leftovers

I've never been a big "car person."  Some people LOVE cars, love driving them, fixing them, learning about them, talking about them, etc... not me.  Growing up in the place and time that I did, cars have been an important part of our culture, but for the most part I've never given too much thought to what I was driving, as long as it got me from point A to point B.  However, I do appreciate a nice car and at times in my life I've been pretty happy with my wheels.  I recently made a major purchase and bought a new (to me) car, a bright red Kia Soul +!  It got me thinking about all my past cars and what they have meant to me.  I want to say right off the bat that I am grateful that I can even say I've been able to drive and own a car since I was in high school, which truly is a blessing.  And thank you to my parents, who have gone WAY above and beyond in helping me with the costs of the vehicles over the years.  Without further ado, here are the car...

At my brother's suggestion, I've decided to write a blog about "Out in the Sandpile," which was a game (of sorts) that my siblings and I would play out in the yard east of our house on the farm.  It was sort of like a 3D version of "Monopoly" with army guys, barbie dolls, houses, cars, and "money."  Apparently, I was somewhat of a dictator and often threatened my siblings with physical violence if they did not play for a long enough period of time.  Suffice to say, I was very into this game! THE EARLY YEARS In the beginning, the game started in our actual sandpile, hence the name.  My dad had made us a small sandbox, probably about 6'x6', with four big wooden planks set out in a square, filled about 6" deep with sand.  The first two "characters" were Kitty Kiffeneigh (my guy), and John Chesney (Brandon's guy).  We had toy horse trailers that we flipped upside down for our "houses."  Aside from the fact tha...

The title of this blog entry is borrowed from the band Swing Out Sister, it was the title of their album which contained their biggest hit, "Break Out."  I often think of that title because it is so true.  It is so much better to travel! With that in mind I wanted to mention that I just got back from a trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  I had never been before, and I love going to new places!  I will blog about that trip, but for now, I wanted to post this map highlighting all my travels.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem to let you enter every city you've been to, but maybe I just need to explore the site some more.

Since the beginning of the new year, I've been doing a great job taking care of myself and making my health, both physical and mental, a priority.  To this effect, I haven't drank any alcohol, I've abstained from fast food and "junk food," and I've been working out almost every day, whether that be running or doing a "boot camp" style work out to a record.  On the weekends, Dylan has joined me for some hikes. This Sunday, our day was wide open, so I decided to surprise Dylan by taking him to Culver City park for a little hike.  It turned out to be quite serendipitous, because in addition to the regular park, there was now a whole new section of trails open adjoining the main park, with a huge staircase leading up to the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook. We had a great hike and enjoyed the beautiful view all the way from the ocean up to the mountains. But what hit me the most was my own memories of 12 years ago, when I worked down the street from the ...

Check out my 2012 in Review over on my other blog, It's Never the Way You Imagine It.

General Delivery by mannifredlacroix

It's time again for my annual countdown of the top ten songs that worked their way into my ears this past year.  2012 was an interesting year, as unlike past years, there were not a lot of new albums by my old standbys.  So much of the songs on this list are by new artists, or artists I've just discovered.  Even though I love nothing more than one of my longtime favorite bands putting out new music, I also recognize that I should make a conscious effort to embrace new music, and I think I've done a lot of that this year. 10. "Live While We're Young" - One Direction I think I first saw One Direction on Saturday Night Live and I thought they were pretty good.  I've always had a soft spot for boy bands, although none of them have ever really entered my upper echelon as far as favorite bands go.  I like 1D's sound, style and look, but it wasn't until I went to England this fall that I really started to appreciate them.  Their single "Live Whil...

What a time it is to be me!  The past couple of months have been a crazy whirlwind.  Let's start with October. Last year, Dylan and I agreed that we were tired of going to the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval.  For those who don't know, it's a huge street festival that takes place just about a mile west of where we live.  Hundreds of thousands of people show up for it, many of them (although seemingly less each year) arrive in costume.  There are stages with performances, food vendors, and it's a lot of fun although it's also kind of a hassle and can be really irritating since there are so many people there.  It's easy to lose your friends in the crowd, and cell phones usually don't work because of the sheer number of people trying to use them.  We had a great time there in 2011, though, and we had tentatively planned on not living in West Hollywood by the time Halloween rolled around in 2012.  We did look around for a new place, but ended up s...

Here's an interview and song clips from the Turbo Sunshine show last night in Hollywood.  Thanks to the guys at www.thatotherwebshow.com and the folks at club Kitty Kitty Bang Bang!

So much has happened since the last time I posted here (which was 5 months ago! Yikes!) but I guess I have learned to parcel my life out over various internet platforms in addition to this one, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, Google+, etc.  My job title now includes "Social Media" manager so I've been embracing all the new forms of social networking available.  In addition to performing at Portland Gay Pride in June, I also was back home in Kansas for a family reunion, which was very nice.  Last night, I completed a new song, "Stomping Ground," which is my entry into the Summer of Music original song contest sponsored by Visit West Hollywood.  I tried to incorporate the energy and excitement of West Hollywood's vibrant night life into the song, representing all the great fun I've had here in the past decade.  There's no way to sum up that many years in 3 minutes, but I tried. Here is the link to the conte...

This is my favorite house in all of Los Angeles. I've always been a fan of old-fashioned, Victorian architecture and I would love to live in a house similar to this, if not this one. I just happened to stumble upon this abode one day while driving around town and since then I've been obsessed with it. If I'm anywhere near it, I will go out of my way to drive by it. After the first few times I did that, I decided to look it up and found out it has a lot of history. First, it was used as the Addams Family's home in a 1970's reunion television special which I used to own on VHS so it's no wonder that this house instantly spoke to me! It's also been used in several other television shows and films over the years, including Beverly Hills 90210, Willard, and Ben. Perhaps my favorite story about the house, which is now known as the Higgins-Verbeck-Hirsch House is from back in the twenties, when the home was moved from it's original location to it's cu...

Today my new single, "Tape," is released featuring a new video and b-sides. I had originally planned to release this last year in August (then pushed back to October), on a limited edition cassette tape format, with a video directed by Shawn Sagen of www.thestrangerpage.com who directed the "Alien Nation" video. I had been on a roll at the beginning of 2011 having released my debut solo album and single in April, and the follow-up single/video, "Winnipeg Beach," in June. Then I ended up just being too busy with other things, concentrating on my next album, and thinking no one really cared if I put out another single anyway so I just kind of forgot about it, and then resigned to the fact there would be no more singles off "It's Never The Way You Imagine It." It can be very difficult, and often discouraging, being an independent artist living in a commercial art mecca like Los Angeles. It's tough to get anyone to take any notice of you o...

2011 was quite a year for new music! Of course, the biggest happening was that my fave band of all time, The Human League, released a new album, "Credo," in March. But so much more awesome music was made too - Aqua dropped their comeback album "Megalomania," the full edition of "All You Need Is Now" by Duran Duran came out early in the year, Blondie's long-awaited "Panic of Girls" hit the streets, and Tiffany released her first country album, "Rose Tattoo" shortly after her SyFy movie "Mega Python vs. Gatoroid", co-starring Deborah Gibson, was aired. Several other past favorite artists of mine released new material too: Melanie C (aka Sporty Spice), Scritti Politti, and CSS. It was a difficult process to compile, but here's my top 10 of 2011! 10. "A Day Late And A Dollar Short" - Scritti Politti This song is great and sounds like a good mesh between the more poppy, electronic 80's Scritti and the more...

Mom by our front door on Christmas Day. I may have mentioned this before, but technically the Twelve Days of Christmas begins on December 25th. In this day in age, most people are so relieved once Christmas is over, it's unfathomable that you would want to then celebrate the holiday for 11 more days! That's why I decided to end mine, rather than starting it, on Christmas Day. We woke up in the morning and immediately I had to start getting everything ready. Dylan had set his alarm to wake me at 7am so I could put the breakfast casserole on in the crockpot, and luckily I got to go back to sleep for a couple more hours. Once I woke up, I had stockings to stuff and cookies to bake! Mom, Dad, Adrienne, Brandon and Angie came over shortly thereafter and joined Dylan, Robbie and I. We all finished up our last minute stocking stuffing and gift wrapping and had brunch together. Then we all started our Secret Santa opening. Borrowing from the method we used at my work's Secr...