So, I do a lot. It’s always in the world of entertainment, but I very intentionally sashay between performing and producing. It’s important to me to see not only a world where my career can thrive, but to act very participate in others’ success, too. Often, this creative industry can feel siloed, even though I feel like we share a common goal of enriching our surroundings with creativity and art. So, I love it when a group of people activate outdoor spaces, invite all kinds of collaborators, and celebrate local talent. If you also love these delicious things, the greatest investment you can make is showing up. Join me on Saturday, Sept 27th from 12pm onwards at Flats Fest. It’s a free, all ages day full of epic music with some of my fave local acts (@fionnband @markwoodyard @lovemauvey and @michaelaslinger), new and classic video games to nerd out on, a kids zone, artisan market, and student art on sale from @emilycarru. There’ll be a boujie beer garden and food trucks too (and cotton candy, I hear. THIS IS IMPERATIVE TO MY SURVIVAL).
Long story long, I’m going to be there from 12-5, talking to whoever wants to come hang with me and @buffalobuffaloofficial and play some games, talk about Signals (@follow_digibc and @viffest) creative tech expo, and bring me cotton candy. In case anybody missed that, I SAID BRING ME COTTON CANDY. Thanks to @lowtideproperties for throwing a lovely outdoor party for all. Share this with your friends and DM if you’re coming so I can say hi 👋
K thanks BYEEEEEE 💕
Weekly songwriting challenge #28: Wander (Wonder). It’s a long weekend, so I took an extra day. May we all have hope to wander and wonder.
🎼 About Four Chord First Takes
This year is about writing, and doing it through restrictions. Only four chords allowed, using the ones in the most popular pop progression (I, V, vi and IV). That means a new song or prose, once a week, recorded in one take only, and uploaded.
Thanks for listening to this year’s challenge.
Weekly songwriting challenge #27: Doing Well. Probably the fastest one yet because I had 45 mins to get this done and out the door so I can go celebrate @dushanphilips birthday, after twelve years apart, and 25 years of friendship. Happy birthday my friend. I’m so proud of you for following the dreams we laid out as plans all those years ago. Thanks for doing this art life beside me, near and far, from Melbourne to London and now to you in New York. We’re in it, long haul. Thanks also for coming to my show at Light up Chinatown. I can’t wait to see you shine on stage at Skirball Centre NYC next month.
🎼 About Four Chord First Takes
This year is about writing, and doing it through restrictions. Only four chords allowed, using the ones in the most popular pop progression (I, V, vi and IV). That means a new song or prose, once a week, recorded in one take only, and uploaded.
Thanks for listening to this year’s challenge.
I get free advertising when my high school best friend shows up in Vancouver before going to be in a play in New York. This is the part of the friend contract.
If you would like to meet said friend and interrogate @dushanphilips about what 15-year old Kristina was like, now is your chance. He’ll be at @lightupchinatown tomorrow (Sunday Aug 25th) at 4pm.
I’ll play the background music while you’re there, with @robjthomson @emilynmakesmusic and @quinndy_97 . Deal? Deal.
Thanks @chinatownfoundation for lighting up Chinatown - you shine so bright it brought international actors across the seas ✨😊
Weekly songwriting challenge #26: People Person.
I was at a lovely brunch today, looking around at a room of people who had found their people. And so, this little one danced out in a couple of hours.
I wove in all the new and age-old friends I have collected and who have collected me over the years. Every new country, every move, some break ups, some simply choices made as we drift away. I wove in the feeling of being alone, and trying to fit in, and feeling like an awkward potato in a field of asparaguys. I wove in that glorious feeling of landing with people who energise you. I think I am in the era of choosing and cherishing those who vibe right alongside when you feel your best, and the same precious ones who pick you up when you’re feeling temporarily less.
May you keep and be good friends, my dears. None of us are islands.
🎼 About Four Chord First Takes
This year is about writing, and doing it through restrictions. Only four chords allowed, using the ones in the most popular pop progression (I, V, vi and IV). That means a new song or prose, once a week, recorded in one take only, and uploaded.
