Friday, December 31, 2004

Tsunami Aid

hey all,

if you want to donate to the tsunami victims, you can go here:
http://www.supportunicef.org/site/pp.asp?c=iuI1LdP0G&b=276341 https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp

love
vanessa

Tuesday, December 28, 2004

on how small the world really is

So today, as I was riding the train to work, I was reading the paper. I was reading about this horrible, amazingly awful, unbelievable disaster in the Indian Ocean, and then it hit me. Friends of mine (the family I was a nanny for this summer in Italy) were vacationing in Thailand. They had left Sunday last and were supposed to be there for 2 weeks - which means they were still there. I panicked. Being on the train, and having no way to call them, I tried to think peaceful, reassuring thoughts, but all I could think was - 50,000 dead, and many of them tourists. Many of them children.

When I got to the office (my super-boring temp job, that is), I headed for the computer, and at my first chance to take a break, I emailed some of my computer-savvy friends and asked them to help me do a web search for a list of British victims (my friends live in Italy but are of British nationality). My friend Heather responded in about 2.4 seconds with a great link, and I searched a database - and luckily came up empty-handed (how amazing, that in a time like this, there can already be a database of victims, searchable by name and nationality and a million other options).

I tried to call my friend but then I realized that, if she was okay, she was sleeping - it was 2 am in Thailand (I know because I did a search for global time zones - God bless Google). But then I received an email from my guitarist in Italy, and something occurred to me. I can't send text messages from my phone to hers, but he could - they were both on the same Italian phone network. So I asked him to text message her and tell her that he was a friend of mine and I had asked him to find out if she was okay.

Less than 5 minutes later, she had already responded (I probably woke her with my call) and he had emailed me back to tell me she was fine, the kids were fine, everyone was fine. Now just think about this. In the span of 10 minutes, I received an email from Italy and responded; My Italian friend text-messaged my British friend who lives in Italy but was vacationing in Thailand. She was living through the worst disaster known to recent mankind, yet she was able to text message him back instantly, tell him she was fine, and wish me a Happy New Year and send me baci (kisses) all at the same time, using him as her medium, while I was sitting at a desk in Dallas, Texas, doing some unbelievably boring data entry, all the while panicking quietly. Now I ask you - is it a small world after all, or what?

happy new year to you all, and keep those hundreds of thousands in your prayers.
love
vanessa

Thursday, December 23, 2004


these are a series of christmas cards i made this year...here is my tribute to "o tannenbaum." :) Posted by Hello


stockings all hung by the chimney with care.... Posted by Hello


may your holidays be merry and bright! Posted by Hello

timmy the timex (among other things)

ciao dear ones,
I have a lot of things to say, but I just wanted to share something with you guys first. This is an email I sent to my family and friends that I found the other day while cleaning out my account; it's about 2 years old, but still relevant (also because I have lost my watch again).

buongiorno ragazzi,
as many of you know, i have spent the last 26 days (give or take) searching for my Timex (Timmy), high and low. I have spent many hours mentally retracing the steps that led right up to the disappearance of my beloved timepiece. jenna and i have torn apart the house. i looked in the freezer and in all the trash cans. twice. even after we had already taken the trash out. i moved billy, the bookcase, to have a look behind him (which wasn't easy - he is 7 feet tall and full of books). i spazzed. repeatedly. the situation had become dire. clearly, like socks in a dryer, my Timex had vanished, inexplicably, perhaps gone off in search of slimmer wrists.

i woke up late this morning. in other news, my Timex reported for duty this morning as well. in my sock drawer. the Velcro on the wristband was clinging to a little worn sock in the back of a drawer that I had in fact already looked through at least twice. Clearly he had grown tired of upper-half-of-body life and had decided to see how the lower half lived. Realizing that the lower half generally was stuck in a drawer, he came clean and made his presence known.

this is only to say that we all need a vacation every now and then - even timepieces. Time is a human invention, and sometimes it hides from us in sock drawers (which seems to say that you should sleep late more often, and linger longer over your coffee, and generally move about slower than normally we all do).

best of luck in losing your watch, and finding it again.
love,
vanessa

at a time of year when we all run around like crazy people, i thought it fitting to remember a time when i was watchless, and none the worse for it. :)

in other email-related babble, this is an excerpt from an email i got from a songwriter friend of mine the other day. i think he said it (it being the things all songwriters think) really well. Mark Zeus said (emphasis is my own):

"Doing what I do, it's often hard to find the separations between the art, the business, and personal concerns. We write and perform our songs with integrity, wisdom and grace; then often sell what we do with hype and in competition. We become so consumed by and entangled within our endeavors that we don't take the time to see and feel our lives as they are. It's important to put things into perspective. Find center through positive thinking and a connection to our spirituality and God. Recognize, acknowledge and communicate with the people who are important to us. Realize that what we do is not who we are. We are what we feel, and are shaped by the people who care about and nurture us. No one stands alone."

