Thank you for the posts and emails!

Hi everyone!
I've gotten a lot of emails and will respond to them when I can, but I wanted to post a blanket thank you to all the well wishes. I did announce from the stage in Troy, NY that I am 5 1/2 months pregnant...though the obvious bump did most of the announcing.

Many of you emailed that you'd like to start a pool and wanted my permission. That's fine with me. I am due in February, but that's all I'll give you. So if you all want to guess dates, weight, sex, whatever else you do in a pool like this, go crazy and we'll let you know as soon as the little one gets here.

Again, thanks for all the emails. I will try to get back to them as soon as I can. I have to admit, I'm REALLY TIRED still from the show in Troy! It wiped me OUT! And Cathy and I have been learning songs for a benefit we're playing tomorrow night at The Bitter End. So I probably won't be online too hard core until next week. Being pregnant refuses to come 2nd so I need to catch up on some zzzz's....

xo
Kristen

9:29 PM - 13 Comments - 16 Kudos - Add Comment

New Guy in the Coffee Cart...
Current mood: artistic

Every morning I go to my guy in the cart. It's the same guy. Sometimes he gives me free muffins or donut sticks. Sometimes I refuse them. Not always. But today I went up to the cart and it wasn't MY guy. It was another guy. And he was in my guy's cart. I think...I mean, the cart's look a lot alike. He asked me if I take sugar. My guy doesn't need to ask this question of me.

It got me to thinking. Change is good. I need a change. I'm changing shit up. The new coffee guy inspired me to change it up. A relaunch, if you will. I need a new guy in MY cart.

Meanwhile, I bet my guy was just sick and this dude was subbing...but it might have been the kick in the ass I needed.

Rock.

Currently listening : Geronimo By Shannon McNally Release date: 2005-06-28

2:18 PM - 20 Comments - 25 Kudos - Add Comment

Looking for 5 new students

Hi everyone!
Our tour schedule is, well, slow right now. It is intentional as we rebuild and write and get ready to record. But in the meantime, I have some free time on my hands and might as well be doing something worth while besides watch CNN.

If you've been flirting with the idea of guitar/songwriting lessons, I'm interested in teaching you. So send me an email if you're interested and I'll give you more details. I teach out of NYC primarily, but I do have a few slots for Mondays out on Long Island. So let me know if you're interested.

Also - ROAD TRIP TO TROY FOR OUR 10/11 SHOW. IT WILL BE WORTH THE TRIP! Get Tix. Now!

Kristen : )

12:55 PM - 9 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

The weekend in review

For those of you who did not tune in to see us live on the Jerry Lewis/MDA Telethon (it aired around 6:50am EST), I would like to point out that it was 3:50am where WE were. That's all I'm sayin'.

We had a really fun weekend. The MDA flew us out to Vegas on Friday and put us up at The South Point Hotel, where they film the entire event. We ate at the buffet for more meals than I care to admit. We sound checked Saturday morning at 8:50am. They definitely weren't helping us acclimate to our jet lag...AT ALL. So once the sound check was over, we had about 2 days to kill before our actual live performance. While it did seem excessive, if you saw how well they ran this telethon, it made sense...ish. What did not make sense, however, was watching the telethon a few hours after our appearance and they cut to Tony Orlando in New York City and he introduced a BAND that was playing LIVE in the NEW YORK studio. I was like, hmm. OK. I guess it was just my destiny to LEAVE NEW YORK CITY (probably blocks from the very MDA studio Mr. Orlando was filming from) to lose big on the slots and eat buffet with Nini Camps for four days straight? Truthfully, it's the only way I'd ever have seen The Dark Knight. So hollah to MDA and Nini for forcing that on Sunday afternoon.

We saw The Mentalist on Saturday night. I actually renamed him the Mental Case, but that's a whole other story. We enjoyed him for the most part, especially debugging his "mental" tricks. Anyone who swears that many times he DID NOT read the reservations list before the show, read it. Who's with me? I know Devon is. And Nini too. And the worst part about it was that The Mentalist performs at the theater at Hotel Hooters. I'm trying to make it sound a little more upscale than it actually is. Did it work? An entire Hooters Hotel can exist? Shame, shame America. Tuht, Tuht. And I can say I've been to it. Oy, Kristen. My parents were in Vegas with us for the weekend and you should have seen the look on my mom's face when we told her we were off to Hotel Hoots for The Mental Case. She decided to stick to the buffet and pass on the evening's event.

