I've been away for so long...

Where do you begin when you have taken a seemingly forever hiatus from doing something?
I have a theory that I am to art as bi-polar people are to mood swings. You just cruise along all normal and stuff and then, suddenly, a manic episode where everything is moving in fast forward. That is how inspiration hits me. I get really super involved in certain mediums for a truncated period of time. During that time, I am very prolific and create tons of stuff in that medium, but if I take a break from it, or get interrupted, boom, the ride is over, back to reality. I've done it with music, writing, drawing, photography, painting, sculpting, sewing, cake decorating, knitting... you name the genre and I have probably dabbled in it at one time or another.

My family has been kind enough to dedicate one of our very few and precious closets in our tiny city dwelling for me to store all of the supplies, so if the mood strikes me, I will be ready. They also don't seem to mind when I spend a long weekend in my pj's keeping strange hours just creating one thing after another like some sort of machine until finally I am nodding off and Jon tells me that it is time to go to sleep. In that tiny closet, I have supplies to do pretty much anything. I like knowing it is there. Opening the door is unlocking the things that are always swirling around in my head.

On that note, instead of trying to detail with words everything that has been happening in my life recently, here are many visuals to show you what I've been up to:

Chewie is still the cutest doggie ever and I discovered he has a teeny mustache:

There was The Posies show at The Croc where I got to see lots of friends I have not seen in ages:

A new art store opened in my neighborhood, so I've been painting:

and I went to SXSW for the first time. Here is a video I shot backstage:


more happened, but right now I'm distracted by an empty canvas across the room...

I May Hate You Sometimes (Live)

SWOON!

OK, I will admit, whenever I come across this video I get a little weak in the knees. It is Jon from the purple hair era, when we first met. I LOVED the purple hair and have so many amazing memories from when we first met, 13 years ago, that all come flooding back when I see this video.
I just came across it by chance on youtube and I swear I made a little happy "EEP!" sound while watching it. (For my relatives who have not really met Jon, he is the one singing in this video.) There is a shot at the end where he has his hair back. I will admit, if I were not such a lady, I may have licked my monitor.

The cliff notes to my road trip.

When I wrote these notes, I had intended to write a long elaborate blog later, and these were just to jog my memory when I had time to do that.
Since it has been a few weeks, I have accepted that I won't be writing that long blog, and these are kind of amusing, so here are my cliff notes to my road trip with the girls/long Posies weekend... Use your imagination to fill in the gaps.

Friday- GO!
Work half day.
Pack.
Step outside to talk to Bree & Amie.
Lock myself out of my apartment and my purse with ID and money inside.
Have Carl come rescue me with spare key.
Wait with girls for Licia and Carl.
Get keys.
Get stuff.
Licia arrives.
Sit in HOT car.
Sit.
Stop.
Stop again.
Get lost.
Find hotel.
Get dressed.
Get food.
Go back to room to change sexy shoes back to comfy sensible shoes.
BEST shoe choice of the whole weekend!
Go to show.
Show too hot.
Slam drink to go to a place with AC.
Regret slamming of drink.
Go to another bar.
Take 100 cute photos.
Head back because Posies are about to go on.
Watch Posies.
Sweat.
Watch friends get REALLY intoxicated.
Funny.
Run into past stalker.
Ignore.
Show ends.
Kiss Jon goodbye.
Catch Rickshaw.
Tell him it can't carry all four of us.
Argue that we are certain it can't.
He insists several times.
We agree.
Get half way.
Bike wheels bends in half.
Rides over!
Feel bad we broke his bike.
Throw money at bike guy.
Bree falls on curb and accidentally moons group of people.
People amused.
Oops!
Get back to hotel.
Buy $20 worth of chips at mini bar.
Bree passes out in middle of the bed we are supposed to share.
Find a spot to sleep on.
Wake up sweating.
Bree is spooning me.
Hot.
Wake up in a room of hungover girls.
Rehash the parts of the night that are a blur.
Wake up.
Take Advil.
Lay back down.
Wake up.
Go to Oliver's for food.
Stop at VooDoo Donuts.
Out of bacon maple donuts.
Bummer.
Drive home.
Girl's sleep in back.
Drive faster than I have ever driven.
Get to Seattle in less than 2.5 hours.
Have 20 minutes to get to DJL show.
Whores bath.
Slap on dress.
Get to Neumos.
Remember that I am supposed to do a secret shopping trip at adult store.
DOH!
Dear John Letters goes on.
Awesome.
Realize my husband is playing the drums for my ex.
Weird.
Accept weirdness.
Decide it isn't as weird as it is amusing how fate has an interesting sense of humor.
Enjoy show.
Regret shoe choice.
Mike!
Brian!!
Joe!!
Dave!!
Arthur (Rick)!!!
Remember to call Rick, Arthur!!!!
Posies.
Convince Bree, Flyn, and Licia to go to Porn store between sets for secret shopping.
Posies.
Porn.
Hot dog.
Posies again!
Sleep on feet.
yawn.
dance.
Feel like I'm in a strange dream.
Take a million photos.
Party at D's!
Get home at 4:35AM
Sleep
Cats wake me up.
Get ready for another road trip to Bellingham.
Plug in camera.
Camera deletes all of my photos but doesn't transfer them.
ALL PHOTOS ARE LOST!
SHIT!!!
Cry.
Leave for Bellingham.
Drive.
Drive.
Drive.
Sound check.
Long walk.
Regret shoe choice for the second time this weekend.
Eat nachos.
Hang with in-laws.
Eat Salad and Nachos.
Have long talks with old friends.
Catch up with Kenny Jr.
Feel very old when realizing he is 22 now.
Le Concorde.
Le Posies.
Aftershow waiting.
Crazy women running all over the stage picking up guitars.
CRAZY woman decides she wants to get in my face because I am standing there.
Starts shouting in my face.
Try to make joke to diffuse situation.
Crazy woman doesn't think joke is funny and starts FLIPPING OUT on me.
Seriously consider slapping a stranger for the first time in my adult life.
Decide against it.
Jon breaks up fight.
She leaves.
Drop off friend of Kenny.
Drive home.
Get to bed around 5AM
get up at 7AM
go to work.
Sleep with eyes open.
The End.

FUNNEST WEEKEND EVER!

The good, the bad and the AWESOME!

The bad news, my camera died and I lost a LOT of the pics and vids from the shows this last week.

The good news, by some awesome twist of fate, the ONLY vids that I did not lose, managed to be one song of each incarnation of The Posies!! YES!!

You can see them all here.
Just finished uploading: youtube.com/dreamingviola

20 Years of The Posies

Every band member from the last 20 years.

On Sale Now!

The Posies 20th Anniversary & the CD release for Beautiful Escape: The Songs of The Posies Revisited at Neumos May 17th. This show is going to be full of surprises and special guest appearances. I'm giving an early heads up because I think it is likely this event will sell out.

My old band (from another lifetime and a different last name ago), Dear John Letters is getting back together for one night only, to open this show!
It won't be entirely the old line up, because Johnny and Cass will be out of town, but Jon has agreed to fill in and Robb's Dept of Energy keyboardist, Ty is filling in as well. They'll play a set list of the songs that I wrote with Robb. Mostly favorites off of rewriting the wrongs and a few other songs that have never been performed live before.

If you are not familiar with Dear John Letters you can hear them: www.myspace.com/dearjohnletters

Beautiful Escape: The Songs of The Posies Revisited has a Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/theposiestributealbum


See you there!


EDIT:
I've had a few emails from people who are having trouble buying the tickets online from the Neumos website. It isn't very clearly marked on the website, but you can buy them here:


That is ticketwest.com in case my search link doesn't work. Just plug in the date and the band name and it comes up. Thanks!

Please send get well wishes...

In the first 20 seconds of this video (The Posies- Conversations) there is a man with a white beard who is "Talking to God" and Jon hands him a cell phone. He is actually our good friend and neighbor, Buck. I've lived in my neighborhood since 1997 and every day I pass Buck when I am walking home or going to the store. He is always out shopping, or getting coffee, or visiting with neighbors and always has a kind word and stops to chat. He is well loved and a great neighbor! Practically a local celebrity! I've never heard him say a bad word against anyone. I think he is a really cool human being.

He has been really sick and in ICU for over a month now. I'm super worried about him. They say he is getting better, and everything he has going on are things he should recover from, but it is just a matter of him keeping his spirits up and them getting ahead of the thing ailing him.
My idea is to have people from all over send a post card wishing him well. I think getting post cards from all over the world would REALLY lift his spirits. He is such a good guy, I think he would be so tickled.

If you are interested, you can send the postcards to me and I will collect them over the next two weeks and send them all to him in a big bundle and flowers. I think it would be a wonderful surprise for him!

If you are interested in participating, you can send the cards to my office:
The Stranger
ATT: Michelle Auer
1535 11th Ave 3rd Floor
Seattle, WA 98122


Feel free to link this or repost if you think you might have a FL that is interested! Thanks!

February 1st, 2008 - Paper Posies!

I made these just for fun.

In Between Days

This photo of Jon (My husband) from YEAH! Magazine #17, February 1989. Jon was featured as a valentine in a Tiger Beat spoof. Photo by Jill Goodejohn.:

and This (My biggest crush from the 80's):


A coincidence? I think not! ;-)

All in a day's work.

Some months seem longer than others. They fly by, but the amount of stuff you squeeze into a very small time frame warps the time perception when you look back over the previous days. You remember days that lasted a week just because your brain can't wrap itself around the idea that you actually squeezed that much stuff in such a limited time frame.

So far, this month, I've been to a gazillion holiday parties, been to Alaska, and worked on some of the biggest issues of the year which had all of us keeping long hours in the office.
I still have a ton of Christmas shopping to do this weekend. I've already picked it all out and made a list, it is just a matter of spending a day going around and making my purchases.

I think I will just touch on the highlights for now:
Strangercrombie: The Posies package brought in over $700 and the auction as a whole made over $60,000 for Fare Start! This is amazing! The winning bidder is having them cover a Bob Dylan song.

Alaska: It was an incredible trip. It is the first time I've traveled back to Alaska on my own in ages. I am usually accompanied by my husband or my daughter or both.
This homecoming was filled with a lot of joy, reflection, firsts, friends new and old and interesting surprise adventures!
I got to spend some time with my dear friend, Debbie and her daughter, (my daughter's older sister) Winter. (Winter turns 17 today!!) We always have such a nice time hanging out. It was neat spending time with Winter. She reminds me a lot of Darian. There was a day where I took her shopping for her birthday and we went to a movie together. Every now and then I would catch her out of the corner of my eye and forget that I wasn't out with my own daughter. It is interesting to me how similar they turned out growing up so far apart. They have so many of the same talents and hobbies. They have similar mannerisms and even the same favorite color! There are certainly differences as well, but it is just amazing to see the kind of women they are turning out to be. I could not be prouder of either of them!


Quilt: Before I left, I told my friend, Basil I would knit him a baby quilt while I was on my trip. (He and his wife Gillian are expecting any day now)
There tends to be a lot of downtime when I travel to Alaska, so I figured it would be a fun thing to do.
Well, I told my mom that I was going to make one and she thought I should quilt one since I have never made a fabric quilt before and since I was at her house and could totally utilize her master quilting studio. I was game. I figured that the worst case scenario is that it would turn out really bad, I could go back to knitting one and no one would be the wiser.
Since I have never quilted before, I had my own ideas about how a baby quilt for a "future musical prodigy" (of course) should look.
I'm pretty proud of how it turned out (They seemed to like it too!):


I'm not sure that I will be making any more quilts any time soon. It was a fun challenge, but really does take a lot of space. Our little place would be way too small to take on such a task. But, I'm glad for the experience, and now I know how to do it, so you never know... It is something that I may do again down the road!

AK Nightlife: There are a couple of really funny Alaska "night out" stories that deserve a blog all their own. When I get those photos uploaded I will write that entry. Highlights: Monster trucks, Men of Steel, punk rock, and hip hop. That is all I am saying for now.


Now that I am home, we are rushing around getting ready for the holidays. This is the first year in quite a while that I am really looking forward to Christmas. I've been struck by the holiday bug in a big way. Maybe it was the trip home, the snow, the old friends, or maybe it is just that I didn't want to be visited by three ghosts? Whatever the case may be, I'm doing great, my family and extended family are all healthy and happy, life is good.

If I don't get around to it until after the big day, Happy Holidays to you all and to all a good rest of your month!

*Loves*

Stay Warm!

Time to Bid!!!!

Remember that auction I mentioned a few weeks ago? It is time to start bidding!

CLICK HERE TO BID!! :


The Posies Cover the Song of Your Choice
Actually, Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer will each cover the same song— Two covers for the price of one! The winner will also receive a copy of their split EP Private Sides. Priceless!

(The auction says it has to be picked up, but that is just a catch all we are writing on everything. The MP3s and CD can easily be sent to you!)

More at:
www.thestranger.com/strangercrombie

Have you ever wanted The Posies to cover a particular song?

HERE IS YOUR CHANCE!

The paper that I work for does an auction every year where local folks
donate goods and services and all of the money raised goes to help homeless people in our community. We raised over $40,000 last year! It is something that I am really proud to be a part of, because it does such a cool thing. We have been getting really great donations this year. I'm very excited about the auction!

Here is where The Posies come in.
Jon and Ken are donating a cover song of the winning bidders choice to the auction this year.
There is a twist!
Each of them will do their own version of the song, so in the end you get two songs for the price of one and a one-of-a-kind opportunity to see how Jon and Ken would each cover the same song!
(This is for your own personal use only, of course.)

The 2007 Strangercrombie Holiday Gift Guide appears in the December 6 issue of The Stranger, but you can get a jump on the bidding by going to The Stranger website on Wednesday, December 5. All auctions end at 5:00 p.m. on December 14.

Since it is on Ebay, it would be super easy for everyone to participate,
even you folks that don't live in Seattle, and since the US$ is crap right
now, folks with Euros have a major advantage in any bidding war!

Start saving your pennies and coming up with cover song ideas!

Get to 2:43 and watch from there...

It is totally worth it!


My hubby! At 6:23 it swings over to him so you get a better look!

Swoon.

And so I'm writing with the hope that someone's reading...

For Jon's birthday we got Jon (and the whole family, really) This awesome little instrument. It is something we have been wanting for a while and decided to just do it. Next week Darian will start taking piano lessons. The cool thing about this is that she can practice using headphones so as to not disturb the neighborhood. It has a beautiful sound and weighted keys. We all love it.

Then at last eve's show our friend, Sean Nelson, played a Posies song in honor of Jon's birthday. It was very sweet. Jon even jumped up on stage in the end. What a sweet gesture. I'm so happy I got it on video!

And then we met with Jon's family for a birthday brunch this morning. They surprised me with a gift card for my birthday that just passed. After brunch we went over to the book store and I picked up two autographed copies of books that I have been wanting for some time now:

and

I'm really excited to read them. Alan Alda is in my top 5 list of people I would love to meet someday.

Now, I'm off to sticking my nose in a book. I hope you all had a wonderful and fulfilling weekend!

First vid with the new camera!

It is a lot bumpy because it is the first time I used the camera and I was playing with the settings. Here is a video of Josephine & Angelita from The Triple Door show, 7/14/2007


See more videos at: http://www.youtube.com/dreamingviola

Enjoy!

Radio8Ball - Sundown

This is the video of Jon and Andras doing the live version of the radio8ball show. Our friend, Bre, was randomly drawn on this particular night.
Her question was, "Who, even, are you, even, fer-reals?"

--------
This next video is of our fearless host doing a song himself! It is a lovely song called Message for the Moon by Andras Jones.

Last Night...

Everyone Moves Away

Dream all Day...

Someone uploaded this video to Youtube and I just came across it tonight. I forgot how funny it was. All of the smoke and hair.
(For my relatives who read this and have never met him, my hubby is the one singing lead on this song) Oh the days of yor when Seattle was all about hair and Doc Martins.

OMG- gotta love Youtube. No sooner did I post this when I found this one too: