Ha Ha Ha! HAP-py Christmastime!

What's hilarious about the holidays?

1. Really sad people in joyful situations

2. The perpetual lie that that arguing with your family is, in fact, relaxing "quality time".

3. Going on a bender with George Michael and rocking the pants off of Wham! on a deserted snowcapped mountain.

Yeah, that's right. Below is a video from my super-awesome trip to the snow with Wham!. We opened presents, saw the big trees, and got crazy:

Goodbye Ian's First Show

Our first show as "Goodbye Ian" at the Echo was a blast. The house was packed to the gills, the audience warm and enthusiastic (like, they actually listened to us-- not even counting whitney's fanclub), and people totally danced to the music.

I can't wait until our 5th show, when standing cello solos are the norm and we have breakdancing dance-offs in a circle in front of the stage. that's my true goal-- that, and, like, a million dollars. but for now i'll settle for the rock.

goth-rocking legend

So, i've been in intense recording and rehearsing sessions with "Goodbye Ian", who has yet to create our new, better name. personally, i liked the concept of calling ourselves "the dirty little dingos" and having Batgirl as our mascot, but is currently tbd.

Goodbye Ian IS having our first show this thursday. www.kestrin.com will have all the info.

i've also been recording an album with DJ Adam Freeland and Twiggy (the bassist from Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson). 15-year-old black haired depressed kestrin is jumping on her bed with glee.

KP2 productions also has a new website-- well, we'll call it an "official online store" for now.

Strike

this morning i went to the wga strike rally at fox and had a life-lesson in solidarity. in a flagrant rip-off of jonathangrubb, i shall list 5 things i learned whilst striking:

1. solidarity is sweet.

before i continue and make lighthearted, jabby observations on today's rally, i formally fully support and endorse the writers' guild cause. it brings to mind a wga-written-blockbuster line my dad always quotes:

"the future is here, and as of now we are keeping score".

thanks, top gun.


2. everything is a marketing opportunity.

when (mostly) rich white men go on strike, people give out free stuff. from "necessities" like starbucks and noah's bagels, to a brightly colored and strategically parked yerba-matte van, the sponsers were laying it on thick. undoubtedly vying for primetime product placement as soon as everyone gets back to work--or just to be caught in the background of a billy baldwin interview.

3. "getting the right shot"

we wondered why 4,000 people were pacing a picket line down a closed-off street, with no car-honking opportunites. then we looked up at the flock of helicopters hovering over our heads, getting the best aerial-strike-shots of all time. they really do know what they're doing down here when it comes to production value.
take that, nightly news.


4. apparently, solidarity is also about schmoozing.

actually, everything is about schmoozing. what is 'schmoozing' anyways? when my boyfriend gets drinks or breakfast (or both) with his co-workers, it's called "work". when hollywood people do it, it's schmoozing. whatever. i'm just glad i got to ramble the streets, feel the pulse of the industry, and take pictures with...

5. hot cops.




thanks to the completely awesome reno 911 guys for showing some leg-- and ALL of the other actors who got it up for this momentous occasion. if more sag folks make it out, it will not only strengthen the cause and sag's future, but also be richtor. hey-- when your show gets shut down, don your finest and hit the streets!

New "Blue Eyes" acoustic track w/ Cary Brothers

yes, sony finally gave us an acoustic version we recorded this year of Cary's hit song "Blue Eyes", off the grammy-award winning "Garden State" soundtrack.

i recently recorded some dark, acoustic versions of catherine wheel anthems "Crank" and "Black Metallic" with their maker, rob dickinson. there is exactly one cackload of new music on my site: www.kestrin.com

where's the lightsaber?

Look closely, can you find the lightsaber in this photo?



thanks "the fray" dudes for having us play with them out in ny, at jones beach. it was my favorite 15,000 seat venue gig ever.

Taipei, Taiwan; September 12th, 2001

On the morning of September 12th, my New Zealander friend was walking to work. An old chinese man flagged him down and made the hand/arm gestures of a plane flying, followed by a massive explosion. He then pointed at my friend and laughed.

Being abroad is an extremely bizarre way to experience war--especially when you are from the United States. You are uncloistered from the American propaganda machine. There are no flags in your front yard. There is no FOX news. There is no patriotism. There is no enemy...

There is only international CNN, which ex-pats would watch as though it were a baseball game. My Australian friends would say, "Let's watch the war."

And we did.

Taipei, Taiwan; September 11, 2001

It was night time, it was my birthday, and I was about to get wasted with my friends. As I strolled the streets of downtown Taipei to my favorite bar, I passed a massive electronics store that showed the image of a plane flying into a high-rise building on every single wide-screen television in the 3 story window display. I stopped to watch and found myself standing next to a group of ex-pats.
"What's that?" I asked.
"The World Trade Center," they responded.
"Where?"
"In New York City."
I looked at them. They looked kind of schlubby. I didn't believe them.
I stared one of them directly in the eyes.
"You're a fucking liar," I said. And walked away.

30 minutes later had I met up with my friends and firmly executed operation "shit-housed". When the televisions in the bar turned on, repeating the image I saw in the electronics store window, I thought, "Holy shit. The schlubs were right!"

Being what I had already had about 5 shots of tequila, I quickly became a streetwise philosopher. I mused that those who had lost their lives in the destruction were already reincarnating as we spoke and, individually speaking, their souls were just fine... until my friend (who's birthday it wasn't, and was slightly less intoxicated) said, "Kestrin. The Families." Then I remembered Daniel. His dad worked at WTC tower 2, which I'd just watched collapse.

A war had started, and I was not there to participate in it.


after the blast 9/11/2001: somber/wasted/crosseyed-- that happens, apparently, when i drink too much:

Thoughts on Leaving Taiwan

When you live abroad, you live in limbo. For some reason, even the highest degree of acheivement as an ex-pat doesn't really count. It's not the "real world". To make it really count, you have to go home and do it for real.

I decided to leave Taipei because I knew so well how much I loved it... how easy life was there. If I did not challenge myself I would wake up a 35 year old doing EXACTLY the same thing and wonder where my life went.


After almost 2 years of hilarious bliss, I could not bear the thought of leaving Taiwan. I loved it so much, I cried when I imagined not living there. Taiwan was the first place where I woke every morning loving exactly where I was and what I was doing. I learned to speak Mandarin fluently. I was making music every day in the best studios. I was talking in psychotic childrens' voices and getting paid a LOT of money to do it. My picture was on billboards and magazines throughout southeast asia. I was on Taiwanese television. I had a wonderful, supportive, brilliant, creative family of loving friends. I had done pretty much everything I'd wanted to do. I was a tremendous success. It had gotten too easy.


Going straight back to America just sounded depressing. How do you leave a life of exotic mayhem and daily celebrated chaos for red-white-and-blue flags and streets where people actually stop when the light turns red? How do you go back to a country where a war has started, that you've never experienced?


How do you go back to the most hated nation in the world?

Armed with the knowledge that I could always return to this secret little gem of the orient to visit (or live, if necessary) I went out to see if there was any place else in the world that I loved just as much. Or better.

I decided to take the long way home. I decided to circumnavigate the globe.

(2003)

Motorcycle Story: December, 2001

Here is a story I found in my files, from the good old Taiwan days:

Motorcycle Story

I've had a motorcycle for the past few months. I fear this motorcycle, and, until last week, was petrified to drive it in Taipei traffic. Driving here is sort of like staring Death in the face and then flooring the accelerator so that you smash at top speed into Death's head. Cruising the wrong side of the road, running red lights, and racing on the sidewalk are essential daily driving activities. "We Taiwanese" consider traffic laws to be a cute little un-enforced formality.

