I’m writing songs and am about to make my solo record!
If you want to be part of the process, you can follow me on twitter. (the name is gretamorgan)
Lots of good stuff to come… Stay tuned!
Angeline—Noun
The name’s source is angelos, a Greek name meaning “Messenger from God.”
1. My Chicago roommate and dear friend
2. A talented and inspired photographer
3. The maker of this short film documenting her/our last year.
Watch it!
At the Vasquez Rocks outside Los Angeles. Theodora and Greta. Taken by Adam Paul.
Go see it. Now. Best film I’ve seen in a long time.
The view in Mexico.
Our dear friend, Jon.
Bob as Scrooge.
Also in 2008— a neighbor gave me the largest cucumber I’ve ever seen, grown from her garden. The cucumber lived at our apartment for two weeks before being given to a friend as a birthday gift.
Also in 2008, Mike discovered that he could solve the Rubik’s cube in under two minutes. Chris discovered that he could not eat a Rubik’s cube in under or over two minutes.
Please indulge me in my love of summing up….
How I spent my year:
January— Trip to India. Travelled all over Rajasthan with my dear friend, Theodora. We drank at lease five cups of chai each day, feasted on Indian food, watched belly dancing and saw local folk art every day, met many incredibly holy and kind people, sang our names into the chambers of the Taj Mahal for good luck, returned more grateful and enthused about life than we’d ever been.
February— Month off at home. My 20th birthday. Family. Friends. Bitter cold winter.
March— A headlining SXSW tour. We were back on the road in our ‘little van that could’ with our dedicated crew— Conor, Eric, and Adam Mustachio.
April-May-June—Honda Civic Tour. We rekindled our love with the Panic guys and discovered (by sharing a tour bus) that Phantom Planet and The Hush Sound are quite possibly soul mates. Panic, Phantom Planet, and The Hush Sound all released our records during this tour.
July-August— Dance Across The Country Tour with Steel Train, The Cab, and The Morning Light. We introduced the newest addition to our band— (the glorious) MIKE LEBLANC— and also welcomed Wayne and Messy to the crew. Fifty shows routed us around the country. It was a challenging and wild summer of tour bus sauna-ing, near arrests, photo taking, Beatles-worshipping, new friend making, jackson five covering, late night reading, sleep exhaustion, truck stop showering, new song writing, and eventually, tour bus delousing. I went to Austin City Limits in August with the opportunity to be a guest writer for Spin.com, and hung out with my brother, an environmental engineering grad student at UT. We rooted Obama on during the presidential debates.
September- Japan tour. Tokyo and Osaka. We lost Bob overnight in Osaka and feared that we’d lose him forever. Lucky for us, he returned in one beautiful, red-headed piece. I never adjusted from jet lag so I walked around the towns at ungodly morning hours before any of the shops had opened. Had terrible anxiety and awful sleep trouble when we returned from Japan, but counteracted it by watching classic movies on my bedroom wall and leaning on the pillar-of-strength-and-humor friends in Chicago.
October-November —Tour with One Republic, Augustana, and Spill Canvas. We played many college campuses, went to New Orleans for the first time, had a Halloween party at my apartment on our night off in Chicago, learned that Throat Coat tea is ten times better with whiskey (thank you, Augustana), I mastered a football spiral toss, and we gratefully and enthusiastically welcomed the outcome of the 2008 election.
December— Trip to Mexico with my dad’s side of the family. I tried every water sport known to man. I hiked down to the beach each day, surfed for the first time, saw a gorgeous black whale, and managed to avoid the one dinner where every single person got food poisoning.
As for 2009, I’m in Santa Fe right now visiting with my mom and am moving to Los Angeles for a few months as of this Thursday. Hoping to catch up on sleep, literature, and song writing for a new record.
Chicago in the summer: Oh, how I miss you.
This is the view from the top of the ferris wheel at Navy Pier. Taken in the summer. Now it’s covered in ice because the temperature in Chicago is currently -7 degrees. Happy holidays!
Every musician’s favorite Chicago poet, Thax Douglas, read this poem at our Metro show last friday.
The Hush Sound #3
Watermarked
against the walls
of sight you
play voyeur, maitre d’
to the rich million-course
eye-meal that one sense can
provide. Exhausted
you hang in
the trees strung through
with knowing
you’ll wake up and
sing when an even
bigger eye
will dawn
your body, the
mother of all your
senses, with
warmth.
—12/19/09 Metro
I’ve heard Thax read dozens of times in Chicago for bands and I think this is my favorite of his poems so far. Thank you, Thax.
Photo by Angie
Ian in the glowing blue room.
