2004-11-21 - 12:36 p.m.
I am under the romance of grey November Sunday morning and listening to the Weakerthans and cleaning my accumulated clutter off my desk so I can do “real” work. I am feeling oddly at peace with the world this morning when I finally got enough sleep and didn’t have to rush off early in the morning. Sometimes I wish that Sundays were a timeless space I could stay in forever, but then I think they’d probably loose their lustre and feel dry and airless. It was a weekend of seeing friends and finally feeling like I’ve almost crawled out of my self-imposed exile, walled in by explanations of sickness, school work and generally feelings of being overwhelmed.
On Friday I went to a most un-New York show in Greenpoint where I caught up friends from many different parts of my life, where everyone was friendly and more interested in having fun than being cool. Dear Nora (aka Katy Davidson) played and every time I see her play I think about the trajectory my life has taken over the past five years, since we met. I was 18 and obsessed with riot grrrl bands and came to Portland, Oregon for the first time to go to a summer writing workshop for teenagers and help Muffie and Elka set up an art show. Katy pulled me aside (she was working as an R.A. at the camp) and asked if I played guitar. When I said I did she decided we were to have a fake band and be twee and have twee names in the band and the band was to be called “Titty” or “Tittie.” We have stayed in touch ever since, though Katy’s way of staying in touch sometimes means calling me up the day she gets to New York City and asking for a place to stay, which I can’t say I mind in the least. Very few people are allowed to do this to me and Katy is definitely one of those people.
The Blow also played and though I was not so into the indie-rock self referential nature of it (okay, being on K records and referencing the Halo Benders means your only making music for a very select group of people), I did see a girl I met when I did a presentation on zines in a women’s studies class at a local University, and that was exciting. She reminds me of a lot of the indie rock girls I have met, including myself, stripped pink and white sweater, running shoes and cute, nerdy glasses. Instead of ear plugs, when she show got too loud she put on brown, fuzzy ear muffs. She is an aspiring librarian and I am totally charmed. I wanted to whisper to her about making songs about crushes and getting it on come true and kiss her outside the show (yes, I am that cheesy and socially awkward) but of course, I didn’t do these things, and not only because it would have simultaneously been breaking trust with my date and made me look like a big creep.
