Dear Everyone:

First off: Merry Christmas, if you're into that kind of thing. I spent most of it teaching my brother to use Garage Band so he could make beats. Like, for rapping. Which he does. And now, on to business:

This New Year's Eve I am planning to be in NYC, at the 2 a.m. Amanda Palmer (of the Dresden Dolls) show at the Bowery Ballroom, as well as her pre-party at a secret location in Brooklyn. I have a +1 on the guest list and an extra ticket to the show, and am looking for someone to give (which is to say, not ask money for) these things to, so I can have a companion during what I am sure will be an absurd evening. I saw Amanda at the Bowery last New Year's, and found myself at Coney Island at dawn on New Year's Day with a bunch of ecologists after almost getting arrested with a gypsy orchestra in the subway. So, you know, good times. If you or someone excellent you know is interested, shoot me an email at sid [dot] branca [at] gmail [dot] com.

Long Live the Punk Cabaret.

oh, P.S.: the show is 18+, the party is 21+, and Amanda is performing with the Danger Ensemble.

copied from my myspace music page:

Well, so, things have been busy. Too busy, really. Full-time UChicago, two jobs, a production of Macbeth, and work on my Theatre and Performance Studies BA project (which will involve an ensemble performance in late February). Not to mention food and sleep and romance and internet and calling my mother and fixing my bike and remembering where I put my other shoe. Oh, and physical therapy for the foot I keep pretending isn't broken. But as insane and hectic as things are, [interlude in which I manage to spill hot candle wax all over my right thumb] most of the too-many facets of my life are good. Bird Party, the band I'm in, practiced for the first time in too long today, it was fairly productive and satisfying. We are probably playing a show in early December. 

I find myself looking forward to several months from now. I'm graduating in June, and then...? But I suspect that I will somehow manage to find more time for music once school is over. For real. Terrifying. We shall see.

David Berman's signature. Done at Tatu Tatoo, Chicago, 10/11/08.

Also, there a few new recordings up on the Bird Party myspace page, check it.

Tonight I met David and Cassie Berman. They signed my cast. I am pretty sure they are very good people, and they play some pretty, pretty songs.

Lately, especially today, I have been thinking a lot about Buddy Holly. Thrown from the crash of a four-seat plane, 28 years old. Pregnant wife left behind, miscarriage. His brother hates her, still. Bob Dylan, just a kid, at the show two nights before. Buddy and his glottal stops in my mind the perfect picture of the youthful death, the voice.

I am now the proud owner of a Moog Etherwave Theremin. Yes.

"Carpathian Veins"
August 28, 2008
in my apartment playing Loren's harmonium

No pretty picture for this post, as I'm transitioning to a new computer and shit is crazy.

A couple of things: this weekend I went to ThreeWalls gallery to check out a piece by Material Exchange, which is chock full of UChicago alumni. Perhaps I will write about it some time! I also went to see the Cirque du Soleil show Kooza and the contortionists totally blew my mind. Perhaps I will also write about that some time! Also I listened to a sweet mashup of an even sweeter Heaven Seventies song! So many exciting things that I am running out of exclamation points, just as I am running out of the ability to function like a sane person without going to sleep. But! I am packing! Because in a few hours I am leaving for Double Edge Theatre, to return July 22nd. Awesome.

oh my god I can't stop listening to the Blood Brothers and I think that means I need to go to the hospital or something.

also, I am seeing Cirque du Soleil for the first time tonight. I'm very curious/excited. Perhaps I will write about it. But perhaps not for a long time because:

Early Sunday morning I leave for the Summer Training Intensive at Double Edge Theatre in Ashfield, MA. I will be getting my ass kicked by clowns approximately 14 hours a day, and so I might drop off the face of the Internet almost entirely. I get back July 22nd, and will probably have a lot to talk about. Sweet!