On Sunday evening we sat in the studio audience for the first 2 hours of the telethon. I have to say, JERRY LEWIS is FUNNY (hot tip for those of you who haven't heard). The things he was doing off camera were outrageous. And if you were watching at home at all, you'd catch things here and there because they'd cut back to him in the midst of doing something ridiculous. And he is so driven by the MDA cause. You can't help but get inspired. It was a really moving experience. Devon has become mildly obsessed with the cause, so expect to see her selling shamrocks at an event near you soon. As we boarded the plane to head back home, Devon was watching the telethon on her Jet Blue TV with tears in her eyes before she face planted into her snack tray. Seriously, it was an amazing event and a life changing experience for all of us. If you get a chance, head over to the MDA website and make a donation, or look into one of the auctions they've got online. It's not too late. MDA Official Site.

There's a bootleg You Tube video up of our performance. We hope to have something better up eventually, but until then, our fans always get to it first. So go check it out!
Antigone Four on MDA Telethon

7:54 PM - 16 Comments - 20 Kudos - Add Comment

Yesterday on the radio

I was listening to the radio in my car yesterday and I heard a song by The Killers. The good news is I actually knew it was The Killers. And the song was killer. I thought. So they named their band correctly. I just googled the memorable lyric about not looking a thing like Jesus. I figured this must be their new single. Turns out it's 2 years old. Whoops. My bad. But I really liked it. So I downloaded it from iTunes. But just it. Because I listened to a few of the others and, let's be honest, I won't listen to them. I just know what I'm like. I'll be back to my Dar Williams playlist on random in no time at all.

Then I changed the station. Eliot Yamin. And then David Archuleta. And then Jordin Sparks. If I kept the radio on any longer I would have heard Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwhelming. My friends actually get mad at me for calling her that (Liz Brooks). I only mean it when she doesn't nail it on any of the various award shows she performs on. Recent performances have been better than average for her, I'm giving her that. And I do actually like her. She's cute like an olympic gymnast. I just think the name begs me to make fun of it a little bit. I like the bat song though. She's a big big star now. You hardly even realize she came from that show and it looks really really weird when she goes back to sing on it. It's respectful and certainly the right thing to do. But it's as weird seeing her sing on that show as it is to see Fantasia. Did anyone see that? I dug it. But the people I was watching with (Liz Brooks) were like, WHAT WAS THAT?

I definitely shouldn't make fun of peoples singing. I know that too...It's just that I'm a bit punchy after teaching about 300 guitar lessons today and am stuck in my apartment waiting for the super to come fix the leak that has needed to be fixed since APRIL. My super is a major deflector and could benefit from some of the teachings of the Dalai Lama. But who am I to say? He's nice to my dog on the rare occasion he does show up. So let us be thankful. Adjust standards and you too can listen to the radio.

Currently listening : Sam’s Town By The Killers Release date: 2006-10-03

8:53 PM - 8 Comments - 11 Kudos - Add Comment

Antigone Four This Sunday (7/13) Great South Bay Festival

Antigone Four this Sunday (7/13) at Great South Bay Festival
Hey everyone!
We sent an email out today. Not much lead time. Normally that would make me nuts...but under the circumstances of late, we just roll with things......so if you're anywhere near Patchogue, NY this Sunday, and chances are likely you will be, come see us at Shorefront Park. We'll be doing 1 set of chaos, confusion and about 9-10 songs. It'll be a good time.

07.13.08 - Patchogue, NY
Great South Bay Music Festival
Shorefront Park
5PM-Cultural Stage

The Four starts here...
Kristen

3:15 PM - 4 Comments - 10 Kudos - Add Comment

Vanity Fair

I got an email this morning from a friend of mine saying, "I'm sure you've already seen this! Hilarious!" with a hot link pointing to whatever must be hilarious. So I clicked on it and she was right. THIS IS HILARIOUS!

Vanity Fair Festivals

look under Michigan's Womyn's Fest. Read down the column....it's in these moments I know my life's work has not been in vain....

I recently posted something about news coming soon. And then never posted again. That's because the news is rehearsing tomorrow. So once I know the news sounds good, I'll post something....
Kristen

12:33 PM - 21 Comments - 30 Kudos - Add Comment

What’s your deal?

