How I Joined Book on Tape Worm.

I just wrote a blog post about Valentine's Day and how I joined Book on Tape Worm on our blog. Read it here! I promise it's good.

Januarilist

1. Play at the Slumber Party shows with Book on Tape Worm.
2. Submit poetry to 5 publications.
3. Give 20 things to charity. (24 down)
4. Cook dinner for my family 5 times. (5 down)
5. Teach Maren to touch one note on the piano at a time.
6. Go to a Mexican Panedería with my dad.
7. Drive to the Salton Sea.
8. Visit St. George with some London friends. (CANCELLED!) Replacement: Record 10 songs for missonaries.
9. See a movie at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
10. Finish making scarves.

P.S. My brother just walked into my closet and said "Well, time to go to the other dimension," and shut the door in front of himself.

P.P.S. Oh, you love Book on Tape Worm? Yeah, me too.

10 Things I Have Been Doing Lately.

1. Getting a dog. Its name is Biko. (Courtesy of Dad.)
2. Listening to Music for 18 Musicians by Reich.
3. Reading Dubliners by James Joyce.
4. Giving 50 things to DI.
5. Editing poetry and writing in journals.
6. Writing ideas and goals on my mirror.
7. Looking at jobs and old pianos on Craigslist.
8. Scribbling in charcoal. (Sometimes drawing).
9. Reading the Book of Mormon for rhetorical devices.
10. Winding up my snowglobe and watching Maren tip it over to figure out how it works.

Also, I'm playing at Velour this weekend with Book on Tape Worm. Come say hi.

We're recording!

And I love it.

Landmarks

I turned twenty last Friday and consequently, I've been thinking about landmark ages lately. I've been growing up more and more officially over the past few years (pictures when they apply).

In 2007, I turned sixteen at a family reunion. (Teenage dream, right?)

Shortly thereafter, the Harry Potter series ended. To understand the gravity of this in relation to my adulthood, you have to know that I read the first three Harry Potter books no less than nine times each, and the next several around four times each. The last one I read only twice. If Harry Potter was grown up, I was grown up. That was it.
My brother went to college. I started worrying about college (which, apparently, I was supposed to have been doing since freshman year.)
I went to prom.

I turned 18, to very little fanfare. (I don't even have a picture.)
I graduated and pulled my first all-nighter at a Disneyland grad night. At 5, before we got back on the bus, my friends and I were passed out on the grass.

I moved to Provo, Utah and started attending college at Brigham Young University. (And met one of my closest friends, Greta Ballif)

I also met Sam, and Mike.

I joined a band.

I turned nineteen.
I got kissed and broken up with.

My tiniest sister, Maren, was born.

I released my first album.

I got kissed by someone nice.

Photo Credit: Justin Hackworth

I turned twenty.

Photo credit: Trevor Christensen

Aaaaaaand this is my first post in about two months. Sorry! I promise there will be more poems/pictures/ideas coming your way. I will be  a good little blogger.

I'm in this band.

When I wrote my Bucket List for a class in Fall 2009, 14 was "Be in a band." I did not expect that this would happen anytime soon. Friends had asked me to join bands in high school and I'd never been particularly interested.

Also during Fall 2009, I met Scott Shepard at Open Mic night. Having enjoyed each other's music, we talked for a minute or two, left, and didn't speak for months.

In January Corey Fox asked me to play at an acoustic showcase. I agreed to, and a little later, he sent me an interesting email, saying that Scott wanted me to play piano with his band at the Velour Valentine's Masquerade. Again, I agreed. When Scott and I practiced for the first time, we worked on music for about an hour, and talked about books for two.

Clearly, it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Velour Valentine's Masquerade, 2/13/2010

Credit: Kaneischa Johnson

We played the Valentine's show together along with my friend Dan on the cello and our friend Claire on the harp. It was a magical night. About a month later, we saw Ciera Black playing with some of her friends at Open Mic and asked her if she wanted to play with us. By March of 2010, Book on Tape Worm as it is today was formed, and 14 was crossed off my bucket list.

Slumber Party 1/12/2011

Credit: Jeff Cornwall

Book on Tape Worm, 3/12/2011

Credit: Trevor Christensen

Most recently, we're raising money for a full-length album on Kickstarter. Within the space of 4 days and 14 hours (7:28 on Saturday to 9:58 today), we've raised $5,005 dollars of our $6,000 goal. The influx of support has been so humbling, and we are so grateful to everyone who's helped so far.



If you'd like to support us, check out our video and visit bookontapeworm.com, or write a blog post and get your friends informed! If you do blog, leave me a link in the comments and I'll post it to our Kickstarter page.

I am blogging about Ciera Black

in honor of National Blog About Ciera month.

On Saturday, Ciera and I drove to Annex Studio, where we were about to record some Book on Tape Worm songs. When we got there we realized that Scott wasn't there yet, and so we decided to explore the neighborhood. After some house-hunting, we came to an open house. Deciding that we needed an excuse to explore the house, Ciera told the realtor that her uncle "Ron Smithson" was looking for a house in the area and we wanted to check out the floor plan. The design and decor in the house (Okay, I know that phrase makes me sound super phony, but seriously-) was so well done. We even found these alligator pillows in the hypothetical little boys' room and got so excited we took pictures.

Ho hum.

It's Sunday and still gray outside after the rain yesterday. I am sitting in my living room thinking about getting ready for church and being productive.

Last night I drove to Pleasant Grove High School with Skyler and played in a Book on Tape Worm show. Ciera got a pickup for her cello, which was wonderful. Some friends came to see us, which was sweet of them. We played well and then we stopped playing and watched Mudbison and then Sky and I got into my car and drove away. It was dark and bright on the drive home.

When we got back to Provo, we picked up Collin and Jennifer (who is visiting this weekend) and came back to my house. I put Ironman II in the DVD player, handed everyone cups of limeade I made yesterday, sipped an I <3 NY mug of milk, and didn't watch the movie at all. Skyler left later to design a logo for this T-shirt company he's part of, (which is debuting today) after putting up with my show-and-telling him my map of Gotland. Around curfew, Collin and Jennifer left and took the car with them. I was sleeping on the couch, so then I dragged myself to my actual bed, wrote in my journals, read 2 Nefi Capitulo 23, and fell asleep.

Anyway, now it's morning and I am going to shower and eat breakfast and do things.

Fork Fest!

Oh, hello there. I am playing at this show on Saturday and you are coming. Right? Right.

There are going to be lots of lovely people there, I promise. Hopefully you'll be among them. :)

So... today is markedly worse than yesterday. Thankfully, we filmed a BOTW video yesterday with the pretty set from Saturday, so now music can be on hold for a little bit while I get wicked sick with the cough that's been coming on and my finger can internally bleed and purple some more. Because I don't have to sing or play the piano in the near future. Phew.

There's a stack of clouds hovering on my piano.

This show is going to be so awesome.

(Yesssssss.)

Look what I've done!

'

I'm playing a show with my friends in two weeks and I made this poster for it, which I've been really nervous about. I do graphic design at my job, but I've never done a poster for a show before. Thankfully, my friends seemed to think it was cool and even the illustrious Adam, who usually draws the posters, told me he liked it. (P.S. There is a major pun in there. HA.) Anyway, I feel validated.

Last Night...

WAS AMAZING. I played in Velour's Valentine's Masquerade as part of my friend's solo project called Book on Tape Worm. It was a beautiful night and I was privileged to play some very lovely music. :)