The Crawford Blog

New live songs and videos are up!

Sun, 06 May 2012 20:36:45 GMT

Hey everyone,

So I've had a lot going on lately - I've gotten to play two out of town shows in the past month - one at Cafe Coco in Nashville, TN and one at the Be Heard Speakeasy in Dahlonega, GA. For now, I'm just working on writing some new songs. Hopefully, I'll be able to do some more traveling in May and June.

My open mic night at Cool Beans has a new Facebook page! I'm also no longer doing this every Friday so the next three will be 5/11, 6/1, and 6/15. Like us on Facebook to stay updated - http://facebook.com/openmicatcoolbeans

Spencer Durham was nice enough to record the set in Dahlonega, and James Hughey (see his band page AllofHerTwitch!) recorded some videos of my set in Nashville! The videos are posted below, you can hear one of the live tracks (La-De-Da) here in this blog, and the rest are up on my music page. Enjoy!

Sara Crawford

Here's me doing "Ghost Party" a poem from my new book, Driving Downtown to the Show

My Bjork cover

Me doing a solo version of "Rooftops"

I have since titled this song "Don't Walk Away"

Upcoming events! Acoustic shows, a poetry book release, the 24 hour plays...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 21:21:00 GMT

Hey everyone!

I have a few things coming up that I wanted to tell y'all about. (Yes, I just said y'all. I'm from the South!)

Saturday, March 31st - I will be playing an acoustic set at KSU for the KSU Peace Project. They are having a fun day where they will break the world record for the largest human peace sign! The event is free, and it will be an awesome day of peace, love, and music. Finster and Emmanuel Jal will also be performing. I'm playing at 1:30 so stop on by! I'm also making a ton of Atlanta musician mix CDs to give away for FREE!

Sunday, April 1st - I'll be participating in the 24-hour plays again this year with Working Title Playwrights, where we will collectively be writing and producing short plays over the course of 24 hours! I'll be co-writing something (though I won't know what until I start working on it Saturday night!) and they will be performed Sunday at 8 pm at Onstage Atlanta. Come check out this evening of craziness and support one of my favorite theatrical organizations in Atlanta!

Saturday, April 7th - The Driving Downtown to the Show book release party! This will be FREE on the roof of the Strand Theatre in Marietta, GA for Brew with a View. There will be poetry performances from me (I'll be doing poems from the book), and music performances from nerdkween, Juliana Finch, and Low UFO. Come out and support! And you will also be able to get a copy of my new book of poems, Driving Downtown to the Show!

Monday, April 16th - I'll be returning to Nashville to play an acoustic set at Cafe Coco!

Saturday, April 21st - I'll be playing a solo show at The Drunken Unicorn with Corner Kid and Sleep Dance. I'm planning on having some guest artists so you definitely don't want to miss it! I'll be playing some new songs, also!

Every Friday from 8 to 11 pm, I am now hosting an open mic night at Cool Beans in the Marietta Square. Come out and play a song, read a poem, be creative and express yourself! Or just have a cup of coffee and support the artists. :) We have some great talent!

So that's what's been going on with me lately. :)

Also stay tune for some more YouTube covers in the next few weeks!

Sara Crawford

New cover! And an old one from my solo/acoustic album.

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:12:10 GMT

I posted a new acoustic cover! I've been obsessing over Florence and the Machine lately so I thought I'd do my take on "Shake It Out." Have a listen!

Also, I have been playing my solo tunes more lately. I miss some of them! And I don't get to play them very often with Pocket the Moon. I've actually been trying to go out to more open mic nights - I'm even hosting an open mic night on Fridays now at my favorite coffee shop, Cool Beans, in Marietta. And I think I may be playing some solo gigs in the near future. We will see!

Anyway, I decided to post one of my favorite songs from my solo album - the title track, "Unsent Letters."

Driving Downtown to the Show - a new book of poems coming spring 2012

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:15:00 GMT

Driving Downtown to the Show is a book of poems that came out of a grad school poetry workshop I took in spring 2011. Our professor had us come up with a poetry writing procedure, which would consist of ?rules that we would set for ourselves which would determine our writing schedules and content. We were to decide on a title before writing any poems, and the goal was to have a cohesive collection of poems by the time the semester was over. Because I was taking this class at a time when my main creative focus was my music career, I decided to use music as an inspiration for my procedure, particularly the Atlanta music scene.

Being in a local Atlanta band myself, with a long history of performing and enjoying many local shows in Atlanta’s many wonderful and unique music venues, I was greatly inspired and I wanted to harness that energy. Our city has such a wide variety of musicians and performers, and on any given night, there are at least three or four excellent local shows to go see. I wanted to do a collection of poems that celebrated the musician and celebrated the entire metro Atlanta area.

I scheduled my writing time for after band practice, and I decided each poem must contain a band name. When I sat down to write a poem, I would look up the bands that were playing at some of my favorite Atlanta music venues, The Earl, the Drunken Unicorn, and the Star Bar, and I would incorporate one of those band names into my poem. I also would put my iPod on random, and whichever song played would determine the length of the poem based on how many lines the lyrics had or how long the song was if it was an instrumental song. (I also decided, just for fun, to slip in all of the band names of bands I’ve been in.)

I will be self-publishing this book in the spring. Stay tuned for news of a book release/reading event!

For now, enjoy one of the poems from my collection. In this poem, the band name I used was Wild Nothing. (They are not at Atlanta band, but they happened to be playing at the Drunken Unicorn the day I wrote this poem.)

Driving Mixy #1: The 'Songs That Actually Mention Driving' Mixy

That night, you got into
a shopping cart,
and I pushed you
around the Pizza
Hut where we worked –
in the rain - laughing - we were
wild. Nothing
ever stood in between
you and I and adventure.

We'd sneak out of our slumber
party bedroom windows
to hop in my white Chevy Malibu,
alternating drivers, drinking
vanilla coke,
bitching about the boys
who dumped us both at the same time
("Those fuckers!"),
listening to the Driving Mixy –
All I want to do is to thank you
even though I don't know who you are
you let me change lanes
when I was driving in my car

Accelerating without a care
through the strip malls and chain restaurants
in the town
where we once covered
the church playground in sidewalk chalk –
happy faces and song lyrics –
until the cops caught us
and told us to go home,
but we were.

New cover! Hyperballad by Bjork

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 12:21:01 GMT

Here's a new acoustic cover for you guys. "Hyperballad" by Bjork. This is one of my favorite songs, and I've been doing this acoustic cover for a while so I thought I'd put it up for you guys.

Ignore the weird focus/blurry issues I was having with my webcam!

My favorites from 2011 - part 2

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 05:55:00 GMT

So I'm continuing my end-of-year favorites! In this blog, I'm going to talk about my 5 favorite albums of the year (in no particular order) and some of the favorite shows that I saw.

My Favorite Shows in 2011

Well, I went to a lot of shows this year - more than I've gone to any other year, probably, but most of them were on a smaller scale. So it was a lot of Drunken Unicorn, Wonderroot, Eastside Lounge, The Earl, Star Bar, Masquerade kind of shows. The "biggest" shows I went to this year were M83 at The Masquerade and Beirut at the Variety Playhouse - both of which were completely amazing. (But I love both of these bands A LOT - see below - so that's really not surprising.)

Many of the local bands that I saw this year, though, put on amazing shows. A few of my favorites were the Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun CD release show where Moonlight Bride and Sealions played with them at The Earl. I originally went to the show mainly to see Moonlight Bride with a vague sense of liking Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun but not really remembering what they sounded like. The entire bill was spot on that night, and I truly loved everyone's performances. And I left there with a great new record from Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun. All in all, it was a win. I then caught Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun again last week at The Earl where they played their whole album Wildfire, start to finish, at the Atlanta Music Roundtable show. Amazing set.

I made it out to quite a few Verge of Bliss shows this year. Not only are these guys great people, but they are seriously everything that a rock band should be. They have a high energy level on stage, Virginia's vocals are powerful and soulful with just the right amount of grit mixed in, and the instrumentation from the whole group is solid, together, and in your face. And yet, they will break your heart with songs like "Dreaming on the Eve" and "Photographs." It's really cool to see a band grow and develop, and I can't wait until they put out their album in 2012. (And shotout to Trey Bliss for being the most supportive Atlanta musician there is. Seriously, this guy is out supporting Atlanta musicians practically every night of the week it seems. You can always count on Trey to be at the show!)

On the folksy singer/songwriter side, it was all about the ladies this year for me. I was impressed by the wonderful songwriting abilities of people like Juliana Finch, Molly Parden, Rebecca Loebe, and Sydney Eloise. I had the opportunity to see all four of these ladies throughout the year (some of them more than once! and some of them I even got to play with!) They all write very sincere and honest songs with such skill that you can't help but be a little bit awed. They are also all huge inspirations to me. I definitely had "moments" to each of their songs when I was at their shows this year. Definitely check them out.

Other local and/or indie shows that I really enjoyed this year: Cinetrope, Siberia My Sweet, Sour Soul, Wowser Bowser, Calm White Noise, Railbird, 1880s Dance Party, and nerdkween.

5 Albums I Fell In Love With in 2011

Beirut - The Rip Tide

It's no surprise that I would love this album given the fact that I've been in love with everything that Zachary Condon has done, but The Rip Tide really combines all of the elements that I loved about Beirut's previous albums. There are some songs that you can dance around to, there are some songs that will break your heart, there are great melodies all the way through and great arrangements. And as always, this guy's level of talent blows me away.

Foster the People - Torches

This is an album that I wouldn't have expected would make my favorites list, but it was definitely one of the albums that came out this year that just makes me happy every time I pop it in. Of course, it's catchy as hell and certainly poppy with a very mainstream appeal, but once you actually listen to the lyrics and hear what they're saying underneath all of the catchy melodies, there's actually quite a lot of meaningful substance here. So whether you just want some music you can dance mindlessly too or you want music that makes you think, Foster the People manages to do both here, which isn't always easy.

Radiohead - The King of Limbs

This album almost didn't make my list. If I were making a "favorite Radiohead albums" list, it would be on the bottom. But even my least favorite Radiohead album is still one of my favorite albums of 2011. Although the initial few times I listened to it, I wasn't completely blown away (like I was with In Rainbows), I quickly found that songs like "Separator" and "Lotus Flower" were some of my favorite tracks from any band this whole year.

The Kills - Blood Pressures

This is a great "straight up rock" album. Straight up rock is a new genre name I've invented (well, I'm sure many other people have used it before!) because with SO much music these days and SO many sub-genres that get grouped into the "rock" category, you can sometimes forget what a real rock n' roll album sounds like until an album like this comes along. "Future Starts Slow" wins the award for "best song to drive around and feel like a badass" to. "The Last Goodbye" will break your heart. "Heart is a Beating Drum" will make you dance around like an idiot. All-in-all, this album is a great experience.

M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming

This "list" is not numbered, but if I had an absolute favorite album of 2011, this would definitely be it. This 2-disc album really and truly takes you on a journey. From songs like "Midnight City" that will make you dance like crazy to heartbreaking nostalgic ballads like "Wait" to incredibly trippy songs like "Raconte-Moi Histoire" to incredibly epic songs like "Outro," this album has everything. Every album M83 has put out has been progressively better than the previous one (in my opinion), and considering how much I loved Saturdays = Youth, I was bound to love this album. One of the great things about Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, though, is that the whole album comes across as one epic, emotional dream.

So those are my favorites from 2011!

Definitely go and check these out, especially the locals! There are a ton of links for you to click on. Go to their pages, listen to their tunes. If you're in Atlanta, catch a show in 2012! Going to see a local show is always a great thing to do. It's cheap (and sometimes free!) live music! Typically in a place where you can drink BEER. And you never know what kind of free shit you will get - moon pies, stickers, free CDs, free beer! Who knows? And if you go support a local band, I guarantee your presence will be appreciated. Everybody wins :)

My favorites from 2011 - part 1

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:35:00 GMT

Well, it's that time of year when obsessive dorks like me start making lists. This is great for people like me who obsessively document everything. I journal every day, I make silly lists (10 things I'm grateful for today, books I've read this year, shows I've played this year, etc.) on my computer. I have tons of notebooks filled with other things that don't exactly fit into either category. Okay, I know what you're thinking. "Wow, Sara, that sounds very OCD of you!" but considering how completely laid back I am in every other aspect of my life, I'm quite accepting of this one aspect of obsessive behavior.

So most of the music blogs out there are making "best of 2011" lists, but I don't like the word "best" because it implies that there is an objective way to determine which albums are better than others, and as I always say, all art is subjective. (I should get that tattooed. That's become my battle cry.) So, instead, I'm going to share with you 5 albums that I fell in love with in 2011, my 5 favorite shows that I went to in 2011, 3 albums I fell in love with in 2011 (that weren't actually released in 2011), and 3 local Atlanta albums I fell in love with in 2011. And if you really don't care about all of that, just skip down to the fun YouTube videos so you can listen for yourself!

2011 was an odd sort of year. At this time last year, I thought that there were going to be tons of releases from some of my favorite artists that I would absolutely love. Radiohead, Bjork, Lykke Li, Devotchka, Bon Iver, etc. For the most part, though, most of these releases left me with that "meh" feeling, which is definitely not what I was expecting from these artists.

One of the great things about 2011, though, was how involved I got to be in the Atlanta music scene. I played around 25 Atlanta shows with Pocket the Moon, and I made it out to around 20 (mostly local) shows in addition to that. Seeing and playing all of these shows allowed me to see some really great bands, both local and touring, and I also got the opportunity to meet some really cool people. As much as I often bitch about certain aspects of the Atlanta music scene (*cough*hipsters*cough*), there is a lot to appreciate about it also. This past year, I have met so many incredibly talented musicians who are (*gasp*) ALSO supportive of OTHER musicians!!

Everything that Geoff and I have gotten to do as Pocket the Moon--release an album, go on tour, play some really great shows, make a music video, get voted "Best New Music Act" and "Best Folk Act" in Creative Loafing--would NOT have been possible without all of our friends and supporters. I cannot say thank you enough to all of you for that.

Anyway. Onward. Let's see the lists!

I'm going to save my "5 albums I Fell In Love With in 2011" list and my "5 favorite shows I went to in 2011" list for next time. But here's the first half of my obsessive list making!

3 albums I Fell in Love With in 2011 (that weren't actually released in 2011)

I think it's important to include these sorts of albums in these kinds of lists, especially with music the way that it is today. There is SO MUCH indie music out there to be discovered that sometimes you won't find out about an album until way after it is released. There is no shame in this! While you won't typically see most indie music bloggers actually admitting that there was an album they didn't know about until a year later, I'm not a "typical" indie music blogger. (In fact, I'm not a typical anything blogger. I just write whatever the hell I feel like writing whenever I feel like writing it.)

Anyway, I wanted to write about these three albums because even though they were released before 2011, to me, they were very much 2011 albums because that is when I obsessed over them.

Angus and Julia Stone - Down the Way (2010)

I actually loved this album more than most of the albums on my main favorites from 2011 list. While the atmospheric track "Hold On," the haunting "For You," the catchy "Big Jet Plane," and folksy "And The Boys" are definitely my favorite tracks on this album, there really isn't a track that I dislike. These songs are full of soul, passion, emotion. The lyrics are deep and meaningful, the vocals of Angus and Julia really blend well together, the arrangements and the melodies are superb. The whole album is a winner.

The Naked and Famous - Passive Me, Aggressive You (2010)

This upbeat and catchy album reminds me of everything that I love about bands like MGMT, Foster the People, Moonlight Bride. Not that The Naked and Famous necessarily sounds like those bands, but they have some of the same elements. This track, "Young Blood" is my favorite. Some of the vocals remind me a little of M83, too, which is probably another reason I love it.

James Vincent McMorrow - Early in the Morning (2010)

This folksy and soulful solo artist reminds me a lot of Bon Iver or Edward Sharpe. His songs are very catchy and yet full of meaning. There are a lot of great and almost haunting harmonies on this album. It's perfect for rainy days like today. You should definitely have a listen if you haven't heard him before.

3 Local Atlanta Albums That I Fell In Love With in 2011

(aside from self-titled by Pocket the Moon...)
(kidding, kidding)
(no but seriously, listen to our album.)

Places - The Future

Tracks like "Dark Fear, "No More Lies," and "At Least It's A Beautiful Day" are great examples of why I love this dreamy, nostalgic album. It reminds me a little bit of Wild Nothing meets Slowdive (and comparing a local band to Slowdive is something I never thought I'd do). Definitely check them out. You can hear the whole album at the Bandcamp page and pay what you want.

Places on Bandcamp
Places on Facebook

Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun - W I L D F I R E

When this album came out in May, I think it spent a good month on repeat in my CD player (or at least a few weeks...I don't have a great concept of time). This album may as easily have been on my main list of favorite albums from 2011, but they just happen to be local so they go here! "Old Monster," "We Were Wild," and "With My Good Eye" are definitely my favorite tracks. (They remind me a lot of Metric.) I also think this band is definitely an inspiration for all of us Atlanta musicians. (Plus, they donated a free album to my raffle for the Red Cross benefit show I organized at Kavarna earlier this year so kudos to them!)

Molly Parden - Time is Medicine

Ever since I saw her set at Drunken Unicorn this June when she played at our CD release show, I have been a big fan of her's. She's one of those genuine folk singers that I love because her songs are very honest. My favorite tracks from this album are the title tract and "A Song For My Mother."

So check out these artists, go see their shows (if they're local!), buy their music, be supportive!

And stay tuned for part 2 of my favorites from 2011. :)

Random thoughts about The Four Agreements, opinions, and constructive criticism (at 3 AM)

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:12:57 GMT

photo by Beverly Crawford

Hey everyone.

I decided I wanted to start blogging more. I guess 3 in the morning is as good of a time as any to start, right?

I went to bed pretty early tonight and then I woke up randomly at 1 and couldn’t go back to sleep. I started reading The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz, a book I’ve been meaning to read for quite some time, but just recently borrowed from a friend at Unity (my “new agey/hippie” church, as I call it).

The first two agreements are very much connected. Be impeccable with your word and don’t take anything personally. Being impeccable with your word means not to say anything that goes against the truth of who you are. This means not having negative self-talk and not saying negative things about others. Not taking anything personally is a realization that whenever a person has an opinion about another person, it has much more to do with the person who holds the opinion than the person who the opinion is supposedly about.

I was thinking about this, and I was thinking about how our entire society is built around negative opinions. You can see this on a personal level—the person who complains about their co-workers, the person who calls up a sibling to talk shit about their parents, the person who spreads negative gossip around—or on a national or even international level. Turn on the TV. It’s full of pundits and politicians criticizing each other. It’s full of reality shows with judges giving negative opinions. “She can’t cook because of this.” “He can’t dance because of this.” “She can’t sing because of this.” You can’t even check your Facebook or Twitter without seeing one negative opinion after another. I am just as guilty of this as anyone else, though I try not to be.

Now, I’m not saying that you should never have a negative opinion. I think this is virtually impossible for the majority of humans. (Maybe Jesus pulled it off. But even he went off on people in the Bible from time to time.) I think the important thing, though, is that when we do have a negative opinion, we realize that we’re actually expressing a fear that we hold. When you do have a negative opinion, stop and ask yourself, "what does this say about me and how I feel?" And we also need to be aware that when another person expresses a negative opinion about us, it really has nothing to do with us.

When someone says, “she’s ugly,” it’s probably because that person has a fear that he or she is actually ugly. When a person says, “you are wrong” (which is basically what all political discourse can be boiled down to), it is really just because that is the only way that person can feel that he or she is “right.”

I was thinking about this in terms of art, and I realized that also applies. When a music critic says, “this album is boring,” it is telling us a lot more about the critic than it is the artist. It could be that the critic fears he or she is boring. It could be that the critic is afraid to be still and therefore enjoys music that is busier. It could be a number of things.

Positive opinions work the same way. If I really connect with an album and think it is great, that says a lot more about me and the things that I like about myself and my own life than it does the artist who created the album.

This is why all art is subjective. Because it depends entirely on the opinions of others.

Sure, each form of art has its own “rules” and techniques. And if someone masters those techniques, you could accurately say that that person is a skilled artist. But this is not the same as being a “good” or a “bad” artist because being “good” or “bad” assumes that someone has an opinion that that artist is “good” or “bad.” And I guarantee you that for every artist out there, you will find people who believe that he or she is “good,” and you will find people that believe that he or she is “bad.”

So. All art is subjective. I say this all of the time. Because I think it’s really important. This is one reason I really am opposed to reality shows where any work of art (whether it’s music, visual art, culinary arts, dancing, etc.) is being judged. Now, I'm not saying that these shows aren't fun to watch. I actually enjoy watching shows like Top Chef and Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, because I love seeing what people create in time constraints and given certain prompts. But I think everyone who watches these shows needs to realize that it's all subjective. You just can’t objectively judge art. I don’t personally care for the music of Justin Bieber, but there are a ton of people who connect with his music the way I connect with Radiohead. I’ll say it again because it's that important. All art is subjective.

So, I was thinking about this idea of all art being subjective and also thinking about the first two agreements. One thing I struggle with is how to reconcile these ideas (“all art is subjective,” “don’t take anything personally”) with constructive criticism. I’m working on my MFA in creative writing. I’m also a musician. I’m constantly putting my art out there. If I don’t “take criticism personally,” how can I improve as an artist?

Then I realized that it’s not about improvement. It’s about growth. A flower is no “better” or “worse” than a seed. It’s just two different things. That’s how artists are.

We create art that speaks to who we are at a particular time based on what we have experienced, what we have learned, what we feel, etc. These unique circumstances are the “tools” we have to work with. As time goes on, we grow and change as people. We learn more. We experience more. We develop more tools. This does not mean the art we once created was “bad” and now we are “good.” To put it in Radiohead terms, Pablo Honey is no better or worse than In Rainbows. Some people may connect with one more than the other, but the truth of the matter is that they are simply two different albums created in two different time periods by artists who had different sets of tools.

So going back to this idea of the workshop and constructive criticism, I think the best approach for any artist to take is to make sure that you are fully aware before you get feedback that this is someone’s opinion and has much more to do with that person than you or your art. It could be that the feedback genuinely has to do with what that person has learned about technique. Ideally, it should be, especially in a workshop or class setting. So keep that in mind first of all. Really don’t take it personally. (As the Dude would say, “That’s just, like, your opinion, man.”) Then, you should only use criticisms that inspire you to change the piece. For example, if my playwriting professor were to say “this part of the scene feels a little static” and this idea gets me thinking about and excited about all of the ways in which I can make it dynamic, I will ultimately use the criticism. Because it inspired growth and change in the piece. That growth and change didn’t come out of a negative idea (i.e. “I’m a horrible writer”) but a positive one (“I can do something different here because I have more tools now.”).

Take the “negative” opinions and use them in a positive way. If there’s a negative opinion that you can’t use to grow or change your piece, simply disregard it. I think this is a good way to think about constructive criticism, and I know I’m going to try to do this from now on.

YouTube Covers - Atlanta musician edition - Marvelous 3 and Jennifer Nettles Band

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:35:00 GMT

TWO COVERS IN ONE DAY!? What is happening?

Okay, so I decided to do a little mini-series in my YouTube covers. Here are a couple of tunes from some of my favorite Atlanta musicians who were a huge part of my coming of age, both as a musician and as a person.

First up, I decided to cover "Indie Queen" by Marvelous 3.

Alright, when I was about 15, most of the girls my age were obsessing over the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC. But me, I was obsessed with local rockers, Marvelous 3! (Even at 15, I was so indie!) Now, they weren't really simply "local" rockers, especially after their release of Hey! Album and their success with "Freak of the Week" on the national level, but I still thought of them very much as an Atlanta band. When you went to a Marv 3 show in Atlanta, there was a feeling of "this is one of our bands!" Maybe this is my equivalent to cheering on a local sports team, I don't know.

Since the first time I heard Hey! Album, though, I was OBSESSED. And I do mean OBSESSED. I took all of that teeny bopper energy that is just inherent in teenage girls (especially those who are artistically inclined...or maybe just those who tend to be obsessive and dorky about things) and poured it into this band. I had a Marvelous 3 wall, I had Marvelous 3 PANTS (I took an old pair of jeans and decorated them with Marv 3 lyrics in sharpies), I caught a guitar pick at one of their shows and wore it on a necklace, I went and saw them live everytime they played in Atlanta and made signs to hold ("PLAY KATRINA!") and jumped around and screamed and rocked out like a crazy person. I even got to meet the band a few times and got Butch Walker to sign my first guitar (which I appropriately named Katrina). When Jayce, the bass player, came into the Schlotzsky's where I worked, I NEARLY FREAKED OUT. I tried to keep it together externally but once he noticed my guitar pick necklace, it was all over. I even named the table where he sat the OHMYGODJAYCEFROMMARVELOUS3 table. One time at an in-store performance and signing at Best Buy, Jessie, Kyndal, Bre, and I actually gave Butch Walker a tape of our all-15-year-old-girl band, Population 2. (Dear God, I hope he never listened to that! Although it did have some of our more profound songs on it like "Bitchy Whore in a Little Skirt.")

Me and Butch Walker - I was 14 or 15 in this picture (and probably trying not to PASS OUT)

"Indie Queen" was always my favorite song on the album, though, and is still one of my favorite songs in life. At 15, I was convinced it was my anthem. (I even used "theindiequeen" as my livejournal user name.) Now, of course, Butch Walker has gone on to be much more than an "Atlanta musician." He's one of my idols as a songwriter, as a performer, as a musician in general. And I have certainly mellowed out and dialed down the teeny bopper obsession (I would hope so now that I'm 26!), but every time I hear Hey! Album, a small part of me still goes back to that 15-year-old girl jumping around in a packed crowd at The Tabernacle staring up at these musicians in total awe of their music, their performance, their energy...it was truly too much rock for one hand.

My next cover is a song called "Story of Your Bones" by Jennifer Nettles Band. This was Jennifer Nettles's project before Sugarland. Another great example of someone who transcended the Atlanta music scene to gain recognition at the national level. There was a moment when I was watching her sing at Presidet Obama's inauguration on TV when I thought "I used to go see her at the Variety Playhouse...she used to play venues that I'm playing now like Smith's Olde Bar, and she's actually singing for the President of the United States." It made me feel proud of Atlanta. We turn out some great musicians here.

I first saw the Jennifer Nettles Band on the Locals Only stage at Music Midtown. (Or was it Big Day Out? I can't remember. One of those 99X things.) I was immediately floored. If Marvelous 3 were too much rock for one hand, Jennifer Nettles was too much soul for one hand. I was completely in awe of her songwriting, her amazing vocals, her ability to play many different instruments. She was practically overflowing with musical talent. I was particularly in love with this song, "Story of Your Bones." Everytime she sang it live, it was so powerful, it brought me to tears.

I've never done an acapella cover on YouTube before. And while it's slightly terrifying for me to not have a guitar or a keyboard, I decided to do it this way for a couple of different reasons. First of all, I've decided to audition for The Voice (which I'm doing on Friday in Nashville - Geoff and I will be on tour with Pocket the Moon when they come to Atlanta) and you have to sing acapella for the first auditions. I've decided to sing this song for auditions so I thought that doing it for YouTube would be good practice. Secondly, since I was already paying tribute to my teenage years and the musicians that inspired me in the Atlanta music scene, I thought I would also pay tribute to one of the moments in which I realized how important singing was to me.

I was always kind of a shy and quiet kid. When I was forcing myself to be social, it always came out in an awkward and dorky way. (I'm still awkward and dorky, but I'm a lot more comfortable with my awkwardness!) I never really felt like I could really connect with people in my age group. Anyway, so one weekend in 10th grade, our high school chorus was taking a trip to Six Flags. On the bus ride, everyone was singing various songs, and eventually some of my friends asked me to sing one. The only thing I could think to sing (probably because I was obsessing over this album at the moment) was "Story of Your Bones." So I just opened my mouth and this acapella version of this song came out. And in that moment, there was something about the way my friends were smiling at me that made me know that I was supposed to be a singer. Through that song, I was able to connect with them in a way I had never been able to before. There were so many songs that had helped me through so much of the difficult things about coming of age, so many songs that made me feel like I wasn't alone, ("Don't forget the songs that made you cry and the songs that saved your life," as Morrissey would say), and that was the first time that I actually believed that maybe one day, I could be that for other people. Maybe someday, I could create music that would help someone get through life, the way so many musicians have done for me.

So I thought I'd pay tribute to two bands that definitely helped me get through high school with these YouTube covers. Hope you enjoy!

Pocket the Moon shows - staged reading of my play, The Spins

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 21:25:40 GMT

First of all, thank you SO MUCH for all of the support with the release of our debut self-titled album with Pocket the Moon! The album is available on CD Baby and iTunes as well as here on my website and on the Pocket the Moon website. We have already gotten some positive reviews of the album from local music blogs The Silver Tongue and Latest Disgrace, and they have been playing tracks from the album on the Georgia Music Show on Album 88 (88.5 FM WRAS) Wednesday nights from 8:00 to 10:00 PM. So tune in, and give them a call to request our tunes!

We've got one more Atlanta show before we hit the road in August for our mini-tour!

Upcoming Pocket the Moon Shows:

July 31 - Sunday - The Music Room - Atlanta, GA - FREE! - with nerdkween - send off show before we hit the road
August 3 - Wednesday - Tin Roof - Charleston, SC
August 5 - Friday - The Boiler Room - Asheville, NC
August 8 - Monday - The Elbo Room - Chicago, IL
August 13 - Saturday - The Edge - Big Stone Gap, VA with Savannah Shoulders
August 23 - Tuesday - Smith's Olde Bar (upstairs) - Atlanta, GA

We are still trying to pick up some extra shows in between August 8th (Chicago) and August 13th (Virginia) so if any of you musicians or Midwesterners have booking suggestions or would like to play with us, let us know!

In other news, my one-act play, The Spins, was a finalist in the Essential Theatre Playwriting Contest and will have a staged reading on Wednesday, July 27th at 7:30 PM at Actor's Express as part of The Essential Theatre Bare Essentials Reading Series. This event will be FREE (with a $5 suggested donation), it is going to be directed by Curtis Krick, and it will feature many incredibly talented actors and musicians from the Atlanta area including Rachel Kemp (Painted, Leapfrog). I'd love to see everyone out and hear your thoughts about this play! I'm hoping this reading will lead to a production sometime in the near future.

Vote for Pocket the Moon for Best New Local Act in the Creative Loafing Best of Atlanta survey!

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 23:41:42 GMT

Click here:

http://posting.clatl.com/atlanta/Survey?survey=3283373

You have to sign up to take the survey, but it takes two seconds. Once you're in the survey, go to the third page, "After Dark", write "Pocket the Moon" in for "Local New Music Act" (the second one), and then scroll down and click "Save and Exit." (Or you can fill out the rest of the survey if you want but for those of you who don't live in Atlanta, you probably won't want to!)

Last year, I was voted "Best Local Songwriter" and it has really helped me to get better venues and get more attention from local press! So if you could take five seconds and fill this out, we'd GREATLY appreciate it :-)

Also, if you want to share this with other people, that would be great, too! The more votes we get, the better :-)

Home cover series - There is a Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 21:25:00 GMT

"There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" is probably my favorite Smiths song (which is saying a lot considering how much I love Morrissey and The Smiths).

The Queen is Dead is one of my all-time favorite albums. Just listen to it once all the way through, and you will understand.

If you've ever read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, this is always the song I picture on that drive where Charlie feels "infinite." I think this song perfectly captures the way it feels to be a teenager falling in love for the first time or even just exploring friendship or the freedom that comes with driving. It's that moment when you're 15 or 16, and you go out with a friend just driving and listening to music and in spite of all of the awkwardness and insecurity that comes with being a teenager, because you're driving around and listening to music - you suddenly feel alive, feel like you belong, like nothing could ruin the experience, you feel infinite. And even if a ten-ton truck crashes into you, well, that's okay. To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die.

I think so many teenagers can relate to The Smiths and Morrissey for that reason. His lyrics speak to so much of the teenage/young adult experience - loneliness, unrequited love, wanting to feel connected to other people. When I was about 19 or 20, I really thought that Morrissey was the only person in the world who "understood" me. That's why I got the Morrissey tattoo. (No, people, it's not Elvis, it's not Johnny Cash, it's not James Dean, it's DEFINITELY not John Mayer -- someone seriously asked me if it was John Mayer once.) Because during some of the really hard times that coming of age forces you to face, I could always turn to Morrissey. And even though I don't listen to Morrissey or The Smiths as obsessively as I once did, as my tattoo says, I'll never forget the songs that made me cry or the songs that saved my life.

New acoustic YouTube cover, new Pocket the Moon album, new staged reading of one of my plays!

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 21:30:00 GMT

Hey everyone!

First of all, I got another acoustic cover up on YouTube (finally). This is me doing a version of Anna Domino's "Summer" as requested by one of my Kickstarter donors. I'm hoping to start getting these covers on YouTube on a weekly (or at least every other week) basis! So if you have any requests, leave me a comment!

Secondly, I'm sure you've all heard about the new Pocket the Moon release. In case you haven't checked the blog in a long time, Pocket the Moon is the indie/folk duo that Geoff Goodwin and I are in. We've been playing around town in places like Drunken Unicorn, The Earl, Wonderroot, Smith's Olde Bar, and Highland Inn Ballroom.

We are releasing our debut self-titled ten-track album on June 24th. We will be playing a CD release show at The Drunken Unicorn on Friday, June 24th along with Molly Parden and Richard Parsons. It's only 5 bucks, and I'm making cookies. That's right FREE COOKIES and live music! I hope you can join us!

If you don't live in the Atlanta area but still want to be a part of the experience, Drunken Unicorn is now doing live streaming of their shows on the internet! So the show will be streamed live at www.livestream.com/drunkenunicorn. If you can't watch it live, it will still be up there for quite a while afterwards so definitely be sure to check it out!

You can also pre-order a copy of the album on the Pocket the Moon website or in my store if you aren't able to make it out to the CD release show but still want an album.

What people are saying about the album so far:

"Pocket the Moon is using this record as a tool to prove themselves as a band, not a duo, and to exemplify some of the rules (or lack thereof, actually) of songwriting as a band of multi-instrumentalists. Crawford’s easy-listening voice spills tales that are tonally matter-of-fact, and that helps drive Pocket the Moon away from folk and towards something, musically, more transgressional. Atlanta doesn’t need another distraught artist becoming one with his or her Taylor to deliver us C-to-D-to-Am flops about lost love and inner redemption. I think Crawford and Goodwin are telling us, with this record, that they agree." - J.Criss of The Silver Tongue - Click here to read the full review

Also, The Essential Theatre will be doing a staged reading of a play that I wrote called The Spins as it was a finalist in their playwriting competition! The staged reading will take place Wednesday, July 27th at Actor's Express and you're all invited. :-) For more information on this reading series, click here.

And that's what's going on with me. I hope you all are doing well!!

Pocket the Moon, Driving Downtown to the Show, upcoming projects, and five things I'm diggin'

Fri, 20 May 2011 00:50:00 GMT

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've updated. I've got quite a few things going on right now, so I thought I'd let you know about them!

First of all, I just finished a new book of poems called Driving Downtown to the Show for a poetry writing workshop I was taking for grad school. As you may recall, this is the project where I had to use the name of a band playing at The Earl, the Star Bar, or the Drunken Unicorn in each poem. I'm really happy with the way it turned out, and I'm planning on going the self-publishing route with this one and releasing it sometime in August or September. So stay on the look out for that!

Also, my band, Pocket the Moon, has been super busy. We are hard at work getting ready to release our debut self-titled 10-track album. We also have a couple of really cool shows/events coming up that I hope you will join us for:

Pocket the Moon Benefit Show at Kavarna - All proceeds go towards the American Red Cross and Tornado/Disaster relief - Saturday, May 28th -Come join us for this great night of music! Pocket the Moon, Divine Isis, and additional artists will be playing! It's only 5 bucks to get in, the money goes to a great cause, and we will be having a raffle with some really great prizes!
Pocket the Moon CD RELEASE SHOW at Drunken Unicorn! - 5 bucks - 21+ Come out and support us as we release our debut album!!

We are also continuing to book shows for our August 2011 tour! A complete list of tour dates will be announced soon!

And stay tuned to the website for more of my YouTube cover series and the Poem of the Week, both of which are returning next week!

I'll leave you now with:

Five Things I'm Diggin'

The new album from Today the Moon, Tomorrow the Sun - W I L D F I R E - Definitely check it out!!

