blood and kittens

things have been a little crazy lately and i haven't been able to post. last sunday josh and i went to now that's class for the flying trichecos 7" release show.







things are usually out of hand there, but this was more than i was expecting. besides the organ getting smashed to bits with a baseball bat, it was also set on fire. well, first there was a little fire that was a part of someone's set. and then they decided to tip the organ over onto the fire, and it went POOF! and caught on fire quicker than i think anyone was expecting. people were trying to put it out with beer, rock salt, dirty mop water, etc.




















i love these two pictures:





halfway through the flying trichecos set, i saw josh walk to the bathroom with blood on his hand. he had been standing behind me, so i didn't see what happened. someone tapped me on the shoulder and a guy told me, "your dude just got hit on the head with a beer bottle. i don't think it was good." uh-oh. i saw josh walk out the front door and i followed him out there. when i asked what happened, he put his hand up to his head and brought it down covered with blood. I FREAKED. he insisted he was fine, but i don't know the first thing about heads splitting open so i wasn't so sure. we got home and i tried to assess the damage but there was so much blood clotted in his hair that it was hard to tell. plus, josh was drunk, which made everything 10x harder. i had to force him to get in the shower and wash the blood out of his hair, all the while making sure he didn't fall over when he took his pants off and making sure he didn't fall asleep in the shower because he kept trying. it was like giving a bath to a two-year-old. except in this instance, the two-year-old was my poor, bloody, drunk boyfriend. he convinced me that he didn't need to go to the hospital for stitches, so i sat up with him making sure we got the bleeding to stop and wrapping his head in bandages so he could go to bed. it was a long nite. work in the morning was not pleasant for either one of us, although i can imagine it was worse for him when he woke up with a splitting headache. in the chaos of everything, i didn't get any pictures of how bad things looked, but there was certainly evidence everwhere. and josh's head still looked pretty gnarly the next day.






a couple entries ago i mentioned my friend jeff magnum. he told me the other day that he learned how to burn dvds, and to watch out. he quickly sent me a copy of his favorite horror movie (something about a killer tree?!?) and another dead boys bootleg from '77. as you can see, i'm acquiring quite the dead boys bootleg collection. mags is one of the best people i know. i'm one lucky girl.





here are a bunch of pictures of my kitten, pogo. she is the most insane little kitten i have ever seen. she still loves hiding everywhere, sticking her head places it shouldn't be (i.e., in beer boxes), and using the bathtub as her playground/bed.

"imagine lewis and clark lost in the pages of a judy blume novel" - david nadelberg

i just got finished reading "mortified: love is a battlefield" by david nadelberg. the book is a collection of people's childhood diary/journal entries about adolescent crushes and first loves. in just about every case, they are painfully embarrassing and hilarious. i think i enjoyed the first "mortified" book more (which included some of the same, but was more general childhood writing instead of being focused entirely on the subject of love).

regardless, this got me thinking about my childhood crushes. i never went through the whole "boys have cooties" stage and have been boy-crazy my whole life. i don't know whether this is a blessing or a curse. i had a boyfriend in kindergarden named paul. i still have pictures of him riding in his jeep big wheels that his mom gave to my mom, and the one my mom took of us with our arms around each other at the cleveland zoo. he was adorable. the only thing i remember about him is guilting him into giving me some polished rocks that another kid in our class brought in for show and tell. i decided it was essential to have him prove his love for me, telling him, "if you really liked me, you would give me yours." he did because he was not a brat like me. i had no use for ONE polished rock, let alone two. but i kept it. thank goodness i grew out of this and don't put josh to the test like that anymore. or do i? sheesh.

most of my childhood crushes were on celebrities, which is not an uncommon fantasy. but what i DO find strange is the range of guys i had these crushes on. i figured out years ago that i have a "type" i go for: scrawny guys with tattoos that have a very little boyish charm. cute rather than hot. they either looked young, or were. from about age 4 or 5, i had a series of very intense infatuations with the most diverse array of males possible, which cracks me up looking back on it.

