Barbie. What gives?

I'll admit it.  I don't get Barbie.

It may be a case of simply not being exposed.  I didn't grow up with Barbie--barbies. (Are you allowed to make her plural?)  I had an older brother. I have memories of cars and sand boxes and silly putty stuck in my hair. The closest I came to a Barbie doll was a Cabbage Patch Kid, which is to say I wasn't even close.

Don't cry for me.

Barbie dolls really gross me out.  Their makeup, their boobs, their absurdly long legs and creepy waistlines.  The fact that Ken is her boyfriend and how he has abs. Oh, Ken.  Ken, I am judging you and your tighty whities. Hard.

Recently some good friends of mine celebrated second birthdays for their daughters.  I heard it was a Barbie fest.  Today, my Dad who flips houses and sometimes scores free stuff the people who move out of said houses leave behind, brought home a butt load of kid DVDs - most of them Barbie.  I didn't even know there was a Barbie cartoon.  Of course, it makes sense.

So tonight I'm brushing my teeth before bed and I'm wondering - what exactly is the appeal here?  No seroiusly, what is it?

My 21 month old likes to play with babies - rock, pat, feed her babies.  She likes building with blocks.  She likes playing her piano.  Puzzles, collecting rocks, playing pretend, this kind of thing. Barbies.  Hm. Dressing and undressing?  Yeah, I'm stumped.

I'm back! (Again.)

Hi!  Your favorite, flakey Wind Up Dolly is back.  Could be the five hours of sleep I got last night--"Fall back" means nothing when you have a toddler, and especially one who decides to wake up an additonal hour earlier than normal for some, godforsaken reason--that has got me blogging? I haven't been up this early since I was working the 4am shift at Starbucks in Renton, WA.  (By the way, that meant I had to get up at 3:30am. TIP YOUR BARISTA!)

Yes, it could be the lack of sleep causing this strange urge to blog.

Or it could be the random 50 hits I got yesterday.  I logged into blogger today after hanging out with a new buddy last night and touching on the subject of blogs and realizing I hadn't logged into Blogger in, um, a shameless amount of time.  So shout out to my random readers!  What up - holla.

Regardless, I've missed the old school bloggin' scene. Tumblr isn't the same, though I do love it.  And God knows I've been storing up the content in my brain and over on Flickr for some good Blogger blogs.  And--oh yeah--the new blog is a no-go. I had all these hopes and dreams for it, but it was dependent upon others and unfortunately I just don't have the time to be wrangling (read: harassing) people to answer my questions, no matter how much my curiosity is killing me.

All Things Shine is a blog for another lifetime. Perhaps.

Anyway, I have my hands in enough pots for now.  Two jobs--four if you count my freelance writing and my record label.  Five if you count the Etsy store I am dreaming up and am :this: close to opening.  The number of pots is actually reaching epic proportions these days. A boiling point, if you'd like to stay in keeping with this analogy.  And in a good way.  I'm an idea monkey that cannot be stopped.  And I'm excited to share more about what I and my creative buddies are up to here. I hope you'll read along.

For now, hear this. And have a happy Sunday!

Jocelina.

Shows, shows and more shows.  That was my weekend.  If there is one thing this girl likes to do, it's hear live music.  Needless to say I was a happy camper.  And live music from The Violet Burning really never hurts.  At all.  I posted some pics to my tumblr--crappy iPhone ones.  If you're interested, head on over.

But more than music, what makes me happy is spending time with old friends.  Especially old friends who you don't see very often.  Is there anything better?

My friend, Daryl, who plays with The Violets gave me my what is perhaps my favorite nickname, 'Jocelina'.  When he and I worked at Starbucks together down in San Diego, he and another co-worker would sing my name when I came in. It would be 4 in the morning and I would be feeling like I just got run over by an absurdly large tractor, but it was my own personal theme song. Seriously it was better than Cheers.

It was the best.

The Violets have all adopted this nickname for me.  Heck, even my family now calls me it from time to time which I love because it reminds me of Daryl, of Michael.

Nicknames are gifts for sure--like friends, like music. Sometimes I think I'm pretty fortunate to have found and been given things that make me so darn happy.  I don't know if everyone is as lucky as I am. Make way for the thankful train.  That thing is seriously steaming through.

Oh and by the way, do you like the new look?

A lil' update.

I have not posted here in what seems like forever.  And, I am thinking of revamping this whole blog.  Even though I already have another blog here and just created this blog yesterday. I have a seemingly unquenchable thirst for starting new blogs. Or maybe I just get bored with things and need a change, a challenge.

I do get bored fast though.

Kinda like how I got bored with Spring this year. I swear Spring lasted forever.  It just kept going and going.  Not that I am complaining at all.  I just like the heat.  I say that now that we've had about a week of summer heat, but I will be eating my words the first week of July when we are going to Morgan City, Louisiana and Destin, Fl for a little vaca.  I'm pumped, but I am going to melt. I pretty much am never behind nudity, but in 100 degree heat plus humidity, I am thinking that no clothes sounds pretty good.  Either that or just staying inside if you can help it.  God bless A/C.

But I am excited to see my southern family. We don't get to see them enough.

And I'm excited for this coming weekend.  A band I lend my industry "skills" to from time to time, but moreover a band that is full of friends of mine, The Violet Burning, is coming to town.  I haven't seen them play in years, and they will play here Friday, Saturday AND Sunday.  I think it's safe to say I will have my fill!  Love me some TVB. Come hang out with me and hear them play!

