Fun Friday

A hilarious real life version of DORA

CollegeHumor’s Favorite Funny Videos

I seriously laughed out loud at my desk for about five minutes straight. My coworkers think I'm nuts.

Afterwards

After I was feeling all melancholy about the state of things I got some really great news yesterday but I'm not going to jinx anything by spilling it here. Then while listening to my spotify today I came across an amazing duo that I can't believe I hadn't heard before today. The Civil Wars
So beautiful and amazing. I have always to do some beautiful songs like these, in my solo project. Now I just need to learn guitar.

School of Hard Rocks: Black Women in Punk

OUTSIDE AND HOME: NEGRA PUNKS "This short doc explores the the experiences of Black women within the punk scene, and discusses the impact of community, lack thereof, and punk music as a potential force of love and affirmation." I'd really like to see some feedback from the West coast regarding this.

That moment when...

you just want to give up. But if you give up: the inner definition of yourself will completely change.

That's what I'm battling with right now.

Between my job and band things have been really stressful, diminishing and confusing lately.

I really don't want to write about it cause it will come out all complain-y and junk. So I'll just leave it at that.

Coffee Drinks in Spanish

A few days ago Hayden started to speak Spanish. Not real Spanish though: his own version of some made up language he thinks is Spanish. So our conversations about different languages have been quite interesting.
This morning on the way to daycare he says "Mocha Chino, Mocha Chino! Mom, that means I want some Kool-Aid."
Then he went on to ask "How do you say Red in Bonjour?"
Me: "You mean French? It's Rouge."
Him: " How do you say it in France?"
Me: "When you're in France you speak French so it would be Rouge."
Him: "How do you say green in English?"
Me: "Green. We speak English."
He laughed for about two whole minutes at that statement.
Me: "You know, Mochachino is actually a coffee drink."
Him:" What?! It's not Spanish Kool-Aid?"

School of Hard Rocks: Broaden Your Musical Horizons

I mentioned in a past lesson that one of the steps of supporting your scene is to Pop The Genre Bubble so to speak.
One of the major issues I see within the Las Vegas music scene is the lack of networking within the different genres.

Vegas has a large punk scene. These bands are able to play many more venues than the metal bands mostly because the punk scene has been very dominate here for a long time.
Since we've been here we've networked well with a few different punk bands and we get along with them really well! Even though our crowds may be different there's a fine line between the music styles and for the most part we've gotten a great response from their crowds and they've gotten the same from ours.

In Sacramento the Hip Hop shows drew much larger crowds than the metal shows. We put together a show with a local Hip Hop group that was one of our biggest shows there.
We had MC's and Hip Hop performers placed in between the metal/hard rock band sets then did a large mash up of Mc's free-styling over a live band at the end. It was an amazing turn out and both genre's fans loved it.

With networking outside of your genre you open doors to new venues, new ideas, new people, etc.

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”- Andre Gide

Father's Day 2 years ago

2 years ago Brian and Hayden were part of a photo shoot in the Las Vegas Weekly for fathers' day.

 It's crazy to think it's been 2 whole years since these photos were taken. Hayden is growing so fast.

His hair is a long golden mess of curls, not the short little bits of curls it once was. 

He graduated kindergarten. Back then he couldn't even write his name.

He's addicted to video games and obsessed with Angry Birds. Back then it was Toy Story and Spiderman. 

He used to drink out of a sippy cup. Now he gets kool-aid mustaches. 

We've come to a conclusion that Hayden will be our only child. So these are my only experiences with parenthood and sometimes it's sad. I want him to grow up strong, happy, smart and satisfied:

 all of these things he makes us feel today. 

Weekend Redux: Beach & Fathers Day.

On Saturday we ventured to Lake Mead to check out the beach. We had never been swimming at Lake Mead before and it was a blast. Hayden had so much fun and never wanted to leave.
The sun was bright, the sand was cool, the air was clear and the water was perfect.

Sunday being father's day we let Brian make our plans. We had breakfast, played video games, visited the pool, then I made him tacos for dinner.

It was a beautiful weekend and Brian loved his Father's Day!

Facebook Minds want to know....

I asked my Facebook friends: If you could ask me anything related to my band what would it be?
So if you're not linked to me on FB or if you have me hidden cause you're SOOO tired of those damn pictures of my kid losing his teeth and my event posts for my bands shows you missed the conversation that ensued:

Rob (bipolar's guitar player): Why is the guitar player so damn Rad?

Kelly:  Where did you get your green chucks?

I didn't answer either of these questions. 1) Rob was just looking for me to stroke his ego and most guitar players already have egos so I felt I didn't need to feed the machine! Plus he knows I think he's rad or he wouldn't be playing with us.
2) Kelly was referring to a mistake in an article. I don't own green chucks. I wish I did but alas I do not.

Thad: Do you play outside of Vegas? 

Me: Yes we're originally from Sacramento (2003-2008) and since we've been in Vegas we have been able to play Anaheim and Sacramento. We would like to get out more but need to get a new album done (set for end of july right now) and get a vehicle to haul all our stanky asses out of town. 

Erick: What's the best/worst part about booking/playing shows in Vegas? How would you change it?

Me: The best part of Vegas is the number of clubs to play. The worst part is competing with a plethora of other entertainment events going on the same night of our shows. More people are inclined to go to a night club rather than see a metal band play. If I could change anything it would be for the promoters, venues, and bands to work better together to promote/market/fix the scene instead of competing, shit talking, and ripping each other off.  

