Recovering From The Future

Last night was pretty epic. Paul’s release party couldn’t have been more perfect. It was a packed house and there was so much dancing, so much cheering, so much love. Paul had his guest artists come on stage and perform live with him. The energy coming from ANGI3, BS, Illustrate, and Michael Ross made the night even more amazing.

A big thank you to all the rappers (including some I had never met before) who came up and told me they've been a rapper in my kitchen and have read my blog. Here's to many more rappers in the kitchen!

The Future was pretty crazy. I was out late and I’m a little hungover, so today’s post is just going to be pictures from last night. Paul looks pretty good in his future hat, right?

If you missed the show, don’t beat yourself up too bad. Just get the album on either iTunes or Amazon!

Willie Green

Illustrate

ANGI3 & BS

Willie Green

Willie Green & ANGI3

Michael Ross

Accessorizing For The Future

United Nude, aka shoe heaven

A few summers ago, Paul and I travelled to London and Paris. In London, we stayed with his friend, Paddy Corrigan, a British rapper who goes by ID. He was an amazing host and cooked us a British feast. Pork cracklings? Delicious.

While in London, we discovered United Nude. They sell the craziest, most futuristic looking shoes and hats. Paul really loved one of their hats- called the "Stealth" hat, because it's inspired by the lines of stealth fighter planes. It's a geometric, kind of architectural flat cap. But they weren’t cheap and with the exchange rate, there was no way we could justify the purchase at the time.

Last month I was meeting friends for brunch when I walked past the store right here in NYC! I originally thought birthday present, but when I realized he could wear it at his release party, I just went for the impromptu gift. I mean, how perfect is this hat for a guy who just released an album called ‘We Live In The Future’? Naturally, I decided I should get futuristic accessories for myself too... so I bought some shoes.

  Paul and I are both accessories people. Paul has a serious collection of shoes and hats. He hangs his hats and I hang my jewelry on the walls of our bedroom, partly because it’s the most convenient space for them but also cause we like to have them on display. So please be understanding when I dedicate a whole post to a really awesome hat and pair of shoes.

Paul's collage of hats

The release party is TONIGHT and I am ridiculously excited. This will be my first time seeing him perform the songs. It’s going to be fun, and there is going to be so much dancing. Take a sneak listen to my two favorite songs- Tomorrow and Fasho! Fasho!

Show details: Tonight (3/28) at Spike Hill in Williamsburg. 186 Bedford Ave (it is literally across the street from the subway). Cover is $6. Doors are at 7:30pm. It's an early show for us 9-5'ers!

Tour Life - A Perspective From The One Left Behind

Touring isn’t easy. It’s hard to be on the road with seven other dudes in a van eating gas station food and sleeping on strangers couches or in cheap motels. It's not easy to be left behind either though. Paul's back in Brooklyn for his show on Thursday, and I am thrilled to have him home. Well, he’s here until Friday at least, and then he continues on to Canada. It’s always a slight adjustment when he comes home, and it makes me realize how much I have to adapt to new routines when he’s away.

I pretty much eat only frozen meals, pasta, and soup when he’s gone. I’m really bad about cooking on my own. Before I met him, I ate hummus and pita for dinner most nights. I’ve gotten a bit better and have mastered the vegetarian stir fry. But he’s not really joking when he tells me I have to learn to feed myself when he’s away.

My other big problem is sleeping while he’s gone. I hate sleeping when no one is around- I grew up with siblings and I always had roommates before we lived together. I become an insomniac while he’s on tour. This has led to lots of slumber parties!! Some of my grad school friends threw an amazing slumber party a few months ago actually. They pulled all of their mattresses into the living room, served baked goodies, and we did karaoke to our favorite 90’s songs. It was perfection. Slumber parties are definitely a big part of my survival when Paul leaves for a month.

I actually just got called out for another thing I got used to while he was away. I took over his closet. Oops. He just had so much empty space in there, and my closet is at the point where it’s hard to get things in and out. So I slowly started moving over some shirts. I figured he might not notice the shirts. He noticed. And I’m being booted from the closet. (They are totally going back in there when he leaves on Friday...)

A month on the road is long for both of us, but I know he loves when he gets a great response at a show. And I do enjoy having some space to do my own thing. Hey, it’s the reason I took the time to start this blog!

