Kay Hanley

As it so often is with me, if I don’t take pictures or write it down, it might as well not have happened.  Blogging has been a revelation to me in this regard.  Over the course of my life I have lost so many of what should be my awesome-est memories because my brain is a sieve, but now I can document the stuff that happens not only in detail, but in order!  

One of the highlights of our way too brief vacation was our day trip to Edgartown on the Vineyard courtesy of David & Patricia’s boat.  There aren’t many things I enjoy more than hanging out with my sister Trishie and seeing the Z & Hank have a blast with their cousins.  It was a top quality hang.  

 les enfants terribles.

 eastside 4 life

rockers i have met while yachting. 

 patricia, dave & usa

One of our favorite families from our ‘hood in Los Angeles, The Smalls, also take their vacation in Falmouth every year, but somehow we always miss each other.  This year, we were there at exactly the same time. 

nick, liam & z

the sox crush the twins for our viewing pleasure.

 kim, zozo & new sox fan, bella.

Elizabeth’s boyfriend, Grande, took the most amazing pictures and was super brillz to load them into my iPhoto. Here are some highlights.

papa, brendan and hank plot their next lego project 

is there anything else?

 chucks on the beach

 erin & elizabeth

And then, there was the annual townie throwdown featuring the usual cast of hooligans as well as some newbies.  I love my Boston homeys, I really do.

whuudya want from me?

i BROUGHT the fucking miller high life, fer crissakes

there is no “i” in team

and there is no “h” in wiffle.   

usa, mr. quigley, donna & dr. rickles 

And now I am back in LA.  Actually, I’ve been back for a week but I’ve been ripping my hair out with work related busyness, including a 24 hour trip to NY that involved a 5:30am wake-up call and booty shaking with Ms. Cyrus on national television.  I don’t understand how it is that I have the funnest career of any person on this earth, yet I am practically blind with stress half the time.  I think it has something to do with my time management.  Or lack thereof.  

Having a birthday shindig for Michelle tonight, so I should get crackalackin’.  

• plan menu
• sing care bears demo
• finish lyrics first, maybe 
• buy food
• cook it
• feed guests
• drink too much
• sing happy birthday
• have another glass of wine
• clean up
• pre-emptive advil, glass of water
• nightcap
• bed

xok 

I have no idea what I’ve been doing for the last 15 years of my life, but I do know this:  USA Mike & I have not taken a proper vacation since our bizarre Disney World trip in ’95.  (please remind me to recount that story for you someday…)  Even our honeymoon was sandwiched in between tours and we ended up staying at Tom & Jacqueline Lord Alge’s condo in South Beach on our way to play a show in Ft Lauderdale or something like that.  Seriously – we crashed on our friends’ couch (a very nice one, of course) for our honeymoon, for chrissakes.  We are terrible vacationers.

Usually when we go home to Boston, we think, “Oh, we’re in our hometown so we should play a show.”  What happens next is that we turn a perfectly lovely visit with the family into a giant clusterfuck of commuting from the Cape to Boston for rehearsals and then we have to try and see all of our friends for dinner and then we have to play the show and maybe we should get a hotel so we don’t have to worry about the drive and hey mom & dad would you mind just babysitting for our kids while we do this other stuff and so on and so forth.

This year, we made an executive decision to peace out on all that.  I am doing nothing but sitting on my arse and laughing with my sisters until our tummies hurt, arguing vigorously with good ol’ Tom Hanley about politics, weeping with my Mom about the gorgeous ways we’ve failed each other over the years, watching from the beach while USA takes ZoZo and Henry swimming in the Atlantic Ocean because I’m afraid of seaweed and allergic to freezing salt water and watching every moment of the Red Sox in real time.  I will not go anywhere that involves driving a car if I can help it although I will make a few exceptions:

•  Tea at Patricia’s house.
• Guinness with Fish & Chips at Liam McGuire’s.   

I will eat at least 75 oysters, 1 lb. of USA’s pulled pork, 150 steamers, 2 lobsters, 50-100 fried clams (with bellies), 3 hot dogs and/or cheeseburgers, and a dozen steak tips from The Ninety-Nine.  I will drink 12 Harpoon IPA’s, 2 Grey Goose dirty martinis (extra dirty & extra cold) and an incalculable amount of white wine.  Some of that white wine may come out of a spigot attached to a box.

We’ll invite the usual suspects to our annual summer hang.  Pete Stone will tell everyone for the billionth time how if he and I were the last 2 people on Earth after a nuclear annihilation of some sort, the human race would die out.  I’m starting to think he isn’t totally afraid of my cooties because c’mon now, who goes on and on about such an unlikely scenario?  Pete, do we need to talk?  Great!  I’ll see you next weekend at my parents’ house and we’ll sort it out then.  Quigley & Casey will bring the Frisbees I think, but I might be making that up.  They may just bring a case of beer.  Some Horrigan family representatives would be nice.  Nate, please feel free to bring your lady.  You can introduce me as your frail, elderly aunt.  