Dave: What's the best show you have ever played? Worst show ever played? best memory from a show?

Me:  That's so hard. Most recently probably the Sacramento show. The crowd, the reaction, the friends and the road company :) Performance and sound wise I think we did our best at the first Bikini Bar show.  
 (after I responded to that he texted me: Girls are always saying that!) 


Deanna: Is your singing angrier when Aunt Flo shows up during a show without even being on the guestlist?

Me:  Luckily Aunt flo has never showed up unexpectedly. She has showed up the night before or the day of which sucks but I keep the pain at bay with Jack and Coke which makes me a better singer

Heather: What sort of issues do you (as a band) face having to do with not only being a (kick ass) girl-fronted face melting band in a world dominated by men (boys)? What are the issues with writing/playing/performing with your husband?

Me: I think the only issue we face with being female fronted is that people who haven't heard our music expect us to sound like other female fronted bands out there ie: Evanescence, Flyleaf, In This Moment, etc. when I don't feel we sound like any of those bands.  As for the issues with being a couple in a band: Practice has been a good place for us to get our anger/stress worked out in our music instead of arguing with each other and I think is more valuable than therapy. We've worked to not take for granted that we're having these awesome experiences together which is rare. There's going to be times when we don't agree on band issues just like everything else but we try hard to not let our relationship get in the way.

 

School of Hard Rocks Past Lessons

I'm sure the mommyblogishness of my blog lately has been driving away the majority of my readers. I mean who wants to stare at pictures of my kid losing all his teeth without an awesome video of me torturing him while removing them one by one. The header does say "balancing motherhood and metal" so where's the metal?

Last year I blogged about my experiences with being in a band and the lessons I have learned which I like to call my school of hard rocks.

I'm sharing them here as I am working on some more posts for this topic:

Lesson 1- Not everyone is going to like you and you can't make them.
This is ever apparent now that social media is abundant in building a fan base and SOOO many bands are forcing themselves on so many Facebookers.

Lesson 2- The Valuable Art of Fliers.
Way more fun to make a flier than an event invite.

Lesson 3- The Value of Merch.

Lesson 4- Too many shows.

Lesson 5- Every band needs a GOOD recording.

Lesson 6- If you don't support your scene don't expect it to support you back.

Lesson 7- Out of Town Shows. Do your research.

Lesson 8- Your Gimmick Is Killing Your Talent
This is my personal opinion on gimmicks.

Lesson 9- The Ego
And the damage it does.

Weekend Redux:

Hayden got a couple new angry birds from Grandma P and Papa G for a graduation gift.

He has 10 now, just a little obsessed. 

It was our friend Cody's birthday so on Friday night I took him out to see our friends 3D6 at House of Blues, then we visited Frankie's Tiki Room and drank some crazy big tiki drinks. The drink I had gave me a headache for a day and a half afterwards.

We barbecued twice this weekend and hung out with friends. 

Hayden is losing ANOTHER tooth and got to eat a cookie monster cupcake.

Stupid Shit My CoWorkers Say

 "Every time I hear about that Electric Daisy Carnival I think of you!"
Me: "Really?! Cause the people who attend that are the complete opposite of me. They wear bright colors, dance a lot and like to be around other people"

"There's something wrong with my computer. It won't turn on." - The computer was on. The monitor was not.

Review!

We played a show last weekend and a writer/friend from Vegas Seven magazine came out and interviewed/reviewed us (read here).  The review was great and we're all so stoked for the write-up.

Front tooth and Graduation

Last night Hayden's top front tooth came out. He was wiggling it all day and it was barely hanging there right before dinner. He was timid to let me touch it but I did anyway and it came right out.
He now has a perfect little lisp.

Today he graduates from Kindergarten. 

On his first day, he cried. He was the only kid crying at the gate when we said goodbye. He was nervous, scared and cautious of the new situation ahead of him. That's the kind of little boy he is. He's cautious and nervous and wants us there with him to help ease the anxiety of change.

 Just like pulling out his tooth last night. He was nervous, scared it might hurt but held my hand when I pulled it out and didn't realize I had done it until I showed him the tooth in my hands. 

This morning he's playing video games,  running around the house karate chopping me, and excited for Brian and I to see his "show" for the last day of kindergarten.

He's made friends. He's learned so much. He tells me everyday when I ask what he did in school that "he cuts, he colors, and he glues." 

He's grown a lot.

This is the only last day of kindergarten for both of us. 

Weekend Redux: HOT and stuff

 This weekend was HOT! On Friday I believe it was 104 degrees at 6pm. We sat inside hiding from the heat playing video games and making movies on my phone with Legos Pirates versus Lego Star Wars characters. These pictures are right before he fell asleep watching TV on the couch. 

 We played a show on Saturday night at one of the clubs we play quite often. While in the parking lot hanging with some friends I noticed this little palm growing right out of the concrete with no water source or soil anywhere near it. Quite an example of perseverance.

Sunday was another HOT day. We went swimming, played more video games, and bbq'd with our friends.

This morning when we were leaving the house Hayden said 

"I wish it was Saturday EVERY day and we had a money machine!"

He is a genius.

Stupid Shit My Coworkers Say.

My good friend and I were chatting about some of the stupid or funny things we hear coworkers say. Both of us work at newspapers, and some of this shit is just hilarious. So I will have a weekly post to share in the hilarity.

- You look like a deer with the headlights on.

-Those girls are working their little beavers off.

-If you want to take the blunt on this go ahead.

-I'm going into the mouth of hell (referencing a meeting with the boss)