Thursday, September 26, 2013

Organize! - Ralph Nader Remixed

My good friend and musical collaborator, Art Hays, made this. Good politics, fun and very catchy! Please watch and share!


Monday, September 23, 2013

Blue Man and Spells and Stresses, Oh My!

What a strange few weeks I've been living. A mix of goods and bads, highs and lows and a keen anxious streak throughout... Let's begin with the good. I had the distinct honor and privilege to sing with the Blue Man Group for its two shows at the Hollywood Bowl. As if playing the Bowl weren't great enough, I also was fortunate enough to do so with dear old friends, people I hadn't seen in a few years let alone worked on a creative project with. I've been bandmates with the BMG (Blue Man Group) band over the years. I've also seen a lot of these folks go through big personal changes and blossom from it. I've done similar things. It was such a lovely way to spend time, rehearsals and actual shows, with these wonderful people, doing things I love--music and comic relief--as the newly added "ZuZu singers" ensemble. Yes, there was a bit of "Who better to play a Zuzu singer than Emily Zuzik?!?" But on top of the gargantuan feat of pulling this show off (featured acts, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Blue Men, etc), I met some new amazing artists as well. My fellow female Zuzu, Sara Leib, for instance, who is a consummate hostess and funny Jewish Grandma type, not only sang and mugged her heart out as a Zuzu, but she also performed as a scat Jazz singer in the Bolero skit and brought wine, tequila and champagne for the entire cast on closing night! My Zuzu boys, Kalen Allmandinger and Scott Speiser, were both charming and funny "box mates" as well as being the low end of our vocal quartet. It was a very special show and life experience, one I doubt I'll ever forget.

Then, there was the bad. My daughter began having seizures some weeks ago. Luckily, we picked up on them and were able to get her to her doctor, a pediatric neurologist and appointments for both an EEG and MRI. Happily, the tests all came back normal, and the doctor believes she will grow out of. It's enormously stressful to both see your amazingly smart and precocious little girl having mini seizures for short periods throughout the day, as well as to not know why they're happening and if it's a serious or benign cause. And then there was the fact that most of this went down the week of rehearsals and shows for Blue Man Group. Talk about living in two lives. Opening night I began by holding a crying tired baby attached to 12 electrodes for an EEG and ended it center stage at the Hollywood Bowl singing to nearly 18,000 people. It's a fucking head trip, for sure!

I'm happy to report that in the last week or so that I began this blog that lil Riles has been pretty much reduced to few if not completely seizure free. The doc initially said this kind of stuff often happens to kids who develop faster than average--walking at 10 months, talking words beyond Mama and Papa shortly after a year, getting into everything she can. Like her brain has trouble keeping up with her body and she short circuits. Weird, amazing and definitely not the usual. But I wouldn't want her any other way.

As for me, I've returned to a mostly Mom schedule again. I do miss the full day rehearsals and the adult time, but I have also needed to catch up on the physical and mental stress and exhaustion that came with all the highs and lows. I'm happy to be recording and mixing with Jimmy LaValle of The Album Leaf tomorrow for this ProSeed Books project, and based on how this song comes together, I'm inspired to make another ep of trip-hop/downtempo music soon. In the meantime, I'm napping when the baby naps and trying to fit in a yoga class once a week. I'm feeling really good about being Riley's mother and giving myself time to figure out the rest of it.