circa age 4: THE MONKEES



interest in the male species started in a big way for me. not just one, but four simultaneous crushes. that's right, i had a crush on every member of the '60s pop group the monkees. in the early eighties when i was growing up, there was a resurgence in popularity when vh1/mtv/nickelodeon began showing reruns of the television series (and the three remaining monkees that were still on speaking terms -- minus mike -- were putting out embarrassing 80s singles like "every step of the way"). i became obsessed with the show and my mom often taped it on our beta max for me so that i could watch it when my cousins came over.

around this same time, my mom gave me her copy of the monkees first self-titled record (shown above). she must have been really amused that her four-year-old daughter was growing up listening to a band she herself grew up listening to when they were first coming out in the sixties. i have a vivid memory of being in my bedroom alone and imagining that the monkees were standing at my windown. i kissed the glass in four spots, just like the monkees are lined up on the cover of the album. i don't remember anything beyond that, but i wonder how long i imagined them standing there being peeping toms in my window.

**NOTE: i still love the monkees, although i no longer have a crush on all of them. my favorite is peter, "the dummy," pictured second from right. we met him a few years ago at the beachland ballroom when he played with his new band shoe suede blues, and he hit on beth while wearing leather pants. it was a huge disappointment.**


circa age 5: GEORGE MICHAEL



ok, this one is still inexplicable. the most manly crush i've ever had to date. in appearance at least, since he ended up being a tad on the gay side. seriously, what was i thinking?!? that stubble, the feathered and highlighted hair, the wife beater/tight jeans/leather jacket combo??? god, it makes me want to throw up now. but back then, i guess i thought i was a pretty cool 5-year-old. here's how it went down:

somehow, i got hip to the george michael "faith" album when it came out. maybe it was from watching all those monkees reruns on vh1 or mtv. anyway, when my birthday rolled around, that was on my list. and someone in my family actually bought it for me. WEIRD. (especially because i have a very vague memory that it was from my grandma, although i would have to call my mom and confirm this to be sure). but then, tragedy struck. my mom took the record away from me before i even got to listen it, and i didn't get it back for ten years! i found it in her bedroom behind her door, and rightfully claimed it as mine. i discovered a song called "i want you sex" was included on the album. mystery solved. mom was my FCC.

the one token i WAS allowed to keep was a 2" button that i got from the corner store, franklin's. they had a display of george michael buttons on their counter and mom bought two, one for me and one for my cousin beth. not that beth ever had any infatuation with george like i did, but we liked to have the same things. apparently i told beth i planned to sleep with the pin under my pillow each nite, in the hopes of dreaming of my dream boy. err, dream man. i still have it.


circa age 7: JOEY MCINTYRE OF NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK



i'm sure a lot of girls can relate to this one, and everybody had their favorite new kid. for me, it was all about joey joe, also known as joe mcintyre. he is the epitome of the little boyish adorableness that i still find appealing today. he wasn't that much older than most of his fans! and he had that dreamy, pre-pubescent voice that could hit the high notes like in "please don't go girl." i crushed long and hard on him. sometimes i can listen to those old tapes of mine and STILL feel this dull ache in my heart. it's funny how that happens.


circa age 9: KEVIN COSTNER AS ROBIN HOOD



thankfully, this one didn't last long. i had a thing for kevin costner, but only in his role as robin hood in the box office hit "robin hood: prince of thieves." i really loved that movie for a while. wtf, you might ask yourself? sorry. i got nothing.

i know that my mom got me a movie poster from a local video store for christmas the year it came out. i hung the poster in my room for a while, but once it fell down i put it on top of the canopy of my bed because it had see-through fabric and i could just look up at it at night when i went to sleep. creepy, now that i think about it.


circa age 10: CARLOS BAERGA OF THE CLEVELAND INDIANS



for a minute, i was REALLY into baseball. i collected cards and beckett magazines. i played shortstop and 2nd base. i cried when the old cleveland stadium closed. let me just tell you how GLAD I AM THAT I FOUND MYSELF and my real identity didn't involve cleats or gatorade. i guess the fact that i was confused about my blossoming identity caused my mind to become clouded for a while and i developed this crush on cleveland indians player carlos baerga. how could i have liked a mustache??? i remember getting really angry when someone in my family made fun of hearing him talk in an interview when they said he sounded like he "had marbles in his mouth." leave the poor hispanic alone! needless to say, my crush and passion for baseball faded away at approximately the same time.


