Katy's Blog
Last week, I received the heartbreaking news that a friend’s very young son had died. This child was a tiny warrior with an old-soul demeanor. He endured more challenges in his short time here than many of the rest of us will face in a full lifetime. Despite his suffering, however, he seemed to float above it all– Zen-like, calm and full of love. When I heard of his passing, I was stricken with an immediate and crushing sadness, not only for his death but…
OK, so the other night I was sitting at my dining room table, working on something. I was using a magic marker. I’m talking a big-ass, old-school Marks-A-Lot with the gnarly fumes. I was working away and started to get a little lightheaded from the vapors. Things went a little dippy, a little flippy and a whole lot otherworldly. The edges blurred for a second. There was a pop of light, and then God was sitting right there in front of me, in my own dining…
I’m losing my ambition. This is probably something that a person shouldn’t admit, especially out loud on a blog post. In our culture, we place a high value on ambition, even celebrate it. Ambition is equated with forward motion, something fresh-scrubbed and enthusiastic. “Lack of ambition,” on the other hand, conjures up the image of a bleary-eyed, vapid stoner wasting his/her days away, playing X-Box in some dim living room. The unambitious are typically presumed to be slackers. Losers even. But is that really…
The Nomad in Houston It’s now been four months since Emmett took off on his trek to explore the U.S. When we spoke on the phone this past Saturday, he was about an hour outside of Washington D.C. Assuming that all went as planned, he arrived just in time to see how Independence Day is celebrated in our nation’s capital. Nice move, Emmett. At the time of my last post, Emmett was just pulling out of Houston, where he stopped to…
Seattle vocalist Jennifer Kienzle The setting is Shuga Jazz Bistro. The occasion is a special jam session celebrating the birthday of Seattle pianist Eric Verlinde. Jennifer Kienzle has stepped up to the mic. I’m always struck by her cool finesse and sophisticated ease. She exudes a classic jazz singer aura, all the way down to the little black dress, which she rocks hard I might add. But beneath this impeccable elegance is an underlying sassiness, with a nip of growl. Within…
Today’s post is about an unfortunate encounter that I recently had with a musician out on the scene. I’m not going to say where this happened and for the sake of this person’s band mates, I’m not going to out the group. But because I’m lazy, I’m also not going to dance around a bunch of pronouns to neutralize gender for the purpose of protecting this person's identity. The musician in question is a guy, but it does't matter anyway. This is a cautionary tale for all…
It seems like every few days, a post comes through the feed with a list of things I’m supposed to stop doing: “Ten Words Mothers Need to Stop Using Right Now,” or “12 Things Writers Need to Stop Writing Right Now," or “100 Thoughts Homo Sapiens Need to Stop Thinking Right Now,” Bossy life hacks, who presume to know better than the rest of us, have taken over the blogosphere. It’s like a zombie apocalypse. And the emphasis is always on the “right now.”…
Cousins. Axel & Emmett. New Mexico, April 2015. It’s now been roughly two months since my son Emmett took off to live as a nomad; traveling across the United States to see what he can see, to experience new things and to generally explore the magical and mysterious path of life. Since my initial post on this story generated so much interest, it seems an occasional update is in order. This is my first report. The preliminary part of Emmett’s trek…
A month or so ago, I started writing recaps of some of the shows I’ve recently seen and posting them on the blog under the heading of “Hang-a-Dang.” The point of these posts is to provide little snapshots of what’s happening out on the local scene and to give a feel for some of the venues that are hosting live music. The idea for “Hang-a-Dang” came out of a lunch date with a friend and colleague. He was lamenting that not enough is being…
