first line: no one is more surprised by my life than i am.

[please click on the title to read the full post] 

Happy New Year! I am excited to be participating in the Think Kit project again this year. 

Today's prompt: First Line: Pretend you're writing your autobiography. Give us your first line, a first chapter, or even just an image. What's the story of you?

I'm sure the first like of my autobiography would be: No one is more surprised by my life than I am. 

Seriously. I have an amazing life - an awesome job, loving family and friends, and I'm smitten with my community. 

I always joke that everyday is a new day for me. But it's true. If I go to bed angry or disappointed or feeling like something is impossible, it's all forgotten by morning. Which has worked in the favor of family members and boyfriends and co-workers over the years. 

So, I've got the first few lines and recapping the last 54 years seems daunting...how 'bout a little slice of last year? 

In 2015 I got to throw out the ceremonial pitch at in Indianapolis Indians game and drive an official Indianapolis 500 Pace Car for two laps around the famed track. 

 Not too bad for an nonathletic chickie who drives-like-an-old-woman lady. 

For the record, the pitch made it to the plate and I used the turn-signals as I drove around the track. 

This year I also celebrated 10 years at Second Helpings, met (and maintained) my Weight Watchers goal, continued to write a column for the Broad Ripple Gazette, attended all 17 days of the Indiana State Fair and blogged about it for NUVO, and kept my two part-time jobs. Oh, and I'm on the boards of School On Wheels and the Indianapolis City Market. 

It's late and I'm ready for bed - and to wake up to a new day of what is sure to be great fun. 

See you tomorrow! 

water anyone?

 500 Festival Princesses on the right, me (wearing three shirts mind you) on the left

As I said, I love participating in the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon. But this year I made a last minute decision to volunteer at a water station instead. It was a blast, although a long day. We started the morning at 5:30 setting up thousands of cups of water and ended around noon. I loved seeing friends run, or in a few cases limp by. It was fun to hang out at the Speedway, which might be the closest I get to it this month.


One of the big factors in my decision not to walk was that we were invited to the wedding reception of my friends Alan and Heidi and that I had to work at the Red Key later that evening.

The reception was lovely. It was held in the Normandy Barn at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. They first saw the space during the Farm to Fair exhibit. I loved all of the personal touches - the table decorations all had meaning. My favorite part of the centerpiece were the balls of white string made from the string that bundle the Broad Ripple Gazette - the paper that I write for and Alan publishes (and edits, sells ads for, and delivers).

All and all a lovely day in May.

greenie

All of my world collided, in a good way. I got to write about Second Helpings for NUVO's Green Guide.

Here is a link to the pdf for the guide. My piece is on page 25.

I like the contributing writers blurb they did for me.
I also like being called a contributing writer!

Nora Spitznogle
When she’s not busy writing for the Broad Ripple Gazette, or contributing music stories to NUVO, Nora Spitznogle works at Second Helpings, the city’s largest food rescue operation that not only averts tons of perishable food from landfills, it redistributes the food to those who might otherwise go hungry. Given its multilevel greenness, we asked her to share Second Helpings’ story and success with you.

Wheeee!

broad ripple gazette, vol 5. no 8

I meant to publish on Queen Bee Music site. It is my latest column from the Broad Ripple Gazette. I really need to get back to blogging. I realized that I wrote stuff in the column that is pretty personal - I need the Chez Pez outlet.

I am alive and fairly well. I'm working a ton, but neither my computer or home Internet access is. I haven't been home enough to schedule an appointment with the DSL folks and I'm having a hard time wrapping my head (and wallet) around a $1500 computer.

Buzzing Around Town with Nora first published in the Broad Ripple Gazette

I didn’t see any music in the last two weeks. I worked extra shifts at the Red Key and my beloved Apple iBook is on the fritz and it has thrown my little world on tilt. So much so that I forgot to go see Kriss Luckett and Greg Ziesemer play. It is very bad form to reserve space at a house concert and not attend. Sorry Greg and Kriss, I owe you one.

Russel Settle’s Red Key Anniversary Party
April 2, 2008



Since I don’t have any music to talk about, wanna hear about my bartending shift? Russell has owned the Red Key for 57 years -- since 1951. How amazing is that? Anniversary day always turns in to a reunion. The mirrors were lined with photographs from previous anniversaries. I swear Russel looks as same as he did on the 32nd anniversary, I think he might have been wearing the same vest. I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it- it is my honor to work at the Red Key.

Previews:
Second Friday, Second Helpings
Friday, April 11, 9 pm, 21+
The Upper Room (above the Broad Ripple Steak House)
929 E. Westfield Blvd

The second edition of Second Friday, Second Helpings will feature Chad Mills, Matt Martin and a yet to be confirmed guest. The three musicians will be playing in the round, trading songs. This will be the first time I’ve heard Matt and I’m looking forward to it.

