Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

Ani DiFranco

a stronger faster fiercer me

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I would just like to point out, tipsy as i am in the wake of viewing Dead Man’s Chest, that i am still quite possibly the worldwide master of amateur Ani DiFranco transcribers.

Was i comfortable resting on my laurels of years gone by, having accurately transcribed the better half of Little Plastic Castle prior to release? Or, relying on my collaborative transcription of the good bits reveling/Reckoning to tide me through more fallow years? No, my friends. Because, as i have just reminded myself (and also the world, via this post), i am still able to choose an Ani DiFranco song to play on one day, and am able to play that very song the very next day.

I scoff at pre-printed tunings and stabbed-at tabs in standard – they’re meaningless. I learned the lazy way to play guitar from the best rabid feminist with glue-on nails in the business; i can suss out the easiest tuning out of any grouping as soon as i figure out the open strings.


Meanwhile, Depp and Co. scored a big 3 Drinks, 3.5 Stars from me after tonight’s viewing. I fairly actively despised their debut flick, but after a tumultuously awful start this go wound up thrilling fun, just as all summer movies should be. Superman will need much luck (and maybe an extra drink?) to best them in tomorrow’s viewing.

The Dots, They’ve Been Connected

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I’ve known Leigh Marble, or at least known of Leigh Marble, as long as i’ve played guitar.

Literally. The night i came home with that crappy Ashland i headed directly to Leigh’s AniTab’s, which still exists at the same url to this day, almost nine years later. The first song i played on my first guitar was “Dilate.”

Two years later and i was a pro at figuring out my own arrangements of Ani DiFranco songs, and a contributor (and argumentative corrector) of Leigh’s tabs. At the time he was splitting a 7″ record with Erin McKeown.

Five years ago this week I saw and heard Erin McKeown for the first time in 2001, on a split bill with Peter Mulvey, and it was from that perspective that i first connected the dots between my favorite inspiration (Peter) and my first (Ani), through Leigh.

Leigh’s self-recorded his first full-length CD, Peep in 2003. He gives an elucidating account of the recording process, as well as samples of his songs. Each one i’ve heard is a fresh idea laid over an innovative arrangement, none betraying his Ani affiliation than “Bucket Seat” does mine. I’m buying a copy; you ought to buy one too. (Also, Erin has a free four-song session up at the spectacularly neat Daytrotter, and an album of standards on the way.)

I think the connection is that we’re all doing it ourselves. And, nine years later, i just submitted the 101st tab to AniTabs.

Please Look Away (Don’t Look Away)

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It’s strange to have taken my birthday back from Hallmark and my family and friends and the rest of the world. No calls, no cards – honestly, just the way i like it. Even without receiving a single gift I got a lot of things that i wanted for my birthday, and some things that i didn’t but got anyway.

In New York i rubbed shoulders with Ani Difranco, almost knocked into Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney, made eye contact with Rufus Wainwright, and split a drink list with Rabi, among other wonderful things. For me the day started at five-fifteen waiting for a late taxi that almost made me late for my train, which was moot anyhow, as my connecting train (and all of NJ transit) was down for the morning. I had to score an unlikely Greyhound ticket to make it into the city in time (just barely) for my first event. As a result, I missed ten or fifteen minutes of Malcolm Gladwell’s wonderful speech, partially about the difference between talented mimicry and dilligent practice, and for the rest of the day i quite punctually absorbed lots of information from people whose diligent practice has resulted in moments of cinematic and musical perfecion. It might not have been on my birthday, but i can’t think of a much better birthday to have.

Yesterday i drank way too many little solo cups of beer, wine, beer again, and some more wine with better than 50% of my friends at Sippin’ By The River. It was fun at points, but ended with six hazy, tortuous hours i only recollect in the vaguest sense of the word. The last thing i remember very clearly is talking about Garbage with Erika’s sister, but afterwards i have had confirmed involved me making out with someone who i really never intended to make out with and almost drowning in my shower because i couldn’t figure out how to turn off the water. Elise further confirmed that i did invite about a dozen people to our house for martini’s and The Simpsons, even though we neither have ingredients for martinis or reception for the Simpsons. It was a wonderful example of excess which, having lived through it, will probably make for an interesting story to tell in years to come.

