Well folks, it has happened. It is only June 30th and I am nearly $600 over the minimum donations needed for my walk (thanks to the triple matching done by the company of a family friend- she gave $250, her company gave $750) so all the hair has to go, not just a majority of the ponytail. I can't/won't go straight-razor-to-the-scalp-bald because I will look sick and gross & I will get even worse sunburn on my scalp than I already usually do, AND in a month, when the walk itself rolls around not only can I not afford to get a head sunburn, I also don't want to look like I just went through chemo like some of the survivors who also do the walk. That's just tacky and not fair to them. BUT I did say I would lose the hair. So I'm looking at super short crops/pixie cuts ala Laura Harris, Ruby Rose, Selma Blair, etc. just maybe a little shorter on top- input...?
Back in 2002 I cut off my reasonably long ponytail and donated it to Locks Of Love. In 2006 I did the Breast Cancer 3-Day benefiting Susan G. Komen. This year I'm doing both. And I've decided to combine them in a way that is mutually beneficial. But to do so requires a lot of help. Your help. But in a sort of fun way. I hope.
Back in 2002 when I donated my hair I left enough on my head for a cute, short, sort of spikey cut. That's what I was originally planning to do this time around except that I can't seem to come up with a hair style that I really like. So basically I've just been putting it off and my hair has grown longer and longer. I have a long enough ponytail to meet the minimum 10 inches for donation to LOL and still have hair left over for a short bob. That's boring, I've done the bob thing already.
For The 3 Day walk, besides walking 60 miles I have to raise a minimum of $2300. Right now I am at $1202. That means I have to raise at least $1098 more before the walk (August 7-9), or pay the rest myself. The worry about making the $$ is putting quite the damper on my summer.
So here's the solution that I came up with. I'm writing this blog post and I am going to ask everyone to pass it around, email it, tweet it, reblog it, whatever. If that helps me raise the $2300 before the walk, I'll cut my hair super short and go with the boring option I've been avoiding... HOWEVER (here's the good part) if you all rally with me and help me raise more than the $2300 before the 4th of July, not only will I cut my ponytail off for Locks Of Love, I will also SHAVE my head! So I will be (nearly) bald and 2 charities will get the most out of me! But that doesn't give you all very much time to help me raise at least $1100... so get cracking and I'll get bald(ish).
(The 'fine print'- for me to shave my head my donation page- http://www.The3Day.org/goto/EABwalks60 must show that I have raised more than $2300 by 11:59pm central time on July 3rd. No telling me you mailed a check the day before. And no, $2301.99 is not reasonably more. I'm talking like... at least $2350 or $2400... It can be done. Especially if you take up a collection at work and see if your company does donation matching. And that picture of me is 4 months old, my hair is even longer now!! So get cracking and make me 'bald' FOR 2 GREAT CHARITIES!! Sorry, I don't mean shiny head, shaved with a straight razor to the scalp bald... more like cropped super short...)
UPDATE 1: 11:05pm Wednesday June 17th... I am now up to $1844.61 so I am only $455.39 away from having to lose my hair by the 4th of July!!
UPDATE 2: It's Saturday June 20th and I'm at $1914.61, just $385.39 away from shaving my head by the 4th... otherwise I'm just cutting it short (the bob or something). Locks of Love is getting a ponytail either way! Here is a picture of me/my hair today:
UPDATE 3: It's Wednesday June 24th and I'm at $2164.61, a mere $135.39 from having to shave ('shave'?) my head by July 4th. At least one of my friends has submitted their donation in for company matching, so I know for sure I will be over $2300 by the walk, I just don't know if I'll be that far over by the 4th of July- so if you *reeeaaaally* want to see me (nearly) shave my head, donate now. I've actually been looking at cute, super-short haircuts ala Selma Blair, Ruby Rose, Sara Quin & Laura Harris (cropped close in back, a little longer on top, sort of a pixie cut) to start getting ready to be rid of a majority of my hair... I like when Selma had the crazy cut that was shaved almost to the scalp on the sides and in the back and then funky on top...
Erm. It's been like 8 days between posts this time. What's my deal? I have no idea. I have no excuses. But, I do have a couple posts in the works. Uhmm, besides the Ana Fernandez one I keep promising. One day I'll finish making the screen caps and get everything all organized for that. However, I have 2 music related posts that I will be sharing soon. Tomorrow (er, later today?) I should be getting up a post about The Ditty Bops. I just went to go see them again tonight and I'm itching to gush. Also, it was just International Mix Tape Day and we've had some stuff going on related to that over at Autostraddle, and that made me remember the tapes in my parents basement. When I was cleaning out my crap in my parents basement a few weeks back I found several old tapes I had made myself (from the radio and other tapes) and they are hysterical. Hopefully when I go visit my mom on Wednesday I will remember to fetch them so I can share them with all of you. I start summer school on Monday, and Wednesdays are going to be particularly bad as I will be in class (same room, same teacher) from 3:30pm-10pm, so we shall see what happens. Hopefully you guys are still checking in from time to time to see if I'm blabbing about something and you haven't written me off during this lull. If you have... come back! I'll make cookies.
