Friday, October 23, 2009

Secret Words - Going to the Ocean


I wish I were going to the ocean today
To put my feet in water too cold for skin
And feel the expanse of breathing out forever

The gray sky going and going,
The spray on my face, telling me things
My heart seems to understand but not my mind,

Inviting me in, wanting me, and the baby inside.
I'd stand on the edge of the S shaped curve
And back away when it surges towards us,

The foam gentle on my feet
and nothing more powerful just yards away and down,
a growling undertow like a mama tiger.

Jessica Peters Malmberg

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Secret Songsketch: Heartbeat

Download tune

The view outside my window changes every day as the Fall comes in.
Time with music to dream.
Time with a little baby in my belly.

I'd like to share these sketches as they come, rather than keep them hidden for so long.
And with them, the view outside my window,
and a couple of snapshots into life at the time.

The drum sounds feel like heartbeats to me, and I'm spending a lot of time listening to my baby's heartbeat these days, and she listens to mine. The beginning of our lives are all to the tune of the wonderful, thuddy rhythm of our mama's hearts. It felt very comforting to go into these sounds at this time of my life, 34 weeks pregnant.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

New Video: Waterhouse



Director Jared Ingram shot this video for Petracovich a few years ago. He says "the song made me think of rain - the kind that starts with a few drops on the ground. And you wonder, is it raining? Did I just feel something? Then it starts to pour and you run for cover. And before you know it, the rain is gone. The sun comes out. And you just wanna take a nap."

The song, Waterhouse (from Petracovich's first album, Blue Cotton Skin) comes from a dream I had, of being a house, that was slowly filling up with water. It was a peaceful feeling, of blue coming in, taking out all of the contents, and then the house itself floating away. Being dismantled slowly and unemotionally.

I found the kalimba, an African thumb piano, to bring the mood of metal and wood, plunky like water falling, and Andrew Gikaumakus on the drums, big and hollow. Tad Wagner produced the tune.

My Dad is a photographer, but I'm still camera shy, and having several cameras at once, oooh, I had to really center myself. I sang along, at various speeds of the music, some slowed down, some speeded up, so Jared could edit with different speeds. It was a good challenge, fun, a little out of my comfort zone to be on camera, but that's always good. And Jared's a great director, low key, able to see the funny.

We started the shoot, the paint drippers started dripping from above, little tongues of cool paint hitting my hair, and then growing in globules and dumpings, it tasted chalky, a little stingy in the eyes, but kind of freeing just to let it happen, to get it all over me and act like it was the most normal thing.

And then, go to the bathroom, wash it out of my hair in a cold-water sink, and do it all over again for more footage!

I loved Jared's ideas, the washed out lighting, the use of color as a main theme, the drops that fall in time to the music.

When I went to the salon to get my hair cut, they said, "WHAT did you do to your hair?" It's all worth it for the glory of show biz.