In addition to my fear of the traffic, I also fear the bike itself. It looks like a piece of World War II machinery. It probably is. I appreciate the nice 1940's-esque contrast it provides to the seizure-inducing billboards that pepper Taipei's nighttime skyline, but I am still unable to stand the bike properly on it's kick-stand because it weighs a jillion pounds and is too awkward for me to lift. It also has poorly synchronized manual gear shifts involving a series of several pedals and handles that remind me of Young Frankenstein's castle or that pipe-organ torture/masturbation machine from Barbarella (except non-sexual). Regardless, I managed to conquer this beast of a machine (and Taipei's kamikaze traffic) in one foul swoop:

The first time I tried to drive My Scary Motorcycle, I lost my balance and collapsed in the middle of a trafficky street, pinned beneath the behemoth contraption. A liter of gasoline poured all over my legs and into my clogs (yes, I was wearing clogs and trying to operate a motorcycle, shut up.) My "gentle giant" friend, Drew, pulled the bike off of me and picked me up by the scruff of my neck. He slapped me around a bit and dusted me off, then gave me a rousing pep talk, aka, shouted at me.

"This is a MACHINE!!!!!! YOU are the one in charge of it!!!!!!!! It does not have a brain!!!!!!! People much stupider than you successfully operate them every day. Now GET ON AND DRIVE!" He propped up the massive bike and I climbed back on top of it the way small child gets onto a full-grown horse (ie: with a struggle). Then I, drenched in petrol, drove alone through 10 miles of Taipei rush hour traffic (13 lanes wide, mind you) without a hitch.


Note: about 75% of foreigners here drive motorbikes, about 0% of them have licenses- I am now one of that 0%. Driving all over the city is truly the badest-ass of all sensations.

Regarding the high percentage of license-free foreigners--a general (f-ed up) rule here is that the cops often don't bother you if you're white. They smile and wave, try to practice English with you, whilst dragging off Taiwanese offenders off to stick bamboo shoots under their fingernails.

Every once in a while, just for fun, the cops raid a nightclub, load all the patrons onto a bus, and take them to the police station. There, they give the late-night-party-people a pee-drug-test-- hundreds of people at a time. Foreigners legally do not have to pee for them (although the cops may lie and say you do at the time-- I know a guy who was forced to give them his tainted piss. He fled the country, haven't seen him since.)

Because I am a good girl and spend my weekends studying chinese, I have not experienced the aforementioned Taiwanese phenomenon. I generally focus on the more hilarious aspects of being a "foreign ambassador"

As a foreigner in Asia, people stare at me everywhere I go. Children and adults oggle alike, I usually feel like the star of a freak show. Generally the tallest person with the lightest-colored hair as far as the eye can see, my chinese friends ask to touch my hair daily, and ooh and aaah about how different the texture is. I still get a kick out of it. I will feel so ordinary when I go back home. My chinese language skills are kicking into the next gear. I've settled into a real life here, it's no longer vacation.

Chaos, corrupt cops, deadly traffic, and faux celebrity are now the status quo. Seriously, it's great. Come visit. I'll take you for a ride on my hog.

(November, 2001)

If you Were Here- AT&T Chicago

AT&T filmed us in chicago and cut this nice video together for us...

Kestrin's newest reel...

apple guy films "glass parade" in portland

an incredible gentleman from Apple recorded audio of our portland show, and was nice enough to shoot some stuff of us playing live, in the sweaty 95.5 degree heat & a packed theatre. here it is, sweaty, raw and dirty... thank you, bob hunt!

"it's after miiiiiiiidnight"

Cary & I recently recorded an acoustic set (with dr. kenakis) for sony connect. Now, recording vocals and cello with cary is a wonderful thing, but do you know what makes it even more wonderful? Recording with cary in the studio where THRILLER was made. Yes, THE thriller. also, Men At Work's "Land Down Under" and Donna Summer's "On the Radio" and "Last Dance" and a retarted amount of legendary platinum records. I encourage you to look closely at the image of me next to the shiny silver thing, and read what the silver shiny thing says.

music hall in portsmouth

no need for this one to go viral, it's just the backstage/wings of an AWESOME 192 year-old theatre we rocked the crap out of in portsmouth.