Holy 5+ days of no new blogs, Batman! Where have I been, what have I been doing? How could I leave you all like that? Shrug. I spent a few days down in Carbondale (Southern Illinois) with some friends (and the Sufis and the organic farmers) doing such exciting things as watching So You Think You Can Dance and Gone Baby Gone, eating at the Sufi-run, all vegetarian cafe and reading books with a too-smart-for-his-own-good, 2.5 year old, Shine, my honorary nephew. I even got Flora (Shine's mommy) to watch and fall in love with Glee!! In fact, it's my goal to get everyone to watch and love it, so I'm going to attempt to embed it here, in this very post. Also, I think I promised a post of Ana Fernandez pics and I shall deliver those shortly. Since there aren't many pictures of the Spanish cutey on teh interwebs, I've had to make a lot of my own screen caps from Cuestion de Sexo (which was sadly & suddenly cancelled!) so you'll have to bear with me.
Here is the preview/premiere episode of Glee. It starts full time in the fall with the director's cut of this fabulous episode. Jane Lynch rocks as the cheerleading coach. Jayma Mays as OCD teacher Emma Pillsbury is just so brilliantly adorable, you can't help but love her. And I'm now also in love with Lea Michele who plays the diva, Rachel Berry. Lea is 22 and has been performing on Broadway since she was 8. She is amazing. Everyone is amazing. All the kids do their own singing... Just watch it. How can you not love Rehab (Amy Winehouse) and Don't Stop Believing (Journey!) as performed by (high school) show choirs/glee clubs?!
Here are a few other videos. This first one is Lea Michele at Upright Cabaret singing Not While I'm Around from Sweeney Todd:
Here is another of Lea, this time singing A Little Fall of Rain from Les Miserables (with John Lloyd Young):
Here's the Glee Fall Preview #1:
...and Glee Fall Preview #2 (ohmygodImSOexcitedIcanthelpmyself):
As a proud member of the AutoStraddle Intern Army I happily invite you all to our awesome (first ever!) Pride Party:
I will be heading out to NY that weekend to meet up with some of my fellow interns for Pride (and a 'pillow fort and beer' intern pre-party, obvs!) and then for our awesome AutoStraddle party (and then I will be flying home the Very. Next. Morning. in time for class! w00t.) Won't you join us?!
Yay, it's super happy fun ball time! (Hopefully without the vertigo or slurred speech!)
[Disclaimer- I am just a fan writing about musicians whom I love using the info I've gathered from the albums I own, shows I've seen, and the stuff I've read on myspace, facebook, wikipedia, etc... so if I got anything wrong or smixed up, just tell me nicely and I'll do my best to rectify the sitch, werd?]
This is the music post in which I salivate over Jenny Owen Youngs and friends. It's long overdue. Basically, if you've listened to Jenny you've probs listened to Bess Rogers, Dan Romer, Allie Moss, Andrew Futral, Saul Simon-Macwilliams, Ingrid Michaelson... I could go on because JOY and peeps are the kind of friends that make music together and apart not unlike all the members of Broken Social Scene. Let me try and break it down for you.
There's solo Jenny Owen Youngs. There's solo Bess Rogers. Bess Rogers has also appeared on JOYs solo work and written songs with her. There's a podcast called Once More With Feeling starring Bess Rogers, Jenny Owen Youngs and Andrew Futral, and it sometimes has a video counterpart. There's Age of Rockets, a band that includes Bess Rogers, Andrew Futral, Adam Christgau and Saul Simon-Macwilliams. Adam Christgau has also played on Jenny's solo stuff. Dan Romer is a producer/mixer extraordinaire who is also lead vocals/guitar for Fire Flies. He has worked on albums for Bess Rogers, Jenny Owen Youngs, Ingrid Michaelson, etc. There's Robot Explosion, a band that includes Andrew Futral, Bess Rogers, Jenny Owen Youngs, and Saul Simon-Macwilliams. Saul Simon-Macwilliams has appeared on Bess and Jenny's solo work. There's solo Allie Moss. She has also been backup vocals/tour support for Bess Rogers and Ingrid Michaelson. There's a 'dutch pop' project called Ingrid + Andrew that is Ingrid Michaelson and Andrew Futral. There's Jukebox the Ghost, a band Jenny has written/performed a song with. There's Au Revoir Simone, a band that has an Age of Rocket's remixed song. There's Gregory and the Hawk, Jenny's friends whose songs she likes to cover sometimes. The singer for Gregory and the Hawk, Meredith Godreau has also appeared in Jenny's solo work. There's Chris Kuffner who has played bass/double bass/produced for most of these people at some point, no exaggeration. I think that's all the major players. There is also Chris Garneau who is friends with many of these people and is also a musician, but to the best of my knowledge he hasn't actually played/recorded with them (but Chris Kuffner has played bass for him.) My apologies to any musicians who play on these various albums whom I haven't mentioned. You rock too! And of course I wouldn't really know about many of these fabulous musicians had Jenny Owen Youngs not opened for her friend Regina Spektor a few years back. I heart ReSpekt! Her voice appears in an early JOY song. So, did you catch all that?
