Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Archives for December 2009

What do you mean you don’t like Wham!?

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I spent the night at home last night – E was out rehearsing with the band while Gina and I commandeered the living room for Arcati Crisis rehearsal.

We’ve been so consumed with our open micage this fall that we’ve forgotten a bit about how much we like to just be in a room playing music with each other. An hour – a whole hour – practicing our acoustic duet of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” In what other living room in America can you hear that?

We’re the house band at the Shubin Theate holiday revue next weekend, as we’ve been since 2003, amidst opera and flamenco and one-act plays. I tried to convince Gina to learn a Christmas song, but we reached an impasse after she declined “Christmas Song,” she wanted “Father Christmas” but neither of us really know it, and I wanted “Last Christmas” and we discovered her secret prejudice against Wham.

HELLO, SECRET PREJUDICE AGAINST WHAM? Seriously, we’ve been friends for half our lives and I didn’t know about this? Wham is like the best super-cheap jug of wine ever – cloying, a little too syrupy, but only a guilty pleasure after you realize you drank the entire thing all in one sitting and bought a second.

Apparently she just likes “Wake Me Up (Before You Go Go)” as a novelty. No “Careless Whisper,” and no “Last Christmas.”

So, yeah, no Christmas songs from Arcati Crisis, per our usual MO. We’ll play our newest stuff and unleash “Total Eclipse,” as well as probably “Falling Slowly” – which makes me nervous as hell. We’ve never done a song before where I have to just stand still and sing well.

You’ll get a preview of it next week. And if you’re in Philly and will die without attending the holiday revue, let me know via comments.

Tuesday @ Smith’s

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I stayed late at work last night, ostensibly to head with guitar in tow to the open mic at Time, but ultimately E and I wound up at Smith’s on 19th right above Chestnut. Tuesdays at Smith’s they serve mussels $2 by the dozen.

E and I didn’t understand the methodology at the top of the night, ordering single plates. Gina and Megan later showed up and showed us how it was done: “I’ll have two” “I’ll have three.”

The mussels were good – dressed in a simple, succulent white sauce. No competition with Monk’s or, my favorite, Nodding Head. Ultimately Smith’s is pleasant, but too immersed in the shadow of my building to make me feel like I’m really out anywhere. More like lunch break, circa 8pm.

Afterward I told E that I really needed some pastry. I was craving pastry. I could not live without pastry. So, she drove me to the supermarket, where I bought a cheesecake, a pumpkin pie, cinnamon rolls, and a strudel.

Hopefully I will not consume all of them before the next post.

We’ll see.

Monday @ Downey’s Open Mic

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I have been on an open mic tour this fall, in an effort to get my music out of our living room and into the ears of people other than Elise.

It’s not that I don’t like performing. I love performing. It makes me realize why I torture myself with all this practice. I just don’t like leaving the house. Or traveling to where I’ll be performing. Or staying there past midnight.

Otherwise, yes, I love performing.

A wonderful thing about Philadelphia at this point in time is that there are open mics within walking distance of just about anyone, which at least eases the traveling aspect. Last night E and I headed out to Downey’s on front and South – a mere mile away – for a rare combo open mic: me solo, and she as an acoustic half of Filmstar along with Glenn.

I was in better mood or voice or whatever than usual. “Regenerate” felt real and true. I love starting, singing “In a room full of strangers that were once known to me,” and wondering if I am in that room of strangers, or if I am telling a new and different room a story about them.

The beauty of playing “Regenerate” first is that if I make it through I feel relatively invincible; I tore through the rest of my set in short order (including my still relatively new cover of “Poker Face).

Elise and Glenn acquitted themselves well, with E playing guitar in front of people for the first time since 2003. And we heard our visiting songwriting friend Rob Lytle, as well as my increasing dear friend Cris Valkyria with her otherworldly first soprano siren.

It’s a good morning to be awake and alive, I think.