Breathe…Breathe in the air…
Posted on March 22, 2004
Ah…yes, the sound of silence is a good thing today. I am taking the week to recover my body (mainly my feet) and my mind. My session with Polly will take place and I will feel better. I can’t even begin to express the feeling that I am had knowing that I am going to complete this part of my treatment. Just a few more meetings with Polly and then my treatment can come to a pause to test my strenght and my will. To test the every part of me that is the true Nakia. I have a good feeling about the future. Better and clearer than before.
So, with that said. Just chill with me for about a week. Not quite. Because I have the Choose Austin First thing on Saturday with SIMS. I am excited to see how it turns out.
See ya soon!
PS: I did get my pictures of Pete Yorn and Rami Jaffe! Check ‘em out at my Photo Gallery
~Kia
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SXSW: The Passion of the Slides…Rock Slides.
Posted on March 21, 2004
HA!
I can’t even tell you how cool this is. Tonight, I did this thing with SIMS as a volunteer at The Hole In The Wall and I have to tell you…It was probably one of the coolest things I have done since moving here in August of 2002.
Here I was amongst a star-studded group of some of Austin’s finest.
“Paul Minor called and that’s all I needed. I was here.” - Basically anyone who got on stage tonight. Seriously.
Here’s the official release from SIMS. I still don’t know who each of them were. I needed to get a copy of the list. Paul! I gotta get that from you! But I will say that I was able to catch some killer music with some great slides that together made for some good art and a lot of fun.
Darrin Murphey’s performance during the Talking Heads classic songs they covered was one of the night’s biggest highlights indeed. I wish I had filmed it. It was good stuff. He went all out with the glasses and the stick figure movements, down to the shaking. Good showman, for sure. I also made a couple of new friends that I was quite thankful for. Loretta is a volunteer for SIMS as well and she was working the table set up in the back. God bless her heart she really is one of the absolute sweetest people you would meet. Someone that you would wanna introduce your Grandmother too. She’s older, but full of wisdom and assurance. I was thankful I met her. I also met a really cool cab driver from here in Austin. It’s not often you actually have a conversation with a taxi driver (I think) so I was pretty intrigued by what he had to say about his experiences during SXSW and what he was seeing as opposed to me.
I also met all of the musicians player. Some I spoke with more than others, but I definitely made a connection with them and that’s what is important. Connecting to people, interacting, becoming parts of other peoples lives and speaking with them on a human level. Austin is really all about that sort of thing. Or at least MY Austin experience had been that way. SIMS has provided me with some amazing help by getting my therapy at a low cost and pointing me in the right direction for other outlets of help. And their newfound spirit of renewal and strength coming at such a point in my treatment that I feel already to start the beginning of the best part of my life. The happiest part. The part where I play music and sing and touch people’s lives the way they touch mine.
Volunteering for SIMS has made such a difference already. I am glad I waited until my time with the program ran out to start. It means a lot to know that I can offer something back to them. For all they have done for me, my life, and the lives of my family and friends.
After the show, which ran until about 1am, I headed home courtesy of the Beetle Express and made it into bed in time for a few dreams.
~Kia
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SXSW - Day Four
Posted on March 20, 2004
So, after some much needed rest, (Friday wore me out, so I didn’t head back down to SXSW after the Graffiti’s gig) I got up on Saturday mornign and headed back down to the Convention Center once again, in time for another demo listening panel.
AND, once again, I was taxied down by Robert, who then headed over to RNR Rentals to drop off the PA equipment and then BACK to the house to grab my phone. (I’m just not as attached to my cell phone as I once was. Maturity? Eh..probably not. Just don’t use it near as much as the last one.)
Today’s demo panel was a special one for me because one of the panelist was Jonathan Weiss of Haiku Entertainment. As you can see, he’s all about the film and tv placement and I was DYING to get Weather Man listened to at this panel! Of course, once again, bad music and too much talking prevailed. But afterwards, I was able to run right up to him and meet him face to face and gave him a CD. I think the exchange went something like this:
Me:(Handing CD to Mr. Weiss)
“The Weather Man - new Nicholas Cage movie being filmed by Gore Verbinski - track two, same name. Perfect for the movie!”
Mr. Weiss (believing that this meant that the song had already been placed): “Congratulations!”
Me: “Oh, it’s not in the movie yet…YOU’RE going to put it there.”
Mr. Weiss (with a big grin): “OK. I will give this a listen then.”
