Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Stir Crazy

The semester wrapped up a little over 3 weeks ago (THREE WEEKS ALREADY?!), and since then I have been in a semi-constant state of boredom that ebbs back and forth between worry-free elation and lackadaisical frustration; the latter of which has been effecting me most recently. I am jobless, I have too much time on my hands, I have friends who aren't as needy as me and goddamnit I have a mind that thinks (see, 'worries') far too much. I have become stir crazy in my solitary confinement, longing for the platonic companionship of a dog or cat in the most desperate of moments (Herbie just doesn't cut it sometimes, he's so selfish!*) and finding myself stuck in a perpetual downward spiral of borderline agoraphobic anxiety...

So...needless to say...it was INCREDIBLY NICE to go out this evening with my friend Julie. I mean, wow, indescribably nice. The weather in Louisville has felt like I'm stuck on a movie set in Seattle, preparing for a funeral scene...ultra gloomy and doomy; so I was surprised at how great it felt to be out and about in the world. I joined Julie at Molly Malone's and gorged on fish and chips, topped off with a Stella Artois (courtesy my recent 21st birthday...woo!)...and we even got coffee at Quills and ice cream at Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen. It was a real hog fest, but we were both so tickled to be out that, well, why the fuck not, you know? We then spent the evening "girling out" and talking about guys; more specifically, our shared affinity for a good beard. Mmm, yes.

I'm not sure what I'm getting at. Maybe that it was nice to feel alive and happy after several days of Charlie Brown-esque depression. And that I need to get out more and really, REALLY need to find a job with this newfound, uplifted attitude before it hides away again. Yeah. I think that's it.



On one last random side note: I am SO fucking excited about this My Morning Jacket concert coming up on the 31st. I mean, just as excited for it as I am for Bonnaroo. I bought the tickets as a birthday gift to myself (ROW B...just think about that), and when I found out it was being turned into a sort of huge event thing (with Todd Haynes directing it and broadcasting it live online)... Now I'm just beside myself with happiness and am forcing my brother to go with me (we love concerts and we love the Jacket, but our last MMJ concert experience ended with two kiddos on acid rubbing our hair the whole time, and it made us want to steer clear of GA concert crowds for a while), so it should be a raucous, good ole time... Okay, I'll shut up now.

*just have to clarify...that's a joke...hardy har

Thursday, May 5, 2011

I Need To Get Out Of Louisville

For the longest time I was not only content with Louisville, but I was happy. Why shouldn't I be? Yes, this isn't the biggest city in the USA, and even if it is very supportive of the arts, it is virtually impossible to work as an artist (specifically, a performing artist) within the city, but it has everything I ever wanted growing up...so how can I complain? The answer is simple: I can't. I think every single day about how different my life could have been had I grown up in a city that had magnet schools, private institutions with many opportunities for scholarship funding, and exposure, exposure, exposure. My God...

I don't have a time machine, and unfortunately for all of us, time doesn't even stop to let us think for a moment; so it's a total waste to linger on what could have been. I am just grateful to have been raised by two wonderful people who still exposed my brother and myself to as many things as they could. My parents did normal things, like encouraging us to listen to music, having us take piano lessons (6 years for myself, not sure about my brother), enrolling me in ballet, and later, jazz and tap, and of course private guitar lessons for my brother, while I opted to take private painting instruction...but these normal things meant so much more to us than most will ever realize.

For whatever reason, Eastern Kentuckians don't like art. Well, that's a roughly put statement...what I mean to say is that, they don't really care about art. Yes, you will still see plenty of folk art (quilts, woodwork, crafts, and the occasional bucolic painting: see, Russell May), and no I am not saying every Eastern Kentuckian falls into this category; but if someone were to argue with me on this, they better have an argument to back it up. I grew up around friends who, God love 'em, made fun of me for years because I was an artist. I know the majority of it was done in jest, but that doesn't make it entirely okay. It didn't help that the only decent art instructor I ever had during my entire 14-year public school education was in elementary school (a woman who I later mentored under, and realized that teaching anything outside of a collegiate setting wasn't for me). Hell, after my freshman year of high school my school decided to eliminate the art program (yes, you read correctly, the program...all because they wanted to fire the teacher), pushing me even further into the dark away from art education.

So, you see, if my parents hadn't encouraged my brother and me to take initiative outside of school for our art, then we wouldn't have become the pissy, creative little artists we are today. I am getting beside myself, though. The point of this post was about why I need to leave Louisville. In the journey that has been/currently is my life, I feel that Louisville was the perfect stop-over point for me; but I'm ready to move on. This city is comfortable...too comfortable... It feels like an artist's retirement dream (well, if you want small town America + enough of the city life, but not too much of it), but I'm not ready to retire. I'm ready to get out there and fucking work. I need to get out of this city. The world is my oyster, right?

Also, on a random site note: I heard this band called Cibo Matto on Grooveshark earlier and they are so fucking weird I can't resist them. I told Erin that if we had a band, it would be just like Cibo Matto.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Obama Is Such A BAMF


Ugh, apparently the video got taken down or something. Maybe I'll come back and fix it later...maybe not... You can probably Google search "Obama, Seth Meyers, Donald Trump, 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner" and find a billion versions of it. Just sayin'...

A friend posted this video on Facebook earlier, and while I usually dodge videos related to any political figures (a bad habit, as I am often lagging behind on current affairs), I was drawn to this video. And boy, oh boy, am I glad I watched it...

Basically, if you don't feel like watching all of it, President Obama rips Donald Trump a new asshole like it's a surprise roast. The best part of all? It just gets worse and worse as the video goes on. As if that public wound isn't painful enough, Seth Meyers steps up to the plate and pours some more salt on it. Oh well... I don't want to sound mean, but the Donald certainly had something coming to him, so I can't feel too bad. Either way, I take comfort in knowing that our President can handle a sense of humor with swag and still come off on the right foot at the end of the day.