Thank you Phoenix

(As I have not been keeping up with the blog here, I'm reposting a few things from livejournal and myspace to get this blog up to date. This was a myspace post form Oct 23)

I've had several comments and emails asking me when I'm coming home, so I think it's time I let you all know that as of last weekend, I signed a lease on a 2400 sq ft work/live loft in downtown…Detroit.

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It's a risky move with the economy here in such bad shape, but the low cost of living is allowing me to get a space where I can live and work and create my dream studio. I simply couldn't afford a space like this in any other major city. I would work so much to pay for a loft like this in say, LA, or even Phoenix, I would have no time to create, and I'm ready to step up my game to the next level.

Another factor in my decision was travel time. Most of my work as a travel nurse will be on the eastern side of the country, and specifically around Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. While my company offers to fly us home every other weekend while on assignment, I quickly discovered I spent all that time in airports, usually routing through Detroit, as it's Northwest airlines hub (they were even routing me through Detroit when I was traveling from South Carolina to Phoenix.)

When I saw this loft, I knew I had to seize this opportunity. It's an amazing space and it's near the Eastern Market which is a neighborhood moving up. This is my dream, right here. So I was exhilarated when I signed the lease, but then it hit me how much I was giving up.

Getting that digital camera and coming out to shows in Phoenix has completely changed my life. I went from sitting at home every night to rebuilding my life and rediscovering a dream I had put aside for too long. I will be eternally grateful to all the people and the bands in Phoenix who took a chance on me and helped me get to this point. There are too many to list, but the first and most loyal were The Limit Club, Calabrese, Stitch Hopeless and the Sea Legs, Zombeast, Glass Heroes, The Fed Ups, Lennore, The Numptys, Adams Evil, The Video Nasties, The Quakes, The F-Holes…there have been many bands who have made kind comments, but these people went above and beyond with their encouragement and support. Thanks also to all the venues, some of which are no longer around: Chasers, Jugheads, The Cypress Lounge, The Paper Heart, Stray Cat, The PHiX (Lee, I forgive you for thinking I was one of the mothers of the Limit Club), The Rogue West, Ginger Mortiis' backyard, Day's Customs in Window Rock, Club Red, Studio 111, Hollywood Alley, The Surly Wench and The Pub and Grub — I never saw a band play there, but got fucked up with Stitch Hopeless on a few occasions, namely after shooting the cd cover at the bar. (Speaking of which, thanks to Jordan for his assistance with that uh…device I was struggling with at his house after the shoot. Just don't post the photo of you helping me with it.) Thanks to Troy in Tuscon and the F-holes for letting me and bands party at and crash at their places after shows. And thanks to Merciless Entertainment (RIP) and all the fans who watched my back in the pit.

Psychobilly and the Phoenix scene in particular will always hold a special place with me. I will always consider you all family. So it's with mixed feelings I close this chapter in my life and start another.

On the bright side, if any of you come to Detroit, I have plenty of space to crash. And for bands to play.<

2007, I hardly knew ye (originally posted 12/24/07)

One week left in 2007, and what a year this has been for me. Quite the rollercoaster ride.

Even as a child, I was obsessed with photography, and with my love
of music, dreamed of being a photographer for Rolling Stone. But as far
too many of us know, we often get sidetracked from those dreams, and
I’m sorry to say, I have not been an exception.

I almost found my calling when I got involved in photojournalism
back in the 80s, but that was definitely not a kind field for women
back in those days, to say the least. (Maybe still isn’t, for all I
know.) Without dredging all the details of that up, let’s just say I
became very disillusioned with the newspaper business and tried
corporate PR.

Definitely not the right fit.

After a convoluted path that lead me through nursing school, I hit
that classic wake up call that eventually gets us all – the ol’ midlife
crisis. That was 2006, and I bought my first — and only — digital
camera. I started shooting local bands, which was very hard to begin
with, to say the least. Here I was, the poster child for Social Anxiety
Disorder, and old enough to be the mother of most of the bands and
fans…I felt like an idiot out there. The fact that I kept going out
and shooting, despite my discomfort, is a testament to how much I
loved…love…the photography and the music.

This year in particular has been full of highs and lows more than
any other year of my life. I had the first thrill of seeing my photos
in a cd, as a poster and on a t-shirt. (I still get giddy like a little
kid when I see my work used.) I had my first major magazine credit in
Girls and Corpses magazine. This year will see my first cd covers
(Koffin Kats and Stitch Hopeless and the Sea Legs so far.) I’ve met
great people and people who weren’t so great, but the former far
outnumbered the latter, I’m happy to say. I’ve "partied with rock
stars" and discovered said "rock stars" are just real people like you
and me. Sometimes better, sometimes worse, and just as human.

I also damn near imploded here the last few weeks and nearly blew it
all by attacking those closest to me  during my Annual Holiday Blues
Meltdown ™. I’m damn lucky — and grateful — that they have
weathered the storm I created, and I’ve taken that wake up call to
heart. There are a lot of people in the music biz — and any biz —
that will use you and exploit you for their gain. But there are a lot
of good people, too. People that are friends and have your back. And
for them, I am eternally grateful.

What a long, strange trip this year has been, and I can only hope
that 2008 continues the highs, but with a hell of a lot less lows.
Having said that, I have my work cut out for me to top 2007. There are
so many things I could count as favorite moments of 2007, but I think
the winner is clear, hands down.

Seeing the Koffin Kats naked. Definitely. How the hell am I going to top that this year?

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Barbie is NOT your friend

With the onslaught of talentless, trashy pop tarts all over the
charts and tabloids, the image of women in rock is in need of serious
rehab. Of the voluntary kind, not court ordered. I’m tired of
pre-packaged Barbie dolls lip-synching songs they never wrote, busting
out moves from their choreographer, and wearing the latest fashions
selected by their stylist.

Enough is enough.

The record industry as we know it is going down in flames, and I
personally am ready to dance around the bonfire. For years, they’ve
been force feeding us generic crap in all genres, but the absolute
worst has been the so-called “revolution” of female artists – Britney
Spears, Ashlee Simpson…and the so-called “punk” Avril Lavigne. (Oh, please.)

Revolution? Hardly. Sex over substance has been around as long as
the oldest profession. You record execs are just never gonna get it,
are you? We want the real thing.

The Riot Grrl movement gave us some hope for a real change. Bands
like Babes in Toyland, Bikini Kill, L7, 7 Year Bitch and Hole showed us
that not only could the girls rock as hard as the boys, but they were
just as talented, driven…and pissed off. Their guitars were more than
props. Their anger wasn’t a calculated marketing ploy for a certain
demographic.

It was real.

I had thought the riot grrls were long gone, with the breakup of all
those bands, and the plastic-surgeried, mainstreaming of Courtney Love.
But just as Love is coming back with a new album, closer to her roots,
I am browsing through myspace for new bands, and I see the seeds of the
new generation coming to fruition. Love’s video for “Mono” has a
certain prophetic quality — she lifts her skirt to reveal little girls
in frilly dresses and princess crowns, who in turn life their skirts to
reveal…power tools. And use said tools to go on a rampage.

The riot grrls gave birth to this new generation that is finally
coming of age. And ready to kick some ass — starting with the pop
tarts, whose 15 minutes of fame isn’t only over, but never should have
begun.

I don’t know if this revolution will be televised, but it will sure as hell be blogged.

The rumors of rock and roll’s demise are greatly exaggerated

bwIMG_1158I recently celebrated my one year anniversary of getting my digital camera and starting to shoot bands, and I just want to say that in the last year, I have not only rediscovered my love of photography, but my love of music. Real rock and roll, not the corporate packaged crap on top 40 radio or MTV.The music industry is crying about the drop in sales and blaming illegal downloading. Yes, that has hurt sales, but what they blindly disregard is the two most important factors in why the music industry is struggling.

1) The music the labels are putting out sucks.

2) The artists are divas more worried about looking cool and getting the right haircuts and wearing the right artificially distressed black t-shirt than making good music. It’s all about bodyguards and backstage passes and partying with idiot millionaire heiresses and doing a stint in rehab for the sympathy factor…I mean, what is that?

Forget the divas and go out to local dive bars if you want to experience real music again. See for yourself how hard these people work. They haul all their own equipment, setting it up and tearing it down themselves between sets, often for nothing more than a handful of people (sometimes just a few friends and family) and a few dollars. Not even enough for their gas in some cases, and after spending a day working some crappy corporate 9-5 job to scrape by on the rent and buy their equipment. The ones from out of state don’t travel in luxury tour buses or stay in five star hotels. They get out there in a car with a trailer for their gear, or some cramped van, sleeping on peoples’ floors and or even on the ground somewhere to come out to these shows. Sometimes for months at a time.
These bands put themselves through this for the love of the music. And sacrifice a lot to get up on stage for all the rest of us. So love them, support them, buy their cds and merchandise.
Whoever spread the idea that rock and roll is a glamorous lifestyle was a brilliant PR person. And completely, utterly, full of shit. I am going to slap the next millionaire "rock star" who cries about how hard life is on the road with their room service and high tech tour buses and the fans that just won’t leave them alone.

That’s the sad excuse that passes for music these days. Real rock and roll is in some hole in the wall, with sweat pouring down everyone, and people slamming into each other and screaming and jumping up on the stage with the bands and everyone — bands and fans alike — hanging out as equals. Like a sort of big, happy, family.
(Okay, a big, crazy, drunken family, but we’ll take what we can get.)

Turn off MTV and get out there and see it up close. Get sweat on, spit on and knocked around the pit. Because rock and roll is NOT dead. It’s in some dingy dive bar down the street. Where’s it’s always been.