circa age 11: TEVIN CAMPBELL



i finally started getting into music around the age of ten or eleven. too bad it was radio-friendly rap and r&b, but hey. at least it wasn't baseball. so while i sat around listening to jammin '92.3 and selling enough magazine subscriptions in the school magazine drive to get my free SWV (sisters with voices, baby!) tape, i was also dreaming about tevin campbell. i guess the romantic lyrics to his hit single, "can we talk" were really getting to my budding hormones. plus, at the time, he didn't look THAT much older than me. i kept an old diary around this time that i still have in a secret box, and there is an entry where i boldly declare, "who cares that he's black? he's cute!" right on! preach it, sister! three cheers for ignorant yet innocent childhood racism! oops. not that i saw anything wrong with the fact that he was black, because i obviously didn't, but just the fact that i made a comment like that means that i suspected other people would raise an eyebrow at my choice in men. adults don't give kids enough credit for the things they pick up when they are young.


age 12: BILLIE JOE OF GREEN DAY



this is the last of my celebrity crushes before i finally became distracted with passing notes and holding hands with boys my own age. billie joe became my longest-running crush (gimme him, still) and the first that kinda represents my "type" today. when i was twelve years old and i first saw his face on mtv in the video for "longview," i was a goner. i taped the video and watched it over and over and over, showing it to everyone and anyone, exclaiming, "isn't he the cutest thing you've ever SEEN?!?" i fell in love with his bug eyes, crooked teeth, wrinkled clothes and obnoxious nose ring. it helped that he was a mere 22 years old when i first laid eyes on him, which seemed INCREDIBLY ATTAINABLE to a 12-year-old with high hopes and dreams. he was hilarious, rebellious, gross, down-to-earth, and the reason i love music as passionately as i do. to this day, i still haven't gotten my picture taken with him despite the many times i've tried and come close. i shook his hand, but all that did was make me cry. one of these days....



so it would be really fun if anyone wanted to post an entry similar to this, or at least leave a comment with yours. might make me feel better. ha.

well it's the only music that makes me feel good -- the kids

at least once every other month, i wake up in the morning from a dream where josh has left me/dumped me/cheated on me. sometimes i wake up crying. then i have to spend the rest of the day feeling very panicked, because dreams have a way of messing with your head to think that they are real when they are not. i hate those days. it happened today when i was dreaming that josh walked into my house very early in the morning with a girl and i knew that since she was there so early, they just had to have spent the night together. it's funny how you know things to be true in your dreams. so when josh and the girl walked in together, i pulled him aside and asked him, "you love her, don't you?" and he said, "yep!" just like that. hmph. when his alarm finally went off (in the real world) i kept mumbling to him over and over how "horrible!!!" it was. for the rest of the morning i sent him "please don't leave me!" texts and he reassured me he wasn't going anywhere (all the while, thinking i was crazy). dreams are creepy. but the whole concept of losing josh is a very real fear of mine, so much so that i would have this reoccurring theme in my subconscious. finding your perfect match is both the most wonderful and most terrifying experience in the world. he makes me deliriously happy to the point where i feel like i didn't know what i was missing before i met him. but if anything were to happen to him, i can't begin to imagine how my brain would short circuit.


anyway. i can't get this song out of my head. the band is called ryan pits and the boy toys and i just booked a show for them here in cleveland on march 9th. it's really frustrating (as both a dj and a lover of music in general) when you get hip to something new and exciting, but you just can't get other people to give a shit. booking shows in cleveland is HARD. i wish we were one of those cities where people went out to shows just to see something new and support live music. overall, we are not. at least, not in the circles i run or the genres i deal with. i think it might help to appeal to younger crowds that are still impressionable and open to new things, but i don't quite know how to go about it. maybe i could start one of those programs where i go around to area middle schools and teach kids the importance of supporting bands/music and the plight of rock'n'roll in a live setting. or i guess i could just keep blogging about rock'n'roll youtube videos. ugh.

come out and play

my 27th birthday was over the weekend.

last week i got a package in the mail to start things rollin. it was from jeff magnum, who i swear to god is like my rock'n'roll soulmate through decades. it was really cute that he wrapped it in this pretty paper. ha. and it ruled that he got me the boyce & hart cd collection, which i didn't have (and totally needed). they are a pair of 60s pop music geniuses who are best known for writing a lot of hits for the monkees (like "last train to clarksville" for instance).





the day before my birthday, i was taking a nap when i woke up to this:





josh insisted we exchange valentine's day things since we would be busy with my birthday party the next day. that was the cutest thing in the world to wake up to. he got me candy, roses, and the paul collins cd that has both of his albums on it (i want to talk more about paul collins, but i'll do that later). i teased him for buying me old lady chocolate, but he teased me for BEING an old lady. touche. still, what a perfect boy!



pogo also had a lot of fun with the wrapping josh used on my present:




for my birthday, josh got me a record he knew i wanted. we had a 90s party and it was excellent.






there are more photos on my myspace blog if you're interested.

who knew that you can't get chococat put on an ice cream cake at dairy queen or ANYWHERE? not me. apparently you can't get anything that is a "copyrighted image" put on a cake. this blows my mind. what am i gonna do with it, sell it on ebay and make money off some greedy-ass company? ITS A FUCKING CAKE. I'M GOING TO EAT IT. AND EVEN IF I DIDN'T, IT'S ICE CREAM. IT'S GOING TO MELT. i was sad and had to settle for a cookie cake.





i don't know, i didn't really like my birthday this year, but i guess i'm being a brat and i don't really have a reason to say that. i was bitter about people not coming to my party, but that's their right (and their loss). i got so so many texts and comments from people i love that remembered me (including nobunny! and my best friend aleks, formerly of the feelers!) josh took good care of me and put up with me being a brat, doing everything i asked (made breakfast, bought lunch so i could stay in my pajamas until the party started and not leave the house, paid for the party, etc). my family and friends are awesome. just awesome. i couldn't ask for more, really. i guess i'm just bummed that i'm getting old and josh is still this young, adorable stud. ha.







so i mentioned paul collins earlier. i saw on a message board that he posted about being "not too fond of cleveland" and i took it personally, even though he said he "didn't want to offend anyone, especially erin." i felt responsible because i booked the show and i didn't want him or the rest of the guys to have a bad time. i find myself apologizing to bands often when they play a show in cleveland, but it's usually because it's so hard to get people out to see shows in this town. the paul collins show seemed like a really good turnout to me, although i guess it didn't compare in terms of other cities he played.

ANYWAY. i wrote paul an apology note. he wrote back a really sweet response that made my heart happy:

"Erin,
please dont feel bad. we love you and it was great to meet you and hang out your house. that was the best part of the whole experience. so what if we were a little bummed out about the way it went at the club. you and the guy who booked it were real people and we know you did your best and for me that is what really counts! so look at it this way: you were our Cleveland experience! You did your town proud and I for one thank you for it. I hope we meet again...a big hug and a kiss...you are a Rock n Roll Girl! And you know what that means to me!!!!
PC"

aw. i know exactly what it means. that message was right up there with some of the ones jeff magnum has written me about having his mind blown that i know way too much about music than i should for my age. hearing these kinds of things from people involved with music that i look up to are the greatest compliments i have ever received in my life.



p.s. that's paul singing...

when i say i'm in love you best believe i'm in LOVE, l-u-v!

the new layout is very valentinesy, eh? of course, i realize how lame it is that a holiday was created for the sole purpose of driving up greeting card sales in the slow months...but i also must admit that i have a soft spot for any reason to celebrate spreading the love. i am kind of a sap. plus, how can i diss the day i was born? hearts and flowers and candy were destined to be my THING, like it or not.

anyway, here are some pictures i love or that will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, which goes along with the theme.