Okay so I will learn how to put an actual song but for now I found this, which is a tiny sample of a song we had on a soundtrack. Go here and find “Sick Dance” by The Angoras.
Author Archive | Alison Rosen
I'm still here
There there, blog readers! I have not forsaken you. Come close and I’ll stroke your hair while telling you all about my crazy week in Orange County. I have nostalgia vertigo. I feel like someone who time traveled and then forgot that they were only supposed to be a spectator in the past and accidentally started laying down roots and pursuing things in the past and building new memories in little time cul de sacs. What the hell am I saying? I could explain it, but I feel too weird and am looking forward to going home where I won’t be accosted with memories and ghosts and smells and stuff. Anyway, I’m doing Red Eye on Monday, so there’s that. And here’s another Costa Mesa band story which is overwrought like the others. Enjoy!
Costa Mesa
So I started thinking about Costa Mesa and the bands that used to play here and all the articles I wrote about them when I first started writing for the OC Weekly. Here is one, about The Women, who were great (and who were guys). It’s a little overwrought maybe, but I felt like I’d been on an odyssey with the singer.
ADDENDUM: this one’s even more overwrought, like I actually cringe at a few lines perhaps involving the words “tangle of demons” and something about things that drive you towards greatness but anyway, it feels like the bookend to the one above.
You requested photos of the mini band reunion?
Here we are, playing at Yami’s wedding reception on gear we borrowed from the actual wedding band and friendly instrument-owning friends. That’s Tim on drums, Paula (lead vocals) in the middle and Yami in the wedding dress on the right. Tim and Paula still play in bands. After The Angoras (that was our name), Tim moved to Portland to play in the now defunct Epoxies, and Paula moved to Seattle and she plays in The Heels.
This is an un-hot shot of me. But I like the Paula and Yami action. But wait, how could we so effortlessly just pick up and play after so many years? I’m kind of joking, since I don’t know how seamless it really was, but anyway, we practiced earlier that day:
Here’s Yami and me, yesterday morning, on borrowed equipment in our friend’s studio in the back of a part of Costa Mesa, CA referred to as “Analog Alley” because of a couple recording studios there that until recently eschewed digital technology. That was the first time I’ve touched a guitar in years. Later that night I played drums for awhile (when the band formed I was the drummer, which is a long story for another day), but anyway, now I really miss playing, even if my hands are blistered.
Jodey from Supernova on left, Paula and Yami. But wait, now you’re probably wanting to see some pictures from back in the day, right? I know you so well.
Here’s a tour shot. We were playing Old Ironsides in Sacramento. This must have been about 7 or 8 years ago, because Yami was pregnant with her daughter in this shot, and her daughter is now 7, which makes me feel uncomfortably old. Also on this tour people kept asking if I was pregnant, because they heard someone in the band was pregnant, which was good for my self-esteem.”Well, you’re glowing!” they’d say when I reacted violently.
Yami on tour
Paula on tour
Me, playing at the Troubadour. I think we were opening for the Murder City Devils here.
Tim, in a mullet fashioned from my blue hair extensions. (We had some time to kill on tour)
Got back from practicing a little while ago
My wrist hurts and so do my fingertips. I haven’t played in so long that my calluses are all but gone. Yami (bass) told me I’d be amazed at how it would all come back to me but I was more amazed at how rusty I was and how I feel like it’s all in there, but I’m having a little trouble accessing it. (“It” being the memory of how the songs go.) Still, it was unbelievably fun to play again, and will be even more fun this evening when we play with our old drummer (we practiced with our friend Jodey from Supernova, who not only is letting us borrow his gear, but who kindly-yet-sternly made us practice the break of a song repeatedly until we nailed it. )
Waking up and playing with a dog
Is better than waking up and not playing with a dog.
Also, tomorrow morning at 11am I’m meeting the band for a quick rehearsal. It’s very much like I never left, in a good way. I almost wish I’d brought my guitar with me. I brought my old strap, on the offchance that the guitar I’m borrowing has straplocks, but somehow I suspect it’ll have a strap that’s attached with duct tape an I’ll put it on and it’ll be hanging around my knees. That will impede the rock. Also impeding the rock? The high heels I’ll be wearing–this is a wedding reception after all.
In California
After what felt like the longest flight in the world, during which I hit that wall where not even Celebrity Rehab could distract me and each commercial break felt like 20 minutes and so I just sat there flipping through all the Jet Blue channels and thinking that if we didn’t land soon I was going to go out of my mind because I really wanted to stand up and do jumping jacks even though I’m not really a jumping jacks person, I am happy to report that I’m finally here and Tobey is asleep next to me.
messed up funhouse mirrors
I feel funny about this, but I just read Julia Allison’s blog, and that’s how I know that the Alyssa Milano Biography I was interviewed for is airing right now. It’s also on at 1am EST on the Biography Channel.
Phoebish!
Because I post my chats with Wendy over here, by default, all other chats go here:
me:I can’t lie to my public. I’m like Eva Peron Andy: in many ways.
i’ve actually decided that your on-air persona is very phoebe-ish. phoebish?me: my california friends told me I reminded them of her too it’s my blond hair
Andy: yes, that’s it.
me: I don’t know if I see it
but I love Friends
so thank you
so but then if it’s my on air persona that would mean in real life I’m more like Joey?
Andy: no, you’re more like alison rosen.
especially the hair.
me: I love her!
except when she gets kind of
I don’t know the word
annoying
Andy: she’s great in small doses.
Books I'll Never Write
How I Learned to Quit Being a Neat Freak
So You Want to Skydive
Yoga for Leos
Feel the Fear and Brew It Anyway (or, A Diary of the Year I Spent Growing Hops in my Broom Closet While Collecting Welfare)
Confessions of Fashion Addict
Confessions of a Person Who’s Really Good at Sewing Buttons
Human Pretzel: My Body Bent This A-way
Mmmm, Mayonnaise!
Tuesdays with Larry, My Gynecologist
It’s Friday, I’m in Love (with Gloves!)
Building Your Own Gun Racks for Fun and Profit
Russian Roulette and Other High Stakes Rainy Day Games
Secrets of Someone Who Always Keeps Plans
1001 Uses for a Soiled Doily
Kinko’s: A Love Story