Embracing The Locals

There has been this big boom in supporting local businesses, eating at farm to table restaurants, and the DIY culture in general.. and I think it’s pretty great. Not saying I’ll never buy anything that’s “made in China” again, but Paul and I try our best to support the talented people and local businesses around us.

We’re part of a CSA (Community Sustained Agriculture) organization where we get vegetables from a nearby farm on Long Island. Since I don’t really love cooking, this has been great for getting me in the kitchen and giving Paul a hand. You don’t get to choose, you just receive whatever veggies are in season each week. Sometimes we get pretty crazy things and have to figure out how to prepare them. It’s made dinners more interesting and cooking way more fun.

We also used all local, small businesses for our wedding. Our best experience was working with Bella at Hibiscus Flowershop in our neighborhood. She got to know us, really got inspired by our venue, listened to what we wanted (let’s be real, what I wanted.. Paul didn’t care about the flowers), and worked within our budget. Of all the vendors we used, she was the one we had the best relationship with and were therefore the happiest with her work.

The other decision Paul and I made was to stop buying cheap, low quality furniture. Sorry, Ikea. So when I stumbled on this swoon worthy lamp by kahokia, a Brooklyn based design firm, I instantly coveted it. Their mission is to provide elegant, affordable design by American artists. They make these “manity's” which I think are super clever. Mancessories are a real thing.

Manity by kahokia

Paul likes modern design more than I do. I tend to gravitate towards antiques, but this lamp may have opened me up to a whole new world. The side view is cool, but what struck me about the lamp is the effect it creates on the wall when viewed from the front. The shadow evokes a standard floor lamp with a shade. The dichotomy of such a modern lamp giving off such a traditional shadow seemed to me so sophisticated and playful at the same time. It’s the first thing I turn on when I come in to the apartment now.

My cousins mockingly call me a hippie. While I wouldn’t describe myself that way, I do think there is something rewarding about supporting my local community. Aren’t we all tired of getting automated responses when we call stores? Isn’t it nice when the people you shop from remember your name? I think so.

Greetings From...

I got a vintage postcard in the mail the other day from my friend Candace. It was of a park in Berlin and she had written “wish we were here!” on the back. I love that. Sending a postcard to someone from an awesome place saying “wish you were here” is thoughtful, but you know it leads to some slight envy for the receiver. Candace’s postcard was sort of like getting an invitation for an adventure though.

She knows I love vintage postcards. I have a small collection of them. I got obsessed with these vintage embroidered Spanish costume postcards, and I bought a whole series of them. I think they are beautiful. They have so many things I love all rolled into one.. postcards, embroidery, vintage clothing, costumes, Spain..!


We also have a few that depict places in Brooklyn that we love, like the art museum, the botanic gardens, the bridge, etc. For our wedding save-the-date, Paul and I reproduced our postcard of the Brooklyn Bridge. We got married in a Victorian era social club in Brooklyn with a lot of history, so I liked that a vintage postcard conveyed the location and also the tone of the wedding.

Candace and I were roommates before I lived with Paul. She responded to my Craigslist post for a roommate, and we hit the jackpot. She is by far the best thing I ever found on Craigslist. Not only is she an awesome person, but she’s also an amazing artist. For me, her photography is the stand out, but she dabbles in just about every medium (peruse her portfolio!). She signed and dated the postcard, something you often do when writing letters, but since she is an artist, the line has been blurred for me. I consider her sending the postcard as an act of art. Sort of like a performance piece.

Hi, My Name Is Alessandra. What's Yours?

Paul's first album

I’m often curious about how rappers choose their stage names. Paul got Willie Green from a character in the blaxploitation film, Dolemite. When he first adopted it, he was actually Big Willie Green.. ya know, back when rappers were always Big or Lil’ something. Luckily, that’s since been dropped.

Not being in the rap scene myself, I never know how to address rappers. It’s not weird when they do it, but I'm pretty sure I sound ridiculous when I use rap names. To understand my predicament, here is a sampling of names of the rappers/producers/dj’s I have been introduced to over the years: Pastense, PremRock, Uncommon Nasa, Mo Niklz, Sketch tha Cataclysm, Tah Phrum Duh Bush, Illustrate, Urban Miracle, Varyus Waise...

Of course, the names that are a mouthful get shortened. Tah Phrum Duh Bush is just Tah, Sketch tha Cataclysm is just Sketch, even PremRock is just Prem. That’s easier for me to do, cause it feels more like a nickname.

Made by KC of MakeShopLive!

Since some rappers stage names are their real name (like Warren Britt), people sometimes assume that Paul’s name is Willie. He even had someone put him down as a reference on their job application as Mr. William Green once.

In the beginning, I asked rappers their real names and used those, but some people don’t like to share them. It was pretty funny when we went to address our wedding invitations, and Paul needed to ask a few friends for their real names. We joked that the reception place cards should also include people’s rap names in parentheses. I actually wish we had done that in retrospect. I think it would have been amazing. Especially in juxtaposition to the adorable bow magnets my crafty bridesmaid KC (check her site: MakeShopLive) made to display the cards. Rappers with bows? Yes, please!

Anyway, I'm getting better about using rap names. So when I introduce myself, I'll ask you what your name is and you make the decision what I call you.

Rap Cats

I’m going home to Brooklyn tonight. I really wish I had a few more days here in Texas, cause I’m not looking forward to going back to snow and cold (why isn’t it spring yet??). But one thing I am excited about is seeing my cat. I miss that little fuzzy bundle of trouble. We have a very wilful, but totally adorable kitty named Lenore.

We got her a few summers ago, but before the cushy life she now leads, she lived on the hard streets of Brooklyn. The SPCA nipped the top of her left ear to identify that she was one of those trapped, neutered, and released cats. It’s her little battle scar from a previous life.

Lenore with my ducky pillow

When we first got her, she was obviously really wary of us, but now she’s just super sassy. She likes to knock stuff off tables, hop into the shower when its on and then freak out when she gets wet, and reach out and hit you with her paw when you walk by. She is such a weirdo.

I think it must be a universal rule that rappers like cats though. All the rappers that come to our apartment love her. Billy Woods is an especially big fan. I know quite a few rappers that own not just one, but several cats. And I’m not even joking when I tell you that I saw several of them post facebook comments towards the end of SXSW about how they couldn’t wait to get home to their cats. And some of them have wives...

This is how she sleeps

Paul’s pretty obsessed with our cat too. When he’s on tour, he talks about missing his girls... meaning me and Lenore. He also claims that Lenore can tell when he’s working on good music, cause she comes into his studio and listens. And if he plays something bad, she leaves. It’s not just me and Maria that are sounding boards.

And yes, a big reason for this post was so I could show cute pictures of my cat.

Livin' In The Future

Today, Paul's album "We Live In The Future" (via Fake Four distro) comes out! Anyone who is or has known an artist understands the emotional ups and downs of working creatively. When they feel uninspired they can be in bad moods, when they are inspired they feel great. It has been a long, but exciting year of watching Paul put together this project. And I couldn't be more proud of the end result.

Paul's focus has always been hip hop and rap, and while that edge still comes through on this album, it's definitely got more pop and is dancier than his previous projects. I joked before that I felt like he made the album for me, but me and my sister really were sounding boards for this project. Maria lives in Manhattan, and we have her over for dinner all the time. It makes me so happy that my sister and my husband are such good friends. So Paul will invite her over for dinner sometimes, and while we are in the kitchen cooking, he will play some of his beats and gage our reactions. When we started dancing to a beat, he knew it was a keeper. When we just stood there chopping veggies, he tossed it. We were his product testers so to speak.

Since I work in the visual arts, I often think about the producer process as similar to an art curator's process. Obviously, by making the beats and the musical arrangements, he is also the artist. He even wrote the scores for the live horn and string sections. But as the producer, he chooses the artists that he thinks would sound best over the different songs. Then once he has the finished songs, he figures out which order he wants the listener to experience them. He even writes liner notes that discuss each song, which are akin to artwork labels in a museum. The end result is a creative, well thought out exploration of Paul's futuristic interpretations of funk, dance, disco, pop, rap, and even rock.

You can buy the album on iTunes or Amazon. Get ready for a dance party!

My Parent's Halfway House for Rappers

I flew home to Texas this past Friday. It's rodeo season in Houston, and I try to come home for it every year. The rodeo is a month long affair. It starts with Go Texan Day (yes, that's actually what it's called) and a trail ride into Houston, where cowboys/girls from all over literally ride their horses down the streets of Houston. Then every night for the next three weeks, there are livestock shows, rodeo events, and concerts (usually country western). Some of my favorite high school memories involve dancing to Clay Walker with my girlfriends at the rodeo.. ah, nostalgia! Of the actual rodeo activities, the highlight for me is mutton bustin, where 5 year olds are placed on top of sheep and try to stay on for as long as possible. You can find videos on YouTube, it's beyond hilarious.

The other reason I chose to come home this weekend was cause SXSW just ended, and for the past few years, Paul and his tour crew have been stopping afterwards for a night at my parents house to regroup, have a bed to sleep in, and get a good meal. Since I hate not seeing him for a month, I figured I would make sure to overlap with him on his Houston stopover this year.



Clockwise from left: Fresh Kils, Relic,

Toussaint Morrison, B. Durazzo, Mad Dukes,

Prem Rock, Willie Green, Ron Perks, and

Corina Corina

He's on tour with seven other guys though. Corina Corina and Toussaint Morrison are also on tour and have a show in Houston, so they are crashing at my parents place too. Which means my parents have NINE rappers staying in their home. Every bed, couch, sleeping bag is currently being used.

Last night, we treated them to some bbq and tex-mex. A true Texan guy, my dad is a big hunter, so he had some recently hunted elk burgers and sausages on the grill. While I'm pretty sure my parents never thought they would be hosting rappers, my dad definitely loved having an audience of dudes to listen to his hunting stories. And it was pretty cute to see my Italian mama making sure that all the rappers were well fed.

The funny thing is, as soon as the rappers leave, they are being replaced with a bunch of girls from the Harvard track team. You never know who will be staying at Chez Merrill.

Kitchen Evacuation - Discovering El Anatsui

Since Paul records in our kitchen, he tries to schedule sessions with clients during the work day so that it’s not an inconvenience for me. Our apartment is set up so that the kitchen and living room are basically one large space, so I can’t exactly hang out and watch some tv if he’s recording. For the rappers with day jobs, they have to schedule time on the weekends though.

Luckily, we live down the street from the Brooklyn Art Museum, and it’s one of my faves. I often go there during his recording sessions. (It’s also a lifesaver in the summer when it’s disgustingly hot out, and I can go there to soak up the art as well as the air conditioning. God, I miss having central ac.) A few weeks ago, Corina Corina and ANGI3 came in to record, so I went to see the new El Anatsui exhibition and it blew me away.

He’s a Nigerian artist best known for his metal wall hangings made out of liquor bottle caps. So often artwork made out of trash looks like trash, but these are stunning. They are draped on the wall and look like textiles from a distance. I think it’s the scale (they are huge) of such laborious construction in combination with the gold and silver sheen of the metal, but for me, they evoked the same awe as when I have visited Medieval churches in Europe.

The exhibition is open through August 4, 2013, and I couldn't recommend it enough. For those of you not in NYC, you can check out the museum’s website for more pictures and info.

Sometimes, it’s not so bad to have rappers in your kitchen.

That Time I Was Almost A Video Ho

Paul did a music video for the single “Fast Lane” off his upcoming album. He wanted to do a spoof of bad 90’s horror films. We have spent many a Saturday afternoon watching bad sci-fi and horror movies. If you haven’t yet watched Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus or Mega Python vs. Gatoroid starring eighties singers, Tiffany and Debbie Gibson, I highly recommend. They are two of our favorites. Disclaimer: they are best watched not entirely sober.

Anyway, his manager, Suz, found this corn maze and farm in NJ where it would be set. He wanted to make it cheesy and fun, so he cast the stereotypical high school roles: cheerleader, football star, token black guy, stoner, and slutty chick. ANGI3 and BS, the featured rappers on this song, were the cheerleader and football star. He had some friends play the stoner and token black guy. But he was having trouble finding a girl who was available for the day to be the slutty chick.

After many slightly awkward phone calls asking girls he knew if they would be his slutty chick, I finally stepped in and offered to do it. I knew he wouldn't ask me, because he knows I hate to be on camera (I have total stage fright). But that’s what a good wife does. She offers to be her husband’s ho in his rap video, right?

Seeing as I am a classy girl, we went to Salvation Army to acquire a wardrobe for my role. We found some leopard print, velvet, studded, 5 inch heels that were god-awful but perfect and a leather jacket. Luckily for me, Suz stepped in at the last minute and volunteered to do it. I cannot thank her enough. She did a much better job than I ever could have.

Futuristic T-Shirt Designs

My husband is on tour right now, promoting his new album “We Live in the Future”. Since he makes beats, he generally doesn't do any lyric writing. But I told him when we first started dating that he should NEVER write a song for me. I don’t know why I can’t handle that stuff, but it’s corny to me. I hate poetry too. So what.

We just got married this past year, and I do, however, secretly feel like he made this album for me. A lot of the albums he works on are darker, more serious (Billy Woods, I’m looking at you), but this one is dance-y, upbeat, and fun. While I completely appreciate the genius behind Billy Woods’ albums, I LOVE a good dance party in the kitchen. Most things go down in our kitchen it turns out.

Paul’s talented friends helped out with the artwork for the album- Matt Carter drew the album cover and Justin Keller did the graphic design. I love it. It looks so awesome. Between the album art and how much I dig this album, I got inspired myself and decided to screen print t-shirts for Paul to sell while on tour.

I wanted the designs to tie in with the cover art, so I decided to stick with the futuristic city theme. I decided on three designs representing NYC, LA, and Austin. They are cities he was planning on performing in, but they are also some of the most well-known music cities. I chose iconic buildings from each city- the Chrysler building for NYC, the Capitol Records building for LA, and the Capitol for Austin. I have a thing for patterns, so I filled each building with a pattern I thought was representative of each city. A Deco pattern for NYC, an Eames mid-century modern pattern for LA, and a southwestern pattern for Austin. And then I chose colors that I felt could be associated with each city- green for NYC (Paul’s music name is Willie Green), pink for LA, and orange for Austin. We decided to top each building with the futuristic orb from the cover art to make sure the t-shirts made sense with the album. I think they turned out pretty cool. A big thank you to Chris Nguyen for helping me digitize everything and Garrett Klein for lending me the screens!!

Rappers With My Ducky Pillow

I think I would like to inaugurate my blog with a series that I have entitled 'rappers with my ducky pillow'. It’s pretty self explanatory. I hope for it to be a recurring entry.

Growing up, my parents always opened up our home to friends and family. My sisters and I were frequently booted from our bedrooms to make room for a guest. I loved the sense of community that my parents fostered in our home. Our friends always felt welcome and our house was always bustling.

Being married to a musician means that he has musician friends and they go on tours. So I made it clear to Paul that it was never a burden to have his friends crash on our couch if they needed a place to stay when travelling to Brooklyn.

How I obtained my ducky pillow is actually a funny story on its own. I saw it in a store, thought it was cute but not worth the forty bucks. A month later I saw it at a garage sale in my neighborhood. I was so excited.. only three dollars! As I am handing the woman the cash, her young daughter comes out of the house and bursts into tears that her mom was selling 'her ducky pillow'. I look at the woman and she mouths “just go”. I didn’t know what to do... so I just did what the mom said and backed away clutching the ducky pillow. Yep. I took a little girls pillow. While she cried for me not to take it. It was slightly traumatizing.

That saucy duck now gets cuddled by rappers that crash in our home. It’s kind of amazing. None of them use it as a pillow. They curl up with it. I thought it was hilarious, and I wanted to take pictures of these tough looking guys cuddling my ducky pillow, but I realized the creepiness factor of them waking up to me taking a picture of them sleeping. Unfortunately for this series, but perhaps fortunately for Pastense and Mo Niklz (my favorite of all the rap names I have heard so far), I didn’t know them well enough at the time to feel like I could photograph them sleeping. Luckily, I knew Mark (aka PremRock) well enough to take that chance with him, cause now we have this gem. In the future, I’m just gonna embrace the creepy. Rappers beware.

A Mission Statement Of Sorts

I’ve been joking about starting a blog called 'rappers in my kitchen' for a while now. My husband is a producer and music engineer, working mostly in hip hop and rap. His studio is in our second bedroom of our apartment, which works really well most of the time. Except when he records vocals. And the only space for it is in our kitchen. Which means I have rappers in my kitchen.

Photography: Victoria Holt

Considering I didn’t really listen to much rap before dating him, we come from pretty different worlds, and our styles are really different, people often are amused at how perfect we are together. So I figured I would share some of my stories and experiences.

We are also both pretty big foodies, and Paul loves to cook (he even makes his own custom olive oils and flavored butters- I’m really lucky, I know!), and this blog IS set in a kitchen, so I figure I’ll probably also post some food pics and recipes too.

And, since I work in the arts as well (specifically the visual arts), I figure I’ll also post art-related things too. Just got my masters in decorative arts and design (woo education, boo student debt) and I’m now the director of fine art at a small Brooklyn fine arts & antiques business.