Thanks for listening to this year’s challenge.
Weekly song challenge #25: The Wait
I try to play my songs to @ryanjmah right before I record them each week. So, he had just finished listening to this one that I had written about our seven years of friend adventures that turned into this.
My rules remain: one take, no matter what. So, when he forgets that I’m mid-recording and gets up to leave the house, it just adds another layer of entertainment. And yes, with all the crash banging around my recording, he’s still well worth the wait.
Twenty five songs this year… feeling pretty proud of that.
This one was fun to write, and fun to play.
🎼 About Four Chord First Takes
This year is about writing, and doing it through restrictions. Only four chords allowed, using the ones in the most popular pop progression (I, V, vi and IV). That means a new song or prose, once a week, recorded in one take only, and uploaded.
Thanks for listening to this year’s challenge.
Weekly songwriting challenge #24: “When You’re Ready”
I had a nourishing weekend away with friends. We talked through loss and life, life and living, living and leaving, leaving and starting again, and all kinds of love. I think sometimes it’s hard to say you’re changing and not sure who you’ll be on the other side. Will you lose your friends da are you change? Your community, your family? The way I want to love, in all its iterations, is to say that even if we aren’t necessarily destined to be in proximity, I will always want you to keep searching for you, and if you do, I will meet you to see who you’ve become.
Thanks to Alyssa, Sadè, Ian, Raagini and Anjali for the conversation that directly led to this creation. 💕
🎼 About Four Chord First Takes
This year is about writing, and doing it through restrictions. Only four chords allowed, using the ones in the most popular pop progression (I, V, vi and IV). That means a new song or prose, once a week, recorded in one take only, and uploaded.
Thanks for listening to this year’s challenge.
Weekly songwriting challenge #23: “I’ll Stay”. First song of the new chapter, and I’m reflecting on life, death, and omnipresence. Aging is a privilege, and every day is an unpromised gift. As I look back over the past week, I think of my friends, my loved ones, my most precious, and what I’d want them to know if I wasn’t able to say it for myself. The reality is, as I like to see it, we imprint ourselves into the elements with every breath we take, and then, when we don’t, we continue to breathe from and to the world around us. I like to think this because I feel my ancestors and future generations. I feel in and of the world, encased in one version of me, and embraced by infinite possibilities.
Instead of an existential crisis, I call it an existential basis.
🎼 About Four Chord First Takes
This year is about writing, and doing it through restrictions. Only four chords allowed, using the ones in the most popular pop progression (I, V, vi and IV). That means a new song or prose, once a week, recorded in one take only, and uploaded.
Thanks for listening to this year’s challenge.
Weekly Songwriting challenge #22 - “The Way We Go”. I’ll need to fix up some of the melody, but the bones are there.
This is a love letter to my fiery friends, my loves who have worked hard to better themselves, their communities, the world, and me. We write so much about coupledom. I don’t think there are nearly enough songs about our ride-or-dies, our besties, the ones who pick us up off the floor, scream our name the loudest, leave random voice notes telling us they are proud of us, for going for our dreams and building big things, for seeking justice, and for living fully.
I can’t tag all the ones I wrote this about… but I imagine you know who you are, from now and then, near and far. No matter when or where we were and are: This one’s for you, from my happy heart 💕
#21 of the weekly songwriting challenge: “Like I Used To”.
This one ran out in an hour or less. I think it needed to be said.
We lost a blazing light in the world this week. ✨
🎼 About Four Chord First Takes
This year is about writing, and doing it through restrictions. Only four chords allowed, using the ones in the most popular pop progression (I, V, vi and IV). That means a new song or prose, once a week, recorded in one take only, and uploaded.
Thanks for listening to this year’s challenge.
*TW POST- SENSITIVE INFORMATION*
I am struggling to know if this is the “right” thing to do. Please understand this is one take, unscripted, and immediate. I cannot post about the show without addressing this. In all the work I do, in the spaces we share, it is imperative to me to be honest, and know that it will never be a perfect response. My heart goes to those affected, to those who bravely faced this trauma. I am so, so sad to be writing this, so afraid for the ones I love, and yet compelled to say something. I am always hesitant because I don’t want to make myself or others a target, nor to perpetuate falsities or encourage divisive behaviour. But this happened at a show I closed, in my community, with my friends, right next to my family and loved ones.
We have a collective problem when a person sets out to hurt another person or people. We need to address it. And to those directly impacted, I hope we can offer more direct support for what you may need to heal.
I do not mention names, organisations or media or news here, and made sure this was reported first before making any public statement. This was a Light Up Chinatown! 2023 event, and I am so truly honoured to be a part of a celebration of this community and our shared space.
I don’t know what to do now. I know many of us won’t. But, as always, I will do what I can with what I have, and what I have is this: a request that we think about what it means to solve a collective problem without harm, and without needing to be “right”. We have to prioritise safety, togetherness, and harmony over ego, fear and revenge.
THIS IS WHY I AM YELLING 😬. From November 16th until the 27th, there are FOURTEEN events happening over ELEVEN days at FIVE different venues. This is the FIRST time Re:Naissance is holding #IndieFest in person. I have been moving alongside wonderful people to create space for incredible local artists to showcase genre-defying works. We have curated collaborations and engaged new networks in our creative neighbourhoods, and challenged the way we work together with kindness and care. To see a vision like this about to take off is extremely satisfying and significantly scary.
It cannot be possible without the artists, the teams and collaborators behind the scenes, and the sponsors who believe in our ability to bring about
Thank you to Aamir for creating such lovely videos for us, Rebecca for all your work with me on these, and to these fantastic featured artists on this reel, Devours SeviSev and Simziez, Ky Tabernero, Double Happiness: Detour This Way and Erika Mitsuhashi
Tickets HERE: https://www.eventbrite.ca/o/indiefest-renaissance-opera-20232607748
Thank you, sponsors! We gratefully acknowledge the support of: Vancouver Opera Association for Opera in CanadaBC Arts Council. Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada City of Vancouver - Local Government Vancouver Civic Theatres Canadian Heritage Creative BC Reallusion Movella Entertainment - Xsens Vancity Vancouver Foundation. This festival is Supported by the Province of British Columbia and funded by the Government of Canada.
This is EXACTLY what it looks like: My inner child greets my outer one.
I learned many, many things from my NO-vember. I am definitely a fan of the results, and will be doing it again. Top takeaways:
🌟 HABIT-IT: Saying no is a habit, and it can feel counterintuitive if you lean towards the “rescuer” personality type (👋). It gets easier with practice.
🌟 JOMO: I shifted my FOMO to JOMO- the joy of missing out on some things, in favour of projects that bring me joy. That helped me shift perspective, which made it easier to say no.
🌟 BET ON YOU, FIRST: I turned down multiple offers this month. Old me would’ve taken them because of a scarcity mindset. New me turned them down because I bet on me; on bigger opportunities, more flexibility, and higher value projects. It meant that I approached jobs, gigs, parts as more of a two-way street than trying to prove my worth or ability. It also helped me put my own creative and down time into my calendar and treat myself like my top client. That was BIG.
🌟CREATE SPACE: to go away with your family, to achieve what downtime looks like to you, to rest, to exercise, to meditate. Then, create space, and leave it alone. It’s that space that will allow what’s best for you to get to you.
There’s more, but I’m curious to see what happens when you do your own version of this. As we navigate our careers, our selves, each other, I’m infinitely inspired by the iterative process and challenging my complacency. I have Larry Butler to thank in particular, for coaching this kid, as well as my family and loved ones, who are always ready to pull out the safety mats.
Happy NO-vember, to all y’all who did your own version, who wrote and told me that it inspired you to do something different. No can be so beautiful, especially if it makes it a yes to YOU.
Now back to eating cotton candy with @gracemharvey.
Xx
