New Blog Post in Silicon Valley Tales

For all you lovley people who are just discovering my blog, music, musings, works-in-progress,

I’ve been contributing to a Bay Area, female-focused blog site called Silicon Valley Tales.  This site is primarily focused on sharing the perspectives of women surviving in or around Silicon Valley.  All of the posts are contributed by ladies from all over the San Francisco Bay Area and are as diverse and insightful as the women themselves.  I’m honored and stoked to be a contributing member and hope my additions bring a unique perspective to our vibrant community.

 

My latest contribution is the first in what will hopefully be a series of interviews of Bay Area music makers.  I’ll speak with singers, songwriters, band leaders and music professionals in the hopes of bringing a greater sense of familiarity to the vibrant and inspiring musical community that is always hard at work right here in our own back yard.

 

Please read, enjoy and share!

 

http://siliconvalleytales.com/2014/06/16/blues-woman-an-interview-with-bay-area-blues-singer-tia-carroll/

 

Much love.

New Live Video! We Play for You.

Hey folks!

Ryan and I are pledging to give you music for your earholes and eyeholes once a week, every week until the forces of nature make me a liar.   But even that will only be temporary(maybe).  Hopefully, with practice, these videos will become more and more solid and start to include some of our talented and generous friends.  Maybe even YOU can help out!  If you want(pleeeease!).

Here be the first installment!  It’s one of my favorite songs to perform.  Please, enjoy and share to your hearts delight!

Our next live performance will be at Harbin Hot Springs on May 24th. Come up to enjoy the pools during the day.  In the evening, we will perform your faces off!

ALSO! The next Emily Zisman album, Weeds & Wildflowers is headed to the presses!  We are sooooo close.

Until then, enjoy the videos!

Emily and Ryan join Marty Atkinson for a Bazaar Jam!

Mark your calendars for Friday,  March 21st!  We are excited to be sharing some original tunes at the famous Bazaar Café on California Street in San Francisco.

5927 California St, San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 831-5620

 

Check out the digs and the eats: http://www.bazaarcafe.com/

 

In a rare, acoustic appearance, Ryan and I will be trading off half hour sets with the insanely talented Mr. Marty Atkinson.

http://www.martyatkinson.ca/

 

He’ll be joining us, we’ll be joining him….We will aim to jam your face off.   OFF!!

You can tell us whether or not we succeeded at the end of the show.

 

Show starts at 7:30pm but make sure to get there early as it’s a fairly small room with limited seating.  We will sing you songs until about 9:30pm, so plan to tuck in!

There will be some new songs, some old songs and a pant-load of excitement building around the upcoming release of the second Emily Zisman album.

Come!  See us!  We miss you so.

It Will Be Dark (A Metamorphosis)

 

These words that stick out

little mysteries

 

They lodge

In my craw and bite

Back

 

Curious clues at first

Impotent

 

  I sit with them

 

Until they majestically unfurl themselves ornate

Opaque passages.

 

Too terrible to avoid

Too insistent to ignore

 

And treacherous to traverse

But traversable they are. 

 

However sheer and impassable they feel.

 

 

It will be dark.

Upcoming Gigs!

A bevvy of exciting performances on the horizon!  Hope to see you at any or all of them.

 

Saturday, October 19th

Emily Zisman Acoustic Solo

Wine Pickup Party for Velo Vino

Cindy Pawlcyn’s Wood Grill & Wine Bar

641 Main St. St. Helena CA

1pm-4pm

 

Saturday, November 2nd

Americano Social Club FAMILY RUCKUS!

Club Deluxe

1511 Haight St, San Francisco

9:30pm-1am

$5 cover

 

Thursday, Novermber 7th

Special Appearance with Grand Avenue Soul

The Starry Plough

3101 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley

8pm

$7-12 sliding Scale

21+ only

 

Friday, November 8th

Americano Social Club FAMILY RUCKUS!

Café Revolution

9:30pm-12am

Free!

 

Saturday, November 16th

Chance’s End

Fillmore Poster Room

7pm

With purchased of a ticket to see the Fillmore act: Beats Antique

 

 

Mark your calendars and come on out!
Love to you.

 

9/11 non-song

I didn’t feel as close to the fire as I actually was. 

So I never realized how burnt I had become.

I was removed by a polarizing lack of loss.  Suddenly a tourist in my own city as it crumbled around me.  After it had been built before me.  Without me.

This ire wasn’t mine.

 

I still don’t notice the char until I’m reminded by the date. 

The month and day have acquired a mute reverence

More hollowed than the monotonous mark of the passing of time. 

I never felt the heat of rage.  But I did sink.

There was a terrible fall. There was damage.

There is now a thick layer of scar I cannot penetrate for excavation. 

 

I tried to write about it.  I tried to sing about it. 

But I felt impertinent waxing poetic about a fire I didn’t feel. 

Songwriting wasn’t the way in. It may never open for me that way. 

I am waiting for the sting. 

 still waiting to feel the glow. The heat. Anything other than sheer weight. 

 

Just to be able to write an honest word.

 

September Gigs!

Heya Folks!

It has been an eventful month.  I’ve returned from a two-week jaunt in Ireland after falling head over heels in love with it.  It’s one of the more vibrant and engaging places I’ve been in a long time.  The incomparable Ryan Avery joined me for the first half of the journey and even sat in on some traditional music sessions in a few of the local pubs.  Needless to say, he fit right in.   I even managed to finagle my way into one performer’s blues session.   

 

I know. 

I’m incorrigible.

 

In any case I’m looking forward to getting back in the swing of things!

Here’s the lineup for September:

 

Saturday, Sept 7th

The Americano Social Club FAMILY RUCKUS!

Club Deluxe

1511 Haight St (between Clayton St & Ashbury St) San Francisco, CA 94117

9:30pm-1am

$5 door charge

*Special Note!  I will not be at the Club Deluxe Ruckus in October due to a travel conflict.  Come out to this one in order to stave off the withdrawals!

 

Tuesday, Sept 10th

Rich and the Rhythm Roustabouts @ The Dancer’s Den

Berkeley City Club

2315 Durant Ave (between Ellsworth St & Dana St) Berkeley, CA 94704

8:30pm-11:00pm

Dance Entry Fee

 

Friday, Sept 13th

The Americano Social Club FAMILY RUCKUS!

Revolution Café

3248 22nd Street, San Francisco 94110

9:30pm-12:30pm

Free

 

Friday, Sept 27th

Grove Valve Orchestra Benefit for Devoted to Children!

CLIF Bar Headquarters

1451 66th St. Emeryville CA 94608

info:  https://www.facebook.com/events/523395367735586/?ref=22

get tickets!  http://d2cbenefit.eventbrite.com/

See you at a Ruckus or dance venue soon!

Glory Hole

The vagina is under a microscope.
It’s being prodded by shallow precepts.
 
The tools are clumsy and stickily sharp.
 
The stakes are life and death.
 
My vagina is not a glory hole
 
It’s not a place to pray.
 
You can come inside if you want to
 
But I must insist that you stay.
 
 
 
It’s not yours to testify against
 
It’s not yours to undermine
 
It can give you a brand new set of laws
 
If you can sacrifice some time.
 
 
This can mean war if you insist on war
 
swinging your pious pens about,  like swords
 
suturing laws with calculated ignorance
 
And baby, those are fighting words.  In our defense
 
So God got it backwards, did he?
In his flawed, omnipotent perfection.
While he gave men the desire to take lives,
He gave women the power to make them.