Silly Somethings Spark Smiles

Yesterday I picked up a keyboard and tambourine for my apartment/burgeoning music studio in the Dam. I was pleased to discover that although I've still got small hands, my fingers are remarkably flexible! I know, an octave+1 isn't fab, but my hands are little! Check the digits!


The second smile, well it's super-silly: "Matchy, Matchy, Matchy!" Which is coincidentally the very sound this dimpled-brass-jingle tambourine makes...

Happy Mother's Day (Two Moms, One Song)

I wrote and recorded this song for my two moms: Barb Cooley & Sherri Kelly.

Happy Mother's Day!!


PLEASE USE HEADPHONES. Written & performed by Jen Creason, 2009.

Ballad of the Red Light Lady: A GarageBand Experiment

I was messing with GarageBand and I wrote & "composed" (is it still even really composition? is it more like compilation?) this song in a few hours. There are obv mistakes in the vocal track, but I was just fooling around so I didn't bother rerecording.

PLEASE USE HEADPHONES IF YOU ARE ON A LAPTOP.
Written & performed by Jen Creason (w/ a GB loop)

Cheating on Lacey Jones, Part 1: The Blues

As many of you know, @BJNemeth has been writing "Cheating on @LaceyJones is like..." tweets and I wrote a song based on the idea. Well actually I wrote several songs. This is the first-- a bluesish song. Enjoy!

PLEASE USE HEADPHONES IF YOU HAVE A LAPTOP. This recording is only bass, vocals, & snapping. Music written & performed by Jen Creason Lyrics co-written by Jen Creason, BJ Nemeth & Rob Perelman

Conclusies van de Dag/Conclusions of the Day

(AKA the mass of unsorted debris my brain ejected today.)

1
Sometimes when you have a knot in one of your muscles, you have to press on it really hard with a thumb/knuckle to make it go away. It really hurts and it feels like the complete wrong thing to do, but it needs to be done, so it's best to buck-up and deal. Or have someone else take care of it, whatever.

2
European tabloids really dislike John Mayer. wtf. I <3 @johncmayer. He's a riot on twitter. tweets almost as much as I do. His bro, @ben_mayer, is funny too. I'm not following his brother in a Mayer-stalky kind of way either. He's actually funny. tweet. tweet.

3
Don't give 99% Cacao chocolate to someone who ingests sugar on a regular basis. Even though the wrapper says Lindt EXCELLENCE, they will not find the taste excellent. Or even edible. In fact, they may put the touched-by-fingers chocolate back into the not-touched-by-fingers package and you will be forced to used that particular piece of chocolate in your espresso because everyone knows extreme heat kills germs.

4
Someone thinks Red Bass is a fish.

World, meet Red Bass:

That is all.

Chronicles of a Two Year Old Shopper

Because by age two, you should really be doing most of your
own grocery shopping-- that includes laundry supplies.

You may have seen the above picture and caption on my facebook page yesterday. What you didn't see is what it took to get that priceless shot. With an iPhone. In an Albert Heijn. On the Saturday before Easter.


After discovering the mini-shopper in the dairy section, I managed to rebalance my awkward grocery basket, whip out my iPhone, and catch up with the tot on the laundry aisle. (Oh, c'mon. These days it's actually completely routine for a person to iPhone picture stalk someone funny. Especially if it'll make a twiend/friend smile.)


The little Dutchman was quite the shopper, grabbing the items his father pointed to and tossing them in the cart. He was also adding interesting looking packages here and there, most of which his father didn't notice. Not really sure why the kid wanted a 4-pack of toilet bowl fresheners, but props to the lil guy for taking initiative.


At this point things began to get hairy. The small boy was much more dexterous in the crowded market than I was and the natives began to tire of my aisleway obstructing iPhone stalk-age of the kid.


People began darting between us.


Luckily, I caught up the child again at the resgister. Finally a face shot. It's hard to see, but he had little baby glasses. His father is the man to the left with his back to the kid. Of course.

On the way out I said, "You're awesome" to the little guy and he gave me a monster grin. Made my day.

Reserved Seating

There are two chairs on my balcony. Every night I sit alone, but both chairs are occupied. My caboose is parked in one and Cheryl's in the other.

Okay, so I should explain.

Cheryl Atwood was my cousin and one of my first BFFs. On the second day of 7th grade (I was in 6th) she was diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma, a rare bone cancer. She died the following April, 15 years ago this week.

I'm not crazy. I have no illusions that she's 'still here' or in 'heaven' or anything. I guess somehow I've just sort of grown her up with me in my mind. I imagine her as this stunning brunette with long straight hair down her back, a flawless olive complexion, and a penchant for silliness. She flashes a flirty grin at the cute bartender when she explains the Hoegarden is for "Ghostie" (me) and the Guiness is for her-- like her, it's "dark and exactly what he's in the mood for". She hears "The Heart of Life" and laughs, not because she thinks it's funny, but because the words are so obvious. "Of course the 'Heart of life is good', Jen!" Whenever we go "out", Cheryl's ensemble-de-force is a snug black polo (believe me everything's snug on top for her!), practically painted on Sevens jeans, and a pair of purple peep-toe Jimmy Choo stilettos that she kidnapped from my closet over a year ago. (She knows they murder my feet or she totally would have given them back already.) She's always up for a drunken bar-top dance or an impromptu song set. Perfect harmony, our voices. Sometimes we laugh so hard we can't breathe, and she's always quick to point out, "That shit's better than crunches! Venti Starbucks today, chica!" She's never forgotten my birthday, ever. Although I guess it helps that hers is a week before. She's laid-back when I'm not, plans ahead when I don't, forgives when I can't, and apologizes when I won't. In my mind, Cheryl's pretty dope. But then again, she always was.

So when I sit here looking at the empty chair across from me, I think, "It's cool. We cool. You're here if I want you to be."