Me: No…seriously…dude…listen to the song. It’s a hit. I’m telling you. I wrote the song before I knew about the film and everything about it is perfect for this movie. You’ll see.”
Mr. Weiss: “WOW! OK. Now, I’m interested.”
Or something very similar. Regardless…just another CD in another person’s hands that will hopefully make it to their player, in their ear, and get stuck there!
After that panel, I couldn’t decided if I decided to hit the trade show again and see what I could dig up over there. I bumped into some folks I knew and some I didn’t. A really cool guy named Joshua Ellis and he showed me what he did for a living and we talked tunes, and then it turned out that I actually knew the guy he was going to meet for something or other he was doing for his company and I walked down with him and said hi to Mr. Scott Booker. I had met Scott while at Aware. He clearly didn’t remember me, but how nice of him to be so polite anyway. I said bye to them both and then it was time to head over to the SIMS booth at Beerland where I was supposed to volunteer to take donations.
Unfortunately, for SIMS, they had to close that location down and they didn’t need my help at that point. This worked out perfect for me as I had got the invite to the Blender Bar party for Trampoline Records, the label that is owned and run by Pete Yorn, Rami Jaffe, and Marc Dauer. Once inside, I bumped into Blender Publisher, Malcolm Campbell, who threw me some drink tickets and then proceeded to help me get in my buddy, Scott “Reg” Register and his boss, Don Van Cleave from Birmingham, Alabama’s CIMS (That’s Coalition of Independent Music Stores) in the door. (At the time they were at capacity at the club, but Malcolm made an “executive decision” and pulled them in. (Thanks Malcolm!)
Reg and Don really didn’t have time to hang, but they really wanted to see Pete and say hi. By this time, Pete and I had already caught up and talked about lots of different stuff, so I got them up to the balcony where Pete was and we hung and talked with Pete for a bit. They all caught up, enjoyed the balcony view (EG) and then after a beer or two, it was time for Pete to join one of his Trampoline bands on the stage as the drummer.
I went down and hung out with Rami for a bit and talked about my project, B3’s and modifying them. Then he too had to take the stage. Liz Phair made an appearance as did Mini Driver (yes, she’s got a record coming out!) who actually performed.
Once it was time for Pete to take the stage, I was already in the backstage area, and I decided to pick up a tamborine and shake it! Yep- I was not ON stage but behind a large leslie cabinet speaker jammin behind two of my fave musician’s, Rami Jaffe and Pete Yorn. Albeit, I was kinda hidden, but afterwards, during a quick photo opp, Pete teased me that I was out of time, (which we all know isn’t true!) and thanked me for hanging out. I am really happy to say it was my favorite moment during SXSW by any measure. Musically, that is. The night with Jody and Jay was the best personal experience by far!
I tried to get up with Scott Andrew all day, but we kept missing each other. I ran down to catch Tim Easton and bumped into Jay again there and spotted Nan Warshaw from Bloodshot again. We talked about her children and Robbie Fulks. After that I was ready to take a nap, which I did at the new Hilton in the lobby. LOL!
Then it was off to see another one of my FAVORITE songwriters for the first time…Michael Penn!! Man, he was good. He kept reading from some weird “How to be a Rockstar” book or something that was hilarious. It was there that I met up with Scott Andrew and Laurie again and we caught that set and the next one, which was Jesse Malin. Jesse’s set REALLY impressed me because he did acoustic, but you could tell by his actions that he was dying to get down and mean on some electric, ass-kicking rock and roll. He played a great song at the end that I really dug. I think it was called Riding On The Subway.
Hmmm….Let’s see. My buddy Tim came down for both of those sets as well, and afterward we headed over to Austin Music Hall to see N.E.R.D. I don’t think I have seen that place that hopping before! WOW! Good stuff! We bumped into a couple of guys I met a bar the night before, Dave from RollingStone.com and Bob from Easy Street Record store in Seattle. These guys were GREAT! I hope to catch up with them again.
Later, as we were walking back to Tim’s car, after we had closed down the bar with the Dallas Rugby team, we arrived to find Tim’s car had been struck by a very large tree limb and that it had done some real damage. We had to stick around while he called Progressive and the police. Neither of which was interested in helping because of the fact that it was an act of God and not an emergency.
Tim brought me home, blistered feet and all, and I crawled into bed. This day I was BEAT! Man, it felt good to sleep. But it wasn’t over yet. The SXSW postscript was yet to be written…
~Kia
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