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- Apr 24, 13
During my Christmas trip to Florida I attended a party with New Zealanders and played a cajon box drum for the very first time. It is perfect for those awkward occasions in which you don't know the songs but would rather bang along than passively listen. As soon as I returned to Maryland I ordered one online as my first tax write-off of 2013. It is essentially a box you sit on that contains snares and has a sound hole in the back for projecting bass. It provides the sound of a drum kit without the need for hand/foot coordination. I have been taking drum classes at Drum for Joy in Takoma Park and hope to eventually attend some local drum circles as well.My cajon!
The best part of lugging around my drum is being asked if I am bringing my cat to work because its case looks like an animal carrier. And when one of the HR folks at the day job asked me what I was carrying I was able to emphatically respond "MY CAJON" without being asked to retake the sexual harassment webinar.
This video of Heidi Joubert from Fernando's Kitchen will make you want a cajon as well. "1e+a 2e+A 3E+a 4e+a INDEED"!! Mark my words, the cajon is going to be the ukulele of drums! - Apr 21, 13
A couple of weeks ago I did a gig at Montgomery College Planetarium. I was a little disappointed by the turnout--it didn't occur to me that gorgeous weather is as much an impediment to attendance as snow and sweltering heat so a note to self about spring gigs!! But based on post-game facebook chatter it seemed like folks really enjoyed it. If my gigs are better received when I sit in the dark with my back to the audience so be it!! Below is a compilation of ALP music videos, some of which were featured in the show.
- Nov 25, 12
Long time no talk!! A year ago I decided to quit drinking. This has been quite a year and i remember all of it in exquisite or excruciating detail depending on the day--and each has been taken one at a time. All in all i believe that promises can come true. I love the new friends i have made, the slogans, the prayer and meditation. I still get depressed but I don't get sucked into vortexes. And when i say crazy things it is me and not the alcohol talking--yikes!
After a year in the penalty box I can start perusing OKCupid but after my first prospect threw out the topic of energy healing modalities I realized I am not quite up to this yet. But I am no longer alone. I am grateful! I even caught myself posting positive life affirmations to facebook!!!
I also am in the middle of doing something i swore i would never to do, which is put out a recovery CD. It is half done, and half-baked, but a work in progress....like me. It features vocals by Lisa Moscatiello, loops by the Window Shoppers, cello by Fred Lieder, and bass by Jon Nazdin. - Jan 06, 12
One thing my cat Kimba seems to miss in the new place is window seating. I thought she would enjoy viewing trees, birds, and the ocassional deer from the bedroom, but instead prefers keeping tabs on building visitors and the number 15 bus from the living room. My sills are narrow and the casement windows rule out most feline shelving so I had to resort to carpeted cat furniture to provide comfortable viewing options. Fortunately a small mom and pop company in Gainesville let me pick a carpet color other than beige! She barely let me get her new perch out of the box before she climbed to the top and behaved as though I had dropped ecstasy in her water bowl.
Of course then I felt badly that my other cat Nicky did not have his own perch but was reluctant to devote any more real estate to cat furniture so I ordered Feline Cloud Shelves. They have been more of a hit with people rather than the cats. I had to coax Nicky on the shelves with catnip and he only ocassionally uses them. Now that the leaves are falling there is a better view of the neighboring complex's trash dumpster out the back window so there is hope the clouds will catch on. - Jan 06, 12
Looks like a cat planetarium
By msarthur from Silver Spring, MD on 10/16/2011out of 5I will refrain from posting a photo of my cat using this product. But it looks great! My medium size cat (I think she is around 13 pounds) gets around in it just fine. I would not get this box for a big cat. It is very easy to clean and the filter controls odor.
(legalese)
- Jan 06, 12
Cats love it and it looks great!!
By msarthur from Silver Spring, MD on 10/16/2011out of 5I am very vain about my home decor yet my life revolves around the cats which can create a dilemna when they take over the living room with their toys and accessories. My cats love this scratcher and it is incredibly stylish. It actually looks good next to the panton chair! Delivery was prompt.
