FAQ's
Q: What's the deal with your display name?
A: When I was living with the my folks a few years ago and would leave every Thursday to visit Music Row, my mom would say "Bye groupie! Be careful." Later, a few girls and I were talking about trying to get on Kings of Leon's tour bus, by saying "But we're not groupies!" So the groupie moniker stuck after that, but I attend lots of concerts as a fan, writer, curious member of society, not a groupie nor a sycophant.
Q: Do you compose music or play an instrument?
A: No. I write what I call random streams of consciousness, not particularly poems or lyrics, and mostly when I need to release a thought or two. I was in the beginner stage of guitar when a wrist accident ended my strumming days. I sold my guitar because I couldn't bear looking at it and not being able to play it. I've been told that I'm a natural drummer, but the wrist just won't allow it.
Q: What is your middle name?
A: Jill.
Q: What is your favorite color?
A: Green.
Q: Who is your Top 3 of all time?
A: The top two never change, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles, while number three changes every few years, having been REM, Stroke 9, Lenny Kravitz, Nirvana, Coldplay, U2, and is currently Radiohead.
Q: Why do you care about music so much?
A: My folks, as great as they are, pretty much left raising me to my ability to entertain myself, so most of my youth was spent listening to records and singing songs alone in my room. Not having the best interpersonal skills, my artistic talents and music knowledge became my niche - the things that others came to depend on me for - my identity if you will. So while I cannot create music, I am constantly searching for the songs that say what I can't, which ignites my curiosity about the artist, their work and music history as a whole. I'm still listening and learning.
Stumble It!
Paul, Ringo, Thom, Bono and Robert.
If I get old, I will not give in, But if I do, Remind me of this, Remind me that, Once I was free, Once I was cool, Once I was me, And if I sat down, And crossed my arms, Hold me into, This song, Knock me out, Smash out my brains, If I take a chair, Start to talk shit, If I get old, Remind me of this, That night we kissed, And I really meant it, Whatever happens, If we're still speaking, Pick up the phone, Play me this song.
- "A Reminder" by Radiohead
Eargasms:
As for the locals:
To all of (not a groupie)'s readers: I am NAG (aka Jill)'s pal Danny. I have decided to create a list of movie qualities that all come together to be, what I have often jested with Jill to be a "Jill movie." These qualities are as follows:
- Several characters who's stories inter-twine, often ending in tragedy (I BET she loved 'Crash')
- A gay couple in the film, but not ALL THE TIME
- Drug and/or alcohol abuse by parents and/or characters who just should not use these things
- An appearance by Eric Stoltz, or some other actor who is good (maybe from the 80's or 90s), but not truly recognized (Eric is just a damn good example)
- Someone is "coming of age" at some point in the movie and/or they are doing negative things to prolong the "coming of age" part
- There is some sort of death, either at the beginning, or at the end, and it is key to the plot
- Everything seems to somewhat tie together at the end to create some kind of point, but they kind of let you figure you out
- Every character appears normal on the outside but is completely F'd up when you get to know them a bit... That's my Jill... And I love her movies.
Watch over and over:
Good for watching movies on ... now that I work from home, I usually wake up with The View, catch a little Oprah, then cap the night off with whatever crime or family dramas are on. If nothing else, I pop in my Dawson's Creek, Weeds or Flight of the Conchords DVDs ... or I just turn the wretched thing off.
Living and dying (fiction or non), music, pop culture, ethics, philosophy, psychology text books and case studies. In the midst of: The Craft of Lyric Writing.
Read over and over:
Eric Stoltz, Holden Caulfield, Scout Finch, Susanna Kaysen, Baby Houseman, Joey Potter, Wolverine and people who make music.
"Without music, life would be a mistake." ( Nietzsche )
"Q: What's it like having a writer's block? How does it work in practice, or doesn't work in practice?
Thom: What's it like? (long silence) It's like losing someone you love!"
"The whole point is the music flows over you. Music is basically like mathematics, you know, and basically you're trying to form patterns, patterns that make you understand what is around you and patterns that help you get through the next day. Like when I listen to the radio and stuff and when I hear a new piece of music that I know I just got to get a hold of it because I know it's going to help me get through a particular thing until the next one. It's life affirming. The whole point of music is it's life affirming."
"Music is the most important thing in my life, and I have no wish to be chickenshit."
"A lot of creative people hear voices, a lot a creative people have crazy thoughts, a lot of creative people want to jump off bridges. So fucking what?" ( Thom Yorke )
"You have to lose. You have to learn how to die if you wanna wanna be alive." ( Wilco )
"Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run there's still time to change the road you're on." ( Led Zeppelin )
"The world demands to be described, and so painters, poets, journalists, pornographers and sitcom writers, by accident or by design, are just following orders, whether from high or low, to describe the world they're in." ( Bono )
"Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw, I'm scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you." ( Baby Houseman )