We all know how I feel about Chad Mills. He’s an amazing songwriter and singer. I often have his songs stuck in my head (in a good way). His shows are always high-energy and fun.

The show benefits Second Helpings, so bring cash and/or rice and pasta. Last month we collected 50 pounds of rice and pasta and almost $50. Every little bit helps. Second Helpings has two refrigerated box trucks and six vans on the road picking up thousands of pounds of rescued food and delivering 2900 hot meals to fifty other social service agencies every day. I don’t need to tell you how the high gas prices affect the agency. Second Helpings is on track to spend over $25,000 in gas this year.


http://www.secondhelpings.org/
http://www.chadmillslive.com/

Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Open Mic Night at The Whammy Bar
Music Mill, 8 pm, 21+
3720 E. 82nd Street

The Whammy Bar has to be the best name for a bar inside of a music venue, ever. I actually clapped when I read the name. Well done! A whammy bar (or tremolo arm) is the lever-like attachment that you see near the tailpiece of some electric guitars. They allow the guitar player to vary the tension on the strings and temporally change the pitch to create a vibrato effect. My favorite style is the Bigsby, favored by Chet Atkins and surf rock players. Clearly at one point in my life I spend way too much time learning this stuff trying to impress a certain guitar player. Anyway, on to the preview….

Chad Mills will be hosting an open mic night at the bar starting Tuesday, April 15. From the calendar listing it looks like it will be held every Tuesday night.

http://www.themusicmillvenue.com/
http://www.chadmillslive.com/

Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin
Via Audio
Grampall Jookabox
Locals Only, $8 (presale) $10 (door), 8:30, 21+

The pop band Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin is from Springfield, MO. SSLYBY became a word-of-mouth favorite and soon went from playing libraries to headlining a European tour.

The Boston based Via Audio have been playing together since 2003 and have caught the ear of the band members of Death Cab for Cutie and Spoon.

Grampall Jookabox has been described as Jungle Folk. Think experimental meets Americana.

You can buy advance tickets at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/

www.myspace.com/boris
www.viaaudio.net/
www.myspace.com/grampalljookabox
www.localsonlyindy.com

Friday, April 18, 2008
Punkin Holler Boys
Gary Wasson + Cara Jean Wahlers
Melody Inn, 7:30 – 9:30, $4, 21 +
3826 N Illinois St

Hillbilly Happy Hour happens every Friday and it has been way too long since I’ve been there. The Punkin Holler Boys are a staple at HHH will their good time old-fashioned folk bluegrassy fun. A toe tapping good time is guaranteed.

Gary Wasson and Cara Jean Wahlers as so new as a duo that they have not settled on a name yet. Don’t let that scare you, they have been playing together in various groups and back porch practice sessions that you can tell they have great chemistry. You can expect original songs and a fun dose of quirky covers. They will be playing in between the Punkin Holler Boys sets.


http://www.melodyindy.com/
www.myspace.com/punkinhollerboys
www.myspace.com/garyandcara


Friday, April 25, 2008
Hayes Carll
Sam’s Saloon, 9 pm, $10, 21+
1640 East Prospect Street (Fountain Square)

I have a bordering-on-stalkerish crush on the music of Hayes Carll. I saw him open for Robert Earl Keen last year and was blown away. I purchased his Little Rock CD and listen to it at least once a day (I guess in addition to my stalking tendencies I’m a little obsessive). I was so excited when I read on My Old Kentucky Blog that Hayes was coming to town that I bugged Scott Shogar, the music editor of NUVO to let me write a preview. I wrote to Hayes publicist who mailed me the not-yet-released album Trouble In Mind, which I adore just as much as I did Little Rock.

I can’t tell you how cool it was to get the CD in a marked “advanced copy.” Of course when it came time to actually form the questions to ask Hayes I had major writers block. I’m so glad that I opted to send him questions instead of a phone interview.

Anyway, the point of this rambling is: Go to the show, you won’t be disappointed. Seriously, pinky swear.

http://www.hayescarll.com/
www.myspace.com/samssaloonindianapolis
http://myoldkyhome.blogspot.com/

miss aligned

I'm feeling out of sorts, out of whack.

I've upset the delicate balance of whiskey, potato chips, lack of sleep and second-hand smoke that I've been surviving on for the last month.

All of the green tea, sleep and soup have given me a cold and a big old case of crabbiness. Even I can hardly stand to be around me.