The merry part of making your birthday a nearly week-long event is that there is no pressure to make a single 24-hours perfect. A day of low-key shopping is finely balanced against a madcap NYC adventure, and a lazy afternoon with your girlfriend is almost a contradiction in comparison to a wild day of alchoholic sampling, but they were all my birthday, a birthday that was finally mine and no one else’s, and quite possibly my favorite one yet.

Sunday Morning

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The party was a huge success, and I probably have enough leftovers to last me all week (which is good, because I’m going to need to skip lunch for a month to repay my party debt to my budget). Also, Elise is now graduated, or commenced, or whatever, and along the way her arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner sounded fantastic, took everyone by surprise, and garnered lots of random congratulations out on the lawn after the ceremony was over.

Lots of post-party mopping awaits me downstairs, but i thought i’d unload some scant links on you all first.

A Bookslut interview with the founder of Guys Read, a non-profit organization that encourages boys and men to find literature that’s right for them. I’ve been a reader almost my entire life, but that’s probably because my mother always bought me the right things to read, so i am pleased and fascinated by this cause (found via Neil Gaiman).

Word has it that Blogathon is a go, and will be held on August 6th. I’ve never liked the last-minuteness of the planning of the ‘Thon, because it sells short the opportunity to support it and it disqualifies possible participants who have a life and like to plan ahead for it. I myself already have plans for August 6th (i’ll be on stage!), so it looks as though my participation with the ‘Thon has ended. I might still be doing some promotional writing for the event, and otherwise wish them the best.

MusicLab is a study on how you like music. I haven’t done it yet, but in exchange for being a test-subject you get to download all sorts of free indy tunes. Link probably from Coolfer.

Also from Coolfer, a cool girl band Jessie Diamond and the Thousand There was another band i wanted to link to, but i lost their link. Instead, read the best guitar-oriented interview with Ani DiFranco ever.

Okay, off to mop.

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My iPod, almost completely out of battery power, didn’t seem as if it would want to scroll very far to find an album for my morning commute on Wednesday. I obliged by only descending as far as Ani DiFranco.

As the trolley whisked through its underground tunnel, I marveled that an Ani Difranco album came out on Tuesday. It’s the first one that I haven’t bought on (or before) its day of release. In fact, I used to pride myself on being able to recite Ms. DiFranco’s release dates as if their were birthday’s of favorite cousins, or political revolutions.

As Ani releases an album nearly every year, it’s easy for me to associate every one with a certain bit of my life, as many people as there are songs strewn across her dozens of discs. Standing there on the trolley a line caught my ears, a line I’ve heard so many times before: I owe my life to the people that I love.

It’s a strange concept to me who, by any account, is at least halfway centered on myself. I measure my life in personal milestones and, in Ani’s case, in albums, but rarely by other people. But, as those songs passed by I thought of some of those other people. How Ayelet put an Ani song on a mix tape before I even know who Ani was. How freshman year I sat on Alison’s floor and traded Ani concert stories as we carefully cut out the tray-art of my demo cd. How sitting in Lindsay’s room (really Laurel’s) and singing “Falling is Like This” I realized that I had met someone of a completely like mind.

All of those people, just by invoking Ani DiFranco albums. If Ani’s music has partially made my life, then what about the people who brought me an appreciation for those songs? The people that are unavoidably invoked every time one of them is played.

I am happy to say that I’ve spoken to all of the people in that paragraph since Wednesday, but what about everyone else? What about the ones I associate with Tori, or with the Beatles? I am so eager to cloak myself in a fluency of all things musical that I seem to have forgotten the importance of what allows that music to be meaningful to me.

So, here’s a new initiative. Every time I hear a song for the next week, and it reminds me of someone, or someplace, I am writing their name down. At the end of the week, I’m starting at the top of the list, and talking to one of them every day. Will I have their phone number? Their email address? Will I even know where they live, or if they’re alive? Who knows. But, if an iPod can allow me to appreciate music in a whole new way, maybe it can help me appreciate people again, too.

Do you think I associate you with a song? Do you have one for me? Since my comments are currently irreparably broken, why don’t you drop me a line and tell me what it is.

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