(legalese)
- Sep 16, 11
Finally I am in the new place. The cats love it! I couldn't have imagined all the mortgage finance drama and schlepping in 100+ degree heat being worth it unless Oprah showed up at the door with car keys. However just the liberation from beige carpeting alone has justified the effort. It is a little sad that I am alone here, but then again, I am not sure I could find a partner who would go along with my color scheme. The only women who appreciate my aesthetics are straight which is not at all helpful. Here are some shots of the new place.
- Jun 26, 11
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The map above shows where I will be moving if I can get PNC mortgage to approve my loan!! Their underwriters have provided numerous last-minute "gotcha" moments that have delayed my close twice so far. The day before my first scheduled close the processor informed me that not all the paperwork had been completed. The next day was spent on standby while revised owner occupancy numbers traveled from e-mail boxes to various desks for approval. Then Wednesday, I was informed the mortgage underwriter would not approve the loan until my rental payment history from the past year was verified. Why this information wasn't requested earlier during this two-month application process remains a mystery. I was hoping to close on Friday but Thursday evening a new wrinkle surfaced: the mortgage insurance underwriter cited a randomly enforced federal regulation requiring proper egress from the bedroom. A welder removed safety bars from one of the windows and the mortgage guy sent photos of the completed work to the MI people this weekend. I am hoping to close tomorrow though at the same time I am wondering what documentation they might want next...SAT scores? Dental records? - Aug 13, 11Back in November I adopted a dog who is trapped in a cat's body. Nicky (formerly Mikey) ended up at Greenbelt Animal Shelter because his owner moved to an apartment that didn't accept pets. Kimba is less lonely now although she does not appreciate being chased around by a big black cat.
Unfortunately when I started packing, Nicky started thinking outside the box. Though the most likely cause is anxiety created by all the moving upheaval, I wanted to rule out a UTI or urinary crystals since either can lead to a fatal blockage if left untreated. Nicky wasn't able to produce a urine sample for the vet on an initial visit, so I had to drop him off one morning on my way to work so he could sit in a cage all day until he had a donation ready. At 4:30 pm I received a distressing call from the vet informing me that Nicky had "flipped out" during the collection procedure, and the technician was having to go to the hospital.
Needless to say they didn't get a sample this time either so I was given a home test kit consisting of plastic cat litter, a syringe, and a test tube. I isolated Nicky in my bedroom last night with a brand new cat box containing the non-absorbant plastic litter. I was not optimistic that this approach would work, but at 5am on Sunday I was awakened by the dulcet tones of Nicky scratching the plastic litter! Despite the early hour I was able to gather the urine and transfer it to the test tube with the syringe like an enthusiastic chemistry student. Mission accomplished!! Now I just have to drive over to Bethesda tomorrow and drop off the sample. - Jun 06, 11
Long time no talk!! A couple of weeks ago my life entered a real estate buying labyrinth littered with endless forms to complete. My friends tell me it will be worth it in the end, when I can stand in the middle of a 2 bedroom co-op adjacent to Sligo Creek Park and savor the responsibility of home-ownership. In the meantime I am fixated on picking out colorful paint swatches and obsessing about furniture placement. Stay tuned!
- Nov 20, 10Two days before my 44th birthday I was enjoying a pleasant Sunday in front of my computer. George was on my lap, pawing at my hand and demanding to be petted. The next moment he started having a coughing fit. The drive to the emergency vet seemed to take forever as he struggled for breath in his carrier and I navigated streets of Rockville that I would otherwise avoid. The news at the vet was not good--he had a tumor in his lung and an embolism. I had to make the gut-wrenching decision to put him to sleep. It was surreal to have him on my lap at 2pm, and return to my apartment at 4pm with only his collar, which I hung on a memorial doorknob in my bedroom that also holds the collars of my departed cats Arthur and Anastacia along with my late mother's watch.
I was thankful that I had George for 19 long years. I may not have been around for his end of life were it not for a miracle that occurred in 1992 before the advent of the internet, micro-chip IDs, and community listservs: George returned to us after getting out of the house and going missing for 6 weeks. After receiving a call from the local shelter that a nuetered male tabby had been found on my street, I sent my then-boyfriend over to see if it was him. George announced his presence to him in a room full of similar tabby cats.
He was truly an amazing cat with an enormous personality that was possessive, affectionate, and engaging. He grudgingly accepted the attention of my cat Kimba for the last 18 months of his life, and a gallery showing of George and Kimba's surveillance footage two days after his death (embedded below) served as a wonderful tribute to his life. I hope he is at peace now and playing with Arthur and Anastacia. - Sep 06, 10George and Kimba's surveillance video has been accepted for inclusion at the Meowpolis art show, at Whole Gallery in Baltimore Maryland. The opening is October 19, and doors will open at 7 or 8pm for a 10pm show.
Here is the address:
H&H Arts Building
405 W. Franklyn St.
3rd Floor
Baltimore, MD 21201
Hope to see you there!!! - May 01, 11I just broke up with my gf of five years last night. It was a breakup conducted in reasoned tones over wine, though when I woke up sober a few hours later and realized I was sleeping next to someone I was no longer in a relationship with, I fled the house and drove home in the middle of the night with my flat screen monitor and laptop so as to make an awkward "stuff" exchange unnecessary later. The perfectly nerdy dramatic exit.
The relationship had been stormy, but PTSD brought on by memories of my disastrous online dating experiences and my sense of dim prospects were an adhesive. However when she bought a house over the summer I realized the relationship was a bit of a dead end. Although I have adjusted well and actually enjoy living alone I know deep down I ultimately want a partner. Someone to share my life with. The fact she hadn't been to my apartment in 6 months due to cat allergies led to feelings of alienation, and her demanding work and parental visitation schedule left her little time to spend with me.
Unfortunately I shot myself in the foot by suggesting the "maybe we should see other people" strategy of relationship salvaging during an aborted break-up attempt two weeks previously. Little did I know one of her friends was waiting in the wings. A friend who conveniently lives nearby. And will no doubt get more of her time and attention than I ever received.
Thankfully, despite the incestuousness of the lesbian scene, my now ex-gf lives about 10 miles away, and is "out of network"--in other words, our friendship circles don't overlap. No one will have to worry about which half of a split couple to invite to their party. But Facebook is another matter. Thankfully the bisexual relationship vulture is not my friend on Facebook, but a lot of her friends are. Do I still want to be their friends? I know I will never be going back to my ex's town for fear of vulture sightings, but a FB exile seems a little extreme. Fortunately my ex is an infrequent poster, but do I really want to see what events she is RSVPing to? And then when to change your relationship status to single? Seeing the red heart on the newsfeed is even more heartbreaking than the actual breakup. And when is my ex going to change her status? I guess she doesn't need to now that I think about it--the most painful realization of all. - Jul 30, 10I have always envied friends who take a week off the grid and attend artist retreats in remote reaches of the northeast. So I tried to design my own retreat last week based on the creative hibernation of February's snowpocolypse. However, though I did manage to finish a few tracks for the next ALP CD, "Deeper" I couldn't avoid confronting the frightfully frustrating sensation of creative erectile dysfunction. It wasn't until the end of the week when faced with the prospect of an imminent return to the workweek that ideas started to flow and I got my groove back. Clearly inspiration has its own timetable, and often occurs as a distraction from the rest of my life. At least I have clean closets now. And I amused my friends with my staycation photos.
- Jun 26, 10Chely Wright had everything going for her: she was beautiful, musically gifted, and wildly successful. However, a secret she concealed for almost 20 years threatened to destroy her fairy-tale career if exposed; yet keeping it hidden almost drove her to suicide. Chely, an all-American country music sex symbol, was gay. And this month she boldly came out in People Magazine, the publication that had deemed her one of its 50 most beautiful people almost a decade earlier.
Lesbians nationwide asked a resounding WHO?!? as the news spread around the internet. I was one of those people who had to look her up in Wikipedia. But the more I learn about her through TV interviews and her well-written, down-to-earth memoir Like Me, the more I admire her bravery. And the more I talk to friends who grew up in rural areas where country music is the soundtrack of life, I better understand how important this is for dismantling gay stereotypes and prejudice in middle America.
No one who has endured the painful and futile process of trying to deny and change something as intrinsic as sexual orientation can view this as a publicity stunt--foolish speculation that appears in internet comments that vacillate between resounding support and harsh judgement. Wright's account of her high school years, during which she was tormented by crushes on women, and making out with men "bored and frightened" her, will resonate with many lesbians regardless of where they grew up.
Wright also endured the added burden of reconciling her orientation with her strong religious faith. Initially she thought she had a birth defect until she visited a diner with her parents and found herself unable to keep her eyes off the waitress' breasts, and noticed she was wearing a "God Don't Make Mistakes" T-shirt. The Lord works in mysterious ways!
Coming to terms with ones' sexuality when surounded by goths who watched the Hunger and hipsters who listened to the Smiths is one thing--confronting lesbian tendencies in socially conservative Kansas is quite another. I hope Nashville supports Wright because it will mean so much for so many kids growing up gay in the heartland.
Though I am still not really a mainstream country music fan I can still appreciate this. - Jun 26, 10Chloe is a dark though cliche-ridden film that is watchable and engaging thanks to the stellar performance of Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried. Moore plays Catherine, a wealthy gynecologist who appears to have it all, yet is stressed and distressed. She is uptight about her son's adolescent sexual activity, her own aging, and most of all, her professor husband's flirtations with his young students. In fact, it is a text message from a female student after her husband has missed his own birthday party that leads Catherine to suspect he is cheating on her, so she hires the young prostitute, Chloe, (Seyfried) to flirt with him and report back to her about how he responds.
This leads to a series of encounters between the women in which Chloe arouses Catherine by recounting sexual trysts with her husband. Seyfried plays the ingenue with a hidden agenda to perfection. She is beside herself with joy at being in Catherine's presence, but her ardor becomes increasingly creepy as she continues to pursue Catherine, who is in turn trying desperately to treat their situation as just a business transaction as it spirals out of control.
Amanda Seyfried admitted that she found filming the love scene with Julianne Moore "awkward" but I think she did a very convincing job! This is a worthwhile film provided you can overlook its flaws for the sake of its masterful performances. - May 09, 10Passengers on an American Airlines flight from Burbank to DFW a couple of weeks ago may have wondered what was causing a woman in the cabin to laugh hysterically. That was me. And the source of my outbursts was the memoir by Jancee Dunn entitled But Enough About Me: How a Small-Town Girl Went from Shag Carpet to the Red Carpet in which Dunn intersperses episodes of her career as an interviewer with Rolling Stone and MTV2 host with vignettes of her quirky New Jersey upbringing.
In one installment, she describes the horror of having to interview Bono with a huge zit on her forehead. While interviewing Madonna, she tries to conceal her intimidation while seizing an opportunity to check out her bathroom. Meanwhile Dunn dates a succession of hippie slackers and drug-addled music producers only to discover that hipness is a full-time job for which she could only work part time hours.
Dunn's fondness for interview subjects such as Grace Slick, Stevie Nicks, and Dolly Parton is palpable. By contrast she is traumatized by Jennifer Beales, who dresses her down in a restaurant for asking a question deemed too personal, thus teaching the valuable lesson of grabbing the check BEFORE asking the difficult questions.
Though temporarily exiled from her family while trying to please a hip loser boyfriend, she renews her bond with her mother by taking her on a gay cruise to interview Rosie O'Donell, where they are encouraged by diet guru Susie Powter to get in touch with their vaginal energy.
This is a breezy read with valuable lessons and a happy ending as Dunn meets the man she initially spurns but eventually marries. But getting there is half the fun. Highly recommended! - Jun 26, 10Back in the late 80's I had the misfortune of looking for my first job in a college area that boasted the most over-educated wait-staff in the country: the triangle region of North Carolina. However my dismal job prospects brightened when American Airlines opened their Raleigh/Durham hub.
My two year stint with American required me to wear a headset all day in a monitored setting to assist cranky passengers with their airline reservations. Each evening I experienced nightmares involving 727 seating charts. Since in North Carolina it was your civic duty to smoke, I countered the boredom and frustration by smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, thus making my contribution to the smoke cloud that perpetually hung over the reservations center as though it were a dive bar. Despite the fact that American was an innovative employer that encouraged staff input and brand loyalty, dealing on the phone all day with the general public set a low standard against which my current day job compares favorably.
However American offered a perk that no other job could match. I could check flight loads and list myself as standby for any flight. Then after work before my days off, I would go to the ticket machine in the lobby, and for an employee payroll deduction that amounted to less than metro fare to Dupont Circle, generate a boarding pass. I usually traveled each week back to Florida to rendezvous with a long-distance girlfriend I would later characterize as a “piece of work.” Other weeks I would visit my parents in Orlando. I always took the lunch flight back to Raleigh Durham because it was on a 767 and served a really good turkey and cheese sandwich. This was the closest to a jet-set lifestyle an underachiever like me was ever going to aspire to. It was a workplace where the rhetorical “how was your weekend" received responses such as “ I went to Paris” or “I flew to Atlanta to get a haircut”. These heady times ended when my restlessness with provincial North Carolina led me to DC and a slacker job at a record store.
Fast forward 20 years and I still love airports and I still enjoy flights. Sadly, the food is gone along with the thrill of occupying myself with opening small snack packages. But many rituals remain, such as the AAdvantage pitch as the flight ascends to cruising altitude, and the flight attendants' cabin checks.
This weekend I decided to use the frequent flyer miles accumulated via impulsive credit card purchases to make a quick trip to LA. My ex's brother is the musical director for a play for which he ended up using ALP tracks to segue between sex scenes, and given that my music is typically the backdrop for low rent cable shows such as the A and E Biography of Pee Wee Herman I thought it would be fun to see my music in a more artistic, edgy context. The Blue Room did not disappoint! It featured attractive actors, brief nudity, and incredibly artful lighting. The ALP CDs near the concession stand are going fast. Despite the glamor of LA though, DC National, with its view of the illuminated monuments on the mall, is still the most gorgeous airport to return to. - May 08, 10I have tried a few "staycations" and they tend to become just as overscheduled as my workweeks! What I envision being a blissful week of free time becomes consumed by errands and social obligations. I was beginning to think the only way I could achieve the solitude I craved for artistic pursuits would be to stage my own death. But fortunately Mother Nature blessed me with a creative retreat this week. Though I have felt badly for fellow DC-area residents left without power, this week of imposed hibernation has been truly a gift for me! During four days without the day job I managed to:
- Finish a remix for the re-release of Pursuit of Happiness and send it off to the mastering master!
- Complete the cover art for the above CD
- Figure out how to use a joystick to send midi commands to Audio Mulch, a program I plan to use for a live performance in June
- Edit video for the same gig
- Start some noodling for the next CD
- Did my taxes
I felt like this was how life must be like for lottery winners who can quit their day jobs and sleep in every morning. However in the back of my mind I knew at some point it inevitably would start to become too much of a good thing. I was also starting to run out of things--namely hummus and coffee!!
Inexplicably on Thursday night the opm.gov website, which I had been checking in anticipation for closure updates each evening, reported that Federal workers were due back to work on Friday. It seemed that metro's understandably slow recovery from the storm was NOT factored into this decision. After sensing the futility of waiting on a crowded platform for packed trains in the bitter cold Friday morning, I took a bus and two trains to work, for a commuting time of 2 hours and 30 minutes. On the way home from work on Friday, the realization hit that most of my neighborhood's pedestrian real estate is trapped under dirty snow. My surroundings had changed from a winter wonderland to an icy obstacle course that forced confrontations with inconsiderate motorists.
So it has been fun, but I am ready for the ice to melt. Let the countdown to spring begin!! - Jan 01, 10Sugar Rush is a series that aired on Channel 4 in the UK a few years ago for two seasons. The plot revolves around Kim, a 15 year-old lesbian virgin who is sexually obsessed with her best friend, Sugar, despite the fact Sugar is a promiscuous, selfish, and (worst of all) *straight* juvenile delinquent who takes advantage of Kim's unrequited interest. The action takes place in Brighton, a seaside town that is an upscale, queer version of Ocean City. In season two, Kim avails herself of Brighton's decadent gay pleasures while Sugar is incarcerated. No longer repressed and frustrated, she pursues a life of non-stop partying while dating the DJ goddess of the "Clit Club" who also works at the "Munch Box" sex shop. In the dizzying finale, Kim must choose between love and obsession when things get serious in her relationship. This show should be on every lesbian's watch list and is well worth the price of a region-free DVD player!
- Jan 01, 10
I can't get enough of the Carrie Prejean sex tape saga! As you may remember, Prejean voiced her opposition to gay marriage during the Miss USA pageant, and later claimed her strongly-held religious beliefs led to her defeat. Donald Trump rightly refused to fire her for her opinions, but pageant officials let her go when Prejean's new role as evangelical darling interfered with her Miss California duties. She later abruptly dropped a suit she filed against the pageant and its officials after a solo sex tape made for a former boyfriend surfaced.
This incident reminded me of another disgraced beauty queen, Vanessa Williams, the first African-American Miss America who resigned in 1984 after Penthouse published artsy nude photos of her engaging in lesbian activity. In subsequent years, beauty and talent triumphed over scandal. Who could envision that 25 years later Williams would host the daytime Emmy Awards, and perform a musical number that humorously featured a CGI-enhanced lesbian kiss and a lyrical tribute to Ellen DeGeneres?
And in other beauty queen news, Miss England had to relinquish her crown after punching Miss Manchester over a gladiator. You can't make this stuff up! - Nov 12, 09Long time no post! I had gigs and work travel yada yada. But one item I attempted over the past couple of months was upgrading my cellular communications. I bought a cheap unlocked QWERTY phone so I can keep up with my smart-phoning verbose texting friends without getting roped into a lengthy contract. Then I set up an account with Google Voice, which promises to transcribe your voicemails into text messages--a useful feature to have if you receive calls at crowded bars. However the messages are kind of cryptic, like foreign spam. Here are some samples:
Yeah. Hey, Bev. It's, Matt actually get the heritage and get them tonight. I thought of. We're supposed to be so give me a call back. I am now back. I'm just leaving you know where you normally work actually, so all B, E, A, Pensacola parking about half an hour. I hope you know. I think that for traffic. Our so. Anyway, hope to see you tonight. Let me know if it's search of January. Okay, bye bye
Thankfully I am not paying for this service! - Sep 09, 09A lot of people asked me if I have ever considered doing music full time. The answer is yes, with varying degrees of realistic expectation. In my twenties I was in a band that collectively fantasized we would eventually get signed and quit our day jobs. The odds of this were as slim as winning at powerball. When I reached my thirties, I confronted the reality that whatever ship I was waiting for was not coming. I managed to teach myself html to at least get a web job, which provided some skill overlap with music promotion. A few years later, when my living expenses were low, I worked part-time in a recording studio and toyed with the idea of music as a full-time gig via production work and remixes. However, I quickly tired of expending so much creative energy--more than I have ever expended at a day job--on other people's projects because it left me with no inspiration for my own. Plus, I saw the extent to which my full-time musician friends, for whom I have the utmost respect and admiration, had to make ends meet by playing wedding gigs and following the directives of philistines.
I decided I was much better off spending my days doing internet advocacy work for causes I believe in and not relying on music to pay the bills. Although I do make about 15% of my income from music, this consists of royalties paid on tracks I have produced without commercial intent and later licensed. Some people might characterize this as "selling out" but I consider the 9 to 5 part of my day more of a compromise--one that I am willing to make for the sake of financial stability so I can feel less regimented and inhibited when I work on music.
I recently read a book that articulated a no-nonsense route to achieving fulfillment in creative pursuits. Unlike other books in which the author is able to reject the humdrum life of a working stiff and miraculously embrace a world of abundance and self-fulfillment (by writing self help books), Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity is saturated with common sense, helpful creative hints, and powerful yet restrained proclamations that don't call for faith in the universe so much as independent thought, self-reliance, and hard work. Hugh MacLeod has made a career out of drawing acerbic observations on the backs of business cards-- a practice that began while working as a copywriter in New York. He sees no disgrace in having a day job, in fact he reasons a day job can co-exist with a creative pursuits, and protect art from being diluted or exploited, because once an artist accepts money for their art they have relinquished control: "Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring. Know this and plan accordingly." He also disparages scenesters who are looking for shortcuts while their true artist counterparts are working at home in solitude. He has practical advice for writer's block: "If you have something to say, then say it...Trying to create when you don't feel like it is like making conversation for the sake of making conversation."
The book read like he was writing directly to me! But I suspect his message resonates with lots of folks that got into the arts for diverse reasons and ended up in a lifelong romance that many appreciate but fewer seem to understand.
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- Summary
Bev Stanton was born in the Bahamas and raised near Walt Disney World. She attended college at New College of Florida, then taught herself HTML to escape a quagmire of admin jobs. Stanton's success at using the internet to publicize her musical endeavors prompted Keyboard Magazine to feature her in a cover story on independent music promotion.
The Washington Post has described Stanton as a "remix master," and the Washington Blade declared her editors' choice for music in its "Best of Gay DC" issue. Her electronica project, Arthur Loves Plastic, has won over a dozen Washington Area Music Awards, and ALP tracks have appeared in film and TV programs such as Access Hollywood, America's Most Wanted, MTV's Cribs, Playboy's Sexy Girls Next Door, American Idol, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. In 2007, ALP tracks "Feel the Love" and "Boogie Bonnie Bell" were featured in the Geico Caveman marketing campaign's virtual Caveman's Crib.
Stanton is one of 24 female electronic artists and deejays profiled in Pink Noises: Women in Electronic Music and Sound (Tara Rodgers; Duke University Press, 2010). Arthur Loves Plastic also had eleven tracks featured in the Solocat Productions Los Angeles premiere of The Blue Room by David Hare. Ever embracing new technologies, Stanton's recent release, Touch, is a 30-minute download EP created with iPhone applications.
Stanton resides in Silver Spring, MD with her two cats.
Experience- Sept 2006 - PresentWeb Manager / National Parks Conservation Association
- Apr 1994 - PresentArtist/Producer / Arthur Loves Plastic
- 2005 - 2006Communications Associate / New Israel Fund
- 2001 - 2005Assistant Website Coordinator / Drug Policy Alliance
- 1999 - 2001Web Assistant / Gill Foundation
Education-
1984 - 1988New College of Florida
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Honors:Stanton has won over twenty Wammies (Washington Area Music Awards) in the Electronica category, including the 2008 Electronica Recording Wammie for the album Brief Episodes of Joy. Her electronica project Arthur Loves Plastic has also been awarded the Electronica Emeritus Award (2008 Wammies) and Emeritus Standing in the Electronica Performing Artist (live) category (2006 Wammies), and Emeritus Standing in the Electronica DJ category (2006 Wammies) - an honour handed out to a select few artists which acknowledges their continuing success in these fields.
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Interests:Music, animal rights, gadgets.
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This Week in Surveillance