I just updated my music blog with my latest column, including New Year's fun. I spent half of an hour trying to get the spacing right. When I found myself giving the poor computer screen the finger, I decided that it was good enough the way it was.

emily kennerk

I started this post two weeks ago.
I feel like I'm all backwards and out-of-whack lately.
I usually write the blog first and work some of the posts in to my column or a NUVO piece.
In essence you guys are the guinea pigs.
In this case, I wrote about Emily Kennerk's show for the Gazette first, but you dear readers, need some back-story.

Sweet Emily is a family friend. My first memory of her is July 4, 1976. Emily was a little kid in pigtails running around the yard with a sparkler. Our families attended the same church (St. Alphonsus in Zionsville) and our parents became friends. Fast forward 20 years and I was running in to Emily in Indianapolis. She attended Herron Art School. My brother and I went to her senior show. A few years later I was seeing Emily and her brother Hugh almost daily. Hugh's business and Emily's studio were right down the street from the coffeehouse and my house.

Emily once went out with my pretend husband, Lyle Lovett. She sculpted a leg that was inspired by his music and took it to a concert. Lyle love it and took her to dinner after the show. Emily used to complain about not dating, but I told her that one date with Lyle was worth a year of dating anyone else.

Emily moved to Chicago last year to teach, but still spends a big chunk of time in Indianapolis. And it turns out that Emily and Bella Rossa are hometown and Chicago friends. It's a small cyber-world.
Having a museum show is a big-ass deal. The fact that it is at the Indianapolis Museum of Art is way cool.

Here is the piece I wrote for the Broad Ripple Gazette:

Thursday, July 12, 2007
Emily Kennerk: SuburbanNation
Artist talk and opening reception
Indianapolis Museum of Art

I am thrilled for Emily Kennerk. To have a museum show is a really big deal in the art world. Emily’s work is a big deal, and in the case of this show – a huge deal. SuburbanNation is a series of four installations looking at suburban icons as an art form.

Emily did an amazing job with her artist talk, telling us about her studio practice and inspirations. She recounted a trip to IMA in 6th grade. The class assignment was to choose a piece of work to write about. After the formal tour Emily set off to find the painting featuring horses she had spied earlier. Instead she found a piece she liked even more. She could not find the information on the artist so she asked the docent. She was not sure what Emily was talking about so Emily led her to the piece. Young Emily had discovered a side stairwell with walls that were in the middle of being repainted. She has seen the beauty and art in unconventional places ever since then.

Emily took a circuitous route to being an artist. She was “horse crazy” as a child and became an accomplished equestrian. Her career was sidelined when she was injured. She started studying art at after she realized the only “A” she received in college was in art history.

Emily showed slides of her work as she talked about her influences. I was thrilled to see a piece from her Olan Mills series that she had given me on the big screen. Emily gradually started working on bigger and bigger pieces. The four IMA pieces were the biggest yet.

After the lecture we partied on one of the pieces, Boundaries. 600 people listened to Bigger Than Elvis, played cornhole and croquet, noshed on burgers and ice cream sandwiches and chatted among the checkered tablecloths.

I first met Emily when she was a pig-tailed little girl. She was fearless -- leading the gang in climbing to the top of the grain bin and playing in the wagons. I’m goose-bumpy proud of her for continuing to blaze the trail in her work.

You can see Emily’s show through October 7. The best view of Boundaries is through the third floor window next to her other pieces.



Gretchen Katner and Emily Kennerk.
Gretchen and Emily were studio mates at Herron.



High Density




Untitled: Porches

I took photos until the nice security guard told me to stop.




Amy (Emily's sister) and Ann (my sister)




The band Bigger Than Elvis played at the party.




Opening party

I posted two You Tube videos about the show in posts below. I couldn't figure out how to embed them in this post.
I pretty damn proud that I even got them on my blog.

rock star

People often think the life of a music writer in the 12th largest city in country is glamorous.
Limos, backstage passes, gourmet meals, massages, trendy clothes, good drugs, tour buses and swanky hotels.

The reality: most of the musicians I write about travel by hatchback, play in venues that barely have a stage – let alone a backstage, drink the crappy beer in my fridge and sleep on my sofa.

I write a lot of previews: promoting the shows and giving people a glimpse of the musicians. I do most of my work online and via e-mail and telephone, often in my jammies. It is mostly a solitary and occasionally frustrating job. Musicians, venues and publicists campaign for coverage in the papers that I write for. And often then disappear – not returning phone calls or emails.

