Had a wonderfuly fun weekend this weekend. The ever delightful Miss Kitty came out from LA on Thursday and tho , sadly, she has left us now, but having her for a visit is always much fun. We got to make Indian food for everyone and spent the rest of the time taking pictures and doing small things. She nearly got to see a Midwestern Thunderstorm of Doom, but the weather did not co-operate and all the storms managed to miss us. ( no fun for frustrated Weather Girl Lorraine I say )

Malena and I have been doing much talking about the upcoming recording sessions. We are still putting the final touches on the cd, little things like ” What ARE we going to record ” or ” Who is playing what? ” Adam Stemple and I managed to miss eachother completely yesterday , trying to have a production meeting on the thing, but I did get the notes to him. I imagine he is hard at work trying to figure out what the heck I was talking about in all of them. ( I know the notes for one song read: ” God Knows, I sure don’t ” )

It’s an odd way to go about a cd but it does work. In the Flash Girls for the first two cd’s Emma and I knew the songs and had been playing together for a long time when we went into the studio. On the third cd, Wild Queen, she had been moved away for several years and we had not played. She came out and we rehersed for three days and then went in and recorded. With Folk Underground we had been playing together for a long time, but had never played many of the songs that ended up on Buried Things, we simply learned and built them in the studio.

Malena and I have had less time together than either Flash Girls or Folk UnderGround. As far as music goes at any rate. I don’t think this is going to be a problem, as we have in our heads what exactly we want it to sound like, and we can build these songs with Adam as they go along. Chirs Ewen is doing magic things to several of the tracks and working on the booklet with Malena. It’s actually very exciting, to think what is going to come out of these sessions. Next week is going to be all about practice out in LA, then on the 27th, into the studio.

Yesterday I had an e-mail with some more lyrics by Jane Yolen, hurrah and hurrah! Timing is everything and this week more music needs to be written, for they are truly lovely! Also I was listening to what we have already recorded with the truly talented Lojo Russo, and as Malena remarked, ” Even if we do nothing else, it’s worth it right there”

Now I am going to weed the ever growing full of weeds garden and hum little songs to myself and think about fiddle parts and harmonies and the fact that in a very short time, I will be spending all of my time seeing just what Lorraine a’ Malena is all about.

Sounds good to me.

Malena MOM

My daughter is having her 12th birthday today. It’s a sleep over of course. I’ve got 8 little tweens running about, singing and giggling to high heaven. What a day!

I love being a Mom. It’s so funny when a little girl comes up to me and says,

“How old are you? About 22?” Then, when I tell her how old I really am she says,

“Like.. Oh my Gosh! NO way! That’s old!”

Only a 10 year old could think 32 is old. But I remember the days when I thought the same thing.Haaaaaaa

I don’t understand this, “Don’t tell your age” business. I love getting older and wiser. I am so SO SO much happier than I was at 22. As women, we must celebrate ourselves, not cut ourselves and each other down. We are the creators of life. It is our job to be loving examples of compassion and light. If not you, then WHO?

Lorraine is a good example of a strong woman. One day, we were checking into a hotel. We walked up to the counter and she told the customer service person what we needed. I can’t tell you how differently we were treated once she opened her mouth. Due to her confidence and poise, we were treated like Queens. People take their cues from YOU on how you want to be treated. So, if you are feeling like no one listens to you, look at your body language. It’s a big indicator of how you feel inside. One of our favorite saying is from Ghostbusters when Bill Murray says,

“If someone asks you if you are a God, say YES!”

So, get out there and work it girls! Show the world what beautiful, bright, amazing, empowered beings you are! Don’t be shy, time is a wasten’!

Love you all

Momma Malena

Last Thursday , after I dropped my Boss at the airport, before my plane was to leave for LA, I had about three hours to kill, and so, went off to the MAUL of Americia. One of the stores I stopped at was Hot Topic, as I do love the Tee shirts and thought I might get a couple of cool ones for the road. I picked out several, and as they looked small-ish got them in XL, the highest they went up to . ( tho the men’s shirts went to xxxl ) It was a sad thing when I tried them on as they were WAY to small. I took one out to Malena and nicely enough, it did fit her. Snuggly.

In fairnes to Hot Topic I must say when I asked them why they had only small shirts they said that they had PLUS sizes available on the web site.

Plus sizes?

Says I, you mean sizes larger than 8? Yesssss, says they…Plus sizes.

Sigh.

In another wierdly enough event, when I got off the plane coming home from LA last night and was waiting for my luggage there was a report on CNN about a law they had just passed in Argentina saying stores must off as many larger sizes as smaller, to combat the wave of anorexia that is currently all over the country. A Law was passed.

Sigh again I say.

The store we visited the other day in LA said they did order as many “larger” sizes as smaller but they sold out first thing and then they could not get any more. What doe sthis tell you ??? Where will this stop? What is going on? Being overwieght is a serious problem in this country but this undersizing and emphisis on being a stick and not a normal women is doing as much damage to women as being overwieght is. MALENA has had the same expierence that Adrianna mentioned in the comments section of going into a store and being told ” We have nothing for YOU ” They are size 8!

Tonight a small 10 year old girl who happens to live with us , showed up in a cool shirt I bought her at Hot Topic some time ago. She is in every way a normal sized 10 year old. Not large, not small. Normal. And TEN. What size is that shirt, I ask her and we look.

She wears a Large.

Here’s love and light and sanity to beautiful normal women everywhere,
Lorraine

PS for those wondering, the Garden has exploded and is growing like weeds, which are also thriving quite nicely. Perhpas everyone ought to have a Garden Fop come over and work magic on plants…..

Hi, it’s me here, Lorraine, writing as if I was Malena. I know one can change this over and I could be me, but some nights it’s all the same anyway, so I shall be her. ( and perhaps I will even look as good in a corset, hmm, I am liking this…)

This was by far the quietest , most laid back time we have ever spent together. Did almost nothing but sit and talk ( and cough and sniffle in my poor case ) It was lovely ( not the sniffly bits ) I am not sure we will ever finally say everything that we have to talk about, and hours to do it in are never ever enough. Did lots of talking and planning for the cd, too, both the music and the booklet. We had wanted to have some time with the lovely Miss Kitty ( Cat Mihos , friend and photographer from the Gods ) but had to turn down adventure this time. It will be a different story when I come back in two weeks. We had also planned another shoot for the cover, actually, but we are putting it off again for two weeks as the Terrible Illness of Doom has rendered me, uh, about as attractive feeling as those worms that Sharon the Bird Lady puts in the , well, worm feeder, I guess. I look ok, mind you, it’s just the way one FEELS….

We did manage to get out around dinner time and stopped by a store called Ipso Facto. I now have a lovely new Spider necklace, a Coffin ring and a Skeleton , uh, I am not sure what, but I like it.

My goals , hopes and dreams for the evening include, entirely, of being able to stay awake long enough to watch something in the way of a movie.

I’m having a lovely time. As ever. And ever.

Love,Couches,Corsets and Worms,

Lorraine ( or Malena, remember I’m not quite sure…)

I didn’t know being sick was this much fun… sitting here on the couch talking about music, fashion and all things faye with Miss. Fabulous. Ahhhhhhh, if only our bodies could keep up with our minds this weekend. Lorraine seems to think I am quite magic and I think the same of her. We often say,

“I wish I saw myself the way you see me. Cosmo would be calling you baby!”

So, through the weekend we DO plan to work on some songs. I’ve been belting out Isobel for a few months and I am finally hearing the way it should be sung. I wish we had a way to share all this with you NOW! RIGHT NOW!

These songs take you to another place. When I sing, I forget where I am or what is around me and I live in that dream space the song created. We have two sonnets for the CD; Sonnet in the Dark and Dark Sonnet. Catchy-inventive-cool titles ah? We like em’!

Dark Sonnet is one of the new songs Neil wrote for the album. The last line reads,

“I really don’t know what I love you means, I think it means don’t leave me here alone.”

I leave you with those words to think about. Take care of each other. Be true to yourselves and never stop dreaming. The only way to manifest your dreams is to live in the NOW…savor the moment for soon your mind will create another.

Love you all!

Malena

Good Morning All!

Yes, the Terrible Illness of Doom at long last seems to be slinking away with only the odd cough and sniffle now and then, it seems I may yet live.

The Garden is done and actually growing. Not much has died and some of the 42 tomatos actually seem to be growing ( no, we don’t mess around with tomatos, hot peppers either ) I have white, black, purple, striped , red and yellow ones. ( Hmm..Sound like my HAIR for goodness sake ) but the little lovelies will be mightly fine as salsa, soup or just canned. I have 13 hills of Pumkins From Around The World too. More on those if they grow.

Chris the Fop is a wonderful gentleman. He looks like Tim Curry. Kind of SOUNDS like Tim Curry and is a gardener par excellence. He used to play a Fop charecter in a Fop Court out at the MN Renn Fest, hence the name. Everyone should have a Garden Fop around to help and he is pretty stylin with the fashion tips too. ( he had his roommate make me Pajammas out of what he called ” the single coolest material ever” flannel with martinis all over them they are ) I have passed onto Chris the Fop the Famous Glasses that John Scalzi found for me in Madison, as clearly they did not belong to me. ( they may not belong to anyone and the kindest thing we might be able to do is put them out of thier misery ) John seems to think we should post pictures of these Glasses, and I certainly will, but I must warn him that the only picture I have of them is HIM wearing the little darlings….I’ll get Malena to show me how later today. If Christopher sends me a picture of himself, I’ll post that too, with or without the Glasses of Doom.

Oh, yes, someone had asked about how does one pronounce ” Malena” and it is Malena like ” rain ” , not like ” seen”. She told me once where it came from but I can’t for the life of me remember, I’ll let her adress the issue when next she posts.

I am off to see her actually in about 15 minutes. Just for the weekend, but I am most excited, music, sunshine, lemons as big as your head, I do love California. ( tho come to think on it Anywhere would be wonderful if she was there, and wanted to play music with me , I care not )

Talk to you soon!
Fops and Lemons and Gardens Galore,
Lorraine