Hey everyone!
I've been getting some great emails from people the past few days. Thanks so much for all the kind words. I know a few blogs ago I alluded to maybe doing something musical, maybe not doing something musical. I was on the fence about what comes next. And the reason I say on the fence is because I'm doing a complete gut renovation on a house at the moment, so I am dealing more with fences these days (the dump truck that knocked mine down, for example) than music.

But alas, ideas and thoughts have been percolating and I've come to the conclusion that while being an aspiring real estate mogul is somewhat fun and certainly way more lucrative than being a musician, I own too many guitars to stop now. We're rebuilding the porch on this house too, and what porch ISN'T great for playing guitar on?

Cathy and I have spoken and we aren't stopping. We never wanted to stop and have no intention of laying down now. We hated canceling dates, it's not how we built our band up and it was a devastating situation for us and the girls and our crew. But we're feeling better these days and Cathy and I are currently planning on making music together again really soon...as soon as I'm done picking out my new kitchen cabinets (which is today, by the way). And we need to make a few phone calls to some peeps to see if they're down with it.

So, in case I haven't said it before, I'm so sorry for the canceled shows back in March. Remind me to tell Cathy that those should be the first markets we hit when we're back up and running.
We'll make an announcement about it at some point. I just wanted to briefly blog because I've gotten so many emails from concerned college roommates and cousins and old friends/fans. Hopefully you'll stumble onto this blog.

I'll check back in soon enough.
Kristen

9:15 AM - 28 Comments - 41 Kudos - Add Comment

Guitar and Songwriting Lessons
Current mood: blissful

Hi everyone!
As some of you know, I posted a while back about giving guitar lessons. My schedule was still a little nuts back then so I was never really able to get things off the ground. I actually only took on one student at the time because of scheduling issues. But scheduling is not such an issue these days! So for those of you that were hoping to be able to get in on weekends for lessons, or only come in once a month or twice a month for longer lessons, turns out I'm able to accommodate these days.

Also, the one student I am working with has morphed into more of a guitar/songwriting situation. You don't have to do both. I can do one or the other if you'd prefer. But it seems to be working out really well doing both, so if songwriting is something you never thought you could just learn, surprise! You most certainly can! I can give you tips and strategies and show you some of the techniques I use to get out of and into trouble with songwriting. And if you're really just starting out, I can certainly give you the songwriting 101 version of things.

So send me an email if you're interested and we'll figure out a game plan. I hope to take on 4 students at this time. Anything more than that could start to feel like a job to me. So be sure to include as much as you can in the email with regard to your skill level and what you hope to get out of our sessions. I'm mostly interested in your commitment level vs. your skill level. Really motivated students are hot.

Kristen

6:33 AM - 1 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

a quick check in...!

Hi everyone!
I just wanted to post a blog thanking everyone for all the really supportive and kind emails and posts you've been sending our way, both to the band and to my personal account here. It's very much appreciated. I know some of you are waiting for some type of official announcement, but I don't think there really is one...otherwise we probably would have made it by now...! And I'm first in line to say I'm glad we haven't made an "official" announcement. They're usually pretty stale and cryptic anyway.

As you can likely surmise, we are taking some time off from being Antigone Rising to pursue our own individual things. I mean, we've been together for 10+ years and haven't been able to make too many decisions without running it by each other...and while we all do finally agree that Cracker Barrel does serve the best breakfast and if we see one on the side of the road we should stop, there are other things in life that need to be decided upon personally. There are things in life you keep meaning to "get to", and my band mates and I have put those things off for each others sake selflessly and willingly for a really long time. I love them for it. It's really hard to put into words what it's like to have 5 people in the same mindset chasing the same dream...for 10+ years. It's better than a back scratch!

So for the time being we're pursuing other things that don't require a majority vote. And I think it's going to be good for everyone. I personally haven't figured it out just yet as I've adopted a puppy who is completely co-dependent on me...but I digress.

Every now and then I entertain the thought of doing something musical, but haven't quite gotten over the pang of anxiety that comes over me at the thought of doing it without the girls. Stay tuned. I'll blog if/when there's something worth blogging about.

In the meantime, be sure to keep up with all of us on our individual pages. I am excited to see what we all end up becoming when we grow up! And keep an eye on AntigoneRising.com as well cause you just never know when something might pop up.

xo
Kristen

12:06 PM - 18 Comments - 22 Kudos - Add Comment