ps- Do you tweet? You can follow Jenny, Bess, Ingrid, Allie, and Andrew on Twitter and see what kinds of wacky convos these friends have! For other band info you can follow Jukebox the Ghost and Au Revoir Simone as well. There is a twitter for the Gregory and the Hawk fan site, Wide as the Ocean. If you want the others... look them up. But most of them (like Dan) don't appear to tweet. Not yet, at least ;)
AND NOW... what you've all been waiting for.... THE VIDEOS!!
I'm going to start you off with one of my fav JOY songs, Fuck Was I. From her first album and edited (censored) for the interwebs, unfortunately. Bess is there too:
This is an excellent live recording of Jenny singing Voice On Tape. The original album recording of this song includes snippets of a voicemail from Regina Spektor. There is also a Robot Explosion version of this song, but I like this one the best:
If you don't watch any more of these videos... 1- Shame on you! 2- Watch this one before you leave! It's Jenny's cover of Hot In Herre and it's brilliant! When I saw her play it live, at the end the band started morphing the song into Oasis (Wonderwall) and it was amazing:
Here's a great new video from her album that just came out this month. The song is Clean Break, the album is Transmitter Failure:
Here is the first ever video counterpart to Jenny, Bess and Andrew's podcast, Once More With Feeling. They are nuts and it's funny:
This is a so-so quality video of a live performance of Bess Rogers playing Modern Man, accompanied by Dan Romer:
This is just a snippet of Secret (an old performance of a song on Jenny's new album) but it shows Jenny and Bess singing together and Chris playing bass between them. It also has good sound quality:
Factoid: Transitter Failure is a song that Jenny and Bess wrote waaay back in the day and performed on the Robot Explosion EP. Recently Jenny redid the song and it became the title track for her second album. Here is a performance of the song, it's so beautiful:
There isn't much out there on Youtube as far as Dan Romer/Fire Flies performances go, but this one isn't too bad:
Here is a great one of Allie Moss singing I Will Go Anywhere:
This past winter Ingrid did a song with Sara Bareilles called Winter Song. Embedding is disabled (for all Ingrid Michaelson official vids, actually), but it is soooo worth the click.
Here is a pretty good live recording of Ingrid Michaelson and Jason Mraz performing her song, You and I:
This is a fun and super recent video of Jenny and Jukebox the Ghost performing Last Person, the song that JOY wrote with/for JTG. When I saw them in concert here in Chicago recently JTG performed the song WITHOUT Jenny and I was sad:
This is Au Revoir Simone singing Fallen Snow, the song that was remixed by Age of Rockets/Andrew Futral:
This is my favorite Au Revoir Simone song, Stars. It's actually one of my fav songs of all my fav songs/artists:
Here is Gregory and the Hawk performing Boats and Birds followed by JOY covering GATH followed by GATH covering Beyonce!:
AAANNNNDDDD I'll leave you with Jenny covering a Dan Romer song, Rays. She also talks a little bit about her covers and is her awesome, weird self. I have heard the chord progression/medley that she talks about, twice :D
Well folks, it has happened. It is only June 30th and I am nearly $600 over the minimum donations needed for my walk (thanks to the triple matching done by the company of a family friend- she gave $250, her company gave $750) so all the hair has to go, not just a majority of the ponytail. I can't/won't go straight-razor-to-the-scalp-bald because I will look sick and gross & I will get even worse sunburn on my scalp than I already usually do, AND in a month, when the walk itself rolls around not only can I not afford to get a head sunburn, I also don't want to look like I just went through chemo like some of the survivors who also do the walk. That's just tacky and not fair to them. BUT I did say I would lose the hair. So I'm looking at super short crops/pixie cuts ala Laura Harris, Ruby Rose, Selma Blair, etc. just maybe a little shorter on top- input...?