I write a column about music for the Broad Ripple Gazette a twice-a-month paper with a great reputation and ever-growing readership.
I often see things that have been covered in the Gazette later get covered in a larger paper.
For NUVO Newsweekly I mostly write music previews and profiles. I sometimes review shows and have worked on several feature stories. NUVO is known for its coverage of music, arts and social justice issues.
I am also part of a panel that votes on the Top Ten Live shows each week. The Top Ten list is published in INTake Weekly, a division of the Indianapolis Star – a Gannett paper.
It is pretty amazing that I’m in NUVO and INTake each week. No one else is.
There is a perceived competition between the two, I’m not sure how real it is.
I make it a point to see as much music as possible, which I think it is necessary in order to write about it. I know that I’m see at least, if not more music than most music writers. Not that I am faulting them – I don’t have a family and other obligations that other folks do.

Anyway, all of that said, I often feel like the chopped liver of music writers. Since I don’t write about the big sexy shows, I don’t often get invited to the parties.

That all changed last night -- I was invited to sit at the big kid's table.
I was invited to the kick-off party to introduce the summer line-up of Verizon Music Center (Deer Creek), our large outdoor venue.

There was valet parking and a red carpet. The party was on the stage, lots of food, tasty beverages and ice cream for dessert. They took photos that were given to us, but I could not resist a few of my own photo ops.





Nora on stage, mid air guitar solo.




Nora with the classic rock-geek hand gestures.



My friend Tammy (or in the guest list lexicon, my PLUS 1) rushing the stage.

We also got to tour the dressing rooms.
They were not as exciting as I thought they might be.
No swings or beds.

I was not impressed until I checked out the bathroom.


No comment about the guitar players that I've dated.

the peggy sues

I saw a great band tonight.

The Peggy Sues are an all-women punk rock band.
Four musicians, three chords, two minute songs and one set.
Just the way I like it.

The fun part is that two of the members also write for the Broad Ripple Gazette.
The BRG is a great neighborhood/folksy/newsy/only say nice things about people paper.



I'm having trouble posting the link, so click on the post title.
Go to their link page to get to there MySpace account to hear their music.
Sorry to make to so complicated. I'll fix it if I can later.

lazy days and sundays

I should be writing my Broad Ripple Gazette column, working on the piece I’m assigned for NUVO’s year in review issue, cleaning the house, doing laundry, writing Christmas cards, shopping for gifts, working out or cleaning the basement. Instead I’m taking procrastination to a new level.

I’m lying in bed, “Googling”. That is not as perverted as it sounds. I need to backup at bit, start with a confession. I did not have Internet access at home until last week. Yes, it’s true. I was loath to admit it. Write for two publications, book music and maintain a Web site? No DSL or wireless? Not even dial-up?

I had dial-up for years, and it was a pain. My house is pretty old with the standard one closet, four electrical outlets (some of my wiring is “tube and knob”—when the clothes washer is spinning, the lights dim) and one phone line jack. I purchased my beloved Apple iBook G4 in March. Dial-up did not work well and it seemed such a shame to have a mobile computer but be chained to the phone line. I do not have cable television and the heavily advertised AT&T/Yahoo high-speed access was not available in my neighborhood. How about spending a little less in advertising and bring cheap access to the poor folks AT&T? Cable access would have cost at least $50/month. I also dislike how the cable folks want to sell everything as a package. “It’s less expensive if you also get basic cable and cellular service only $99/ month." Huhh?

My favorite newsstand has wireless access, as does Indy Hostel down the street. I soon discovered that you could park outside of those businesses and still access the signal. Which came in handy when I was e-mailing a column in at 2:00 am. The owners of both businesses knew I was doing it, and found it funny. Matt (from the newsstand and my black-tie date) scared me a few time by knocking on my truck window as I was hurriedly typing away). Northside Newsstand is next to a bar popular with people who like to drink pitchers of beer (not that there is anything wrong with that) and watch the 82 televisions in the joint. I’m not kidding about the TV’s. I might be off by a couple, I get mixed up when counting—and that has nothing to do with the beer. I swear. I saw lots of fun/sad things sitting outside of there doing work in my truck. Once the signal was too weak to send the document, so I had do stand in the rain mashed up against the newsstand window to transmit it. I can only wonder what people leaving the bar were thinking about me.

All of this kept my Internet time pretty focused. Until last week. I got a new neighbor on the other side of the double. Matt is a full time writer and is 30 years old. I cannot describe the look of pity he gave me when I told him I did not have access at home. I think that gist of it was “poor clueless old woman”. Actually Matt is great. He wrote the piece profiling me as a community volunteer. We are now sharing the cost of wireless. The signal is strong enough for both of us.

Which is why I’m lying in bed Googling. I searched for “Nora Leona,” couldn’t find any born before 1882. And it’s not lost on Nora Leona Spitznogle (born 1961) that the time I took to write this I could have finished my column, started a load of laundry and walked to the Newsstand to get coffee.