Anyhow, those are your deep thoughts for the day. Lose your watch and realize that everyone will love you anyway, if you let yourself be loved.
Merry Christmas and may all of you have a 2005 filled with peace and prosperity (did I mention PEACE?? PLEASE?)
love
vanessa

Tuesday, December 14, 2004


me and my cute little sister, co-star of today's adventures in suburbia. check out her cool shirt. Posted by Hello

adventures in suburbia

good morning all,

so it's cold here in texas. cold to us, at any rate. when i woke up to take my little sister to school this morning, it was 28 degrees outside (2 degrees Celsius, for you European readers). that's cold to me.

so normally, i roll out of bed, brush my teeth, and drive my lil' sis to school in my pajamas. then i come home and get ready. today was the same. kitten-eyed and barely functioning, i went outside to start the car. it wouldn't start. the battery came to life, but the engine wouldn't turn over, and then i saw the flashing-gas-tank-of-doom symbol on the instrument panel. blast.

now i know full good and well that i was not out of gas. low, yes. but out, no. but for some reason - maybe the cold? i'm only guessing here - the gas that remained wasn't getting to the engine. houston was supposed to be at school in 20 minutes. no gas can that i could see in the garage. so we decided to run across the street to buy a gas can. luckily we live very close to a chevron.

so we went outside again, and houston decided we should ride her bike - together. seemed faster. so i climbed on the back and she stood on the pedals in front of me and began pumping us to chevron. oh, yes. this actually happened. it was like some sort of bizarre e.t. in mckinney experience. imagine you are having your morning coffee and you look out your bay window to see a small-for-her-age 14 year old, dressed and clean and ready for school, riding a bike with a not-yet-awake 24 year old, still in pajamas, hair unbrushed, clinging to her back and laughing maniacally. the older girl's feet are sticking straight out the air (no pegs on the back wheel) and her pajama pants are blowing about in the frigid morning air. both of the girls have tears running down their faces because the wind is so fierce and sharp. they aren't actually moving that fast - probably it would have been just as fast to run - but the sun is shining, they are laughing, and by golly, looks like fun to you, sitting inside there, all warm in your robe, drinking your coffee and waking up slowly. lucky you.

thank god chevron is only a few blocks away. however, they are out of small gas cans. of course. luckily, the owner was kind enough to let us borrow his personal gas can. we tried to fill it but the nozzle was too large for the tube and we mostly got gas all over the pavement. once we had a 1/2 gallon in there, we headed across the street again - houston on the bike, and me running alongside her in my pajamas, wearing loafers (the closest shoes to the door when we ran out), holding a gas can that was trailing a small trickle of gas, due to the fact that we got more on the sides and the pavement than we actually got in the can.

driveway. vanessa and houston are unable to get the gas cap off the car because our hands are frozen and no longer function. mine are also covered in gas. finally, we wrench it loose and slosh our measly 1/2 gallon in the car. hands are washed, backpacks and homework are grabbed off the kitchen table, and we are off, my little car sputtering angrily to life as we shuttle back to the chevron to drop off the gas can and fill up the car - which, by the way, couldn't have been empty, since i only put in 10 gallons, and i have a 13 gallon tank. chi sa?

so that has been my morning. i'm sitting here, impatient for my album to arrive from italy. it should have come yesterday (the guys paid $45 to send it global express, for all the good that did). if it doesn't come today i'm calling my mafia contacts. oh yes. our smoke alarm in the house must have some sort of short, and taking out the battery hasn't worked. every 10-15 minutes it shrieks for about 5 seconds then goes off again. this has been happening since 7 am. maybe it's still monday.....

off to say a prayer for the postal service. lots of love and remember to be kind to your local gas station owner, so that you may borrow gas cans in times of need.
vanessa

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

dust bunnies and a plea to the stars for alignment

hello lovely readers,
i am sitting at the desk of someone who is at home with the flu. egads. let me start over.
i am home for the holidays (Dallas home), working on getting everything ready for the new album, the January tour, and the move back to Italy in February. In the midst of that, I am temping from time to time. Today I find myself at Deustche Bank in downtown Dallas, sitting at the keyboard of the receptionist who went home today with the flu. When I showed up they handed me disinfectant wipies to clean off my workspace. Scary. I just noticed there are little cobwebs of dust in between every key on this keyboard. Probably the flu is there, weaving its little influenza self in and out of every dust mite. I have 2 shows this week; I hope I survive.

My job is this:
"Deutsche Bank Alex Brown." "Yes, please hold."
That's it. That's all I have to do. That's why I am writing you.

The new album is stressing me out (how could it be otherwise?). I sincerely hope and pray that it is ready in time for the first show. If not, so be it - but it sure would be nice. I am very tempted to upload some of the graphics to the blog to give you a sneak peak...but I am trying to cling to the element of surprise. We'll see how long I can hold off...I've never been good at keeping surprises....and there are so many to keep...the album design, the t-shirt design, stickers, buttons, lions, oh my. You can still pre-order if you'd like - just head to the site and click away. All methods of payment accepted.

If you know anyone who works in press or media and think they would like to write a story about a little girl from Texas bringing her kickass band across the ocean to play shows with her to celebrate their CD release...then let me know. Or let them know about me. We're really trying to drum up good crowds and lots of press for this tour.

Let's see, what else. I just finished reading "Wicked" not too long ago. It's basically the story of the Wicked Witch of the West, told from her point of view. It's a really interesting novel about political spin, spirituality, and the walls we put up around ourselves. Good times.

Other than stressing about the CD, it's been good to be home and in one place for a while. I've been hanging out with one of my little sisters, who is, fortunately, the coolest 14-year-old I know. We made friendship bracelets the other day. We also took the dogs for a walk. We have two German Shephard/Australian Blue Heeler mixes, brother and sister and completely out of control. Sweet and way too full of energy. They dragged us through suburbia for about 20 minutes, crazed and on the hunt for who knows what. After one crushed Christmas lawn decoration and one near-attacking of a Chihuahua we decided it was probably time to head on home. That was the high point of my week - that, and doing most of my Christmas shopping online and earning 1,500 airline miles in the process. I'm well on my way to my second free ticket to Italy...yeehaw.

So. I had better go in case someone needs me to say "Deutsche Bank Alex Brown" anytime soon. Yeah, okay. If you are the kind who writes wishes or prayers on little scraps of paper and seals them in a bottle...will you put one in for Thin Thread's timely arrival? Thank you kindly.
baci,
vanessa