— CiaoCatherine

My first piece in Venus Zine

There’s so much to say I feel like I’m bursting.  Most importantly: my first piece for Venus Zine, a review of Concrete Blonde‘s Bloodletting reunion tour stop in DC last week, went up last night.  I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute.  I have great respect for Venus so when Gina Vivinetto connected me with them I was beyond excited.  Working on a few more things for them so I’ll post those when they’re up.

In addition: Saturday was my 25th birthday.  I’m so blessed to have marked the occaision with decent sangria, good food and better friends.  I spent the first half of the day lounging by a friend’s rooftop pool in Chinatown.  I foresee lots of pool time happening in the future.  Last summer I was living in a studio in a building with a glorious rooftop and pool and I spent nearly every evening after work up there with some lemonade and a good book.  This summer will require some planning ahead.  I’ll be taking more people up on their invitations, and securing a pass to the local community pool.  Today is the first day of summer.  Bring it on!  There are road trips and camping and endless, endless quantities of live music already in the works.

And now for a musical break for the afternoon.  Although they’ve bounced from label to label, all the videos for “Joey” on YouTube seem to have embedding disabled, but this audio-only version sounds like it’s ripped straight from vinyl.  Delish.

And as I mentioned in the review, Jim Bianco is worth a listen as well.  He had a dangerously charming stage presence.  I think I’d like to invite him to a party.   He’d definitely stir shit up.  I’m quite fond of this video he shot of himself in his kitchen: