She feeds you tea and oranges

While in New York I got to make music too, not just visit museums (or, ahem, shopping...).

Through a friend I made another one, Chris Carlone, who kindly offered to play some minimal drums and slide guitar on my songs. Chris is a cool guy, he used to live in San Francisco and is now in the Upper West Side with his family. He does a lot of different stuff - photo, video, music - see some of it here, and there for instance.

So there we were, a first rehearsal one day, a show that night. Then another gig a few days later. That one was at Building on Bond, a sweet restaurant in Brooklyn. They close one half of the room, and everybody gets very quiet. No mics, no tricks. It was wonderful. Even the bartender was careful to wait for the end of a song to use the foam machine...and Chris sounded as though we had had ten rehearsals, instead of that lone one - very tasteful. We had a nice crowd, of both friends and strangers, and oh so very attentive. I ended the set with Leonard Cohen's Suzanne, because for all the years I've been playing it, I always envisioned Suzanne walking to the East River, or maybe the Hudson - even though I'm pretty sure he wrote it in Montreal...

Chris also did a set of his own beforehand, played guitar but also the ukulele, and did a sweet rendition of Moon River on it - such a classic New York song to me: 

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Another day  we ventured to Central Park to make some attempts at shooting something. Here I go walking to the shoot:

I thought I'd wear this black dress with the white collar to sort of give it a more Halloween feel, and match the Fall theme provided by the changing trees. At times it made me look like a little girl:

...not so great. But the leaves truly were magnificent, and I think I managed an ok rendition of Orpheus on that one.

Thank you New York City... see you next time, you always amaze me!

Edward Hopper

Went to the Whitney for their Edward Hopper exhibit, Modern life: Edward Hopper and his time. The exhibit focused on Hopper's influences and contemporaries, each room about a certain group of artists he shared themes and influences with (the Ashcan School of painters from the early 20th century, the Precisionists who like him explored abstract architectural shapes, another group who depicted common American life scenes, etc...).

Edward Hopper is one of my favorite painters, and seeing his works in person was amazing. It has little to do with looking at a reproduction. What struck me the most, and that I've always liked anyway, is the way he paints light. And apparently he has said that his favorite thing was to paint light on the side of a house. But he can paint it remarkably well on someone's face as well, like in Soir Bleu (1914):

It's hard to see on the reproduction, but there is this little patch of light on the standing woman's shoulder, it's so delicately rendered. I like the composition too, it's one of my favorites of his.

Most of the time I buy postcards when I go to a museum, usually of the exhibit I just saw, but this time I just couldn't, it made me sad looking at books about Hopper and posters. It would've ruined my memory of it. Strangely, I found better reproductions on line, and maybe it looks better on a computer screen because of the light already in here. Anyway, here are a few of my favorites that I got to see live yesterday:

Night Window (1928)

Gas (1940)

Railroad Sunset (1929)

That was my favorite of the show I think. There was also a funny little one, Untitled (Solitary figure in a theater) - which was actually...in black and white. An oil painting from his beginnings, 1902-04:

Autumn in New York

Pretty...

This is the upper west side. Did you notice the 2 awesome ladies crossing the street? They had the best style, but unfortunately I didn't take the photo fast enough...this neighborhood is so full of characters.

The land of the free

On Sunday I went to Philadelphia and learned all about America's forefathers, the Liberty Bell and the beginnings of this 'great country'.

Independence Hall was under renovation, which seemed pretty metaphorical...

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Then on tuesday I went to see a play - which I first thought was just going to be a historical farce set in Louisiana, but ended up being a reflection on the founding of the United States - how it came to be so big with the Louisiana purchase from Napoleon, the quest for a waterway to the West, the Lewis and Clark expedition,  and the irony of Thomas Jefferson's words ('all men were created equal') in light of the practice of slavery. I never go to the theater, so it was a treat...

...and a history lesson, courtesy of the East Coast!

The show was at the Lincoln Center, it's called A Free Man of Color.

Full moon rising

...over JFK this morning:

The anticipated unexpected

Sometimes I think I go out of town only so I can see this:

It's like those times when you've been wishing for something for a long time, and when it finally happens you're still slightly unable to believe it actually did. Still surprised by your own dreams...

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Speaking of deer, I am still raising funds to release the new album on vinyl (with a download card!). I am  planning an early 2011 release at the latest, and you have until November 9 to contribute and reserve your very own copy. Visit the project here. 

Linda Perhacs

Tonight I went to see Linda Perhacs at the San Francisco Art Institute. She was so cute with her reading glasses, her music stand and her knit vest. A great show,  she had talented musicians backing her up, not to mention her own sweet voice...

Here she is doing a duo with Julia Holter on Delicious:

and a couple of songs from the 1970 album:

hauntingly beautiful.