Come Hell or High Water

To my friends in Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin who are dealing with the floodwater and the aftermath. My heart breaks to see what you are going through. No one could ever imagine what it is like to see your home after the water recedes. It is going to be difficult but you will get through this. I can tell you that you should be prepared cause it is pretty emotional especially when you return to your home for the first time and see all the destruction.

Having gone through this I would like to share with you some sites and that I found helpful. I will add them to my links page. If you have any more specific questions please send me an email and I will try and answer them the best that I can. I do realize that every circumstance is different but if there is something that I have learned that I can share with you that will make your life easier I am all for it.

Jun 21, 2008 | 1 comment

Acoustic Performance at Women's Fest

Summer is here and whew after 98 degrees in the shade for two days and power outages I am saying yeah, living in the city is everything and more that Sesame Street eluded to... but honestly, I will be psyched to head back to the suburbs and kick off the first annual Women's fest at Lehigh Valley College in Center Valley, PA. This event is sponsored by Women in Art in Pennsylvania and it benefits Turning Point of the Lehigh Valley. www.tplv.org/news/news_and_events. I hope you will come out and kick back and enjoy the festival and all the music that will be there too. My old friend Jake Kaligis and also Steve Brosky are playing too as well as well as many other cool acts. I am going to sing my heart out for you and for this really great cause. Dann Araque and I will do an acoustic set at 11AM. More information about this festival can be found at: www.wiaipa.org/WomensFest.htm

Jun 11, 2008 | 0 comments

No Fear in New York

Just sending out some words to my New York posse.
I have an amazing respect for New Yorkers.
They are so resilient.
They have been through everything,
Yet they just stand up, brush it off and keep on going.

No doubt having some of the best places to dine and shop and hang out don't suck either. Anyway this is for you...

Fear

Stand
You can
When you fell
It wasn't forever
Tasting the ground
Again
See it
Thick
And dense
Its your panting breath
Get up
Get up
Get up

Get up
But I fear
The only thing I know
So well
I fear
The only thing I know
So well
Thats me

He held
His hand out
Was I deserving
Our fingers touched
They trembled

New too new
Far too far
I don't think
I can wait
Till we get to your car

New too new
Far too far
I don't think
I can wait

But I fear
The only thing I know
So well
I fear
The only thing I know
So well

I fear
The only thing I know
So well
I fear the only thing I know
Thats me

See you guys on May 16th at the Cutting Room
www.thecuttingroomnyc.com

Apr 14, 2008 | 0 comments

The Myth

Sitting here
Biding
TIme lingers
In this steel and nylon
Grey landscape
Scraping sky
One of millions

Burned from cold
And worn
Leveraging gold
Of what little is left
Agreeing
With what is to the right
Just to sustain

Devouring frame by frame
As they come
The empty truths
They barely sit upon my plate
A glutton
Remiss
Cause it all tastes the same

Staring
Past the glow
Lost
A civil servant
Where is my place
In a catacomb
Where opportunity lied

Mar 2, 2008 | 0 comments

Come Hell or High Water or Snow

Looks like we made it and I wasn't sure that we were going to make it to the Weigh Station. As luck would have it, the one day we really get a lot of snow here in the city I have a show scheduled 200 miles away. Our 3 and a half hour trip turned into 5 and half hours. That was quickly forgotten, when we entered this amazing old train station on the Susquehanna river and saw everybody that trekked through the snow to come support us.

After the show and killer food, we got a glimpse of the night life in Bradford County at the Wyalusing Hotel. Wyalusing is a town of 700 people about 45 minutes south of Binghamton, NY. The downtown looks like the backdrop of an old western movie. It would be a great place to shoot a video.

Back in the city and I am already looking forward to my next road trip. This time I got to meet some really cool people, stayed in a "tree house" in a totally remote area overlooking the river and got a really good nights sleep. Plans are to come back when we can see the roads and its not snowing and 25 degrees. I am a summer girl what can I say.

Feb 24, 2008 | 1 comment

La Voz

So I made it through years without getting the flu but somehow it got me this week. UGH. Just starting to feel a bit better and its a good thing especially since I am doing an acoustic show Friday night.

Just need to get my voice back or I will be sounding like Kim Carnes when she sang Betty Davis Eyes. Love her voice but not sure if thats what I had in mind for tomorrow's performance.

Hot tea and me will be playing at The Weigh Station in Towanda, PA. Dann Araque and I will be there in full musical regalia. It is an acoustic show: piano and guitars and vocals.

Hope to see you there.

XO

Lisa

Feb 21, 2008 | 0 comments

Desperate Times

These are indeed desperate times. They are times when we need to be present for each other more than ever. I don't drive much anymore working in the city but when I do it is always an adventure. On Sunday on one such drive after stocking up at Trader Joes, I noticed all the cars on the incoming lanes of the highway were completely stopped. It was right by an overpass bridge and people were looking down at the figure on the road that must have just fallen from above. Meanwhile the radio, no lie, was broadcasting Queen's Another One Bites The Dust. This surreal moment in time just made me think about what is going on around us and how we must be really perceptive of others and what they are going through.

We may never know what someone is going through because not everyone is as open as a reality tv series star. As a songwriter I know that my listeners hear all of my ups and downs just from listening to my words and the where the music goes. Believe me I am grateful for what writing has given me for the reason that I can channel all my angst into my songs instead of pouring it all out on my friends or my hair stylist. I just end of playing the songs later for my friends and my hairstylist. Life is not always easy but having outlets to let it all out is definately a great way to cope. I encourage anyone to pick up the phone and call your friends and cope together or pick up a pencil and write it down. On second thought I recommend both. You may surprise yourself with what you have inside and your friend in many ways.

Jan 29, 2008 | 0 comments

Real Snow

This morning I woke to the first real snow of the year... big white wet flakes coming down in the city. I started to think about my friends and family who are probably faced with snow delays in the Pennsylvania mountains. Here in the city I realize that transit never seems to stop and the city doesn't really sleep. The buses run and the trains keep time even when it seems that everywhere else is in a holding pattern. Not in the city....there aren't any snow delays and no long driveways to shovel. As I am writing this my friend Bill calls me to tell me that the snow stopped and he has a half a foot in his backyard. I realize that it is really two different worlds we live in now. My friends are filling up their snowblowers with gas just to get their cars out of their driveways to fill their cars with more gas. Me, now I just put my boots on and start walking grab a coffee and catch the bus. I do miss that necessary long work-out. Ah memories...spending a couple of hours shoveling wet heavy snow just to get my car out so that I could do my commute. Nah.

Nov 19, 2007 | 2 comments

If only we could sing our way to peace

So as I sit here all cozy in my apartment thinking about how much I dislike daylight savings time I can't help but practically reach for my pjs. The temperature has dropped 20 degrees since yesterday, its 5PM and I am just not feeling any drive to work anymore today because it is pitch black outside. I think I must have suddenly come down with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and it has only been one day. Then I mull it over for and moment and realize that if I want to be able to continue to fill up my Honda then I need to make another pot of joe and keep working.

My mind wanders and starts thinking about the oil war that is overtaking our planet...and how we are so powerless and have to pay practically the price of a pair of shoes just to fill up at the pumps. We are all so affected by the decisions that just a few people make... and they are affecting our lives and lives of so many wonderful people that we don't know in the Middle East. In the last couple years I have been fortunate to have made the aquaintance of so many wonderful friends in the American Persian community. They are very concerned with the welfare of their families and friends back home during this volatile time.

Today I am going to offer up a little something that I would like to share with you. It is a song about love and oneness and community. And for my Persian friends my good friend Ardavan wrote the Farsi translation below for this song which is called Fuel Called Love. I have posted it below for you to read and uploaded the song for you to listen. Today I will send a little prayer of song with the intention of all of us, without exception, knowing only peace someday. Please feel free to download and share Fuel Called Love. Send it and share it as much as you want. This is one fuel that we don't have to pay for.

I have posted both the acoustic and remix version of the songs. Peace and

Lisa

Fuel Called Love

We are one
In this life
On this plane
Traveling round
In this world
That we made

With this fuel
Called love
We will fly
My love
We are one
In this life
On this plane

Do I do?
Do I dare?
Wait and see
Standing here
Standing now
You and me

With this fuel
Called love
We will fly
My love
We are one
In this life
On this plane

(One Heart)One life together
(One Soul)One soul forever
(One Aim)One god together
(One Goal)one peace forever
(We are one)one love together
(Come Fly with me)One dream forever
Never fear ever
Never hate ever
Never hurt another
Never wrong your brother

One life together
One soul forever
One god together
One peace forever
One love together
One dream forever
Never fear ever
Never hate ever
Never hurt another
Never wrong your brother

لیزا بادنر – سوخت

ما یکی هستیم
در این زندگی
در این هواپیما
گرد این جهانی که
ساخته ایم
سفر می کنیم

با این سوخت
به نام عشق
پرواز خواهیم کرد
عشق من
ما یکی هستیم
در این زندگی
در این هواپیما

کاری می کنم؟
جرأت می کنم؟
صبر کن و ببین
اینجا ایستاده
اکنون ایستاده
تو و من

(یک دل) زندگی ای مشترک
(یک روح) روحی ابدی
(یک مقصد) خدایی مشترک
(یک هدف) آرامشی ابدی
(ما یکی هستیم) عشقی مشترک
(بیا با من پرواز کن) رویایی ابدی

هرگز نترس
هرگز متنفر نباش
هرگز آزار مرسان
هرگز به برادرت بی احترامی مکن
زندگی ای مشترک
روحی ابدی
خدایی مشترک
آرامشی ابدی
عشقی مشترک
رویایی ابدی
هرگز نترس
هرگز متنفر نباش
هرگز آزار مرسان
هرگز به برادرت بی احترامی مکن

Nov 5, 2007 | 4 comments