Whew.  It’s been a wild year.  Even though I’m too wired to sleep, I am so content to be sitting outside in the pitch black, listening to the lighthouse horn and gearing up for a few moments of much needed nothing. 

Fuck.  I just got drilled by a mosquito.  Mommy!!!!! 

-xok 

The other day we went over to Michelle’s house.  Duh, what else is new?  I’ll tell you what’s new, smarty pants - Lisa Loeb has an utterly charming kids record out called Camp Lisa and she was shooting a music video in Michelle’s back yard.   Zoemay and I sang on a few songs so Z was thrilled to be invited to jump around with Lisa for the video shoot.  

awwww….. 

Z is holding a Daisy Rock guitar, btw.  I LOVE these guitars and I finally got to meet the owner of the company after 5 years of working together on various projects, not the least of which was her creating 5 different Care Bears guitars for the We Are The Care Bears video.  Thanks Tish, it was great to finally meet you in person.

The video was directed by Gary and shot by Kaylyn.  At the end of a very long day,  Z got  a lift home in Kaylyn’s bitchin’ convertible Mini Cooper.  I am so jealous of this car.

whatchu lookin’ at punk? 

Other stuff & things:

• Check out Jessie Malakouti’s myspace page and listen to #1 Big Booty, a song that she and I wrote with Wayne Rodrigues for Jessie’s upcoming solo debut.
• Michelle and I sat down with Scott Austin and filmed an interview for his new web broadcast, :90 Music Show w/ Scott Austin.

 I’m in Provo, Utah today for a huge 4th of July concert featuring Ms. Thing as the headliner.  Then it’s off to Cape Cod where I will collapse on Mommy & Daddy’s hammock and cry for a week demand that people bring me things like lobsters, my phone, a hot dog, a blanket and another blanket because it will be cold at night.  I’ll probably need a pillow while you’re up.  Thank you.   No, you can’t use the hammock because I will be on it for the rest of the week.  Go away now, but first will you bring me that sunscreen?  Ok, I think I have everything now.  Check in later because I may think of other things that I want and/or need.  

Yup.  That’s the plan.

-xok 

Last night we had a lovely party to celebrate the 9th anniversary of the birth of our best gal, Zoe Mabel. Her birthday isn’t actually until next week but this was the last chance to get all of her homies together before she leaves for Cape Cod for the summer. She is such a good kid, I have to *squink squink* my eyeballs in amazement sometimes.

 they all look like teenagers now.  go easy on me, please.

The night before, USA returned from 2 weeks on the road with Rob Dickinson.  For the first week that he was away I held down the fort like a champ but after several Celtics games and pool parties where everyone converged on the home of the rockers, my well oiled machine quickly began coming off the rails.  Here’s a roundup of the 2 weeks that USA was away and all the hooligans that forced me to rock out while the laundry and dishes piled up.

 bill likes to tickle. carol is supportive. stacy gets cozy in front of the tv.

jamie & joey seem nice enough but that kaylyn has always been a troublemaker.

  carol & courtney reprazent tha LMV

At one point during game 5 of the Celtics/Lakers series, my neighbor Ami (a lakers fan) snuck away from the game action in the living room briefly enough to a) not be missed and b) do this to my son.

 this is so wrong. put a yankees cap on him while you’re at it.

Not for nothing, but Carol took this picture and several others.  Thanks a lot, MILFA, I see how it is now.  When I found the pictures on my camera I jumped up and down, threw a fit and proclaimed righteous indignation to all those involved (including ami’s wife and kid) but between me and you, I thought it was pretty funny.  Look at poor Henry with his Rondo shirt underneath the Kobe one, knowing that he was doing something he shouldn’t.  Also, as a lifelong Boston sports fan, I had to respect the cojones.  Don’t tell Ami that though, because he and Jackie owe us dinner because the stupid LAKERS LOST.  HAHA!!!  The more guilt I pour on, the more impressive the dinner will be, is how I figure it.

Other things that have happened over the last few weeks:

The members of one of the bands I’m in went down to Nashville for a week to shoot scenes for a movie.  I think I signed some sort of confidentiality agreement, so I can’t reveal what the movie was or any details, but I think it’s fair to post some pix.  

 me standing in for the star

  stacy and schmidley with some girl.

