Knitting book review!

Wondering about the new Stitch ‘n Bitch book?  Check out my latest article for Feminist Review. 

Now all I have to do is finish the socks…

amazon still sucks

Amazon bullies print-on-demand publishers

I hate admitting this, but I’ve gotten lazy.  I’ve gotten used to ordering books online and having them arrive at my doorstep no more than 36 hours later.  It’s sick, especially since I’m a writer and a former indie mag editor & publisher.  But there is a better way: 

Independent Bookstores  

more music reviews

Rachel Barton Pine: American Virtuoso

Charmparticles: Alive in the Hot Spell

Hariprasad Chaurasia: Maestro of the Indian Flute

viva voce

Even in the midst of eternal pregnancy, I can still manage to crank out a few words…

Check out the new review:
Viva Voce: Lovers Lead the Way!/The Heat Can Melt Your Brain

paul curreri and adrian orange

I have a couple new reviews out, posted at Seattle.net and The Feminist Review:

Paul Curreri: The Velvet Rut

Adrian Orange and Her Band: Self-titled

Paul Curreri will be playing at Phinney Ridge Community Center this Saturday with Devon Sproule, promoting the album I reviewed. The man is a gifted musician and storyteller. And together with Devon Sproule? You’d be crazy to miss it.

postsecret

Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Frank Warren, the creator of the blog Postsecret. The article I wrote from the interview has been published at Seattle.net.

I urge you to check out the Postsecret blog, and if you’re in the Seattle area, catch Frank Warren read at Elliott Bay Books on October 18th. The whole project, and the man behind it, are both quite intriguing.

still writing

A couple of my reviews have been posted at the online pub The Feminist Review:

The Women Incendiaries

Definitely check out this book if you’re in the mood for a scholarly read on the female revolutionaries of late nineteenth century France.

Frank Smith: Heavy-Handed Peace & Love

This album makes me long for Austin.

rocky votolato: the brag & cuss

The Rocky Votolato review was just posted on Seattle.net.

You can check it out here.

elliott smith: new moon

ELLIOTT SMITH: NEW MOON
Released on Kill Rock Stars, May 2007
By Jessica Star Rockers

There have been two posthumous Elliott Smith albums. The first, From a Basement On a Hill, was released by Anti Records in 2004, a year after Smith’s death. It was the album he was working on when he died, and when it came out, I couldn’t listen to it. The songs sounded like a psychedelic suicide note; a frightened man losing control of himself and his genius. As you can guess, the years passed and Basement eventually made it to my cd player. But the aversion I had was replaced by an obsessive need to hear it all – every lyric, every chaotic overdub, every voice that seemed to come from inside Smith’s head. One of the highlights of the album happens on the song “King’s Crossing” when Smith sings, “Give me one good reason not to do it,” and the voice of his girlfriend whispers back “Because we love you.” For Elliott Smith fans like me, the album is self-indulgent catharsis. Painful, beautiful, and best to avoid unless I’m looking for a reason to have a good cry.

Which is why the May release of the double-disc New Moon, this time by Kill Rock Stars, feels like such a joyful event. The 24 songs were all recorded over a decade ago, before the fame and the heroin and the psychotropic prescription meds. It’s a shock these are considered leftovers, songs that didn’t make it on his two releases with KRS. It’s also a shock these songs were recorded so long ago. Their acoustic squeaks and pops sound more authentic and fresh than any of the singer/songwriters currently attempting the same lo-fi realism.

If Elliott Smith’s life were a movie, the release of this album would give the impression of a Hollywood ending. The genius continues on, amidst the fears and sorrows and suicide, but it remains on the playful side of drug use. What you hear on this album, which seems to be missing from Basement, is hopefulness. Despite the depression — and there’s nothing false about it — the foreshadowing isn’t of the pain that is to come. Instead, Smith sounds like he’ll make it out alive.

The last two songs on the second cd, “See You Later” and “Half Right,” are positioned perfectly. After literally singing “See you later,” Smith’s album ends with the most memorable lyric in “Half Right”: “Would you say that one of your dreams got in you and ripped out the seams? That’s what I’d say. That’s what I’d say.”

flutterings

It is late and I’m suffering insomnia again. But this time I decided to be productive and finish the Rocky Votolato review I’m writing for Seattle.net. (Deadlines pass me by these days like so many moths on the wind.)

But I’m pleased to say I’m not alone tonight. Niblo has been fluttering away in my belly, stretching and kicking and generally restless.

Writing has never been less lonely.