The video for Verge of Bliss's "Dreaming on the Eve" - this is one of my favorite songs that they do

Decoupage! I took an old acoustic that I had just laying around and made it a Pocket the Moon guitar! I'm planning on giving it away in the raffle at the 5/28 American Red Cross Benefit Show!

The fact that Avenue Q is playing at Horizon Theatre starting tomorrow, May 20th! Check it out everyone!

Carolina Wallin Perez - Anyone who has known me for longer than a year probably knows about my obsession with Swedish band, Kent. I just discovered this artist who has AN ENTIRE CD OF KENT COVERS which are AMAZING. And that makes me excited :)

Home cover series! First up, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:55:00 GMT

Hey guys!

I always love listening to people doing covers of songs that I love on YouTube. You can hear so many great interpretations of songs that you love!

I decided to start a "home cover series" on YouTube. I'm planning on taking requests and learning some new covers. (I already have a few that I'm going to do from my last round of requests on Facebook as well as my Kickstarter page.) YouTube is a great place to play covers also because it gives me a chance to do songs that I wouldn't normally play out. (I don't really do a lot of covers at shows normally, and when I do, I want to make sure they're songs that everyone knows.) But here, I get a chance to share my versions of some more obscure songs. I'll also be posting quite a bit of "mainstream" covers though as well because I'm pretty open minded when it comes to music, and I like a LOT of different things. I might even do songs that I don't necessarily like. (Sometimes I think it's really fun to play acoustic versions of songs that I think are ridiculous. I did promise my friend, Tommy, a Katy Perry cover even!)

I like learning and playing covers, though. I like paying tribute to other artists, and I like challenging myself to make someone else's song my own. Plus, covers are just fun. :)

If you have any requests for future covers, leave a comment here!

But I'd like to start this whole thing of with one of my favorite covers. It's a song that everyone knows, a song that everyone has covered, and one of the first covers that I learned! I've been playing this song since I was 14, and it still hasn't gotten old to me.

So I hope you enjoy!

An acoustic cover of Knockin' on Heavens Door by Bob Dylan

Pocket the Moon on Facebook and Twitter! Win awesome stuff!

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 01:47:46 GMT

Please go "like" us on Facebook and/or follow us on Twitter!

You can stay tuned about our upcoming shows, CD release, music videos, AND we do lots of fun things like giveaways! (We just gave away some Pocket the Moon unicorns...seriously!)

The kinds of things you can win by being a fan on Facebook or following us on Twitter

When we reach 500 Facebook fans, we're going to do another giveaway. It's going to be a Pocket the Moon decoupage something like my album cover table!

Isn't that awesome? Don't you want a Pocket the Moon decoupage lamp or something?

Anyway, help us out :) We'll <3 you forever.

http://facebook.com/pocketthemoon

http://twitter.com/pocketthemoon

A poetry project - Driving Downtown to The Show

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Atlanta by jkelley1 on deviantart

As many of you know, I've always been one of those artists who must be doing multiple things at once. Writing plays, writing songs, playing music, sometimes acting, writing screenplays, sometimes film making, writing poems, decoupaging tables...there's really nothing I won't at least try when it comes to art. I've decided lately, though, to kind of put everything on the back burner and focus on music, specifically Pocket the Moon. I spend most of my time promoting, booking, writing music, practicing, recording, etc. (Well, Geoff's really doing most of the work on recordings. I just show up and play/sing. He's the one who makes it sound badass.)

I am still doing my grad school program, though. I'm pursuing my MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Playwriting. And while I'm sort of taking a break from writing plays specifically to really concentrate on Pocket the Moon, I am still working on poetry for my poetry writing workshop.

My professor in this class, though, wanted us to come up with these incredibly elaborate procedures. We are basically writing enough poems over the course of the semester to have a chapbook of poems at the end, and he wanted us to come up with "rules" that decide the content, length, and writing schedule. He also wanted us to come up with a title for our books.

I decided that since I am focusing so much on music right now, not just my own music, but also being a part of the Atlanta music scene that my procedure (and my book title) would incorporate this theme.

Here’s my procedure:

Writing schedule: Every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, I will write a poem after band practice.

Content: I will look up the bands on the bill of a certain music venue, and in my poem I will have to use one of those band names in the first five lines of my poem. (Tuesdays - The Earl, Thursdays - Star Bar, Sundays - Drunken Unicorn - because those are probably my favorite venues.)

Length: When I sit down to write, I will put my iPod on shuffle. Whatever song plays, I will look up the lines of lyrics and that is how many lines my poem will be. If it is an instrumental song, the length will determine my line count. (i.e. a song that’s 4:57 would be 57 lines in 4 stanzas.)

Title: Driving Downtown to the Show

This is obviously not how I usually write poems. I might start with a particular form in mind or even a writing prompt, but never something as elaborate as this. But so far, I am really loving the work that is coming out of it. And having to write three poems a week after coming out of a period where I haven’t written any poems for at least two years was definitely a challenge at first. But now, I’m right back into the swing of things.

These are some of the band names I’ve used so far:
Hip to Death
Wild Nothing
How I Became the Bomb
Dead Rabbits
Quiet Life
The Future of Airports

Another reason I'm loving this project is because it further reinforces the idea that all of the artistic projects I am involved in are connected. I can never just be a poet, playwright, musician. I am always all of the above. My poetry is greatly influenced by music, my music is greatly influenced by theatre, my plays are greatly influenced by poetry, it's all connected!

I’ll leave you with one of the poems I’ve written for this project. The band name I had to use that day was Siberia My Sweet (which is also one of my favorite local bands ironically.)

Frozen Tundra

Last August, when the salty, suffocating air
nearly strangled us

as we crept through the Deep South
you took my hand and said,

"Let's travel to Siberia, my sweet
and become one with the frozen tundra.

We can become snowmen with
little black hats, and at least we'll

know that we'll never melt away,
our hands frozen together

in miles of ice and snow." You smiled
at me and kissed my cheek.

I untangled my fingers from yours
and kissed the night air of the Deep South.

Five things I'm diggin'

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 00:35:00 GMT

1. The new Adele album!

2. Faux Toe Images

3. WIld Nothing - who I'm going to see at Drunken Unicorn tomorrow!

4. Cinetrope - a local band who I just discovered a few weekends ago when I saw them at Drunken Unicorn (maybe I spend too much time at Drunken Unicorn! but there is good music there!)

