2007 Mid-Year Highlights and Recaps
I’m the worst blogger ever. I said it and I mean it. I’m uber-sorry for not writing to you for 6 whole months! Phew, glad I got that out of the way. Now can we move on to the fun stuff?
Here are some highlights of what I’ve been up to that have kept me so busy I’ve had no time to tweeze my eyebrows, much less write a blog! (ok, you got me, I have been putting tweezing in front of blogging and that’s not going to change)
January East Coast Tour- Wow, that was awhile back and my memory is fading already. (That’s why you’re supposed to blog regularly, Kyler!) I was on tour at the time with Sam Shaber and she’s a fellow NPR junkie so we geeked out. She has satellite radio in her car that has a Tivo-like function so we listened to prerecorded episodes of “This American Life” for hours and hours. I think my fave memory of that tour is sitting on the end of the dock at Sam’s aunt’s place on the river in Savannah and watching an episode of Grey’s Anatomy that we had downloaded to my laptop while we spooned down some Ben & Jerry’s. But then George’s dad died of cancer and i cried salty tears into my ice cream. That’s not the first or last time Grey’s got me choked up. How do they make me care so much about these people that don’t even exist? That reminds me of how upset and angry I got when they killed off Starbuck on Battlestar Gallactica, also sometime this spring. It ruined my whole day. How do they do that? That’s good writing right there. Either that or my life is just boring as dirt.
Eating Vanilla Honey Lavender Ice Cream in Fairfax, CA- Next time you go to San Fran, make a trip up to the adorable town of Fairfax in Marin and get some scoops at Fairfax Scoop. The Vanilla Honey Lavender ice cream was incomparable and the Mexican Chocolate about did me in. Can’t wait to go back! (notice the reoccuring ice cream theme)
My First Colorado Tour- In April I went to Colorado on tour for the first time and fell head over heels. It’s bee-youu-tee-full. Except that it snowed pretty much everywhere I went and I was there April 11-16. APRIL!!! Is Colorado in the southern hemisphere or something cause I heard they have winter in the summer down there. I’m gonna have to consult my atlas. 
Maybe if I go back to CO in January next time…
Favorite Stretch of Highway in the USA: Interstate 70 going across Utah, by far the most gorgeous scenery I’ve seen in my travels. For over 200 miles there’s nothing but rock formations and gorges and plateaus in every color from bright orange to sage green. But make sure to tank up and use the little singer-songwriter’s room while you can because there’s nowhere to stop for over 200 miles and not even a cactus big enough to hide behind!
The Worst Gig Ever in Las, Vegas: No one came! I think I made $5 and the only person who was listening was the barista behind the counter. I was on tour with my friend Julie Loyd at the time and we were wrapping up a crazy week and a half run from San Fran to Reno to Salt Lake City to Salida, CO to Colorado Springs to Denver to Boulder to Arvada, CO to Moab, UT to Las Vegas and back to LA again. The whole tour had been *amazing* though we were so zonked by the time we got to Vegas that we kinda thought it was funny that no one was at our show. I was totally loopy and jacked up on caffeine and couldn’t wait to get home to LA within a few hours and so I just started doing the MC Hammer on stage while Julie was playing one of her beautifully-wistful songs. It was so bad it was great. One of my finest moments and you missed it! Next time you might want to come to my Vegas gig cause you know what they say about what happens there. 
Boat tour of the Rhine- I recently went to a friend’s wedding in a small town in the far west of Germany. The wedding was in a castle and the night before the wedding they held a big ball!!! I got to get all dolled up in a floor length chocolate colored formal gown that was Oscar-night-red-carpet worthy and dance the night away in a centuries old castle. So much better than prom! And before I came home to LA, I went on a boat tour of the Rhine where there are many castles overlooking the most romantic, scenic little towns by the water. My favorite was the Cat Castle and the Mouse Castle. Apparently the Count who resided in Cat Castle named his neighbor’s much smaller one the Mouse castle to imply that he better watch out cause the cat castle could eat the mouse castle. No really! Read about it on the Wikipedia HERE.
“Before He Cheats”- I was just in Nashville for 2 weeks to do some cowriting with other songwriters. I’ve been going there to write a few times a year now for the past 4 years and I love it! I may go country yet. It’s amazing how accessible some of the most talented and successful songwriters in town are. I happened upon an event put on by ASCAP where the two guys who wrote Carrie Underwood’s big crossover hit “Before He Cheats” (Chris Tompkins and Josh Kear) played their song acoustic, just the two of them. They sounded incredible and you could tell how powerful the song was even stripped down to its bones. The best part was hearing these two cute young guys sing the bridge “the next time that he cheats, oh you know it won’t be on me. ” Later on that same night I went to a writers night at the famous Bluebird and Chris Tompkins and his wife came in late and ended up sitting in the only 2 seats left in the whole place, which were at my table. They were so incredibly nice and down to earth and they even paid for my key lime pie. Sweet!
The Police- I got to see The Police concert at Dodgers Stadium in LA from the 8th row. It was fun turning around and looking at the *55,000* other attendees behind me and thinking “suckahs!” Oh, and I walked right past the very handsome Jeremy Piven from HBO’s Entourage. (one of my fave shows) I think my seat was better than his.
My latest addiction: Chocolate pudding. Make the instant kind, put it in the freezer so it gets a bit frosty and then put a little light whipped cream on top and tell me if it isn’t almost better than ice cream! I may have cured my ice cream habit but how am I going to break my pudding habit? Anyone?
Ok, do you feel a little caught up? Will try to keep you more in the loop! Gotta go tweeze now.
Kyler
ps my producer and dear friend Richard Oliver Furch just mixed 3 songs for Chaka Khan’s new record!!!