Me: Want to hear my new song?

M: Do you want me to hear it ( Read more... )

I spent much of the morning on the back porch, sitting in a small patch of sunlight with a Martin guitar on my lap and working out the start of a new song ( Read more... )

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Besides bands that make excellent music, that is? It's bands that go above and beyond to express themselves through their music and to connect with their audience.

I'm a huge fan of The Airborne Toxic Event (concert tix for May 4th, yo!), and their new album All at Once comes out later this month (already preordered, of course). I've heard some of ( Read more... )

Last night found me at the Markheim Art Center in Haddonfield, New Jersey, for the evening's entertainment. I was there to see and hear Out of the Beardspace, a local band that is related to Sexoffice, which I've mentioned before. I know the drummer for both bands, Ethan Feinstien, who has mad skillz. I do not say this lightly, by the by - I base ( Read more... )

I know people who have found story ideas and book titles and such from songs. I've not gotten story ideas from music, but I have gotten some ideas for poems from song lyrics ( Read more... )

1. I am not a member of the YA Mafia. That I know of. Not that I would say if I were - after all, the rules for the YA Mafia are probably like the rules for Fight Club, and we all know what the first rule is. Also, I remain surprised at how large tea-cup sized tempests can become ( Read more... )

Is there any bliss equal to that of finishing the first draft of a chapter that managed to get stalled, derailed and/or otherwise take foreffingever to write? I think not ( Read more... )

Or something much like it. In about four hours, I'll be hopping into Intrepid Friend Lisa's Subaru and we'll be zooming northward to Brooklyn to see FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS.It promises to be an exceedingly fun, if late, night. Taking a cue from Georgia Nicolson in the books I've been tearing through, I may have to spend some time this afternoon ( Read more... )

1. I've been reading quite a lot of poetry lately. For grown-up poems, I've been reading that new Neruda book I blogged about as well as re-reading Ted Kooser's Valentines. In the kidlit arena, I've been reading the finalists for the CYBILS awards, since I'm one of the judges for the poetry category. Very good stuff on the short list this year.2. ( Read more... )