And in other exciting news, I had my first ever story for the Los Altos Town Crier run as the cover story this week!  I gotta say, I really get off on seeing my name in print.  Is that bad?  The story is also online here  if you are interested.

Well, that's just a little update. Back to revamping this blog.  I will relaunch soon and get you all caught up on everything sooner or later. In the meanwhile, be sure to check out my other blog!

Hugs!

Weekend with Moses.

Alright so listen.  I am a little behind on a lot of things in my life.  This is in no way limited to blogging. Trust me, guys.  There are other, way more important things, getting the short end of the Jocelynstick right now, too.

So let's back this truck up to last weekend.

Last weekend I got to meet my newest nephew, Moses.  Lil' Mo is so cute and such a good baby.  He sleeps a lot.  He eats a lot. Apparently he goes potty a lot, though no one would know it because his Dad is always whisking him away to change him as soon as that diaper goes south.  Oh and one more thing, he has a lot of hair.  It's really quite amazing.

We had tons of fun holding him and telling him how cute he is. And we like his parents quite a bit, too, and had a lot of fun hanging with them.  We had some amaziballs sushi, quiche, and a lot of other delicious things.  And while we let the new fam sleep in Saturday morning, Erik and I escaped to Sweet Jill's for a freaking cinnamon roll!  My goodness, if you are ever in the Long Beach/Seal Beach area, you must have one.  I was full for days.  Total smart way to spend your money if you are basing it on caloric intake vs. dollars spent. I think my c.roll was $3 and the calorie count was surely in the thousands.

Without further adieu, here are some fave photos from the weekend.  Can't wait to see our Mosie again in April!

Mosie sammie.

Sleeping cutie. (Get it? Instead of "beauty"?)

Those freakin c. rolls.

"Are you my mommy?" (Hell no.)

New parents rollin' like veterans.

Family photo! 

I have a rock n roll heart.

Last night I covered a gig at the San Mateo Center for Performing Arts.  A symphony.

I had never been to the symphony, but I had expectations.  I expected the music to be beautiful and stimulating, the atmosphere to be rich and inviting, and the people to be well dressed.  Or at least, dressed up.

I was sort of disappointed.

I was dressed to the nines. I may or may not have been wearing a fur coat.  I was definitely wearing heels--something I don't do very often.  I was ready for something special.

Too bad I was the only one.

People were in jeans.  I even saw a pair of cowboy boots.  The refreshment bar resembled a bake sale. There were no assigned seats, and when I asked someone where to sit, she said to go inside and someone would help me.  Mind you, I was late because I had to park a half mile away, (because it was raining), but so were a lot of other people.  When I went inside, there was nobody there to direct me.  Luckily I spotted a seat, and I b-lined for it like hooker scoring a free a-bomb.

I was awkward for sure.

I sat down and I didn't take off my coat.  I think subconsciously I thought I wouldn't be staying long. But the first number was great.  The music was lively at times, dancing around the room, and quiet at others, drawing you into it and into yourself.  I was engaged.

Ironically, it made me sad.

I haven't mentioned the San Mateo Center for the Performing Arts because there is nothing to mention.  The space was about as exciting as a convalescent home. And it just seemed wrong.  The music was deserving of more.  More than the lifeless walls, the bake sale, the jeans, the half-hearted ovation that came at the end.

What was going on here?

This morning I happened upon an article written by a dude from MIT talking about the state of music vs. the music industry.  The gist of it was that music is doing fine--people are, in fact, listening to more music than ever.  But the music industry is on the decline because, although people are listening, they are not buying.  This, thanks to sites like Pandora, Rdio, Youtube.

It got me thinking about the value we place on art, or the lack thereof.

I'm happy that people had to pay $32 for last night's symphonic performance. I suspect it was worth every penny (and probably more) to those who truly love classical music.  But everything else about that night smacked of worthlessness.  An unworthy venue, an unworthy audience, etc.  They didn't even have anyone handing out programs, for God's sake.

We just don't appreciate art like we should.  I've known this for a long time, but the sting never seems to lessen.  What makes me most sad is that there's nothing I can do to change it.  I can tell people about art I love, music I love. I can go to events and purchase or donate whenever possible. But if I am one of just a handful of people doing this, I am shit outta luck.

I fear the internet is softly killing art and music.  Because I wonder if you can even call something art or music if it's not experienced firsthand.  Watching it on Youtube or streaming it on Rdio is just not the same thing as hearing it or seeing it live.  Not even close.

If the music industry is on decline and organizations like the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra cannot afford to pay someone to pass out programs, (actually the entire organization is volunteer-based), where does that leave us? What I am saying is that if you cannot create a proper atmosphere for these experiences, something is lost, and ultimately, the music suffers because it's just not that enjoyable.  People, like me, who only kind of like classical (sometimes) are probably not going to come back.  What I'm saying is that it's not just the industry that suffers.  The music suffers.

I wish I didn't care like I do.  I know there are better things to think about, talk about.  It just so happens that championing beauty, art, music, comes natural to me.  And I have a really big rock n roll heart.  I want to see people love and appreciate beauty like I do--like they were intended to.

Follow me.

Not on twitter. Although, you could if you wanted to.  Though I never post there and am terribly boring.

No. Follow me over the internet waves to Crabtastic.  I did a guest blog there today, and on my favorite topics--music.

crabtastic: you have a sub today

Enjoy, friendlies!