boo!

Hello...

It's been a long time since I've written.  I'm still not sure I have very much to say at the moment.  I have a headache and cold hands but I'm warming up some soup so that should help.

I thought I'd post a new song here in celebration of the season.  You'll find 'the house is haunted' on the top of the list on my music player thingy.  I learned it off a scratchy old Clair Austin record back when I had my store.... we had so few customers that I had time to teach myself a few tunes.  No wonder I'm no longer in business!

I'm so looking forward to Halloween this year.  I've never had a front door of my own before, as odd as that sounds.  I can't wait to answer it...

xoxox,

K

Currently listening : Handel - Water Music · The Music for the Royal Fireworks · The Alchymist / AAM, Hogwood By George Frideric Handel Release date: 14 October, 1997

12:40 AM - 9 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

pope curtains and st. frankie of big easy

It's the weekend again and I could not bear to get back to sanding and priming the baseboards.  Today called for less labor and more shopping.

I've never had a dining room before and had given little thought as to how to decorate one before buying this house.  I inherited a 1920's reproduction Jacobean walnut dining room suite from my parents, so furniture hasn't been a question. 

Walls, fabric, colours, lighting, mood... all these details have thrown me a bit, but folks... it's all coming together now that I've found my pope curtains.  They look for all the world like holy robes, somehow.  Heavy cream linen with vertical gold appliqued scrollwork on each side of the panels.  They look perfect with the Fortuny lamp we brought back with us from Venice.  The gold and cream provide a calming neutrality to the flat robin's egg blue of the walls.

That sounds all very well and good but I must admit I got a little carried away with my theme today.  I wandered  into Zellers (*gasp*) looking for lightbulbs and since every bloody store I go into these days is completely new to me, I got lost, got off track and ended up in the garden accessory section.

Let me back up in the story a bit and explain that we must have moved to an Italian neighbourhood here.  Not too far a walk away there's a wonderful Italian Bakery called.. well...  The Italian Bakery.  On the next corner is the tile store where we go to drool over marble and limestone and on the corner across from that is a fun place called Better Gnomes and Gardens that often has a garden statue of St. Francis of Assisi out front.

I have developed an obsessive fondness for this garden statuette.  I don't know why.  I'm not even Catholic!  I've been to Assisi though and was completely confused by the whole thing... St. Francis' humble little abode encased in this massive cathedral.... the two structures so at odds in my mind.  But I was thoroughly charmed by the statue of St. Francis with the live doves in his arms.

So when I saw the lone stone monk standing amongst all the faux grecian goddesses in Zellers today, I knew I just had to have him.  I dragged Tony back to the store with me to meet him.  Tony saw him and laughed greeted him with a "Frankie!"  And then people in loud shirts and funny hats wandered by and we knew in that moment that we had found our St. Frankie of Big Easy.  Now, if I could just find my Mardi Gras beads...  he's going to look great in them!

Currently listening : Paganini: After a Dream By Regina Carter Release date: 22 April, 2003

9:38 PM - 5 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

of drywall dust and don juan

God, I've been down lately.  All is not well in my world when I spend too much time in front of the computer and too little time up on stage.  The paint fumes have been getting to me too.  And the drywall dust.  I don't even want to take my guitar out of the case the way things stand at the moment.

I know this is temporary.  It has to be!  I'm hoping that the renovations on the main floor will end in a couple of months and then we'll move onto the fun stuff.... building a back porch and finishing the attic.  Those will be the creative spaces.  The attic will feature a clawfoot tub and room for music, writing and painting.  In someways I don't want to build a full on bathroom in there... Just a tub behind a beautiful old screen.  My best ideas come to me in the bath...

And the back porch! It has to be a porch.  Not a deck.  I think porches are better for writing, somehow.  Mine will have a hammock and a moon garden.... night blooming jasmine, moon flowers, nicotiana.  I think I'll plant a climbing Don Juan rose too...  every girl should have one of those outside her bedroom window.  Yes,  that would be perfect.

Currently listening : New Orleans Rhythm Kings and Jelly Roll Morton By New Orleans Rhythm Kings w Release date: 01 July, 1991

10:03 AM - 4 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

I will return... I will return.. I'll come back for the honey and you

I've been so into house reno stuff, I've forgotten to communicate.  Forgive me?  I know you're not sitting around breathlessly awaiting the next installment, but still...  I'd like myself more if I were consistent.

So... Victoria.  I'm liking it so far.  It feels much better to be in a little old city in a little old house than way out in the suburbs of some big, modern place.  I'm a short walk down blossom-canopied streets to warm morning croissants.  I cannot complain.

The house itself is coming along.  The bedrooms, living room (otherwise known as the Salon) and the hallway are fairly complete.  The kitchen and bathroom are both torn apart right now and will be that way for quite some time.  Fortunately I have a good imagination to see me though...  to me it's all beautiful.  My first house.

The desire to get back to music is stirring after being dormant for a while.  I still haven't broken through my writer's block but ideas about the next album are cropping up.  I've been humming A Taste of Honey and Nature Boy a lot lately.

I might be heading back to Vancouver in late May for a couple of shows.  Hycroft Manor is looking like a possibility and I hope I'll be able to book something at the Montmartre too.  As for shows here in Victoria, I think it's going to take a little while to get my bearings... it might be open mics nights for me for a little while.  Throwing a show isn't easy when you don't have a fanbase (or even a friend base) to invite.

