Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Aria's Birthday followed by Found Magazine fun

My darling sister/best kid friend/mini me turned seven today!  I know that the Indian Princess in this photo does not "look" like me, but you have no idea.  We were cut from the same cloth.  Seven is a big deal and she is gonna wow us all!



....and then some amazing lady gave me and my friend Raina comp tickets to Found Magazine tour thing.  So great...wish I had talked to Davy about shooting guns in the morning, oh well, next time.





Thursday, April 23, 2009

How does everyone know the words to Mason Jennings' songs?

The summer before my senior year in college I lived in Vermont with my best friend/wife.  Linnea and I would drive to Shrewsbury's town lake and loudly sing-a-long to Mason Jennings:  "Oh my heart is a thoroughbred, I can't sleep in my bed..." "I miss the ocean, when I fall asleep, man its gonna break me heart...."    Obviously I know all the words, I haven't listened to those songs in years, but they stay with me, reminding me of an incredibly lazy and lovely summer.

  Old house, mouse traps, town tea time, daily swims, bathtub, bed on the porch, lupin flowers, tiny kids, puppet shows, mayonnaise............  

I love Linnea so much and tonight as I tried to resist singing along, I thought about my best friend and how we got "married"  in Vermont that summer.  My brother read the lyrics to "islands in a stream"  while we walked down the aisle.  Some people reading this will remember that strange ceremony and the sheer ridiculousness of it. 

 Thank you for spreading the rumor that I married a woman, it is a funny one to explain.









Wednesday, April 22, 2009

My Brand New Website

In this technological overdrive world I often don't know what I really want something to look like,or how to get feelings from the screen to the heart. 

 I have finished designing my new website with a very talented friend:  Chad Pry, and am thankful to have something on this crazy big Internet that makes me proud (besides my actual music, of course).

Check it:   www.angiwest.com





Sunday, April 19, 2009

The beginning of my trying to explain why I loved Hatchfest

One of many favorite moments was watching this short film by one of my new favorite people: Talmage Cooley.

Pol Pot's Birthday




In the next few days I will try to put up as much as I can from my own invaluable experience of Hatchfest.

Friday, April 10, 2009

COBRA HORSE!

A few years ago I was living in India.  My friend Molly Damon and I had many hilarious and well timed inside jokes, but the one that has seemed to hold its own true legacy is "Cobra Horse."  

Molly and I were having a drawing contest.  Meaning, you basically draw whatever you know how to draw, then pass it to the other person to laugh at, or guess what it could possibly be.  Molly drew a picture of a horse, but when she handed it to me, I could swear it was a cobra.  And in that moment, Cobra Horse was born.

A year later I was in the studio recording my first album.  molly was in town to help me and sing some amazing backup.   We occasionally would mention Cobra Horse, and then laugh hysterically, while men like Jeremy Boger and Joshua Carpenter rolled their eyes.  But you know what?  They found the real home for this inside joke.  

Presenting the band Cobra Horse: farcical yet unwittingly serious. 


 I actually love their music for its awesome pop sensibility and terrible lyrics.  I have been warned that they might give me unsolicited songwriting credits, which I will not accept.  Thanks, but no thanks.

 This show was inspired and fun.
And they have damn good t-shirts!!


Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Working aka that thing I go and do sometimes

Tonight was a special late night working session.
(yo, wait, you might not know what I do for a job. Uh well, I keep the books for two awesome stores, I sometimes help buy things to then sell, I do a number of other things to keep business as usual, I write for another blog  www.minxboutique.wordpress.com, and I love on some fashion, oh and I buy boots for myself.)


First, we got in some beach bags from Cheap Monday



Then, on the way home I fell into an unmarked hole made by the city in their attempt to fix a leaky water main.




Can I sue the city and get enough money to make my next album?

Sunday, April 5, 2009

2009 Southeast Gathering

Ever since the awkward age of twelve years old, I have been going to a strange and wonderful place in Tacoa, GA.  Camp Mikell has been host to the Southeast Gathering since the early eighties.  This is an event that celebrates the community of those of us who follow, love and/or revere Meher Baba.  If you don't know who Meher Baba is that is another story, another blog, another day.  Hyper link yourself here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meher_Baba, to find out more.  

For years I spent my energy in the early spring planning programs for the group of teenagers that would inevitably force me to lose my voice (think spiritual camp counselor).  But then I grew tired, so tired, of doing that and wanted to just enjoy the North Georgia woods, the  sunshine and the company.  Also, there is a bit of a generation gap in the Meher Baba community.  I use to have up to forty teens in my charge and this year there were three, so there you go.

I thought I would put up a few videos that show some of the fun and sweetness and silliness of the Southeast Gathering.

















I wish this bloggy sort of format had the capacity to show what a weekend like this can be, but it doesn't.