 One of my closest girlfriends, Melissa Eltringham, moved to Nashville last year.  I cannot express how happy I was to see her and catch up.  When she showed up at my hotel to pick me up for dinner, Hillary Clinton was on CNN giving what we thought was going to be a concession speech (’twas not to be).  We spent the first 15 minutes of our long awaited reunion glued to the TV watching an historic moment in American politics.  How fitting.  It’s a gift to have women like her in my life.  

  love ya, melisse. whoreanous mani/pedi and all…

Henry graduated from pre-school so naturally he and his friends wanted to celebrate at McDonald’s.  He and the guys are all big kindergarteners now.  Gah!  How did that happen?

hank, ryan, aidan & caleb moving up in style.

 On deck:  a whole lot of nothing, I hope.  And then I have to learn the new Miley record for our dates this month.  More to come….

xok 

Conroy called me this afternoon.  Like most of my non - face to face interaction with close personal friends, Conroy and I keep our daily chit chat as efficient as possible. We text (i.e. omg!!! andre 3000 at studio city trader joes! wearing suspenders and a straw hat!!!!!).  If I get a call from him during the day, which I hardly ever do, it usually has to do with CNN alerts (that go straight to his phone because he is a dork and i mean that as a compliment), usually of a wonky, political nature.  American politics is pretty much my favorite topic of conversation no matter how arcane, so I always pick up.  When I answered the phone today I was expecting an outraged kerfuffle about the dissenting opinions on the Supreme Court decision regarding Gitmo.  Or something like that.  Right now, I wish that I had been right.

conroy:  ”i just got a cnn alert.  i think tim russert is dead.  he collapsed at nbc’s washington bureau” 

me: “what???!!!”

conroy: “…………”

me: “…………”

Frankly,  I was surprised by how hard it was for me to hear this news.  The first thing I thought about was Mr. Russert’s sign off on Meet The Press last weekend when he gave a proud shout out to his son Luke to congratulate the boy on his graduation from Boston College.  In true Russert style, the moment was brief, to the point and with no self aggrandizement.   I then began to think about the amazing interviews that he was on the receiving end of as he promoted the book that he wrote about his dad, Big Russ, who has now outlived him.  I have no idea where the feeling came from, but I started crying.

What a terrible loss.  On so many levels.  Tim Russert was one of the best that American journalism had to offer.  His interviews with political figures could always be counted on for unparalleled substance and depth.  His unabashed adoration and respect for his family gave him a humanity that engendered trust from his audience and admiration from his peers.  Like most grown ups, he approached our rapidly changing society and world with common sense so rarely reflected in today’s political coverage.  His journalistic ethos transcended the mindless chest thumping that has turned most political debate into shrill, partisan ghettos.  

My only hope is that the loss of Tim Russert will be instructive.  I hope that American journalists will take this opportunity to look at how they have failed us in recent history.  It is now time to reinvigorate the standards that our journalists were once known for and to uphold the uncompromising character that seemed so effortless in the hands of a guy who passionately loved to find truth in an arena that hates to reveal it.

-xok 

Is it possible for one to more absolutely prove their relentless self absorption than by having one of these??  I say this because I do have one and I feel very up my own ass as a result.

 

Twitter.  As a noun it seems cute as in “I just joined Twitter”.  But when you use it as a verb as in “I am twittering more often than Mike Schmid these days” it sounds kind of dirty.  Maybe that won’t be such a problem as I have just discovered that the correct usage of Twitter as a verb is “Tweeting”.   If you go back to your original Latin text of Virgil’s “Aeneid”, I believe you will find that tweeting is derived from the first person singular of the indicative active present.  Oh, first conjugation, of course - LOL!  But I didn’t need to tell YOU that… 

Want to see my Twitter?  Shit, I just disproved my initial point.  Oh, well.

- xok

Fan_3 just sent me this video that she made. Homegirl has BALLS. I love this.

I’m just about finished packing for my flight to NY tomorrow where I will be joining the Miley Cyrus Experience for the Z100 show followed by a private event for Net Jets. To answer your obvious follow up question, no, I am not flying on a Net Jet. I have a cozy little compartment in the baggage hold of an early morning FedEx flight. This works out fine because I have a couple of Xanax, a flask of Southern Comfort and Hello Kitty sleeping bag. I’ve been told that these planes only fly at 32,000 ft so I will most likely have enough oxygen to survive the trip but even if I don’t, I will be none the wiser.

The past week was pretty eventful. Saturday, Miley played at Wango Tango, the radio fest for KIIS out here in LA. I got to see the Jonas Brothers and their band, whom I adore, as you may know. We played some new songs and we also got new wardrobe. It doesn’t take much to make me happy. Candy-o and I went to the celebrity gifting suite, which is a thing that I’ve heard about, but have never gotten to partake in. In a nutshell, a bunch of retailers set up booths in a location where celebrities may or may not be and they GIVE their stuff to them in the hopes that their stuff will show up in US Weekly. Please kill me for knowing this.

free stuff? for us? no we couldn’t!

i like the jobros. they’re nice.