Maybe I could invite the folks at Home Depot...

ah well...

xoxox,

Kristia

Currently listening : The Entertainer By Scott Joplin Release date: 10 June, 2003

2:01 PM - 3 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

where are my shoes?

This is such a long wait.  It's been moving limbo for weeks now and I'm still sitting here with all my boxes waiting to push off the mainland and head for the island.

I haven't quite started pulling the studio apart yet.  That's going to be the hardest thing.  Ouch, ouch, ouch.  I swear we'll rebuild, but it's going to take some time.

It'll take some time before I'll even have a functioning kitchen or a phone number.  We're moving into quite a major renovation which means staying in the old, unfinished basement until we can at least refinish the wood floors upstairs.  It's my Christmas wish to be able to move my couch into the living room.  That's all I want.  I don't really need a phone number.

And so, and so...  no gigs for a while.  That feels strange.  But it's a strange, strange time.  It's just so odd with so many friends and family in the middle of moves as well...  I look forward to feeling settled again and figuring out where everyone is.

Also, I look forward to being able to wear shoes again.  Had a bit of problem on a hike this past weekend.  Oops...

I'll be the one on the boat with the slippers.

11:05 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Western Canadian Music Awards, GWG CD Release and more!

Hey Folks! Just wanted to let you know that my showcase for the Western Canadian Music Awards Festival has been rescheduled. (The venue we were originally supposed to perform at apparently closed down or some such thing.) So now we'll be playing at the Marriott Hotel. No cover charge on this one so please come down and support the band and I!

Saturday, October 22^nd, 2005

Western Canadian Music Awards Festival

SENNHEISER LOUNGE

Hotel Marriott

1128 West Hastings Street

Vancouver, BC

with LAURELL HUBICK, CARA LUFT and RYAN HAUSCHILD

FREE! Set starts at 12am

Next week I have a couple of shows as well…

Wednesday, October 26^th, 2005

The Sugar Suite

3050 Mountain Hwy.

North Vancouver, BC

Two solo sets.  Show starts at 7:30pm. Admission by donation!

Thursday October 27^th, 2005

Grrrls With Guitars Compilation Vol 3 CD Release

Rime

1130 Commercial Drive,

Vancouver BC

Tix @ the door : $ 5-10. Show starts at 8pm

Grrrls With Guitars now in it’s 11th year celebrates the release of Compilation Volume 3 on Maximum/Universal!  

 The popular West Coast  Women Songwriter's Compilation  & Showcase series brings together the finest of undiscovered & well known talent on one CD and on this exciting evening ~ all on one stage.

Featured Performances by;

 GreenTaRA & Barley Wik

plus… 

A Special Songwriters In The Round format featuring; 

Rae Armour, Shiloh Lindsey, ASHRIOT, HECTOR, Coco Love Alcorn, Kristia Di Gregorio, Yael Wand, Christa Couture & host Nadine Davenport plus many more...

xoxox,

Kristia

7:45 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

I'm moving!

It's quite a sudden thing, really.  I've lived in the Lower Mainland of BC pretty much my entire life.  There's a certain restlessness that's set in that has not been alleviated by travelling and I know it's time to pick up and move.

And so, and so...  during our time touring on the Island this summer we got to dreaming about living there.  We wandered into a couple of open houses in Victoria just for fun and ended up exchanging contact info with a realtor.  I had no idea at the time that he is the brother of a woman I've worked closely with on the arts council here.  Little coincidences like that make me very happy...

Long story short, within 3 weeks of our tour we put an offer on a house.  Five days from now it's ours!  Soon the process of renovating and moving the studio will begin and by the new year we'll be residents.  It's exciting and intimidating...  a new music scene to get involved with, venues to try, contacts to build.  But I guess that's not much different than touring, really...  so I'll be fine.

I'm going to be a Victorian!

2:27 PM - 10 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment

New Orleans

9:21 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Hello!

Where does the time go?  I've been meaning to write this post for days but somehow I got distracted between gigs and trips to Home Depot.  We're currently doing some repairs and upgrades to our place now that Tony's off work for the summer.  I can hear him up in the crawl space installing the Fortuny lamp we bought while in Venice on our honeymoon.  It's only taken us 4 years to get to that!

And so.. and so...  our big night on stage at the Queen E Theatre was quite a rush.  I cannot tell you how utterly RIGHT it felt to be up there.  All the months leading up to being in that spotlight could not prepare me for how quickly our set would be over.  I have no idea how I'm going to propell myself back up onto a big theatre stage, but I swear to you... I could taste my future up there.

It was such an interesting contrast between shows this past week...  The Queen E, another event at Hycroft Manor and then a little club called Rime for a Grrrls with Guitars showcase.  I definately felt more alive for the first of the three.  There's just something about curtains and dressing rooms and stagelights that calls me.  Not that I'm complaining about being background music at a gorgeous mansion...  it's just that being on a theatre stage comes closer to my aspirations.

I conjured the dream once.  I'll do it again.

1:18 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

my big stage debut...

... is tomorrow night. 

I'm feeling much better about it today than I was feeling about it yesterday.  It wasn't nerves it was just a royally bad mood.  I apologize to everyone I came in to contact with yesterday.  (Fortunately, I had the good sense not to leave the house yesterday!)

Wish me luck!

12:56 PM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment