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I have developed a habit of sneaking out at night to the apartment rooftop. it’s kind of surreal to crawl up there right to the edge and hover above Brooklyn. I can spot the schoolyard in the dark, and the dollar tree store, our laundromat and the local diner, all blending into a swirl of…
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when Teresa of Ávila, a Spanish mystic, was asked what she did in prayer, she replied, “I just allow myself to be loved.” that’s how I feel about the person I wrote this song about. here’s Winona. we all know someone like her — she’s offbeat, loves to stir things up, and might even have…
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besides performing for the support group or at the memory center, there are just a few other locations where it makes sense for me to play my music in person. the vinyl shop a couple of streets over from the apartment is one. I get to play full sets there. the owner is nice. whenever…
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I like visiting the cemetery. Green-Wood is the famous one in town. it is filled with grassy slopes, walking trails, fountains and ponds. Holy Cross is the one I go to most often. most days, it’s difficult for me to consider my course through the world. but when I’m there, imagining people’s lives from the…
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my dad died before I was born. I can say I know him better now than I did when he was alive. there are photographs. some of his clothes and shoes are still in my mom’s bedroom closet. we have his bottle of aftershave and little things he collected, like old metro and transit tokens…
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the rest of America sits on porches, but in summertime in New York City people sit on stoops. they’re front-row seats on life here. the city-version of the old-time rocking chair. it’s where you people-watch, and hear stories, gossip, and some good rumors. we don’t have stoops where I live but other sections of Brooklyn…
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I don’t know why other people make songs. I just want to show you how my life feels. here are my first 11. I recorded all of them in my room at home last year. this is the order in which I imagined the songs would be heard. I hope you will click through some…
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this is a new song called laundromatic. the tactile nature of going there, the act of washing and cleansing, the feeling of warm clothes and the smell of fresh laundry, I find comforting and soothing. and transforming, particularly on the days that I am low: the city on hard days. riding my bike past so-called…
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popular vs. invisibleinsiders vs. outsiderswinners vs. losersnormal vs. freak I always felt the kids on the left hated me. they sure acted like they did. a few years later things hit different. I now see that if anything they were afraid. not of me. of themselves. and being like everyone else. this is a new…
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stand on any sweltering street corner of Brooklyn in July and something becomes really clear: people are edgy. maybe it’s the steam that rises from subway grates. or maybe the smell of black trash bags baking in the summer sun. if you study their faces, no one appears to be in a good mood. sometimes…
cookie nieves 