Happy Music Monday everyone! Today calls for a holiday song. Kirsty MaCcoll is a major musical superhero of mine and has been for a very long time. The album she recorded before her abrupt and tragic death in December 2000 "Tropical Brainstorm" is a work of art. She writes snarky lyrics and that was the first time I really heard a woman speaking her mind in a song in a very honest and very funny way. Her voice is so sweet but the lyrics she wrote and is singing are anything but. Listen to the album "Tropical Brainstorm" by the late Kirsty MacColl. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

For today’s tune, I posted a music video reference of the original song because I might know the song - but you may not - so perhaps a reference will help. Special note: Kirsty’s hairstyle in this video was the exact same hairstyle I had in the late 80’s early 90’s; huge bow and all. Due to the amount of Aqua-Net I used back then, that hole in the ozone is probably my fault solely. It took me a long time to assemble that “hairstyle" - like building a house of cards every single day. It really was a terrible hairstyle. WAY too much upkeep and forget about swimming.

There were no vocals included in this karaoke track, so it’s all me. I've always loved the strong contrasty difference between Kirsty’s vocals and Shane MacGowan’s vocals but I think that's the point. It would have been nice to have Shane MacGowan on deck to help with the male vocal parts but I’m assuming he has much better things to do so you get me and the monotony of one singer doing all the parts. Please enjoy my version of The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl's “Fairytale of New York” - a Christmas favorite for the bitter and jaded.

Wow. Let’s talk about today’s general energy and how metallic, loud and chaotic (shitty) it seems to be. I cannot be the only one experiencing this or noticing it. Last night was super bad. Today is more just angsty and annoying but still bubbling. They are doing VERY LOUD street work right outside my house and my parrot Toby has decided his screams sound better today than I do, so for today’s Music Monday, let’s have another look into the past.

Today we visit “Bathtub Mary”, a Sweet Jelly tune Mr. Lance Dobersek and I worked on together once upon a time. Lance is an amazing visual artist and guitarist; I love watching and listening to him play slide guitar especially. We had a lot of fun getting together for music weekends putting songs together on the Fostex machine. As for the lyrical content of this tune, I never understood why anyone would put a holy relic, let alone THE MOTHER OF GOD, inside of an old dirty bathtub. I’m sure there’s a reason. I’m sure google could tell me but I feel like living inside the unsolved mystery instead. Lawn ornaments in general are intriguing. I go back and forth on this issue personally. I have some, yes…but…let’s just say that there’s a plastic goose that lives in my neighborhood who’s dressed for every occasion and holiday. He’s never late with his special outfit. N-E-V-E-R. I admire that in a way but I also wonder about that. That means the plastic goose has its own wardrobe. That means you need a place to store the plastic goose’s wardrobe. And keeping track of when he needs a costume change.

That’s a lot to keep track of for a...

That’s all I’m saying.

Sadly, Bathtub Mary’s artwork perished in the 2018 flood but remains forever on slide film(!) White China Marker was used to outline the bathtub; I wanted that old dusty clawfoot bathtub feeling of a porcelain tub but I also didn’t want it to rub off by just using chalk. China marker is not as gooey as oil pastels or dusty and elusive as chalk, and depending on the surface you can still make it look like a rugged dusty chalkline. The consistency is right in the middle of those two materials. Remembering that this was the first time I started experimenting with flat panels instead of canvas panels and I remember really liking the way the brush and paint felt in comparison. More direct contact, I guess is the best way to put it. Please enjoy and keep well out there.

I’m sure it’s no secret by now after reading my posts that this blog is a form of therapy for me. My emotions and creativity have been all over the board again but that’s nothing new. An unexpected surprise; a renewed interest in music continues after a very, very, very long sad draught so I’m happy to report that I’ve been hanging out in that world again lately. Visual art is still being made, but there are a lot of pieces in limbo so we’ll be taking another trip down memory lane for today’s studio closeup.

Today’s painting died in the flood and is the artwork intended for the song “Forbidden Fruit” by my old band Sweet Jelly. Our writing process was unique. Aaron lived in Milwaukee and I lived two hours away. Aaron would send me MP3 scratch tracks of songs he’d come up with out of nowhere and I would add lyrics and vocals. I really enjoyed it. The internet made it possible to write songs together despite the distance and that was new at that time.

After singing this past Monday for my Carolaoke project, I decided I was finally in a place where I could revisit Sweet Jelly Land again. I started going through the old lead sheets Aaron had painstakingly put together in Illustrator and I thought I’d revisit those old tunes we wrote together. Oh, boy that was a trippy trip trip. I’m not promising anything, but perhaps some of these 70+ old abandoned Sweet Jelly tunes might show up in a new way on Music Mondays here.

Title: Forbidden Fruit
Year: 2000
Media: Acrylic Paint, Paper Collage, Canvas Board
Total Dimension: (2) 6 x 4" Canvas Board Panels 1/4" apart

Let’s talk Doris Day. I already knew of Doris Day before hearing the lyrics of Stockard Channing’s performance of “Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee” in Grease. That may have been my father’s parents doing because what 12 year old knows of Doris Day in the 1980s. This weirdo.

So as I was first seeing Grease; hearing the words to this song, I kept thinking to myself “What’s wrong with Doris Day!? Why are they making fun of Doris Day?! And while we’re at it, why are they being so crappy to, and about, Sandy? She seems like a very nice...” and then I had an ah-ha moment and went “Ohhhhhhhhhhh. I get it.” That’s how I usually navigate in life. It takes me a while. I never seem to grasp the obvious right away and that has always made me feel stupid, secretly. At any rate, in college, I was really into listening to the songstresses of the 1940s and 1950s and Doris Day was one of my top ladies. I loved that songs back then were a full production which usually involved the singers being in movies, dancing and singing on beautiful sets while wearing colorful costumes. Every detail was accounted for.

This karaoke track already had the backing vocals of someone singing the main part during the round in the middle of the song. This bummed me out because I like the challenge of building different harmonies myself. Last week’s tune had no backing vocals added to the karaoke track so it was a lot of fun trying to reconstruct that tune and all the different vocal parts. Seriously though, I’m just grateful to live in a time where being able to record your own music with readily available karaoke tracks finally exists in present day. I feel like I've been waiting my whole life for this moment. At any rate, please enjoy my scratch track cover of Doris Day’s, “Everybody Loves A Lover”. Stay safe and please keep well.

I'm not sure if it’s because of all the ridiculousness that is our American politics currently, the world's general angsty vibe and energy or if it was just my own moodiness (probably all of it) but last week I really felt the need to be quiet and hide. As I've said before, I have to be in a different place entirely to sing and make noise and I could not get to that place to save my life last week.

It reminds me of when my mom would come into my room when I was little and I’d be drawing in my closet (sliding doors closed) completely silent, pretending I was invisible. I wouldn’t answer her or make a peep when she was calling my name standing right outside the closet door all the while seeing her feet from the light crack of the sliding door. I wasn’t trying to be naughty per se, I just didn’t want to be found. She’d walk through the house calling my name and I would only pop out when she’d get super panicked and terrified because she thought I had been abducted or something. Oh, she used to get so pissed. I'm sorry, Mom. I’m sure if you ask my sister, I did this to her too. Sorry, Cindy. I can’t explain it. I really can’t. It was nothing personal about or to anyone, I just liked not being found unless I wanted to be found. I absolutely LOVED being left alone and it hasn’t really changed in my adult life, I'm sad to say. At any rate, that’s what happened to last week’s Carolaoke Collection Song #15. I was hiding in my closet making dioramas, painting and exercising my right to remain completely silent.

But this week, I feel much better and I am ready to be loud again. This tune was introduced to me by my friend Mark Miskelly who I was doing Capitola Shows with a while back. When we would practice, we’d take a break and listen to different kinds of music to get motivated and this is a song that he brought to my attention and now has become one of my guilty pleasures to sing. My musical taste is all over the board and I don’t care what that says about me. So here is my scratch track version of Selena Gomez & The Scene’s “Love You Like A Love Song” for song #15. Please enjoy and thank you for stopping by!