PART I.
So I haven't written in a while. So much has happened though that I feel the need to recap. In September I had the amazing opportunity to open for Ingrid Michaelson, who in case you live under a rock, is totally fucking famous, & getting famous-ER by the minute it seems. Anyway, she was very good and fun to meet. I played with her 4 days before she was on Carson Daly's show, a week after the Grey's soundtrack (featuring her song) dropped, and also a week before her ubiquitous old navy commercial came out. It is kind of surreal and it all happened due to a random connection through my drama director from high school. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the show was at my high school alma mater, DeWitt H.S. in DeWitt, Michigan. On the stage that I used to spend most of my time on at drama practice. It was a total mindfuck. In the best possible way. And i've decided that I need to play more shows at high schools (high schoolers out there reading this, please book me at your school! I love you!) high schoolers are great, they actually buy cds!! Who knew??
Right now i'm on a train coming back to nyc from connecticut. I was on a Business Trip. That makes me sound so old. You can attribute any typos in this entry to the fact that this is the bumpiest train ride i've ever been on. Except the subway. The subway doesn't count. And the conductor just announced that there's actually alcohol being served on this train. Bar Car, two words i'm very fond of hearing...
PART II
Then I played this really amazing show in October at Chatham University in Pittsburgh. I was so glad for a weekend escape from the city not to mention FINALLY getting to make use of the car I keep in New York despite the fact that I can almost never drive it here. Of course it promptly died. In the middle of Canal St. near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel. In the middle of Chinatown, which if you’ve ever been to Chinatown you know it is like hell on Earth. So I’m sitting in the middle of morning rush hour traffic in New York City, blocking a lane of traffic. I’m not sure, but I think that’s grounds for murder here. It was certainly grounds for a hit and run apparently because a man in a white van hit me from behind and literally pushed my Jeep forward a little instead of backing up and going around me. And anyone who ever has been in a car with me knows that I was a little upset by this. And it just so happens that at the same moment, I was calling my parents in order to get my AAA number so I could get towed, and while I was waiting for their answering machine greeting to end, White Van Man hit me. So I flick him off and scream something to the effect of “What the fuck? Fuck you, motherfucker!!” (I’m paraphrasing) at which point I realize, Hmm I don’t hear their answering machine greeting playing anymore, I wonder if this is being recorded... “Mom?...” So it’s all on tape and my mom has saved it. I plan on listening to it when I go home for Thanksgiving and sampling it into a song. So anyway, eventually the car started, but I still didn’t trust it. I was about to just throw in the towel and forget about the paying gig and chance at a weekend escape. Then I just thought, Fuck It. So we drove back to Brooklyn, got a rental car and got back on the road (now having lost hours, but luckily we had left at 8 am so we were still ok.)
And it turned out to be one of the most fun and best shows I’ve been a part of in a while. The people were great and the campus was beautiful. I finally got to see the leaves changing color. For some reason everything is still green here (I mean the few trees that do exist in the parts of town I frequent) and according to some sources they never change, rather they just die one day and fall off the tree. Brilliant. Fall being my favorite season, I really miss driving down a back road and seeing all the colors on the trees.
I felt like a real musician, being put up in a nice, nice room for two nights and getting asked to play a second show at the campus while I was there. And the people were amazing. Amazing, amazing, amazing. We ate Indian food and talked about music and New York and everything. At the first show I played my rendition of Sean Kingston’s “Beautiful Girls” and everyone sang along after the first three notes. (this was not at all the response I got the first time I played it, at the September Ukulele Cabaret. No one knew the song and they all thought I wrote it. Anyway...) Ever since I heard the HORRIBLE original version sung by Sean K., it’s been calling to me to re-do it on ukulele and with some actual soul and feeling behind it (Could he possibly sound more vapid and brain-dead singing the words “Suicidal Suicidal” ?) But anyway, I digress. The people at the Chatham shows were wonderful and if any of you are reading this, I’ll come back any time. (thanks Liz!)
PART III.
Jason Tagg – the brains behind the Ukulele Cabaret here in NYC – also has a weekly public television show called Midnight Ukulele Disco, which I was on in October. It was really fun and I hope to make another appearance soon! (I'm thinking of trying to put my Dinosaur Bone music video on nyc public tv too.) Anyway, for Midnight Ukulele Disco I got to pre-tape some songs, standing on Jason's roof (my first nyc roof experience! We haven't gone on ours yet. They say they'll evict us if we do, plus our neighbor's always up there and I feel like it could be a rumble if we try invading the turf. I envision a dramatic fight scene. Those happen on roofs right? Maybe that's just Train roofs. Might explain the tumult of this particular train right now (bringin it all full circle...)) Anyway, check out the uke disco footage at the URL below, including a live recording in the studio of my rendition of Sean Kingston’s Beautiful Girls (see PART II).
http://ukuleledisco.com/haileycomplete
I guess that’s all the rambling I’ll subject you to for now. For those of you still reading, thanks for sticking it out til the end. I wish I had a prize for you or something.
xo,
h
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