5. Six Feet Under (okay, so I'm a few years late on this one, but I just watched the series, and it's pretty brilliant!)

And there's a new Pocket the Moon track up here!

Have a good week, everyone!

From the Pocket the Moon blog

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 01:43:19 GMT

From the Pocket the Moon blog

Hey everyone!

Thanks for coming by the Pocket the Moon website/blog.

First of all, we have our first official show as Pocket the Moon on Saturday, February 5th at Drunken Unicorn. We played a few shows in December with the new set-up, but those were more like preview shows for our new sound. Well, now we are geared up and ready to go. We're really excited about the show on Saturday, and we're really excited to hear Athens-based Audiophile featuring Brennan Johnson as well as members of Dubconscious, Collective Efforts, and Entropy and our friends in Ether Overdrive, which features musicians that both Geoff and I have played with in various projects (Goodland, Nigh Eve, Novo Luna, to name a few).

We've been working extremely hard on recording our full-length album. (Well, Geoff has been working extremely hard, really. He's doing most of the recording, mixing, arranging, etc. etc. All I do is show up and play/sing.) The album has a tentative release date of May 17, 2011. For now, you can hear two preview tracks on our music page and if you come to the show on Saturday, we will be giving away free sampler CDs with a few preview tracks as well.

As many of you know, I raised money in December on Kickstarter to go on tour this summer. Originally, I was planning on going solo/acoustic in June, but now that we are both going together as Pocket the Moon, we will be going in mid-August. We're both really excited about putting out the album and hitting the road!

Check out our new band photos taken by Oberonia and KG photography on our photos/videos page!

We've got a few really exciting shows planned for the spring as well. We'll be playing with Sydney Eloise in March and Nerdkween in April (Help her get to South by Southwest by buying her homemade pet treats here!). We're continuing to book shows as well, so check back to stay updated.

Also, you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook or you can sign our mailing list!

We really appreciate how supportive everyone has been so far! Thank you so much, everyone. Your support means the world to us! We'll see you on Saturday!

Sara

Surviving the Atlanta snowpocalypse, Pocket the Moon news, five things I'm diggin'

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 01:00:00 GMT

Photo by Patrick Duffy

Well, we've been in the middle of a snowpocalypse here in Atlanta all week. It seems like the entire metro area has basically been shut down since Monday.

Fortunately, though, Geoff and I have still been able to make some progress with Pocket the Moon, and I have some updates for you on the project!

You can now check out the Pocket the Moon website to hear a preview track and see what we've been up to! Click here to listen to "Bridge." This is a song Geoff and I have been doing together since the Novo Luna days, but I'm really excited about the Pocket the Moon version.

You can also find Pocket the Moon on Facebook, Reverb Nation, and Twitter. So add us on there! We may be giving away promotional tickets to shows on Facebook and Twitter, so you could get FREE stuff!

Pocket the Moon website - http://pocketthemoon.com
Pocket the Moon on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pocket-the-Moon/130546320341615
Pocket the Moon on Twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/pocketthemoon
Pocket the Moon on Reverb Nation - http://www.reverbnation.com/pocketthemoon

We managed to squeeze in a photo shoot with Belenen before the ice storm hit on Sunday night, so those photos will be coming soon! We're also planning a photo shoot with Alisha Gaspard (I'm ending the "every time a band I'm in gets awesome photos from Alisha, we break up right afterwards" curse). Haha. We're excited to be working with such talented photographers, and we're excited to see what comes from it!

Also, we have our first official show on Saturday, February 5th at Drunken Unicorn. We will be playing with Ether Overdrive and Audiophile with Brennan Johnson, featuring members from Dubconscious, Collective Efforts and Entropy. This is sure to be an awesome night of music and for just five bucks to see three bands, you won't want to miss it! So bring your friends!

In the spring of 2011, you can expect a full album release from Pocket the Moon, and you can also expect to see us play shows with the incredibly talented Nerdkween (who is actually going to play South by Southwest!) and the also incredibly talented Sydney Eloise (who some of you may have seen at The Star Bar when we played there last month).

Speaking of the Star Bar, you can check out a few of our songs from that set in this video, thanks to Dominant Sound.

So make sure you "like" us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and come see us play at the Drunken Unicorn! And thank you so much for your support!!

Shortwave Society

If you're looking for some new things to check out this weekend once the ice thaws, 1880's Dance Party will be playing with Pink Pompeii and Shortwave Society at Drunken Unicorn on Friday, January 14th. It's only 5 bucks, and it will definitely be an amazing night of music you don't want to miss. I will definitely be there so throw on your coat, scarf, and gloves, and come hang out with me and hear some great live music. For cheaper than the price of a movie!

The Head

Also, The Head will be having an EP release show at Vinyl with Young Orchids. I'm definitely going to that show as well. I got the opportunity to see The Head at Star Bar last month, and these guys have a really solid sound. Check it out!

If you're looking for something a little more visual and you missed the Ponce Crush art crawl last weekend, Young Blood Gallery, Kibbee Gallery, and Beep Beep Gallery are still running their exhibits - Anima/Animus at Young Blood, Picturing the Beast: Animal Imagery in Contemporary Prints at Kibbee, and Year of the Rabbit at Beep Beep - featuring some of the cities most talented local artists. Anima/Animus and Picturing the Beast run through January 29th, and Year of the Rabbit runs through February 3rd. Check it out!

There are so many artists doing amazing things in Atlanta, so get out there and support them. Most of the time it's pretty cheap, and it's great to be a part of the community and see what kind of work local artists are creating (in all mediums!). Plus, you can get cheap beer at most music venues, theatres, art galleries, etc. And who doesn't love that?

So I'll end this blog post with a new segment called five things I'm diggin':

1. Jake Shimabukuro's version of "Hallelujah" on Peace Love Ukulele

2. This piece by Kelly McKernan, local artist, entitled Hit Me

3. My friend's blog domesticationfail.com - I'm pretty much the opposite of domestic, but it's really fun to read about her domestic adventures!

4. These hothlanta t-shirts

5. My little brother's writing for DeadJournalist.com now! (Hey, Kev, think you can hook Pocket of the Moon up with a solid review? Kidding, kidding.)