After the show we booked it to our van as fast as we could and blazed back to LA for Justine’s birthday party. We arrived with plenty of time to spare.

the best sister-in-law EVER

i suffered a booty shaking injury because of conroy’s dj skillz

Sunday was

Mothers Day. I had a leisurely morning with the people whom I gave birth to and the father of those people. It was lovely. USA Mike knows how much I miss the the WRKO broadcast of the Red Sox games so for that reason (among others) he got me XM radio for my car and the house. Yay.

Then Z and I went over the hill to check out the video shoot where Miley & Mandy were doing their thing. Apparently they’ve got some kind of dance feud going with the ACDC Crew so they decided to lay the smack down with a huge production. Ah, the world would be a much better place if we could all just lay down our weapons and settle our conflicts through dance battles.

 

b-girlz!!!!

 

 

 

Time for sleepy. Be back soon with reports from the weekend..

 

xok

 

 

I grew up in Boston during the 70’s & 80’s.  Anyone who knows anything about this period in America’s history and still thinks that modern blacks in America simply have to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and stop whining is just not being honest. 

  It is with this in mind that I offer my my happy astonishment that Barack Obama has accomplished so much as he runs for President.

all bootstraps, no whining.  gorgeous.

 No matter what happens after this, our world has changed forever.  Thank you, fellow voters.

Kay 

I got my album artwork back from Aaron Belyea at Alphabet Arm Design today.  I’ve been friends with him since our slacker-kid days in the Boston music scene, but he has since become a formidable presence in the world of graphic design.  In 1997, our band convinced Irving Azoff to let Aaron,  a fledgling graphic artist/indie rocker design the final Letters To Cleo album, “Go!” and I have not used or recommended anyone but him for this kind of work since.  Even though he’s a fancy-pants award winner now, he still takes my calls and churns out the brilliance super fast for my procrastinator ass.  He understands me.

 My new album Weaponize will be dropping on yo ass May 27, 2008.   Pre-sale of CD & vinyl coming soon.  

xok 

USA Mike has been in the studio producing an album for the lovely Lauren for the past week and a half so I have cut back my work schedule to take on some serious mommy duty.  Honestly, I don’t know how stay-at-home moms do this job 7 days a week.  It’s really exhausting.  The nice part, aside from spending rare daytime hours with the kiddos, is that I’ve been doing a lot of cooking and entertaining at home.                 

Jack had a few weeks off from the Jonas Brothers tour so he and Ashlee, one of my favorite ladies from the Miley tour, came over last Friday for dinner.  It was great to catch up with them and get all of the latest news of their lives.  Ash is putting in some major time with her drum lessons and Jack is about to embark on a hugely ambitious year with the JoBros.  Henry and Z are always over the moon to hang out with cool people that they met on tour.

jack, ashlee & z 

ash & z with the lushis-mobile                 

 Over the weekend, we had our somewhat regular Sunday pool party bbq.  During the summer months (when we aren’t in boston) we try to get as many people as possible over to our house on the weekends to swim, eat and drink.  The last variable of that equation usually has me feeling like shit on Monday morning, but it’s always worth it.

luke, kate & henry 

luke & isabel 

 omg, it’s milo & jackson!!!

Last week, I went to the 40th birthday party of one of my best girlfriends, Kaylyn Thornal.   At some point during our 15 year friendship, I became a soccer mom and she became a hot lesbian director.  It’s as if that song “Ebony & Ivory” was written just for us, but instead of a song about blacks and whites, it’s breeders and dykes.  I’m not sure who’s Stevie Wonder and who’s Paul McCartney in this relationship but I love her a lot and she, me.

mish, kaylyn, fan & kristen 

me & my besties.

Michael & I just bought a painting  by the artist Tim Bavington.  As always, the brilliant Naomi was the person who introduced this beautiful piece of art into our lives but I have to be honest:  I am terrified now that I have this thing in my house.   If Henry throws one of his Indiana Jones daggers in the wrong direction, we will be screwed to the tune of a new car and then I will be forced to administer a near fatal beating to my own flesh and blood.  Trust me when I say that I can think of a dozen similar scenarios between my children and this painting that might reasonably result in me resorting to some kind of violence, and that’s kind of scary.  Hey, beauty is truth. Sometimes brutally so.  Check out our awesome new painting!

naomi & the bavington   

 For those of you who have asked for my opinion on the Miley Cyrus maelstrom, here is my answer.  

 i don’t care. nor should you.

Solidarity,

Kay