20 Years: All That’s Changed is Everything and Nothing August 15, 2009

I’ve just returned from 10 glorious days in Kodiak, Alaska for my 20 year high school reunion.  I captured 8 hours of video, wrote 3 new songs, and took scores of photos.  Best of all, I reconnected with classmates and THE WILD.  I can still smell the smoke from the driftwood fires, the fish rotting in the creeks, the salt air cleaning me inside and out.  Here are the lyrics to a song that I penned with my pal, Jennifer Beardsley.  I performed it at our 20 year reunion party at El Chicano’s.  It was written for our classmates, to the tune of a certain Guns ‘n Roses song that we all loved.  89 is FINE!!!!

 

Julia and Jennifer on the float plane from Larsen Bay to Kodiak, AK. 8/5/09

EVERYTHING AND NOTHING
Lyrics by Julia Francis and Jennifer Beardsley
Copyright 2009 No Shrinking Violet

 

Shed a tear, I was missin’ you, my class of ’89
It took all my airline miles to get here
Some lost weight and some lost hair, but there’s one thing that we all share
20 years roll back with a shot and a beer

 

Where were you when you lost it?
Where were you when you tossed it?
All that’s changed is everything and nothing.

 

Too young for the bar, so we drank Luckies in our car
Cruising the road to Chiniak
She puked on your pants, before the teen center dance
Got the evil eye from Mr. Kubiak

 

Where were you when you lost it?
Where were you when you tossed it?
All that’s changed is everything and nothing. 

 

He touched me out of bounds, late one night at the Rodeo Grounds
Straight up now tell me are you really gonna love me forever
He said let’s just be friends, thank God there was no Facebook then
I was a sucker for any guy in leather

 

Enough Bartles and Jaymes’ and you won’t care what their names is
Coastie says ‘Hey baby, you got a nice rack’
You got spew on your shoe, at the VFW
Tomorrow morning your boat leaves for Afognak

 

Everything and nothing….changes…
Everything and nothing….changes…

 

Scorps had a really cool truck, but did he ever get a single fuck
Larry Ledoux tellin me what do to, and I’m breaking own my own curfew
I just want to fit in, I’m waiting for my life to begin
Everybody’s cooler than me, I’m as morose as Morrisey
I want you to see me, I want you to know me
I want you to hold me, just hold me, please hold me…

 

As I look around the room, I see the story’s the same
We did what we had to do to make it
New friends may come and go, but only you and I know
Our special strength and how this island shaped it

 

Where were you when you lost it?
Where were you when you tossed it?
All that’s changed is everything and nothing.

So much fun, so little time May 25, 2009

Victor and Mike

 

This picture pretty easily sums up my feelings about playing NYC last week.  I was fortunate enough to have my Milwaukee-based Lucky Penny producers, Victor DeLorenzo and Mike Hoffmann, join me onstage, (along with John Montalbano) and it’s safe to say we had a blast.  My iPhone captured this happy little moment on May 19, 2009, after our rehearsal at Smash Studios in Midtown – we were cabbing it back to have drinks with the lovely Karen Keene at the Hotel Giraffe.  I am so grateful for these guys in my creative life – they inspire me, encourage my voice, helped me realize my latest album, and then were good enough to come and play the songs live with me.  I love their spirit of fun and exploration, and their willingness to jump in on harmonies.  Just so much fun, and it was over way too fast.  I look forward to the next time we’ll get to play together.  Our shared creative time is a big ol’ gift to me, and I can’t thank them enough.   If I may say so.  And I do.

I Heart Christiania May 11, 2009

I’ve been to Copenhagen twice, and inevitably left some of my heart in Christiania, the section of the city that was established in 1971 (year of my birth).   My friend Robert Lawson is currently filming a documentary about this very special and controversial place that is filled with colorful, authentic people.

http://vimeo.com/4531216

Christiania, also known as Freetown Christiania (Danish: Fristaden Christiania) is self-proclaimed autonomous neighbourhood of about 850 residents, covering 34 hectares (85 acres) in the borough of Christianshavn in the Danish capital Copenhagen. From an official point of view, Christiania is rather regarded a large commune, but its relation to the authorities has a unique status in being regulated by a special law, the Christiania Law of 1989 which transfers parts of the supervision of the area from the municipality of Copenhagen to the state. Christiania has been a source of controversy since its creation in a squatted military area in 1971.

I took this photo during my last visit in 2004. 

Thank you, Grandma. March 17, 2008

When I was 21, my Grandmother took me with her on a trip to Ireland.  She had always wanted to visit the land of our ancestors.   I was fresh out of college and could think of many more exciting, exotic places I wanted to visit, but of course I wasn’t going to pass up a free trip.  Now, years since she passed, I appreciate our trip more and more all the time, and I can’t wait to go back.

Moments I will never forget:

1. Getting behind the wheel of our rental car (the steering wheel on the ‘wrong’ side), familiarizing myself with using the stickshift with my left hand, pulling out into Dublin traffic, turning on the radio, and having U2 serenade my first Irish drive.  I was pretty damn good behind the wheel, I must say.

2. Getting hit on by men over the age of 70.  In most of the bars we visited. 

3. Ordering fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, and biting into a fried piece with fish skin still intact.

4. The Rock of Cashel.

5. Getting ridiculously turned on, listening to locals speak Gaelic.

6. Visiting the Aran Islands – peering over a 300 foot cliff with no guard rail.

7. Guinness, Guinness, Guinness.

8. Lying in the hotel bed next to my Grandmother, watching her sleep, and knowing that one day I too will be that old.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Frances. 

And to you too.