Eleven and counting.

rs11

Today marks eleven years since my father passed. Although I still face the occasional day-to-day struggles, I can honestly say that, perspective-wise, I’ve never felt any stronger and/or clearer. Much love to everyone and everything that has helped in bringing me to this very moment, including but most certainly not limited to:

Music on CD, vinyl, and cassette (and those still fighting to keep the physical formats alive); Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall; Friday the 13th movies; Echo Lake; The kitchen; My YMCA days; Kate Moss; Jim Beam and practically every other whiskey under the sun; Bi-weekly’s on Broadway; Drek; Kathryn Kalinak and Gary Grund; The Echo Chamber Blog; American Iron & Metal; The Boston Bruins; Nate, David, Claire, Ruth, and Nathaniel Fisher Sr.; Lipton Green Tea with Honey; B-Complex, Magnesium, Aleve, and SAMe;  Exercise (peace to Zach for the routine); Structure; Balance; Mark Oliver Everett for illustrating how every end is a new beginning, Regina Spektor for giving me the advice of letting go in small doses, and Alison Mosshart for pushing me to go steal ahead; And, most importantly, my many friends and dedicated family — especially my sister Kiley and mother Mary, who I love more than I can put into words.

Also, to those who aren’t ignorant to mental illness, I thank you for trying to understand.

Miss and love you, dad.

Now on Etsy.com — KMatthewsCeramics

KMatthewsCeramics

Hey, everyone. My sister Kiley started an Etsy page for her ceramics. (Check it here: KMatthewsCeramics.) Her work is really nice, durable, and each piece is one of a kind. It’s also reasonably priced, so you should consider buying something before she gets famous and charges you an arm and a leg for this stuff.

Aside from what’s featured on the Etsy page, Kiley has also made a number of freelance items for her friends and family. In my apartment, I have a beautiful kitchen utensil holder, a decorative plate featuring the lovely Shannyn Sossamon, and the Regina Spektor cup you see in the above photograph.

Something to consider about the items I’ve mentioned above is how they could double for whatever you see fit. What I’m using for the utensil holder was actually intended for potted planting; The plate I have decorating my pantry is microwave and dishwasher safe, and could be used for any meal of the day; And the Regina Spektor cup could be used as a small storage container for loose change, pens and pencils, your toothbrush, Skittles, and so on.

There’s more information to be had on the site – including her nicely written profile page describing where the influence of her work is drawn from — so please take a moment of your time to check out what she’s created.

Regina Spektor — “How” [VIDEO]

Last week there was talk about TECB on the WRIU airwaves. To quote the host(s) loosely, “Echo Chamber don’t like hip-hop no more, just Regina Spektor.”

They pretty much nailed it right there. Creek Regina’s latest video for “How” from this year’s What We Saw From the Cheap Seats. And stay tuned for a hip-hop video I don’t really care for, coming up next…

Regina Spektor – “Ne Me Quitte Pas” [VIDEO]

Everyone who knows me is fully aware of how crazy I am for Regina Spektor. She’s one of the only non-hip-hop artists I plug on TECB regularly. (<— Soon to change.) That said, one of my last posts on Spektor was about how I can’t stand what she did to this track, originally released on 2002′s Songs and now reappearing on her latest What We Saw From the Cheap Seats. My opinion still stands, and, as much as I hate to come up here and be a negative Nancy, especially about the artists I’m passionate about, the video for “Ne Me Quitte Pas” makes the song even less appealing to me. It’s straight bubblegum.

I need less quirk, more Soviet schizo.

Only Son & Regina Spektor — “Call Them Brothers” [VIDEO]

I had envisioned a big post with this video, but I plan to talk shop about Regina in my 2012 wrap-up come the end of the year. Looks like I may be doing the ABC thing all over again. Maybe that’ll be my schtick…

Anyway, you know Regina is married to this guy?

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 960 other followers

%d bloggers like this: