Hot and muggy I sludge my way through summer in NYC. I wish to be opened like a fire hydrant and poured out all over the street. I bike past brownstone stoop barbecues and squealing squirt-gun kids, a Puerto Rican pride party and Hasidic Jews stoically suffering in wool suits, all the while observing in wonder the remarkable diversity that a mere mile can offer in this melting pot city.
Suddenly the sky gathers itself and decides to open and the heavy hard rain falls through. I squish myself home, still sweating, and curl up in a cold shower. It is overwhelming outside, more so than ever, the street swollen with every walk of life. I do miss my tent in the woods beside a river.
Last week my new record Dayenu was released into the world. It is now playing in cars and homes and headphones, I hope. After writing, arranging, producing, recording, creating the art, pitching, promoting, and then finally releasing, I am relieved and ready to let these songs have a life of their own.
Written over the past 2-3 years, Dayenu began as I lived with an older couple out in Point Reyes, CA. I slept in the orchard outside the house we were remodeling and eventually moved into the garden shed. We’d have dinner together and watch tv shows at night and I’d run to the shed to jot things down and then return. “Honey where are my glasses, no, my other glasses” or “sweetie would you like a glass of milk with your dinner.” I got to witness what a partnership looks like in its final stages, right around the same time my twin sister was getting married, and the effect that these dual timelines had on me lead to this project’s creation. The album chronologically follows the lifespan of two people as they fall in love, get married, have kids, grow old, and then die. I hope you find the time (and ideally some decent speakers that aren’t a phone or laptop) to listen to it and even send it to a friend. Here’s a link for spotify and apple music, and it is available most everywhere else.
I’ve mentioned the elusiveness of satisfaction before, and am yet again confused by its current absence. I cleaned my bathroom the other night and got more satisfaction from the post-clean pee than I did from the release of my music. I mostly blame the vulnerability of sharing yourself, making the shine of satisfaction flicker as it appears between clouds of squeamish doubt.
Some updates:
-I had a record release show in Brooklyn this week, my first performance in a while, and despite a torrential downpour and extreme nervousness, it was a great success and I got to play for a sweet, albeit damp crowd
-The video for my song Aint Been Doin has also emerged, filmed by my talented friend Claire Donohue during our time recording at Spillway Studios in the Catskills. Check it out below…
-I have two pieces in an exhibition opening in Greece this month, and I’m going to Greece for 3 weeks in September
-With the record out, I finally have more time to create. My collage work has expanded to canvas which is exciting. I’ve been making these crossed-out eyes, repeatedly, thinking about Emmanuel Levinas’s philosophy on The Other, my aversion towards eye contact yet the power it holds, and redaction, how it can serve as emphasis, the scratch marks and marred out words causing curiosity.
-my inkjet printer of many years is officially not worth fixing, which is tough, but I am excited about having one that consistently works. Hoping to do a print sale to raise some funds, so keep an eye out for that sometime soon
-I got poison ivy on the bottom of both of my feet, which is a first
-I’ve recently realized yellow is my new favorite color, havin fallen for this sheet of paper I coated with crushed daisies
Books I’ve read/looked at/listened to:
All Fours - Miranda July
(force fed read this one, sometimes great sometimes meh)
Leonard Cohen Selected Poems 1956-1968
(how about you go your way, and I’ll go your way too)
Coming and Going - Jim Goldberg
(a scrapbook form retrospective with personal letters and notes)
What I’ve enjoyed hearing:
(soft, sweet, written by a high school teacher on his lunch breaks)
(top 3 greatest r n b record of all time?)
(riding in my car (car song) is my current favorite
Art I’ve Enjoyed Seeing:
Julia Margaret Cameron show at The Morgan Library
(given a camera at 48 by her kids when they moved out, Cameron became one of the most important photographers of the 19th century)
Jack Whitten’s retrospective at MoMa
(3rd time I’ve gone, Whitten often used tools of his own creation to pull paint across the canvas, calling the tools his “developers” in reference to photo chemicals)
Diane Arbus at The Park Ave Armory
(remarkably overwhelming, 450 pictures, Arbus is monumental but after the 100th photo I stopped seeing)
That’s it for this month. Hoping in vain for a cooler and calmer August.
Thanks for being here,
Lev
