November 21, 2003 - 11:49 AM

A Sucker for Females, Actually

A kitty meeping woke me up this morning. I heard "meep. meep. meep. meep." outside my door for a few minutes, and my just-roused brain wondered if I was still dreaming, perhaps looking forward to the Christmas holidays when I go home and see my own cat. But as my thoughts coalesced and cleared, I realized there was a kitty outside my door; then I heard a woman talking on the phone outside my door as well, and I realized that it was one of my neighbors who had left her apartment door open, and let the cat out for a few moments. I was tempted to go to my door in my jammies and call to the kitty and play with it, but I knew that I looked a frightful mess, so I refrained. Mmm...I really do miss my little Newt.

Thanks to my friend Y, who is currently in Law School in Maryland and who has studied Copyright Law, for reminding me of a bunch of other things related to my last entry concerning the downloading of music. She's a self-admitted dork for Copyright Law, and I'm glad that at least she wasn't bored to tears by what I'd written. If any of y'all need an indepth, passionate explanation of that stuff, feel free to contact me and I'll put you in touch with her. The Law Firm with which she works does pro bono work for musicians who need help with copyright shenanigans, so perhaps she can help in that field too.

Thanks also to my friend Jeff in Boston for forwarding me an email from Kim Fox's website about a show this past Wednesday that she did in Hollywood with Lili Haydn and Terra Naomi. I'd enjoyed Kim's previous show enough to want to check her out again, and I'd wanted to see Lili for quite a while after hearing her first album 5 years ago, so this show was quite the fortuitous occasion. Terra went on first and was fine, but I was too busy trying to protect my ears from bursting to form any lasting impressions of her. It's not that she or her band (composed of a keyboardist, an acoustic guitarist, and a percussionist playing hand drums) was performing loudly, but I was seated on a bench in the direct path of the loudspeaker to the right of the stage, and the sound man insisted on blasting the high mid-range frequencies which most effect the ears, even though the venue was fairly small. There were also several technical glitches such as microphones and cables not working that kept ruining the set, and everytime the sound guy changed something, he'd forget to mute the channels, and so there were loud popping transients to stab my timpanic membranes. Goddamn ass monkey.

There was one sublime moment during Terra's set when she had Kim join her to do backing vocals on a song, and Lili, in the spirit of things, just picked up her violin and stood off to the side of the stage and improvised an accompaniment that blended beautifully. After Terra was finished, Lili's band set up, and they featured a tablas player (a pair of small hand drums from India that make really cool "doooing" sounds), a guitarist, and a harpist. You might recognize Lili from her performances with Josh Groban or from a Folger's Coffee commercial where she was a bluegrass fiddler who needed her morning coffee to perk herself up and jam with her band. I must say, this woman impressed the heck out of me. She's petite (barely 5 feet tall) and ethereal of voice, but full of fire and passion and charisma. Her tunes leaned heavily towards Middle-Eastern influences with hints of jazz and celtic flavorings, in the same vein as Loreena McKennit or Caroline Lavelle. Very much mood music, especially with her bewitching singing embedded within captivating instrumental passages. And, god, her violin playing was astounding. She has the skill and clarity of tone to pull of classical music; the groove and grittiness to feel world music; and the facility to combine both styles into a powerful, elegant, soulful whole.

Kim had the unenviable task of finishing up the night after Lili's set, but she managed to kick ass and have fun doing it. She performed mostly solo, on piano and guitar, stuff from her new album, with a couple requests from the audience for tunes from her first one sprinkled in. On two songs, she had a friend play guitar while she just sang. This time around, being more familiar with her catalog, I really got into her performance, and am definitely a big fan now. Add another girl to my list of crushes. Oh, and it was her birthday, so a cake with candles was brought out for her towards the end of her set, and we all got to share some of it (and it was yummy with lots of fresh berries in it).

Also this week, I saw Love, Actually. I had been planning to see it with Nick, but our schedules conspired against us, and he'll be leaving for Maryland on Saturday, so I bit the bullet and went by myself. I can be a sucker, this I know. Easily set up and knocked down, yes- but it has to be done well, or else I'll just shake my head at the shoddy attempt. This film did it's job very well on me. My heart was pulling all over the place for the various characters, and I was all teary-eyed for Emma Thompson, and Liam Neeson and his stepson, and Laura Linney. Sure, there were little things that bugged me, like how the writer/director felt the need to link all the stories together in some fashion which I thought came off a bit contrived at times, or how some storylines fell by the wayside for long spells, or how Sammy learned to play drums like a pro in just four weeks. But since it managed to fiddle with my heartstrings with Lili Haydn-like mastery, I can overlook the buggery. Plus, anything that brings the Emma Thompson will win me over. She so delectable.

Finally, to cap things off, I have a weekend packed with plans. Tonight is the Susan Werner show and so far, I have two maybes coming along, with a possible couple more. Sadly, Matt had to decline since he'll be out of town, and Nick can't make it since he has to work. Alas. Anyone else in the L.A. area wanna come?

Tomorrow my friend Sylvie Lewis (who I just saw last night at a Berklee Showcase) will be at the Hotel Cafe along with a duo called Splendid which features Angie Hart, the lead singer of Frente; after that show, a friend from work will be celebrating her birthday at a club in Hollywood. Her boyfriend is Andrew, the Linda Perry assistant for whom I fill in when he's unavailable; we played blackjack one slow night at the studio for beers, and we haven't paid up yet, so this might be the night. She has 4 beers on her tab, I have 6, and I think Andrew has 7.

And Sunday, I'll be finishing up the recording with Sandy and Sara, mostly vocals and guitar overdubs. I'm sure I'll have fodder for a full diary entry on Sunday night.

Now Listening To : Eleanor McEvoy-Yola
Random Thought : There sure are a lot of Paul Kim's on Friendster. Would you like to help me kill them all off?

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