen, West Hollywood 8:30

January 16th- Jitters, San Diego ( W/Bushwalla) 8:00

February 8th- St.Nicks Pub, Los Angeles 9:30

First week of Shows in H O L L Y W O O D

Oh, H o l l y w o o d . The land of dreams.

When I came to california, I can't honestly say I had a "plan" . I knew I was in the right place, and I knew I had a great circle of friends, but I suppose it is like anything else new you do in life, you sort of just close your eyes and jump, and hope that you end up in the right place... and I did.

Very soon after unpacking my boxes, My friend Jessie Payo gave my name to the board of the Hear NoHo festival, for the november 4th date. There it was my first Hollywood gig... crazy.

But even before that, I was also introduced to Scott Cassidy. He had booked a show October 30th at the Room 5 Lounge, and asked me to come on board. We started practicing on the weekends and even began writing together.

I was also asked last minute to play at St.Nicks Pub. Which is an amazing Writers Workshop here in LA. It was started by the Naked Angels in 1986 in NYC and has locations all over the globe. An audience of 80-100 people cram into a theatre space above a bar and listen to cold readings of a few scripts and half way through a singer songwiter of the night tries out new material to spice things up!

So let's start with Show 1: Room 5 Lounge. (Oct.30th)

Well, first of all, it was Halloween Saturday so that alone made it fabulous. I suppose it's a good thing we didn't do any sad songs because everytime i looked up from the stage I saw a drunk marilyn Monroe, a Reno 911 cop, and the bartender dressed in S&M handcuffs.

It felt good to be on stage with Scott. I am not the best guitarist and i feel like we compliment each other beautifully. I am finally singing the type of music that I not only want to sing, but also, that i would love to listen to myself and that has always been a goal of mine. It was a great first show, as good as it could have gone I imagine.

And then there was Show 2: St.Nicks. (nov. 2nd)

What i love about this spot is that everyone there is an actor, or a writer, a director, a musician, etc. so they really care about the material. Scott and I suited in a retro look ( him in a bow tie and chucks, me in a vintage country dress) shared with them some of the new songs we've been working on. Afterwards, there is a cocktail hour, and the feedback was so wonderful. Not just because it was positive ( although it felt great to know we were on the right track) but because it was specific.

And the final show of the week: Hear NoHo Festival (Nov.4th)

There are countless things I could say about how wonderful Hear NoHo is. First of all, they have PR down to a T! Fliers and radio annoucements, even driving into North Hollywood a giant banner spanned the street announcing the music. Secondly, everyone who is involved does it for the love of music and art. and they are some of the kindest people I have ever met. And finally, everyone who I shared the stage with that night were so remarkably talented. Jessie Payo and Parker Ainsworth and Scott Cassidy are gems, so if you are still reading this blog, take a break ( its a long one) and check them out... This was Scott and I's longest set together. It was so beautiful to look out and see friends of ours watching. And again, o getting feedback from other artists that I love and trust means the world to me.

So that's it. That's what I ( we) have been doing. and its been going so well- I appreciate all of the support from the East Coast, and of course, every new person I meet on the West Coast.

Also Check us out November 18th or December 9th at Genghis Cohen!