Almost without fail: the first day each spring that I wonder if the grapes will come back is the day that I later see the first buds appear.

Every moment
Is an opportunity to open.

A whole hour of Wendy & Lisa on "Headspace" starts at Noon Central. (On a real, live CBS Radio HD Radio station out of Dallas, no less.)

Interview, and a gamut of music.

http://www.indie-verse.com/2009/02/headspace-006/

Am I totally glued to the computer till this is over? Affirmative.

In the meantime, they are playing Radiohead and The Von Bondies. Very nice.

Yes, you can turn away,
Say: Poetry, go away now!
You must see I am busy, there are
Deadlines to meet - come back
When I don't have
Quite so much to do!

Yes, you can say that.
But then you are the lover
Turning her head from
A beloved's kiss, or
A devotee
Too busy for her God.

You can turn away, one moment gained
At the price of the timeless -
Or choose to take one breath and
Give yourself to that which loves you.

The limitless blesses those
Who turn to meet it.

Tags: new car caviar 4-star daydream

Pick it up:
Reach into the sadness
Broken brightly,
Smashed like a window

Reach into it
Do not strike out,
Do not smash what is already broken -
But heat the iron

Reach down
Into molten earth
Find passion
(Remember the word:
To suffer)
And compassion
(To suffer with)

There is no one to blame
There is nowhere to strike
Only the ones standing here
Looking at the broken glass
Like bystanders
(How did this happen?)
And perhaps like allies
(How can we repair?)
Perhaps, also,
Remembering the beginning

And only one answer -
To keep reaching,
To risk cutting ourselves
With what is broken,
And to gather the glass,
And to hold it,
And to feel it,
And to heat it in the crucible of passion,
And to melt what has broken,
And to blow, slowly, new forms
To hold what is worth remembering.

Tags: new car caviar 4-star daydream

( Listen here! )

So, some of you have heard me go on and on about Wendy & Lisa for some time now.

Former members of Prince's Revolution? True. Secret musical Illuminati? Definitely, if you count working with everyone from Seal to Soul Coughing, the Revolution to Bill Rieflin, Joni Mitchell to MeShell Ndegeocello, not to mention lil side projects with folks like Eric Clapton and Erykah Badu.

You think you don't know them, but you know their music. Seal's "Kiss From a Rose," comes on the radio? Singing along to k. d. lang's Invincible Summer? Watching Heroes and getting creeped out by the magnificent score? Yep - you're soaking in it.

I'm one of those geeky fans that likes all that. But I'm ultimately more interested in evolution than Revolution - which is why their albums as Wendy & Lisa are so intriguing to me. The first three albums emerged in a rapid post-Revolution fire of Wendy & Lisa (1987), Fruit at the Bottom (which, released in 1989, ought to be their "Mortified" entry), and Eroica (1990) -- the latter of which neatly presaged everything that you'd hear in every Lilith Fair artist in the wake of its release, but was released just too early for its time. Due to some mix-ups with producer Trevor Horn, and the shelving of the 1994 Friendly Fire recordings, another album wasn't released until 1998.

And that's when true evolution began. Released in the wake of Jonathan Melvoin's overdose (while on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins), 1998's Girl Bros. is a self-produced song cycle of love and loss - more raw, minimally produced, and mature than the labels were willing to put out previously.

After ten years of scoring and sidework, Wendy & Lisa have finally released a new album. And this one is . . . dare I say, evolved? Digging deep into the dirt of life -- including the breakup of their own romnatic relationship -- Wendy & Lisa have released an album that brings together their immense musical talents with a strong, solid knack for songwriting. The last few years of scoring (particularly on Crossing Jordan and Heroes) have translated into a strong new talent for narrative songwriting. More than any of their previous work, White Flags of Winter Chimneys is written as a full arc, opening with the tender, warm "Balloon," carrying through the summer punk of "Salt & Cherries [MC5]" and "Niagra Falls" and then slowly back again in a cycle of loss to the almost-but-not-quite-shark-jumping orchestral "Sweet Suite".

It's beautiful. It's mature. And it's actually teaching me a little about life.

From a Wendy & Lisa album. Who knew?

-- Katrina Alliasan 2009

Due to the powers of the interweb, and the grace of uber-manager Renata K., you can listen and see for yourself using the widget behind the cut. If you have time for nothing else, check out the extremely creepy "Ever After" and rock out with your astral cock out to "Salt & Cherries [MC5]". On the latter: I mean you, Joan Jett fans. ;-)

For those of you who got an accidental sneak peek via your flist earlier - my apologies. I didn't realize this would auto-play. Now that the widget is behind a cut, you should be safe.

Thanks, Renata!

Wendy & Lisa release a record. Real, live reporters here in Texas pay attention. (Sorta. The article actually focuses more on the album they released last decade, but who's complaining?)

What is the world coming to? ;-)

Breathe. Open. Hope. Plan. Do.

There is so much to be grateful for.

My allergies are so bad today, that I am quite tempted to go home and watch Buffy. We're quite nearly to the appearance of Faith and all that.

In other squees:

Stay awake!
Quit waiting for
The kiss at midnight!
Slip into the black night sky,

Her body made
Of stardust to match
Your body made
Of stars

The horizon of this
New year
Carries hope beyond
These times you're dreaming

Listening to "Ever After" as a Persephone myth song. It works amazingly well, and puts a very different spin on the song. *

That Lisa Coleman is mega-creepy, still.

* Why yes, you can click through and hear a snippet, but snippet barely does it justice, sadly. But you can also bounce along to "Salt & Cherries", so no big loss . . .

Very nice review of White Flags of Winter Chimneys here, which answers the perennial question: Who are these musical Illuminati that you have definitely heard, even if you've never heard of them.

PS:

The vinyl isn't really the best part.

The best part? "Viste" as a bonus track. Oh, yeah.

It's here!

And, best part? Vinyl, baby. I'm buying it with vinyl! Whee!

WendyandLisa.com

Wheee!!!!!

If Wendy & Lisa really release their new album tomorrow, does that constitute sufficient reason to take the day off?

Desire may be nebulous, but Will cannot afford to be. It is not only the dream of a beautiful outcome that makes it so, but the incremental steps between here and there.

(I know that Laguna Beach is out there, somewhere. I know that achieving my desire to be in Laguna Beach is possible. But if I simply reside in my desire to be there, in my knowledge that such a place is possible, my chances of getting there are fairly slim. How much better if I look up the flight schedules, the train lines, the road maps. Better still if I plan a way to get there. Better still if I buy the ticket, or fill up the tank of gas.

(If I simply try to get to Laguna Beach by wandering aimlessly -- or worse, by sitting at home dreaming of that perfect Laguna Beach, out there somewhere, my chances of getting there are fairly slim.)

I hear so many nebulous, wispy desires at pagan rituals. I think that part of it is the fear to ask for something for self; it sounds better, somehow, to most witches to ask for 'world peace' or 'abundance for all' than to ask for very specific ways to achieve it, which might also involve a benefit for one's own self, one's own community. We are trained to believe that we should be self less, and so we fail to call on the powers of Self, and fail moreover to understand that Self is everywhere. And so, the wispy desires. I prefer to ask for what can be made manifest.

In some ways, asking for the achievable is easier: for my dreams to be achievable often means asking for something much smaller. Not world peace, but to achieve peace in my own relationships. Not abundance for all, but to make a contribution through my own garden. Not a perfect worldwide ecological shift, but maybe one more park, one preserved wilderness, one more permacultural ecovillage.

But in other ways, I think that asking for the achievable is much harder, for all the right reasons. Because asking for something achievable also presents me with the power, and hence the responsibility and accountability, to do something about it. If I ask for something I can achieve, I am also in part committing myself to achieving it. And that is very powerful, and sometimes very scary magick. I have to change my behavior. I have to take action.

And so at this turn of the year, I am not interested in the big, sweeping gesture. I am interested with that first step, that first change, that first break in the chains that bind. I am interested in that first word, that first plan, and hopefully that first action.

Those small, incremental changes are the root of all change. Without them, we give up too easily, we burn out too soon. With them, perhaps the change is not so sweeping. On a daily basis, we might not even notice. And yet: in time, change happens. I notice that I'm fighting less, with others and within myself. I notice that my soil is transforming from solid clay to deep, rich humus. I notice that my allies are slowly greening this city, block by block, and see where I can fit in. Over time, those little moments of now, that incremental action, builds into real change.

Let it begin, now.

Now, I'm not usually superstitious or anything (::cough::), but when the Dow drops by 777 points on Erev Rosh Ha'Shana, that might be worth noticing.

Just sayin'.

Lots to write about, no time to write it.

Until I do, I'm wishing all of you sweetness in the year to come.

So.

McCain wants to suspend campaiging (and, conveniently, postpone Friday's debate) because he wants to concentrate on the economy.

Ummm.

Isn't a critical requirement of being the President the ability to confidently and accurately handle multiple competing priorities at the same time? Like, I don't know, if we happen to have an economic crisis and a couple of wars and maybe a national emergency all going down simultaneously?

Nah. I guess that never really happens . . .