Cary Brothers and Kestrin do Canada

cary brothers tour -- northampton, VT

toronto, buffalo, cleveland, ann arbor, boston, portsmouth

so, we've been having more fun than originally intended. we played one of the oldest theatres in the country-- about 192 years old-- "the music hall", of portsmouth, MA. it's insides were like a pirate ship, complete with thick ancient ropes and sandbags. it was like being in "the ballet" where people sit silently through each piece and then applaud at the end-- as opposed to "the usual"-- rocking the crap out of a rowdy mass of drunken ragers. which is also fantastic.

and, oh, the sound-- it was incredible. the acoustics of the place were stellar-- it was an honor to play such a magnificent venue, to actually hear my own cello and voice with cary. we were both giddy. it was the best we'd sounded yet. afterwards i was asked to come out and say hi to the people crowding the lobby, waiting for autographs--from brandi-- which i'd never done before. cary, of course, gets mobbed and generally runs backstage after shows, so i felt like a nerd going out and smiling my face off, BUT, since i've been learning the music throughout the process and not felt as grounded at times as i'd like to, it was really wonderful to see that people are really into what we're doing and were really enthusiastic and supportive. it was reassuring and blushworthy, and, more than anything, simply a lot of fun.

also, i played my first house of blues show last night, which was completely awesome-- that was cleveland. in boston, at the avalon, i played for the biggest audience yet. it was a tremendous 2 story venue packed to the gills, which some network was filming.

then we went to buffalo-- i swear, the closer you get to canada, the nicer people are. buffalo was just full of the sweetest sweetheart people ever. we had the nicest hotel experience, the nicest sandwich experience, the nicest coffee shop, gas station, and lost battery charger experiences. of all time. then we headed to toronto, where we hung out with friends old and new, whilst scampering about with tornotonian roadies. i was so happy when we crossed the canadian border that i wept tears of joy. i shit you not at all-- it's been a life dream to go there. i can't imagine a better way than having sweet canadian border patrol guards ask where we were playing, being stoked, and saying "eh?". plus i got a BITCHIn dress in toronto.

i'm posting up some northeastern-y vids later this eve, but wanted to share recent experiences. i just got back from a show in ann arbor, and we started working on a new ditty. it's all fun and exciting!

k

New York, specifically, rocked my face off

there ended up two trips and 3 sold-out shows in new york city. we played the bowery ballroom, which was incredible, and the private soho house, which was also hilarious fun rocking fun. here's our new york vid:

new york and philly rocked my face off.

philly was great fun, we bonded with out tourmates, brandi carlile and her band, who are amazzzzzing. cary and i found our musical groove, and recognized that this tour is ridiculously fantastic and awesome. here's the most recent tour video from philidelphia:







new york was so legendary it's going to take at least 2 videos to cover properly. we had a recovery/survival show in northampton, MA, and i'm backstage at the venue in Touson, Maryland where we just played. we have a radio show in Baltimore tomorrow morning, and are headlining a show in NYC once more tomorrow night. a lot of intense travel, but well worth the fun.


brandi also got a fantastic review from the new york times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/arts/music/30bran.html?ref=music

cary brothers tour w/ brandi carlilie-- d.c./virginia

this tour rocks my effing world. i'm so happy right now, the people are phenomenal, their talent astounds me, and the pervasive love that eminates from all participating in the experience/experiment is baffling.

here's d.c. virginny:"

The Cary Brothers Tour Begins!!

we flew to D.C. last night, turned down an escalade as our new rental car/fortress of solitude, made friends w/ "jane", the schizo navigation system, and are now at a cush hotel in virginia. here's some video from seattle--we played 5 shows in 36 hours, all filmed by other people- here we merrily frolick:

leaving for seattle

we're headed to seattle tomorrow before the dawn breaks to play like 4 shows upon landing, then do the same on thurs. should be fun and awesome. i will miss velviola velvily starship enterprise semionne, my angel kitty. but since she IS a cat and has no prefrontal cortex, i'm sure she won't miss me. well, maybe a little.

Starring in a movie w/ Rosanna Arquette

and i can't stop crowing about it. i'll be shooting right after i get back from tour-- literally the day after. i'll be jetlagged, it's gonna be awesome. Ms. Arquette will play my mother, and Najarra Townsend, from "Me, You, and Everyone We Know" will play my younger sister. i'm completely stoked.

tour dates

LIVE SHOWS

Mar 30 & 31 / Red Lion / Vail, CO - Vail Film Festival Shows

* ALL OTHER DATES SUPPORTING BRANDI CARLILE * (tickets can be bought at www.brandicarlile.com)

Apr 24 / Birchmere / Alexandria, VA - SOLD OUT

Apr 25 / World Cafe Live / Philadelphia, PA - SOLD OUT

Apr 26 / Bowery Ballroom / New York, NY - SOLD OUT

Apr 27 / Bowery Ballroom / New York, NY - SOLD OUT

Apr 28 / Iron Horse / Northhampton, MA - SOLD OUT

Apr 30 / Recher Theater / Towson, MD - BUY TICKETS

May 2 / Higher Ground / Burlington, VT - BUY TICKETS

May 4 / Music Hall / Portsmouth, NH - BUY TICKETS

May 5 / Avalon / Boston, MA - BUY TICKETS

May 7 / Horseshoe Tavern / Toronto, ONT - BUY TICKETS

May 8 / Cambridge Room @ HOB / Cleveland, OH -SOLD OUT

May 9 / The Ark / Ann Arbor, MI - SOLD OUT

May 11 / Schuba's / Chicago, IL - SOLD OUT

May 12 / Schuba's / Chicago, IL - SOLD OUT

May 13 / Schuba's / Chicago, IL - SOLD OUT

May 15 / Music Mill / Indianapolis, IN - SOLD OUT

getting into cannes & good reviews

Great news this week. "Expired" is premiering at Cannes film festival next week (after a great run at Sundance). Hooray!

Also, i screened some clips of current project, "Marathoners" this week, and the room was all genuine hysterical laughs. It's actually going to work-- and will be so much better once it's actually edited.

in other news, i've been rehearsing with cary many days this week, and this tour is going to be a musical masterpiece and i'm so proud of the work we're doing. i'm so stoked to hit the road for a few weeks and hang out in new york and chicago and (soft) rock the *&^% out.

The tour is mostly sold out, all info can be seen at: www.brandicarlile.com

old information: sxsw

I also went to South by Southwest (Austin, TX) where i

a) played rockstar and performed with austin legend Ian Moore at austin's legendary "cactus cafe" (& the "red scoot inn").

b) hung out at the geek convention where i learned about emerging technology...

...and defended my intelligence to my geek friends, reminding them that i have a degree in science, speak mandarin (fluently)-- and german, and am well aware that knowledge of "cutting edge" technology is valuable -- duh.

they apologized for vague insinuations that i was some kind of retarted cousin (because i'm not a software engineer, web designer, or panelist & had to get the hell out of that dismal convention center). hey, i just think film parties are funner.

BUT... i AM writing a blog now, so score one for the geeks.



c) saw amazing movies- "Hannah Takes the Stairs", "Knocked Up", and hung out w/ Cary Brothers, the Hotel Cafe kids, and Brian LeBarton.

d) went to an Art Outside party, which blew all sxsw parties out of the water. i also learned the glory of breakfast tacos, most delicious food on the planet.

Going on tour w/ Cary Brothers!

Exciting news! I'm heading on tour with Cary Brothers (of the "Garden State" soundtrack) this April, in anticipation of his new album and to support Brandie Carlile. I will simultaneously sing, play cello, and rock the fuck out. and we will film while on the road. Videos will be posted right here and at cary's site www.carybrothers.com and at kestrin.com. wooT!

Welcome to the Trio Show

a new sketch improv project kestrin started with brea tisdale and ria bellafiore:



www.trioshow.blogspot.com

widget test

bunny-man

cello time

dark and twisty

about me: