Things musicians should read

1. 17 annoying things you do that make your bandmates secretly hate you
Personally, 17 is probably my magic number.

2. Reasons why local artists don't get signed.
Most of these are no-brainers but even if you feel you're not one of the "local artists" every artist could use to do more of what works.

3. Marty Friedman's advice to up and coming guitarists. 
The zinger is that he says not to write instrumental music. Mostly because there's a small amount of people who are into it.

4. 5 Lessons to learn from Local bands
Again a list of no-brainers but still some people don't get it.

5. Give away music for free.
This is sage advice for bands just starting out. You want to get your music in as many hands as possible so diy reproduction and burning is the cheapest way. Be smart when giving your music away, don't waste it on uninterested people cause nothing can crush your dreams faster than seeing your cd on the ground, cracked with a piece of chewed gum stuck to it.

6. Advice from Chris Adler of Lamb of God.
Originally a bass player, now a drummer and producer this guy has a resume that should make you want to read what he has to say. 

Thanks Cartoon Network

Last night Cartoon Network aired the Hall of Game Awards show. They promo'd the crap out of the show for weeks and Hayden was SUPER excited to watch it.

The show acknowledged athletes and some of their cartoons. Hayden was peeled to the TV and cheered and clapped with excitement when his favorites won.

Then smack dap in the middle, they throw this performance in the mix. Jason Derulo doing a song "Talk Dirty to Me." Hayden recognized that the song was, in his words "totally inappropriate."




Brian and I were definitely NOT ready to explain to Hayden what "talk dirty to me" means.

Brian tried to say that the guy liked to talk about mud,  gravel and dirt which made Hayden laugh hysterically. Great save, but yeah, I forsee that question coming up to his therapist in fifteen years.

Co-Habitation Anniversary

Yesterday marked 14 years of Brian and I living together. We moved into a cute 2 bedroom apartment in Downtown Sacramento on February 13, 2000.

We had been dating for about four months when we packed up a uhaul with hand me down furniture, hopes, and dreams.
We lived in that little 2 bedroom apartment for three years. Looking back at all our memories there it feels like those three years were a big party with lots of friends, laughter, cases of beer, and too many bruises from drunkenly stumbling up or down the cement stairs to the apartment door.

 Here's a couple photos from our time in the apartment. 

This was us last night enjoying Queens of the Stone Age. 

Our home now is still full of friends, laughter, but less stumbling and more mature domestication like dinner parties, white russians and rock band.

Me time

Mothers get just 17 minutes of 'me time' according to The Daily Mail.
Lately with my husband and I commuting together, band practice twice a week and catching up on chores on the weekends I haven't gotten any true ME TIME in weeks.  I really feel that as soon as you decide to be a mom you give up the "me time" mentality. Yes being a mom is work most of the time but it's work I appreciate.

I am blessed with at least an hour each weekend morning when my husband makes breakfast and my son is playing with his toys. I drink my coffee and watch my dvr'd shows but both my boys are in the same area as me and most shows are interrupted with "Can I have a glass of milk?" "Can you help me build this super amazing batman house that the joker and the green ninja will try to destroy ten minutes after we finish it?" or "I forgot to buy eggs can you run to the store? We also need twenty more things here's a list."

Often I am asked how I juggle a full time career, being a mom, being a wife and being in a band. Career, Mom, Wife, Singer those are just four words but there are millions more that define them. So many of us these days are much more than just a mom. We live in an age of consistent multi-tasking.
I owe a lot of my juggling ability to my husband. We are definite partners. He takes on his own responsibilities of having a career, being a father, being a husband and a drummer. We aide each other when it's needed. We lean on each other when we are tired or stressed or overwhelmed.
We also appreciate each other, like a lot.

I am lucky that I have an amazing partner, who when he reads this will definitely suggest I take some me time when ever I need it.
Some women are single moms and don't have someone else to aide the juggling.
I have a coworker who has twin four year old girls and is a single mom. She shows up to work every day clothed, with fresh hair and make-up, and does her job without falling asleep or apart. This is much more work than what I juggle and I commend her for her ability.
I asked her when the last time was that she had "Me time" and she answered September of 2013.
So yeah, things aren't bad in my life.

New Day

A couple weeks ago Brian's usually reliable truck decided it was done.
D.O.N.E! 250,000 miles and the Tacoma had enough.
This of course right before our scheduled trip to Los Angeles for our show and NAMM.
And also of course during the week he had job interviews set up.

But now it's a new day, and a new year according to the Chinese. A brand new engine came on Friday and Brian started a brand new job last Monday.
Today we throw a year of ups and downs behind us and look forward to some ups and ups.

Even our little man is super positive and always reminds us that "EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!"

Yes, I like my job

I was asked yesterday what I like about my job. As most salespeople my first thought was "the money," but my words came out as "I enjoy working with a client to come up with a unique campaign and targeting the right audience for that campaign to be successful." Both are the truth but the latter is definitely more satisfying.

I work at a newspaper as a digital salesperson. I sell online marketing to big and little companies.

When I was in high school I wanted to work at a newspaper or a magazine. It was my dream.
At fifteen I wrote for a newspaper in Washington's youth page. They wrote a bio about me and asked where I saw myself at twenty five. I said " Working at a newspaper or magazine and living in San Francisco." 

 At twenty five I worked at a newspaper as a graphic designer about 40 miles from San Francisco. After years as a zine publisher and over a decade as a designer I made a huge switch to the digital part of the newspaper and then to the sales part. I accomplished those dreams or rather a slightly different version of a better paid dream.

I really do enjoy my job. I enjoy being on top of the constantly changing digital world.

For so long I just wanted to be a graphic designer; a creative guru I didn't think I would enjoy the dark side of selling advertising to people. I was wrong and I was broke back then. There are many other ways I use my creativity in my job. And it pays the for my wonderful hobby of singing in a band.

A quote I found a couple weeks ago from the great Maya Angelou-
“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

Find what you like and do it. Be direct , be a bitch with what you want and need to be happy. It's your life only you can control your destiny. 

Loot Crate Review

A couple weeks ago I signed up for LOOT Crate. It was the first crate subscription I was even remotely interested in. I'm not into the fashion boxes, craft boxes, or healthy snack boxes, but you can bet that I'll sign up for the nerdy gamer toy lover boxes.

So I got my first Loot Crate this weekend.
It was AWESOME, just look at all this stuff!! We got a Superman Pop figure, a Minecraft Mini Calendar, Nasa Patch, Star Wars pocketmodel trading card game, Melting Rubik's Cube sticker that Brian turned into a magnet and a Star Trek Badge.

The subscriptions start at $19 if you want to be able to cancel at any time, but go down if you sign up for more. Check out the site here and indulge in nerdy goodness.